Churchill Downs announces steps to improve safety

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) – After the deaths of 12 horses, Churchill Downs has announced new safety initiatives and precautionary measures.

The new safety initiatives announced include:

A pause of track-based incentives such as trainer start bonuses and purse pay-out allocations to every race finisher through last place. Purse pay-outs will now be limited to the top five finishers. Churchill Downs is engaged in ongoing discussions with horsemen to determine ways to reallocate these funds to best serve industry needs;
Restricting the number of starts per horse to four starts during a rolling eight-week period;
Ineligibility standards for poor performance. Horses that are beaten by more than 12 lengths in five consecutive starts will be ineligible to race at Churchill Downs until approved by the Equine Medical Director to return.

The initiatives were announced following a special meeting between track officials and horsemen based at Churchill Downs and Trackside Training Center Louisville.

Churchill Downs say all the new initiatives go into effect immediately.