Risk factors for horse falls in British jump racing (2010–2023)

BACKGROUND: Horse falls are an important safety and welfare concern in jump racing, as they are associated with an increased risk of equine fatality and injury, as well as jockey injury. OBJECTIVES: To identify risk factors for horse falls in British jump racing. STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective cohort. METHODS: All jump race starts made on British racecourses between January 2010 and April 2023 were considered. Available horse, race, racecourse, trainer and jockey data were collated and combined with faller data recorded in official databases. Horses that were 'brought down' by another horse were not considered a faller. Risk factors (n = 101) were evaluated using mixed-effects logistic regression. Separate analyses were performed for steeplechase and hurdle starts. RESULTS: The overall faller rate was 40.6 per 1000 steeplechase starts (n = 5771/141,922; 95% CI 39.6-41.7) and 19.2 per 1000 hurdle starts (n = 4661/242,486; 95% CI 18.7-19.8). In both race codes, increasing horse age (steeplechase: OR 0.92 per year, 95% CI 0.90-0.94, p < 0.001; hurdle: OR 0.98 per year, 95% CI 0.96-1.00, p = 0.035), greater racehorse and jockey race experience, and wearing of an eye covering (steeplechase: OR 0.82, 95% CI 0.77-0.88, p < 0.001; hurdle: OR 0.78, 95% CI 0.71-0.86, p < 0.001) reduced the odds of falling. For steeplechase starts, odds of falling increased with increasing field size and were higher in non-GB trained horses (OR 1.32, 95% CI 1.13-1.54, p < 0.001). Racing over padded hurdles lowered the odds of falling compared to racing over birch hurdles (OR 0.89, 95% CI 0.82-0.96, p = 0.014). MAIN LIMITATIONS: Analysis was restricted to available race-day data. CONCLUSIONS: Replacing birch hurdles with padded hurdles could decrease the overall faller rate in hurdle racing. Restricting the field size in steeplechase races may be warranted, although the number of races with large field sizes (>30 runners) is small and so the overall impact on reducing faller rates may be minimal.