Kentucky council backs imaging study to improve racehorse safety
Kentucky’s racing safety push moved toward earlier injury detection as the EDRC backed a study of 150 scratched or voided-claim horses.
The Kentucky Equine Drug Research Council unanimously advanced a new imaging study at a June 23 meeting at the Kentucky Horse Park near Lexington, backing a plan aimed at catching hidden injuries before they turn into catastrophic losses on the track.
Dr. Bruno Carvalho Menarim, an associate professor of musculoskeletal sciences at the University of Kentucky’s Gluck Equine Research Center, is leading the project, titled From Scratch to Back on Track. The study will examine advanced diagnostic imaging from 150 racehorses that were prerace scratches or had voided claims, with a budget of $93,000 per year. Menarim said advanced imaging, including PET scans, can help identify active preexisting injuries, including soft-tissue problems, at a time when musculoskeletal injuries account for most racing fatalities.
The council also recommended up to $500,000 in Kentucky Thoroughbred Association funding to help cover imaging expenses, with the association serving as custodian of the money and charging no administrative fees. The Kentucky Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association supports the project. For horsemen, the immediate appeal is practical: if imaging finds trouble earlier, barns can pull a horse out before a minor setback becomes a scratch, a bad claim, or a dangerous start that shortens a career.
Not every council member was fully comfortable with the reach of the plan. Concerns surfaced about PET scan availability, isotope supply, cost and the limits of expanding imaging capacity, a reminder that the science is only as useful as the system that can deliver it. The recommendation now goes to the Kentucky Horse Racing and Gaming Corporation for expected formal approval.
The proposal lands in the middle of a broader Kentucky safety shift. On June 9, the KHRGC reduced the time a horse must remain on the veterinarians’ list for unsoundness from 14 days to seven, as officials and horsemen pressed for more reliance on diagnostic imaging. Regulatory vet scratches in Kentucky rose from 0.84 percent of starters in 2019 to 2.59 percent in 2025, sharpening the debate over how aggressively to re-check and protect horses before they run.
The study also reflects how quickly Kentucky’s research priorities have changed since the council resumed active meetings on March 24 after a more than three-year hiatus. At that session, the council described itself as open for business, with about $1.5 million in dedicated research funds and roughly $400,000 in projected annual revenue. Past council-backed work has included StrideSafe biometric sensors, gene-doping detection, mRNA injury-risk studies and support for post-mortem racing necropsies, but this proposal is the clearest sign yet that the next edge in racing may come from seeing the injury before the break happens.
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