Racetrack physicians are all but anonymous despite the important roles that they play during racing hours

by Don Clippinger

IN THE Churchill Downs official program for the Breeders' Cup World Championships, officials of all kinds were identified by name, from Breeders' Cup Ltd. President Greg Avioli to Steve Buttleman, the track's talented bugler.

In all, 136 individuals were identified in the November 4 program. While those 136 names by no means included the entire Churchill Downs staff for racing's big fall championship event, one very important name was missing. That individual was Bayard Rice, M.D., who headed a four-member team of physicians on duty that day.

Rice and his associates had to make one of the most important calls of the day, whether Javier Castellano could ride Bernardini in the Breeders' Cup Classic Powered by Dodge (G1) after his tumble when Pine Island broke down fatally in the Emirates Airline Breeders' Cup Distaff (G1) two races earlier. Castellano was approved to ride, and Bernardini finished second to Invasor (Arg).

Every track is required to have a physician or certified emergency medical technician on the grounds for live racing. Mostlarger tracks have a medical director and an assistant physician to fill in when the medical director is unavailable.

These physicians are evident only when misfortune strikes at the racetrack: a jockey falls during a race, an assistant starter is kicked behind the gate, or a racetrack patron suffers a heart attack.

Because they are among the first professionals on the scene when a jockey goes down in a race and because they must certify the riders as physically capable of performing their duties, physicians sometimes forge strong bonds with the riders. The racetrack's chief executive officer may be only vaguely aware of the physician on the grounds, but the jockeys know the doctors and their role. Some doctors make it a regular practice to visit the jockeys' room just to be sure that everyone is feeling all right.

A few doctors make the rounds of the grandstand, as well. Walk with some of them and the call, "Hey, Doc!" will be heard over the din.

While some track physicians are content to remain in the first-aid room and answer the call when their professional skills are needed, others embrace the opportunity to get to know both the jockeys and the players. One such doctor is Brian K. "Buzz" Rizen, M.D., the assistant track physician at Philadelphia Park.

Rizen, a retired family physician who was profiled in Thoroughbred Times last year after he was instrumental in creating the Donald LeVine Memorial Clinic on Philadelphia Park's backstretch (January 15, 2005), likes to do rounds, on both the frontside and backside.

Always interested in what is going on at other tracks, he jumped at the chance to attend the first racing physicians' section of the 16th International Conference of Racing Analysts and Veterinarians in Tokyo on October 21-27. He was sufficiently enthusiastic about the prospect that he paid his own way and prepared a paper on American practices for the session. Early next year, Rizen will write about his experience in Japan.

His biggest surprise was that he was the only American physician at the conference. Why? A lot of factors may have been at work, but here is the biggest reason.

Only in relatively rare instances do track physicians in Pennsylvania, for instance, know the track physicians in California or Washington state. American racing physicians have no network, no organization that ties them together.

In this regard, the physicians are like the racetrack addictions counselors 20 years ago. They were doing good work, but they did not know who was performing similar work at another track. The Louisville conferences on racetrack drug and alcohol programs helped to end their isolation, and the conferences led to the formation of the not-for-profit Winners Federation.

Rizen, a Winners Federation director, now wants to bring together racing physicians into an organization of their own, with the express purpose of promoting safety on the racetrack. He will be contacting individual tracks, and track physicians can contact him at rizen24@hotmail.com.

The recent Welfare and Safety of the Racehorse Summit identified a database of racing-related accidents as an important need. Physicians can and should be partners in the process of creating a safer racing industry--once they get to know each other.

Don Clippinger is editorial director of Thoroughbred Times.