On March 6, one of the jewels of the Triple Crown, the Kentucky Derby, was run. To coincide with this, on Friday, May 5, NBC did a story about injury and horse racing. Specifically, the article begins by mentioning Rajiv Maragh, a jockey with 13 years of professional horse racing experience and 13 years of injury to show from it, including a concussion. The article then speaks more of horse racing and injury. True, all sports have injury, but horse racing does not have concussion protocol, as other sports do. Last year, the Jockeys’ Guild and the University of Kentucky announced a three-year study that seeks to bridge this gap.
“I choose to be a jockey and there’s always a risk of danger,” says Maragh. However, the Guild can learn how to better protect its athletes, as professional sport leagues have done.
Note: While horse racing and government may not seem to be related, most states do have a racing commission that is “responsible for regulating the safety and integrity of the horse racing industry through the conduct of investigations, prosecutions and via regular monitoring.” Because horse racing is a revenue earner for states, state commissions also focus on ensuring the welfare of the horse.
