Anomalous Incidence of Fatal Musculoskeletal Injury in North American 2-Year-Old Thoroughbred Racehorses in the Year 2020

Abstract

Racehorse training and racing schedules in many parts of the United States and Canada were interrupted or otherwise reduced during the first three to six months of 2020. This was an indirect consequence of mitigations to prevent the spread of the pandemic virus COVID-19. Data from the Equine Injury Database, a census-level survey of all race starts made in the USA and Canada, were used to analyse the incidence of fatalities in 2009–2022 among three age cohorts of racehorses within each year. There was a statistically significant increase in the incidence of musculoskeletal fatalities among 2-year-old Thoroughbreds in 2020, compared to the period 2009–2019. In 2021 and 2022, the training schedules of 2-year-old horses returned to pre-2020 levels, as did the incidence of fatalities. The delayed start to training for 2-year-old horses was associated with an increase in risk of fatal musculoskeletal injury for those horses during 2020, but the risk for the same horses in 2021—when they were 3 years old—was not significantly different to the risk for 3-year-olds in any other year. The increased risk of fatal musculoskeletal injury in 2020 was only found among horses that were 2 years old in 2020—horses aged 3 years or more in 2020 were not at increased risk.