After a racehorse died at Austintown’s racino, we looked at Ohio’s racing rules

A racehorse was euthanized after breaking a leg while competing Monday at the Hollywood Gaming Mahoning Valley Race Course. Animal rights activists want to know whether the below-freezing temperatures that day caused the race course to harden and become unsafe.

PETA — People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals — has requested an investigation into the death of the 6-year-old thoroughbred mare, Hoboken Hustle, and the conditions of the race course on that snowy day, which had a high temperature of 27 degrees. The group in a Wednesday letter to Ohio State Racing Commission Executive Director Chris Dragone also asked the commission to stop outdoor horse racing until temperatures rise and implement new cold-weather policies to protect horses.

Kathy Guillermo, PETA’s senior vice president for equine matters, said as dirt race tracks freeze, they can harden and create more stressful impact on horses’ bones.

“Hoboken Hustle was racing on a dirt course, which is harder and is known to cause more fatalities than synthetic and turf surfaces — this is exacerbated if the dirt track is frozen,” she wrote in her Wednesday letter. “By suspending racing until temperatures rise, race tracks can help forestall further deaths.”

The state’s racing commission could not immediately be reached for comment Thursday. A Hollywood Gaming representative was expected to contact Mahoning Matters for this report, but never did.

Hollywood Gaming issued a statement to WKBN Thursday, but that statement didn’t directly address the horse’s death, and appeared to simply be a passage relating to potential animal welfare sanctions taken from Penn National’s current guide for horsemen.

Guillermo told WFMJ that Hoboken Hustle is not the first horse to have been euthanized at the Austintown race course in the month of January.

In her Wednesday letter to the state’s racing commission, she said she thinks more caution should be taken for racehorses that are susceptible to breathing issues brought on by the frigid weather. She said an estimated three horses die each day in racing and “extreme cold can easily add to this death toll.

“Please take immediate action to protect horses in Ohio by investigating the death of Hoboken Hustle and implementing cold-weather policies for racing,” Guillermo wrote.

Mahoning Matters couldn’t find any inclement weather standards in horse-racing rules set by Ohio Revised Code, by the state’s racing commission or by the racino’s owner Penn National Gaming.

Instead, it’s up to each race course operator and each race’s jockeys to inspect the course the morning or afternoon before a race, to determine whether it’s safe for competition, a source familiar with Mahoning Valley Race Course operations told Mahoning Matters on Wednesday.

That also happened prior to Monday’s race, when Hoboken Hustle broke her leg, and that race didn’t start until the inspection was finished, the source said.

According to Ohio’s Thoroughbred Racing Rules, every race course permit holder in Ohio is supposed to keep its course in good condition for the comfort and safety of the horses stabled and entered to race. The rules state riders shouldn’t be forced to race on courses they feel are unsafe. Those who force riders to race in unsafe conditions may be sanctioned.

The Austintown racino source said horse injuries happen year-round — not just in winter, and that investigations are launched any time a horse is euthanized following a race, the source said. A trainer is brought in to examine the records and investigate any previous problems with the horse, the source said.

The horse’s trainers or veterinarians are also required to report the death to racing officials, according to the Penn National Gaming Horse Racing Guide. The race course can then require a necropsy or other examination, the guide states.

In spite of winter weather, more race cancellations tend to happen in March, because of the month’s drastic swings in temperature, the racino source told Mahoning Matters.

“To protect the health of horses and jockeys, tracks across the country have previously postponed races when dangerous temperatures were expected, including Parx Racing in [Bucks County] Pennsylvania,” Guillermo wrote Wednesday. “When it canceled its racing card for Monday, Jan. 24, 2022, the high temperature expected for the day near the track was 36 degrees.”

Mahoning Valley Race Course canceled its races on Jan. 7, 2015, due to cold weather, according to Vindicator archives. The Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport weather station recorded a high temperature of 12 degrees that day, according to Weather Underground. Races were also canceled the following February, WKBN reported, when the high temperature was 14 degrees.

The racino also canceled races twice earlier this month, following heavy snowfall, according to the Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association.