Scratching a horse from a race is a touchy subject.

Horsemen all agree that the health and safety of a thoroughbred is paramount.

But the whispers over the Kentucky Horse Racing and Gaming Corp. veterinarians scratching, or deeming a horse ineligible to run, are growing louder across the industry, especially with multiple horses being scratched, including a Kentucky Derby contender, in the leadup to this year's Run for the Roses.

Trainers, owners, breeders and even private veterinarians began vocalizing their frustrations publicly — comments they previously kept insular — as racing returned to the heart of Kentucky with the spring meet at Keeneland and continued this Derby week.

In its opening week, at least four races at Churchill Downs had multiple state vet scratches for unsoundness. (Opening week of 2025 saw at least six.)

When approached by The Courier Journal about the subject, one horseman at Churchill Downs said: "Don't get me started, good luck with that."

'Now we're doing five a day'

As the sun rose on the hallowed Churchill grounds the day before the 152nd Kentucky Derby, KHRGC chief veterinarian Nick Smith stood in Kenny McPeek’s office doorway as an exercise rider changed his boots in the corner.

”Hey Kenny, can we talk?" Smith asked.

In the next minute, the regulatory veterinarians would scratch McPeek's Derby contender Right to Party for right front lameness, claiming he was unsound to run, the trainer told his barn. In turn, he would begin making a series of calls to let people know they could halt their dreams of lifting the Derby trophy two years after winning the Oaks-Derby double.

"We averaged one state vet scratch a day five years ago," McPeek told The Courier Journal in the minutes following Right to Party's scratch. "Now we’re doing five a day. ... The logistics of getting a horse off a list is brutal. It takes so long."

A Courier Journal analysis of scratches during Derby week — a small slice of the Kentucky racing annual pie, but the one with the most eyes watching — found 20 scratches for unsoundness or injury by regulatory vets in 57 races. That's on track with all of race week scratches in 2025, with 23 total.

This comes after the Derby Dozen in 2023, when 12 horses died, including many on the track in morning training and during races, in the week before the 149th Kentucky Derby.

An investigation by the Paulick Report's Chelsea Hackbarth of publicly available information from KHRC and Equibase, as well as records obtained from Churchill Downs Inc., also showed regulatory veterinarian scratches in Kentucky have increased in recent years.

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Hackbarth reported that the records focus on horses scratched by state vets "for unsoundness either during a pre-race exam on the morning of the race, or for the same problem during the afternoon immediately before the race went off. They discard all other reasons for a scratch, like paddock or gate accidents."

Hackbarth's review of the data also showed the rate of regulatory veterinarian scratches was highest during Keeneland's spring meet "when just shy of five percent of entries, or 58 horses, were deemed unfit to race due to unsoundness."

On April 4, just days into Keeneland's spring meet, WinStar Farm CEO Elliott Walden posted on X a video of a horse, John Hancock, being jogged.

"So Nick Smith & his team scratched John Hancock this morning after looking at him for 30 min. & multiple jogs bc it was not obvious to them," Walden wrote. "He has not run in 365+ days, passed the vet test in Fla. to run two weeks ago, & passed the blood test.

"But here is a question. Ky average catastrophic breakdown in 2025 was 1.24/1000 starts. National average was 1.04/1000 for 17% improvement over Kentucky.

"If Nick Smith and his team are doing such a great job, then why is the breakdown rate higher in Kentucky when he scratches twice as many horses?"

That is the question horseman after horseman posed to The Courier Journal.

The KHRGC did not respond to a request for comment regarding the tension between trainers and regulatory veterinarians.

In response to the scratch of Right to Party, the KHRGC issued a statement that said:

"Kentucky Horse Racing and Gaming cannot comment on the specifics of an individual scratch. However, I can say that the safety and well-being of the racehorses training and competing in Kentucky are the center of everything we do. KHRG closely monitors data pertaining to scratches, including those based on the advice of our regulatory veterinarians. It is one of the most difficult parts of the job, as we share the goal of each horse’s connections for the horse to compete safely.

"KHRG will continue to work with our licensees, HISA, HIWU, and our racetracks to promote the safety of the horse, and protect the jockeys, horsemen, and horsewomen. We are constantly evaluating our processes and procedures with the best interests of the horse in mind, and we will continue to engage with stakeholders, including trainers and attending veterinarians. We all want what is best for the horse."

The scratches of both Nycon, an Oaks contender, and Silent Tactic, a Derby contender, were made by their respective trainers, Whit Beckman and Mark Casse.

'The morning of the race, they scratched him'

Scratches have always been a part of horse racing. In fact, it's long been understood if you want to start an argument, ask about the soundness of a horse.

Trainers, who spend the most time with their horses, can scratch a horse for many reasons, including the fact that they don't think the horse is ready. Same for private veterinarians, including things such as an equine illness.

And the same is also true for regulatory veterinarians. But horsemen argue the regulatory vets, who spend the least amount of time with the horse, have to make a high-pressure decision in a small window that can be the determining factor of a horse's career in Kentucky.

"They’re making a judgment call quickly, and the problem is they won’t consider anything our private vet has to say," said one trainer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Once a horse is scratched, it remains ineligible to race until it is cleared off the state vet's list, which trainers said is difficult to do.

McPeek told a story of his horse Favorite Day.

"Here’s the best example: I had a horse last year that a month out from race day, I said to the state vets, 'You ought to come watch this horse train and work because he’s not a good jogger. He’s a really poor jogger. But we’ve X-rayed him. We’ve scanned him. We can’t find anything. And he works like the wind. Every time.

"But I said, ' Come watch this horse.'"

He said he sent videos. McPeek had Dr. Larry Bramlage, one of the world's leading equine orthopedic surgeons, do X-rays and found nothing, he said.

A week before the race, McPeek said he again invited the regulatory veterinarians to view the horse.

"Because we don't want to get into a position where —" he interrupts himself with the end of the story. "The morning of the race, they scratched him."

We don't like the way he moves, McPeek said the KHRGC vets told him.

"We've been talking for a month about this," he told The Courier Journal. "They never made any effort. Never got to watch the horse train. Never got to know him at all. So what do we do? We just take the horse out of the state. He's been running in Louisiana and running in Arkansas."

Favorite Day won a maiden special weight race at the Fairgrounds in January and finished second in a February allowance race. In his April race, he finished 10th in an allowance optional claiming.

Like humans who run a race, no two horses move exactly the same.

Jamie Eads, the president and CEO of the KHRGC held meetings between the group and horsemen. The first meeting, held at KHRGC offices at the Kentucky Horse Park, was introductory. The second meeting was described as "heated."

The meetings eventually stopped.

"I hate to say it, but they're playing god," a horseman said.

'Sell them all'

A silence fell in McPeek's office. It was like he and his barn staff almost immediately went into mourning.

Prior to Smith's appearance in his doorway, The Courier Journal had begun an interview with him about regulatory scratches for this story.

"They think they're saving the game," McPeek said. "I’ve got one owner that said, 'I got an idea. Sell them all.' Thirty-five horses. Averaging $3 million a year in yearling purchases. He said ‘To hell with horse racing.’ Done. Bye bye. Bought a boat."

McPeek scoffed: "Saving racing, one scratch at a time."

Stephanie Kuzydym is an enterprise and investigative sports reporter, with a focus on the health and safety of athletes. Reach her at skuzydym@courier-journal.com or @stephkuzy.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Kentucky Derby, Oaks 2026 scratches lead to tensions among horsemen