Photo credit: Ajfidelity, licensed under the Public Domain
by Jeanine Botta, MPH, Co-founder, The Quiet Coalition
On Sunday, March 30, the New York Racing Association cancelled eight scheduled races at Aqueduct Racetrack because noise from a nearby event had the potential to create unsafe conditions for the horses and riders. Aqueduct and the Resorts World Casino are immediate neighbors in Jamaica, New York, and the NYRA was concerned that unpredictable sounds and sound levels from the March Madness Auto & Bike Show in the Resorts parking lot would reach an adjacent stretch of the racetrack. The proximity of the Resorts grounds to the racetrack can be seen in an overhead photograph on the March Madness website.
Given how easily sounds can cause horses to be startled, the NYRA decision to cancel the races was the only choice that made sense. Sudden unexpected noise has resulted in serious and even fatal injuries to startled horses. NYRA had tried without success to communicate and address the issue with Resorts World Casino before the auto and bike show.
On April 5, the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association announced that NYRA would arrange for reimbursement of lost payment to managing owners and trainers whose races had been cancelled at Aqueduct the previous week. The Horsemen’s Association also announced plans to work with NYRA, the New York State Gaming Commission and Resorts World owner Genting to improve communication between the parties and prevent similar circumstances in the future.
In 2008, owners of racehorses at the stables at the Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne, Australia, took a different approach. The owners were concerned for their horses when they learned of a large music event to be held at Flemington. On behalf of the owners, racecourse trustees hired an acoustical consulting firm to measure the horses’ noise exposure during a racing event, while in the stables during the music event and under other conditions to try to determine safe sound exposure levels and methods of protecting the horses from noise. This resulted in publication of a case study. The consultants were not able to answer all of their research questions, but their work added to existing knowledge of horses’ responses to unexpected sound and visual stimulation, as well as a combination of the two factors.
Cancellation of the races at Aqueduct was unusual enough to receive significant media attention. Resorts World Casino should have been willing to work with NYRA leading up to the March Madness event. There have been recent instances of communities impacted by large music events held close to where people live and work. In such cases acoustical consulting firms were brought in after the fact. But the best time to assess the effects of a given sound on a location is in the early planning stages, rather than in the midst of conflict.
