DELAWARE SWITCHES ON TOE GRABS: DO THEY KEEP HORSES FROM STUMBLING?
Citing an unusual number of horses that stumbled at the start of their races, the Delaware Thoroughbred Racing Commission recently approved an emergency regulation regarding toe grabs on front shoes, increasing the maximum allowed in dirt races from two to four millimeters. The adoption of rules earlier this year (by the Delaware commission and most other racing commissions or by racetracks in the form of house rules) barring front toe grabs that exceed two millimeters was in line with model rules of the Association of Racing Commissioners International, eligibility guidelines for graded stakes from the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association’s American Graded Stakes Committee, the National Thoroughbred Racing Association’s Safety and Integrity Alliance Code of Standards, and the recommendations of the Jockey Club Safety Committee on Shoes and Hoof Care.
Delaware Park received a safety
accreditation in June from the NTRA Safety and Integrity Alliance. It’s not known how the Delaware Racing Commission rule change affects that status.The policy change, adopted June 23 and effective the following day, may not affect graded stakes at Delaware Park. According to John Wayne, the racing commission’s executive director, the policy change will not apply to American Graded Stakes. The Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association, which oversees the American Graded Stakes program, set two new conditions for races to receive a grade in 2009: a ban on anabolic steroids and on front toe grabs exceeding two millimeters.
The regulations were based on studies tying increased incidence of catastrophic breakdowns and injuries to toe grabs. WinStar Farm co-owner Bill Casner, former chairman of the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association, presented some of those statistics during a talk at the 2008 Jockey Club Round Table in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. , in which he said horses and jockeys may be at higher risk when front toe grabs were worn.
However, the Delaware commission reversed the regulation for the same reason. “The commission felt that the present regulations were putting jockeys in unnecessary danger,” said Wayne, who added that both the Delaware Jockeys Association and Jockeys’ Guild supported the change from two millimeters to four.
Immediately after the regulations on toe grabs went into effect in April, stewards at Delaware Park noticed an increase in the number of horses stumbling coming out of the starting gate and began to track the statistics at Wayne’s request. “They noticed two, three or four horses a day were stumbling, and riders were coming off horses." Wayne also said track maintenance crews and the starting gate crew tried different things to alleviate the increase in stumbles at the start, to no avail.
"Since we made the change (to four millimeters) last month," Wayne said, "the number of horses stumbling has fallen off the charts.” (Click here to see their report.)
The commission notified both the NTRA and Jockey Club of the change. TOBA officials contacted the commission on Monday seeking clarification.
“We didn’t make this decision hastily,” Wayne added.
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Tags: american graded stakes, Bill Casner, delaware park, delaware racing commission, jockey club safety committee, john wayne, National Thoroughbred Racing Association, NTRA, ntra safety and integrity alliance, Paulick Report, Ray Paulick, safety and integrity alliance code of standards, Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association, TOBA, toe grabs
July 14th, 2009 at 11:44 am
Rescind their safety accreditation - I see they have stats on the number of stumbles before/after toe grabs - what about breakdowns, injuries and lameness showing up during and after the race?
I’ve been following the toe grab discussion since UC-Davis first reported their findings (OVER 10 years ago) - they are NOT good for the horse.
I say add a neck strap for the jock to hold onto as they come out of the gate and teach the horse to propel with his hindquarters instead of pulling with his front legs.
July 14th, 2009 at 12:36 pm
This was an inevitable result of a knee jerk decision based on one sided research. I race in New York during the winter when the racing surface is dry and loose. The fastest breaking horses in my barn stumbled at the break. Luckily no lost riders. Toe grabs don’t break bones on deep loose surfaces. Toe grabs do put greater stress on cannon bones etc. on tight fast dirt and synthetic surfaces which have limited slippage.
July 14th, 2009 at 1:36 pm
There are several problems with the studies:
1. the research is agenda driven done by people with an anti-toe grab bias ab initio.
2. the research has been done by people who otherwise are not connected to racing and essentially have zero idea of what it is they are looking for–see Sue Davis Website at UCDavis..
3. the studies I have read admit at the end that the toe grab-injury causation relationship is merely conjectured instead of proven for the reason that there are more predominent injury causing variables that might have affected results. It helps to actually read the studies before continually touting them.
We thus have agenda driven research admitting within the research document that it is flawed, adopted by the NTRA and forced on the race tracks.
This means that our horses are forced to race in different style shoes front to hind. If you bother to watch this style closely on a surface where you can see the different nuances of stride, you will see that the horse is more comfortable in speed work running with the same style shoes front to hind than different styles. The different styles imbalance the stride slightly.
We thus make racing less enjoyable for all horses on flawed research.
Additionally, if you do know what you are doing–and I’m constrating that with the researchers of the studies–you understand that the affect of toe grabs including the injury causing affects vary horse to horse according to hoof style, and also track to track depending on surface. Flat soled horses e.g. run easier and more effortlessly with toe grabs than without out because they can get a hold of the surface instead of slipping and sliding through the racee on 2mm grabs imbalanced front to hind.
Sanity prevails eventually, so congrats to Del. Park!
July 14th, 2009 at 1:47 pm
I’m off topic but to poster Bill Turner I have a question: Are you the Bill Turner who trained Seattle Slew?
July 14th, 2009 at 3:32 pm
Yes.
July 14th, 2009 at 3:38 pm
yes
July 14th, 2009 at 4:54 pm
The increase in stumbling at the gate is either the result of poor surface quality, coincidence, or because some are looking for it now. Horses launch out of the gate with their hind legs. Stumbling has nothing to do with the shoes on the front. I believe some horseman who wanted long toe grabs pointed out some stumbling to the stewards and they were gullible and ignorant enough to buy this theory. Let’s look at other tracks to see what is happening.
July 14th, 2009 at 5:12 pm
El cab is right. The front legs have nothing to do with jumping out of the gate - or shouldn’t. On the other hand, has anybody done a study on how efficiently a horse breaks out of the gate WITHOUT somebody holding onto the bridle as the gate opens? Give the jockey a neck strap and teach them how to ride a horse out of the gate without the need for an assistant to be in the gate with them. I don’t care how fast those guys think they let go, it’s not fast enough and it’s just plan stupid. It can unbalance the entire animal.
July 14th, 2009 at 7:56 pm
Horsemen are on a wild goose chase and should stick to basics. In Europe the same horses run without icing, Salix, Bute and other chemicals, joint injections, tongue ties, etc. Perhaps some horses stumbled because certain jockeys are careless, or horses are sore. Perhaps their legs were numbed with icing, joint injections, shock-wave “therapy” too close to post or heel-nerving. Did the track look into any of that?
Interesting report titled: Goddam Grabs! by Tom Stovall, CJF © Copyright 1998 :
http://web.wt.net/~stovall/grabs.htm
Quotes from that report:
“…The following will be considered heretical by most trainers and even a few veterinarians: There is no valid reason to have a toe grab on a front shoe!!! After forward motion is established, horses don’t pull with the front, they push with the hinds. The function of the front end is mainly to keep the horse’s chin out of the dirt: it is strictly supportive, it has no propulsive function in forward movement. When it comes to running fast, a horse is strictly a rear wheel drive model. Why then do trainers insist on nailing a grab on the front? Damned if I know, probably because everybody else does and Daddydiditthataway, the biggest cripplers of horses in the business.
You can show them the old lay-your-hand-on-the-anvil-with-your-fingers-extended-and-your-arm-
straight-and-walk-forward-then-make-a-fist-and-do-the-same-thing deal until the world looks level. They’ll do it, nod knowingly and tell themselves, “It must be some kinda trick. Daddy didn’t do it thataway so they can’t be nothing to this physics business.”
When compared to bare feet or half-rounds (same toe length), forcing a horse to drive a grab into a racing/training surface causes undue stress on the shins, the articulating surfaces of the phalanges, the carpals and the suspensory apparatus. Most of the time, the weak link in this chain is the periosteum (bone covering) of the shins; QED, the common malady of bucked shins. Toe grabs in front shoes are also directly or indirectly responsible for chip fractures, saucer fractures, slab fractures, bows and blown suspensories.
Tradition dies hard.
Will grinding the grabs off the front shoes help prevent bucked shins in young horses? Of course! How about using half-rounds? You bet! Titanium flats? You betcha! Why doesn’t everybody do it? Because tradition (aka, stable stupidity), not science, rules life on the backside. Most trainers are afraid to grind off the grabs because that would make them the only one on the shed row without grabs and if they run back - and invariably a trainer is going to chase ‘em in with one he thought he could win with - then all the shed row pundits will say, “See, if you hadn’t of ground them grabs off, your horse woulda been a gallopin’ winner.” “
July 14th, 2009 at 9:16 pm
Uh what qualifictions do you have to make these assertions Priscilla? I’m guess none. We already know that G Rarick knows everything there is to know about American racing despite being in France.
All things being equal (which they are not), I would think Bill Turner may understand the issue a little better than some internet nobody and 2nd rate French trainer.
July 15th, 2009 at 1:46 am
Wow - we’re in the company of racing greatness - Bill Turner is the only living Triple Crown winning trainer.
It’s a real pleasure to “meet” you - I adored Slew and you did such a great job with him.
July 15th, 2009 at 11:14 am
Tom Stovall, as an excellent farrier before his retirement and also a brilliant man. He was never, to my knowledge, in TB racing though he shoe’d racing quarters for a while, according to his website. Stovall has a number of controversial opinions including those cited here that forward propulsion by racing TBs is generated only by the hinds, and, so the theory goes, it’s therefore unnecessary to worry about what is on the fronts. You can debate the point whether e.g. TBs particularly around turns at speed get any forward propulsion from front leg turn over. But, is that really relevant. Grabs are used for traction, which has little to do with propulsion. Thus, citing Stovall is a e.g. how these sort of myths that really are detrimental to horses get started.
If grabs in fact cause injuries it would be useful to have some objective unbiased research conducted which would include knowledgable people such as trainers and exercise physiologist.
My own guess is that grabs do contribute to strain in inappropriately trained horses. Probably the best solution to the problems is to have a 3mm grab. Too much to ask, probably.
July 15th, 2009 at 11:15 am
wesly:
Priscilla’s view is supported by many experts. Some horsemen demand then grab all perceived advantages even if they may be at the detriment of the safety and welfare of their horses. Industry experts have been warning against toe-grabs since they were introduced several decades ago. Tom Stovall, CJF, supports Priscilla’s opinion. He has studied the effects of toe-grabs and numerous shoeing and soundness issues:
http://web.wt.net/~stovall/farrier.htm
G. Rarick may be a small and to you a “2nd class” trainer but she always makes excellent points. If more horsemen were as caring as she appears to be, our American based horses would last longer, and our fields would be larger and handle bigger.
A first class trainer isn’t always a first class horseman. He/she can be a first class self-promoter and schmoozer with better connections, horses and vets and sometimes an ambitious individual or even an egomaniac walking a fine line between maximizing performance and financial gains with hurting horses and/or getting nailed.
Some of our best horsemen have a ton of pride and integrity, and want to do what is right for their horses, yet they operate in the shadow of super-trainers and unfortunately can be perceived by some as “second-class” trainers.
July 15th, 2009 at 11:32 am
ratherrapid, I agree with you that front leg traction is more significant than Mr. Stovall says it is. It is why front leg injuries are more frequent than hind leg injuries at least on dirt and turf. There is a ton of research available on toe-grabs and most reports conclude that they are dangerous.
July 15th, 2009 at 4:32 pm
Thanks,. Joe. You’re welcome in my yard any time. You too, Wesly, just to see how it’s done…
July 16th, 2009 at 1:10 pm
Sounds to me that there is just a bunch of clumsy (or sore) horses at Delaware. This is one of the dumbest things I’ve ever heard. It has been well documented now that grabs are detrimental. I wonder if they are going to keep a count of the increased number of injuries that will come from this change, or will they sweep that under the rug to keep themselves from looking like fools?