The veterinary staff of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission (KHRC) has added some additional protocols to its operations in an effort to cut down on the number of equine fatalities that occur at the commonwealth’s tracks.

The changes came about after eight racing fatalities occurred during the month of May at Churchill Downs, in Louisville, Ky. Overall, the track had 10 catastrophic injuries during the 38-day spring meet.

Upon noticing the May spike in fatalities, the equine medical staff undertook additional efforts to try to identify horses at greater risk for a serious injury prior to racing. Included in those protocols were adding an additional veterinarian to those who were watching the horses walk back to their barns following a race, providing veterinarians with "real-time" race replays on their iPads so they could immediately review a race to see if any horses appeared distressed during the event, and perusing the past performances of upcoming races farther in advance to look for signs of horses that might be at risk, KHRC executive director John Ward told commissioners during the regulatory body’s Aug. 15 meeting.

Ward said the efforts worked, noting that the number of fatalities fell from eight in May to two in June. Statistics provided by the commission show that the number of fatalities at the state’s tracks fell from 40 in 2007 to 27 in 2011