stylistic:style_transfer, quality:correction, structural:scholar_edition, information:classification
Deaths and injuries

Anna Waller, a member of the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of North Carolina, co-authored a four-year-long study of jockey injuries and stated to The New York Times that "For every 1,000 jockeys you have riding, over 600 will have medically treated injuries." She added that almost 20% of these were serious head or neck injuries. The study reported 6,545 injuries during the years 1993–1996. More than 100 jockeys were killed in the United States between 1950 and 1987.

Horses also face dangers in racing. 1.5 horses die out of every 1,000 starts in the United States. The U.S. Jockey Club in New York estimates that about 600 horses died at racetracks in 2006. The Jockey Club in Hong Kong reported a far lower figure of 0.58 horses per 1,000 starts. There is speculation that drugs used in horse racing in the United States, which are banned elsewhere, are responsible for the higher death rate in the United States.

In the Canadian province of Ontario, a study of 1,709 racehorse deaths between 2003 and 2015 found that the majority of deaths were attributable to "damage during exercise to the horses' musculoskeletal system ", including fractures, dislocations, and tendon ruptures. Mortality rates were eight times higher for thoroughbreds than standardbreds, and highest amongst young horses. The study also found that the incidence of off-track deaths was twice as high for thoroughbreds.

In the United Kingdom, 186 horses were killed as a direct result of racing in 2019. Of these 145 died in National Hunt (jump) racing and 41 in flat racing. A report published in 2005 estimated that "around 375 horses who are entered into races each season die from their injuries, or they are killed because they are considered of no further commercial value, even though they are young enough to continue racing." It added, "Reasons for horses being destroyed include broken legs, back, neck and pelvis; fatal spinal injuries, exhaustion, heart attack, and burst blood vessels in the lungs."