The most important job at Grand River Raceway here may just belong to track veterinarian Dr. Pat Meyers.
The track vet since the raceway opened in 2003, Meyers, 59, previously served as veterinarian at Elmira Raceway and Hanover Raceway, dating back to 1998.
“Essentially, you’re looking after the welfare of the horse, but in addition to that you’re also making sure the betting public is not betting on any lame horses,” said Meyers.
Recently, on a wet Wednesday night, Meyers was busy carefully watching a group of three-year-old pacing fillies warm up for an Ontario Sires Stakes (OSS) Grassroots event that was subsequently postponed due to a major storm in the area that caused unsafe track conditions.
The vet said one of his jobs on race nights is to watch every horse warm up.
“You’re looking for any possible signs of lameness,” he said.
“Then if you have one that is slightly off, you go and talk to the trainer and make sure that he’s not racing a horse that’s going to be lame.”
Meyers is also on hand to help horses injured while racing.
“Usually if there is an accident on the track you have to make sure you take care of any horses that are injured at least from a remedial standpoint or from a first aid standpoint,” he said.
Grand River Raceway general manager Dr. Ted Clarke explained Meyers was hired by the race track but works under the auspices of the Ontario Racing Commission to ensure animal welfare and protect the betting public.
After races, Meyers helps trainers determine why a horse may not have raced well by inserting a small camera called an endoscope into a horse’s air passage to check their lungs.
He also helps out, when necessary, taking blood samples of horses for testing. Though Meyers isn’t in charge of the testing protocol, race horses in Ontario undergo some of the strictest pre- and post-race testing in the world for performance enhancing drugs.
“The only time I get involved in any of those things is, for instance, if a person has difficulty taking a blood sample from a particular horse, then I would go and assist or at the end of the night if there’s no veterinary technician to take blood,” Meyers said.
“So, I’m not intimately involved in it, but I do on the periphery.”
Other than the small number of times he’s had to deal with a catastrophic injury to a horse in his 26 years as a track vet, Meyers said he enjoys his work and being at Grand River Raceway.
“The job is pretty fun because you get to talk to a lot of interesting people at the track and find out what’s going on in the industry,” he said.
Clarke said he knew Meyers as an individual with “a significant interest in the industry” long before Meyers ever came to work at Grand River Raceway.
“He is a dedicated and conscientious person who takes his job seriously and does it well,” Clarke said of his colleague.
Meyers, who runs Emerald Ridge Farm in Rockwood with his wife Anna, hasn’t bred any horses the last two years, but he’s been in the breeding business for a long time.
He said the horse that changed his life was Emerald Whisper, an Earl mare out of Royal Design he produced with Terry Devos.
“She made about $180,000 for us as a two- and three-year-old and she almost won the (OSS) Grassroots Final for two-year-old trotting fillies (in 2007). “That was the one that changed it for me personally.”
Submitted by Kelly Spencer
– with files from Chris Daponte
