Race-Level Reporting of Incidents during Two Seasons (2015/16 to 2016/17) of Harness Racing in New Zealand
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Date
2022-02-11
Open Access Location
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
MDPI (Basel, Switzerland)
Rights
(c) 2022 The Author/s
CC BY 4.0
CC BY 4.0
Abstract
The objective of this study was to describe the incident and non-incident reporting of harness racing in New Zealand, the primary injury and reporting outcomes, and to examine horse- and race-level variables associated with the odds of these outcomes. Retrospective stipendiary stewards' reports of race day events during the 2015/16 to 2016/17 racing seasons were examined. The number of incident and non-incident events and binomial exact 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated per 1000 horse starts. Most reports were for non-incidents and an examination was requested for poor performance (11.06 per 1000 starts (95% CI = 10.23-11.89). Races with more than eight participants were 1.9 (95% CI = 1.13-3.4) times more likely to have an incident than races with eight or less participants. The low incidence of significant injuries such as fractures (0.13 per 1000 starts (95% CI = 0.03-0.23) reflects the lower risk of injury in harness racing compared to Thoroughbred racing. The high incidence of poor performance reports highlights the steward's role in maintaining animal welfare to a high standard.
Description
Keywords
equine welfare, harness racing, incident, injury, non-incident, poor performance, steward, stipendiary report
Citation
Gibson MJ, Roca Fraga FJ, Bolwell CF, Gee EK, Rogers CW. (2022). Race-Level Reporting of Incidents during Two Seasons (2015/16 to 2016/17) of Harness Racing in New Zealand.. Animals (Basel). 12. 4. (pp. 433-).