[Resolute 14]

Cecil, people like you calling them "death races", "life and death situations" and the like is just as disingenuous. So if you want to go down that road, you are simply making yourself out as a hypocrite.

Now, questioning the safety of chucks vs. thoroughbread racing is a valid question. Let me try to speak to that.

Hard stats do exist for the latter races. The Jockey Club of America tracks this, and for the three-year period between 2009 and 2011, the average was 1.91 fatalities per 1000 starts.

Chuckwagon racing is harder to get stats for. I don't know off-hand what the stats are for the Ponoka Stampede and others are. So lets just focus on the VHS's argument of "50 horses killed since 1986" at Calgary. First off, I will mention that the VHS starts at 1986 for a specific reason - that year had a couple spectacular incidents that saw a total of nine horses die. The Stampede completely overhauled the chucks and made numerous changes after that, which has led to fewer injuries and deaths. But it is convenient for the VHS to start there.

Anyway, assuming 50 deaths in the 26 years between 1986 and 2011 gives us 21.4 deaths per 1000 races. Excluding 1986, given all the rule changes that followed, brings it down to 18.2. Obviously much higher, though I never would have disputed it is a more dangeorus sport. But, since there has traditionally been three times as many horses on the track at a chuckwagon race than a normal race, it only stands to reason that higher relative numbers of horses will die. Just as more people will die on Deerfoot Trail than on Metis Trail in crashes. Unfortuantely, it will be a few years until we have statistically significant data to see if the reduction of eight outriders per heat will have a noticeable difference.