Racecourse Vet. Surgeon & Contact Details

Turf Club Veterinary Team

Lynn Hillyer, Chief Veterinary Officer/Head of Anti-Doping [email protected]
(Mobile telephone number 00 353 87 1925 366)

Inge d’Haese, [email protected]
Nicola O’Connor, Veterinary Officer  [email protected]
Joan Taylor, Veterinary Officer [email protected]
Andrew Tyrell, Veterinary Officer  [email protected]
Alan Dunlop, Veterinary Officer [email protected]

Ion Hamilton, Veterinary Assistant [email protected]
Bill Fleming, Veterinary Assistant [email protected]
Colleen Murphy, Veterinary Assistant [email protected]
Avena O’Keeffe, Veterinary Assistant [email protected]
Noeleen O’Brien, Veterinary Assistant [email protected]
Declan Condell, Veterinary Assistant [email protected]
Carol Murphy, Veterinary Assistant [email protected]
Derek Cullen, Veterinary Assistant [email protected]

The Veterinary Officers and Veterinary Assistants comprise the Turf Club’s veterinary team, which are the primary group within the Turf Club responsible for the health and welfare of the Thoroughbred racehorse, on and off the racecourse.

The Veterinary Assistants play a core role in identifying, inspecting and sampling horses on the racecourse.  They assist the Veterinary Officer on the racecourse in ensuring that horses are fit to race, that they are eligible to race with regards to identity and Equine Influenza vaccination status, that they are sampled as needed and that their health and welfare is monitored and acted upon during the racing day.  They are also integral to the Turf Club’s Out-Of-Competition Testing (OOCT), Stable Inspection and other testing and welfare monitoring responsibilities off the racecourse.  Principal responsibilities are,

• To lead identification of all horses via microchip and/or markings on the racecourse and elsewhere.
• To inspect passports on the racecourse and elsewhere for compliance with the rules of racing.
• To take urine samples from horses and manage the sampling process on the racecourse.
• To contribute to the monitoring of the health and welfare of racehorses on the racecourse, such as by assisting with pre-race inspections, post-race examinations, racecourse stable yard monitoring.
• Contributing to the wider veterinary team to develop its integrity and welfare function
• To assist in identification, sampling, inspection and reporting in OOCT and point to point racing.
• To identify, document and report horse and facility details in Stable Inspections and other testing and welfare monitoring activities off the racecourse

The Veterinary Officers are (alongside the Racecourse Veterinary Surgeons) responsible for ensuring the health and welfare of racehorses on raceday and (alongside the Veterinary Assistants) managing their being sampled on the racecourse.  They are integral to the Turf Club’s programme of OOCT and other testing and welfare monitoring off the racecourse, for example, but not limited to, in training yards.  They contribute to the work of the team of Veterinary Officers with specific responsibility for certain areas as appropriate to their specialist skills.  Principal responsibilities are,

• To work with the Veterinary Assistants to identify horses via microchip and/or markings on the racecourse and elsewhere.
• To oversee urine sampling, take blood samples from horses and manage the sampling process on the racecourse.
• To monitor the health and welfare of racehorses on the racecourse, through planned pre-race inspections and other examinations.
• To record any findings from these examinations alongside any injuries sustained by the horses during the racing day.
• To observe, document and report anything that is observed or heard at any time that may impact in anyway on the integrity or good reputation of racing
• To lead sampling, observations, recording and reporting of OOCT
• To lead/assist Stable Inspectors during Stable Inspections
• To assist the Security Department during investigations
• To contribute to the Veterinary Team, developing its integrity and welfare function

For further information about the work of the Turf Club Veterinary Officers or Assistants please contact [email protected]

The Turf Club veterinary team works alongside Racecourse Veterinary Surgeons (RVS), who are employed by the racecourse.  There must be at least two RVSs on duty at a meeting and the meeting cannot, under the Rules of Racing, go ahead without them.  As well as needing to be licensed to practice via membership of the Veterinary Council of Ireland/the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, many RVSs are also members of the Association of Irish Racecourse Veterinary Surgeons (AIRVS) who provide training and further education in this specialist area of veterinary medicine.  Matters relating to RVSs should be raised in the first instance with the individual/racecourse concerned but the Turf Club is a further point of contact if needed.

Pre-race Inspections/’Veterinary List’ – why, when and how?

Pre-race inspections are used by all major racing jurisdictions as part of their welfare strategy – they are done to reduce the risk of injury and have been shown to achieve this.  Pre-race inspections were initiated in 2015 by the Turf Club in response to concerns about particular racecourses and injuries.  They are usually carried out in a selection of horses according to a ‘Veterinary List’ of horses about which the Turf Club have clinical information, for example because of an injury last time out.   In addition, on occasion and according to risk, particular days are identified in which all horses are inspected pre-race.

Whilst there are challenges in trying to gain a ‘point in time’ assessment of a complex athlete, pre-race inspections,

1. identify horses whose condition has changed for whatever reason since they were last seen by their trainer and time of arrival at the racecourse (the ‘knock in the box’ scenario).  It is in everyone’s interests that these horses are either flagged, checked and cleared to run or they run another day.
   
   
2. identify horses which have a clinical abnormality that may not be an issue in terms of increasing risk of their injury but once identified can trigger a sensible conversation between Veterinary Officer and trainer and preferably their own yard veterinary surgeon. These horses would typically go onto the SVL and so their future inspection/monitoring would be ‘announced’
   
   
3. identify those horses which for one reason or another are not in a condition fit to race. The vast majority of trainers plan to have their horses fit to race on the day but there is an element, in any racing country, that will for whatever reason decide to send a horse to race that should not have been sent.  Pre-race inspections are a deterrent to, and safety net for, this uncommon circumstance.

If a horse is on the ‘Veterinary List’, this is notified to the trainer in advance via the Irish Racehorse Trainers Association.  If the horse has been seen before, he/she will be marked as ‘for information’, ‘for monitoring’ or ‘for clearance’ to race.  He/she may be examined at rest and at the walk and trot.  Any veterinary evidence provided will be taken into account. 

‘Whole card’ pre-race inspections are unannounced. Where there is a suitable place and time, a full inspection to include palpation at rest and observation at walk and trot is done.  On some racecourses there are not yet facilities for this; the Turf Club have been working with the racecourses to develop a safe and suitable area for pre-race inspections.

Clinical information from pre-race inspection is added to post-race data and maintained on an ‘equine injury database’.  This is confidential to the veterinary department of the Turf Club.  It is only used for on-going monitoring of individual horses and, on occasion and under controlled conditions including anonymisation, for research to identify particular risk factors for injury with the ultimate aim of reducing those risks.  This approach has been been successful in other jurisdictions, see link and link for example.

Veterinary Certificates

From time to time a horse may not be able to race owing to a disease or condition which could be aggravated by the race, or may affect the horse’s performance in the race.  At other times, the horse may have a disease or condition which would not necessarily preclude the horse from running but will likely mean that the horse in question will be subject to a pre-race examination by the Veterinary Officer on duty.

In either of these circumstances, it is very helpful if the trainer of the horse, and their veterinary surgeon, communicate with the Turf Club team ahead of the raceday if they are aware of the disease or condition at that time.  If that communication can include clinical information as to what steps have been taken with regards to diagnosis and/or treatment of the disease or condition, then the Turf Club veterinary team are better able to work with the trainer to make an informed judgement about the best course of action.  Such communications should be made in the first instance to [email protected] or if the matter is urgent to the Chief Veterinary Officer on 087 1925 366   [email protected].

We are keen to avoid the situation where a horse is presented on the day to race with a condition or disease about which there is differing veterinary/trainer opinion because in those circumstances, the Veterinary Officer must take a precautionary approach based on their best professional judgement faced with a ‘snapshot in time’.  They will make a decision on the day with whatever information is available to them – the more information there is, the better informed that decision can be.  We would like to move away from the position where veterinary colleagues provide certificates that in their view the horse is ‘fit to race’ and towards the provision of information about the horse which can be taken into account.

One particular example of this is in regards to skin disease.  Under Rule 148 (v) (a), ‘if visible evidence of recent skin disease exists, a horse will not be permitted to enter racecourse stables or run in any race unless a veterinary certificate accompanies the horse….not less than one hour before….This certificate must confirm that any such skin condition is no longer active’.  It would be very helpful in these circumstances if the trainer/veterinary surgeon could record on the certificate any tests and exactly what the horse has been treated with and when.  Should there be any discussion about whether the skin condition is ‘no longer active’, this and the results of any subsequent tests can be taken into account.

It is planned that a number of templates will be available on this section of the website, following consultation with the Association of Irish Racecourse Veterinary Surgeons and others, for completion by trainers’ veterinary surgeons to assist in this.

Any thoughts on this matter are in the meantime invited – please contact the Chief Veterinary Officer on 087 1925 366   [email protected]

Passports

A horse’s passport is a legal document. It must accompany a horse at all times. Of particular note for trainers in Ireland, and those bringing horses to race in Ireland, are the requirements to,

• Ensure that the passport has been endorsed by the current trainer – this means that the trainer or their representative has checked that the markings and microchip recorded in the passport are correct and fully match the horse in their care.
• This is particularly important when a horse has been ‘marked up’ as a foal – changes can often occur between that time and when they start to race.
• Ensure that the vaccination entries are all correct,
  o    Intervals are correct
  o    Entries are valid – no gaps, no out of date vaccines used, full signature/stamp
  o    No alterations, or if there are that they have been properly dealt with (see Equine Influenza section)
• Ensure that Section IX is completed if the horse has received medicines such as phenylbutazone which otherwise need to be recorded in the passport.  The Turf Club do not require that Section IX is completed but we wish to make trainers aware of the consequences of it.
  Copies of a passport may be accepted under exceptional circumstances, for example if the passport is being held by Weatherbys or HRI for a particular reason and the horse is to run but the expectation under such circumstances is that contact will be made ahead of time to the Turf Club to advise of such a circumstance.
  Copies of a passport will not be accepted if the horse is running under the circumstances set out in Rule 90 (i) – ie. first time running in Ireland etc.

Equine Influenza – why vaccinate, what is needed and how should it be recorded?

Equine Influenza (EI) is a highly infectious disease of horses, mules and donkeys occurring globally caused by strains of Influenza A virus. The disease affects the upper and lower respiratory tract and has an almost 100 % infection rate in an unvaccinated horse population causing high fever, coughing and nasal discharge.  It is prevented by the immunisation of horses through vaccination. It is essential that the Irish racing equine population is fully vaccinated to provide significant protection against infection. EI outbreaks in unvaccinated or poorly vaccinated populations can disrupt racing and other equine sporting activities for prolonged periods.
Rule 91 sets out requirements regarding EI vaccination in Ireland, in brief:

• Vaccinations have to be administered by a Veterinary Surgeon
• The horse must have received two primary vaccinations which are given not less than 21 days and no more than 92 days apart
• A booster vaccination may then be given not less than 150 days and not more than 215 days after the second component of the primary vaccination
• Booster vaccination at intervals not more than a year apart is required thereafter.
• None of the vaccinations must have been given within the previous seven days of the race – ie. there must be 6 clear days between day of administration and the day of the race

Why these intervals? Research shows that antibody levels against the disease rise dramatically following vaccination and slowly decline with time. If too much time passes before booster vaccination, horses become susceptible to the disease as immunity has waned.  Horses can’t race within 7 days of being vaccinated because following vaccination, the horse’s body needs time to respond to the vaccine by increasing the levels of antibody necessary to provide sufficient immunity against any possible exposure to the disease.
Vaccine use must be recorded in the horse’s passport.  Racehorse passports have dedicated pages for veterinary surgeons to enter vaccination details against EI and pages for other equine vaccines. Vaccination details that are not recorded on the pages of the passport are not acceptable. For example, a letter from a veterinary surgeon stapled to the passport detailing vaccines given to a horse will not be accepted. These entries must be written directly into the passport by a veterinary surgeon.  Alterations or omissions of batch number, expiry date, practice stamp or signature will invalidate the entry.

Rule 91(iv) sets out clearly how alterations must be made if necessary – ‘where it is necessary to amend the details of a vaccination, the complete line must be deleted and a new entry made by the Veterinary Surgeon who was responsible for the vaccination, or any Veterinary Surgeon who has been given confirmation of the vaccination by the original Veterinary Surgeon or his representative.’

Movement of Horses (Tripartite Agreement)

Movement of Horses to/from France

A Tripartite Agreement (TPA) between Ireland, United Kingdom and France allows certain categories of horses, that are in compliance with documented higher health standards laid down by Bodies approved by the Member States of the TPA, (Approved TPA Bodies), to be exempted from the requirement for pre-export inspection and official certification, when moving to/from France. The Approved TPA Bodies have been authorised to issue or to arrange with bloodstock agents (designated by the TPA Body) for the issue of DOCOM documents authorising movement to and from France, as an alternative to the requirement for an official health certificate.

From May 18th 2014, all horses moving between Ireland and France must, in addition to a valid passport, be accompanied by either

• an official veterinary health certificate issued by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, or
• a DOCOM document issued by an approved Tripartite Body in respect of specified categories of horses.

The competent authorities have, on the basis of submitted documented health standards and controls, agreed the following as approved TPA Bodies in Ireland:

• The Turf Club – for the category of racehorses competing in races or race training in France
• Horse Sport Ireland –  for the category of Sport horses competing at FEI affiliated competitions
• Irish Thoroughbred Breeders Association – for the category of registered thoroughbreds being moved for breeding or from a sale.

Persons wishing to move horses that are outside the scope of the TPA to/from France should contact their bloodstock agent who will arrange for the appropriate veterinary certification.  Persons using their own transport to bring their own horses to EU member states (including France) are asked contact their local regional Department office for further information and to arrange for the necessary certification.

Movement of Horses to/from the United Kingdom

Horses (other than horses for slaughter, which require pre-export inspection and veterinary certification) moving between Ireland and the UK do not require a pre-export inspection or veterinary certification but, as with all movements of equidae, they must have a valid passport.

Further information available at www.agriculture.gov.ie.

Turf Club Veterinary and Equine Welfare Committee

This is a new Committee for the Turf Club and its composition, Terms of Reference and scope are currently being drafted.  It is envisaged both as a sounding board and a means of working with veterinary representatives of the main stakeholders with which the Turf Club engages.  Its activities will be made publicly available in this section.

Turf Club/Irish Thoroughbred Welfare Strategy

The TC is working to develop an Irish Thoroughbred Welfare Strategy in conjunction with other stakeholders'.  It will be progressed at the inaugural meeting of the Turf Club Veterinary and Equine Welfare Committee later this year.  The Irish public on the whole is well informed about the use of animals, in agriculture and sport, but there is a trend already for a different race goer, perhaps not as familiar with horses, and so somewhat removed from what normal husbandry and good racehorse welfare looks like.  Perception about what compromises horse welfare and what doesn’t can differ inside the industry and outside it. The strategy will set out exactly what Irish Racing is doing before, during and after racing about racehorse welfare.  It will highlight the good work already going on but also help to identify the gaps in order that we can proactively address them before they become issues.

Turf Club Policy on Equine Infectious Disease

This is an area with which the Turf Club’s activity has heretofore been limited but with which, in the interests of its licence holders, more could be done.  In the short term, work has been carried out in conjunction with the Irish Equine Centre to develop a policy on biosecurity on racecourses, which will contribute to the equine infectious disease policy.  Later this year, this issue will be one of the first items to be considered by the Veterinary and Equine Welfare Committee.