Breeders’ Cup discusses why vet scratches are not explained

Del Mar, Calif.

The same doctor-patient confidentiality that keeps medical records private for humans was the reason offered as to why veterinarian scratches are not being explained by doctors this week ahead of Breeders’ Cup 2024.

“Obviously it’s public record if there’s a scratch,” said Churchill Downs equine medical director Dr. Will Farmer, a co-leader of the veterinary team handling the Breeders’ Cup. “But very similar to human health records, where there are laws that protect what kind of information can be given. These medical records are also private information between the attending veterinarian and the owner through what we call a VCP, the veterinary patient-client relationship. An owner can certainly do with it what they want, but from our standpoint, it does mean confidentiality.”

Farmer spoke during a Breeders’ Cup safety briefing with reporters Wednesday at Del Mar, where 3-year-old filly Ylang Ylang had been scratched a day earlier from Saturday’s $2 million Filly & Mare Turf. The Breeders’ Cup never explained why, but her owner subsequently did. Coolmore said in a statement to Racing Post it was because of a fever only hours after Ylang Ylang trained in full public view Tuesday morning.

“Ylang Ylang ran a slight fever and didn’t eat up,” the statement said. “Our vet Vince Baker advised against running her. She never had a PET scan.”

A 3-year-old filly by Frankel who was bought for more than $1.8 million at an England yearling auction, Ylang Ylang was a Group 1 winner at age 2 and was 10-1 on the morning line for the Filly & Mare Turf that will be run Saturday at Del Mar.

Her trainer Aidan O’Brien already absorbed another vet scratch across the Pacific on Tuesday when Jan Brueghel, who already had been flown to the race site in Australia, was ruled out of the Group 1, US$5.2 million Melbourne Cup because of unspecified concerns raised in a CT scan. The undefeated 3-year-old colt was a futures betting favorite for the race that will be run Monday night U.S. time at Flemington.

“There was another scan he had to do down there,” O’Brien told U.K.-based At the Races. “Our vets looked at them and said they were fine, but Australian vets weren’t happy with them. Rules are rules. Most scans are a view or an opinion. He did the most rigorous scans he could go through, and he went through them. He had another scan the last few days. Never trotted better, moved better. They’re the rules. That’s their decision.”

There was no disagreement about removing Ylang Ylang from the Breeders’ Cup, though. Just questions about whether the process truly was as transparent as the betting public might want ahead of seven-figure races attracting eight- and nine-figure handles.

The question was raised Wednesday about whether confidentiality should be loosened allow that sort of information to become public record when there are betting dollars in play.

“It would be difficult,” California Horse Racing Board executive director Scott Chaney said. “It would certainly require statutory change. We sort of altered it a little bit when we started doing regulatory Lasix rather than attending-veterinarian Lasix. I don’t know if you remember it, but it was a pretty big fight between the veterinary community, the vet-med board and the CHRB. These days we work a little better in cooperation, but I think it would probably be unlikely.”

One of the participants who took part in the briefing responded later to a question raised more than once Wednesday during conversations in the stable area at Del Mar. Why would anyone think a trainer of O’Brien’s high profile ship an unfit horse across an ocean and a continent?

“Horses change,” the panelist said. “Sometimes the same day.”