The Jockey Club today (March 13) released fatality year-over-year statistics comparing 2013 and 2014 and a six-year summary of statistics collected from its Equine Injury Database. The incidence of fatal injury for 2014 was 1.89 per 1,000 starts, which is slightly less than it was in 2013. In 2013, it was 1.90 per 1,000 starts.

Tim Parkin, BSc, BVSc, PhD, DECVPH, MRCVS, a veterinarian and epidemiologist from the University of Glasgow, who serves as a consultant on the Equine Injury Database, performed the analysis.

“In 2014, the incidence of fatal injury on turf increased 27% after showing a 20% decrease in the prior year; however, the incidence of fatal injury decreased 3.8% on dirt and 1.6% on synthetic over 2013,” Parkin said.

The prevalence of race-related fatal injury for the six-year timeframe from Jan. 1, 2009, through Dec. 31, 2014, was 1.91 per 1,000 starts. The data was based on analysis of 2,180,443 starts