Horse Racing Injuries

Question
Hi, I am writing a research paper for my college class and I came up with a question that i have to research and I have to show the effects and branch out from the question. My question is "How fit are race horses to race" I hear sometimes that even if the horse is sore or may be injured that the owner still races them is that true? I also would like to branch out on how far owners will go to win a race, giving the horses steriods, or race the horse even if the horse may have a not so seriouse injury. I guess I was wondering if you could give me any information you can to help me with some of the stuff I have discussed. Thank you very much for your time.

Answer
Hi Brittany,
           I am sorry it has taken me so long to answer your question. I have not been able to login to my 'experts' account for some time but have now fixed the problem. ( I had to consult one of the other 閤perts'.
Now to your question.
I live in New Zealand so my knowledge of the racing industry pertains to NZ however the rules are very international so they probably apply in your country as well. I assume you are in USA.
There are plenty of stories about owners/trainers/punters trying to influence how a horse will perform either by giving it some drug to make it run faster or to slow it down.
Over the past few years the racing industry has put a lot of effort into cleaning up the image and making sure that each horse runs on its merits rather than drugs etc.

If a trainer has treated a horse with any notifiable drug within several days of a race he must tell the stewards about it. They will decide if the drug is likely to affect the horses performance and therefore if it will be allowed to start.
After each race the course vet will test (urine or blood sample) one or more horses at random or as directed by the race day judicial panel or stewards.
This has reduced the drugging of horses in every country to almost nothing.

The standard of racing has risen markedly over the past few years and race horses are now much more valuable than they were. It is very unlikely that an owner or a trainer would knowingly start a horse that is not fit enough to race.

If the horse has any physical injury it will be spotted by the stewards during the pre race walk in the mounting yard (birdcage) or during the warmup canter.

Horses do get injured during races and usually the jockey pulls them up before any more damage occurs.

I guess a few will still try to beat the system but mostly their horses are tto valuable to mess with and the penalties are very high.

With the introduction of Betfair (a UK based online betting facility) the worry for owners and trainers is that a punter may try to 'nobble' a horse to make sure it runs below its best and therefore the punters selection beats it and they collect on the bet.
Many countries including NZ and Australia do not allow Betfair to operate on their races because of this.

I hope this helps answer your question and that my help has not come after you need to hand in the assignment.
Good luck,
Don Boddie