Jockey Club Veterinary Field Force Places Emphasis On Welfare

Published: 3 March 1998

Peter Webbon, the Jockey Club’s Chief Veterinary Adviser, outlined today the revised role of the Jockey Club’s Veterinary Field Force. The result is a noticeable change in emphasis from a veterinary team that is primarily involved in integrity matters to one that retains responsibility for integrity but is welfare and research driven.

Previously the first obligation of a Veterinary Officer was to safeguard integrity. This would include the checking of passports and verification of the identity of horses declared to run, the collection of post-race samples, and other duties which ensured that the Rules of Racing and the Jockey Club’s General Instructions were adhered to. These could be related to areas such as use of the whip, vaccinations, tack (e.g. application of tongue straps) and racecourse stable hygiene.

The increased emphasis on welfare and research will mean that in addition to their integrity work the Veterinary Officers will now be far more actively involved with the monitoring of horses and facilities on the racecourse. The new initiatives include the setting up and running of an efficient lameness and injury monitoring scheme and the analysis of all fatal and non-fatal racecourse injuries with the aim of using the information to minimise the risk factors which contribute to injuries.

Jockey Club Chief Veterinary Adviser, Peter Webbon, said today: “A primary concern for the Jockey Club has always been the safety and welfare of both horse and rider. We now have the ability and expertise to expand our role in relation to horse welfare and I am hopeful that these initiatives will be of considerable benefit to racing.”

Notes for Editors:

The role of the Jockey Club’s Veterinary Field Force is now defined as follows:

1. To safeguard the integrity of racing by verifying the identity of horses racing, taking post-race samples from approximately 10 per cent of all runners and playing a central role in the administration of the Rules and Instructions related to whip use, non-runners, vaccination, tack, shoeing etc. This function may include active involvement in any or all of the following exercises intended to improve integrity, namely;