Arizona racing is called a 'laughingstock' by commissioner
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With problems continuing to mount in Arizona, Rory Goree of the Arizona Racing Commission called the state's industry the “laughingstock” of the nation during the board’s monthly meeting on Tuesday.
On Saturday, Arizona racing received another black eye when graphic photos and videos of the horse Creative Plan were posted on social media by prominent owner-breeder Maggi Moss. The 5-year-old gelding, who last raced on Jan. 7 at Turf Paradise, was shown with what appeared to be severe injuries to his pastern, fetlock and suspensory ligament.
Creative Plan was subsequently acquired by Jenny Earhart, owner of Premier Equine Rehab in California, with the hopes he could be rehabilitated. But she said injuries proved so severe, Creative Plan had to be euthanized last Friday.
“We’ve got to do a better job of coming up with answers and coming up with solutions,” Goree said. “It seemed like with Creative Plan, there was a lot of finger pointing and trying to cover our own butts.”
Goree said to help address the issues in Arizona, he met with horsemen on the Turf Paradise backstretch last Wednesday. He said the meeting resulted in “a lot of great discussion (and) I think we do have some ideas to work on.
“So I am hopeful that in the near future, we will be able to ask permission to talk about some of these solutions and ideas and make Arizona the light that it needs to be,” Goree said. “(And) that we’re making the changes and doing the right thing instead of being the laughingstock we are right now nationwide.”
Sue Gale, chief veterinarian for the Arizona Racing Commission, said in her view the problems in the state can at least be partially attributed to a lack of veterinarians and other regulatory staff.
For example, she noted in 2021, Dr. Scot Waterman would spend upwards of four hours reviewing every racecard at Turf Paradise looking for potential risk factors among the horses entered. These factors would include things such as recently being on the veterinarian’s list, changes in ownership, recent performance and the like.
Waterman then rated horses either “yellow” for caution, which included those that had some factors in their history “and deserved greater scrutiny.” For horses that exhibited many risk factors in their history, they would be ‘red-flagged.’
Gale said she spends about an hour on each race card performing a similar function. But “my efforts are incomplete,” she acknowledged.
“There needs to be a greater presence of veterinarians, or some type of administrative assistants, so we can do a better job of identifying horses that are at risk prior to doing the pre-race exam,” Gale said.
Ted Vogt, director for the Arizona Department of Gaming, chimed in to note the department’s No. 1 priority is to add another veterinarian.
“It’s been our number one funding issue the past two fiscal years. Hopefully that will get across the line this year,” Vogt added.
As part of her report, Gale said there have been 11 racing-related fatalities at Turf Paradise from approximately 3,700 starters since the meet began in November. Those figures, which Gale said included Creative Plan’s death since he was injured coming out of his final start, equates to about 2.98 deaths per 1,000 starter. That is well above the national average.
“It’s creeping up,” Gale acknowledged, while adding, “I am finding we are scratching more horses on pre-race exam. It does seem that now we’re about halfway through the meet, the horses are showing some wear and tear.”
To help with pre-race examinations, commission director Rudy Casillas said he has asked Gale to start requiring horsemen to submit medical records of every horse that is entered. This will then allow veterinarians to make better assessments during their pre-race exams.
“That will be implemented and hopefully it makes a difference,” Casillas added.
Turf Paradise general manager Vince Francia also provided a report to the commission during which he called the death of Creative Plan a “great wake-up call for all of us.” He added Turf Paradise hopes to improve the safety of its dirt track with the addition of more organic material and sand.
"I look forward to continuing to work with commissioner Goree and other commissioners...to take on some of the tough issues that are facing racing today," Francia said.
For frustrated Arizona horseplayers, there is still no movement in the ongoing simulcasting dispute between the state's racetracks and those controlled by The Stronach Group. Since 2020, bettors in Arizona have been unable to wager on any of the The Stronach Group's tracks.
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