Quantcast Vegetarian StarLarry Jones

Eight Belles trainer Larry Jones is defending statistics found in a study on thoroughbred fatalities at North American tracks, stating the injuries are what is to be expected in athletic situations and will happen, regardless of the racing track surface.

A year long study released by the Welfare and Safety of the Racehorse Summit in Lexington, Kentucky shows there were 2.14 deaths on dirt tracks per 1,000 starts, while both synthetic and turf tracks each had 1.78 fatalities.

“What so many people don’t want to understand is that a lot of our injuries are from them being athletes in general,” Jones told Reuters.

“If we had swimming races for horses, somehow a certain number of them would be getting hurt. Look at how many humans get hurt at track and field and that’s a no-contact sport.”

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