Rider dislodgement events in U.S. steeplechase racing: participation outcomes in riders and horses
Jeffrey S Markowitz · 2026
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Description
Jeffrey S Markowitz counts a 2026 hazard of American steeplechase racing: riders parting company with their horses mid-race. Using public charts from National Steeplechase Association races held from 2023 to 2025, he tallied falls and lost-rider events and tracked what happened to participation afterward. Interruption meant at least thirty days away for riders and sixty for horses.
Across 3,072 starts, 187 dislodgements occurred, a rate of 60.9 per 1,000 starts in the data. Timber races doubled the hurdle rate, at 103.5 versus 51.8 per 1,000 starts on average. Most riders bounced back fast, yet 43.2 percent of riders who fell missed a month or more, and 18.4 percent never returned to jump racing. Nearly a quarter of affected horses from 2023 and 2024 also never jumped again.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Jeffrey S Markowitz |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 33254 |
| LICENSE | https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC0 |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |