Santa Anita numbers say reforms were successful, but foes question the figures

LOS ANGELES - There's an expression popularized by Mark Twain that there are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics.

It's upon that premise that the public should be cautiously viewing one of the battle fronts on the future of horse racing: the counting of the equine dead. On the surface, it should be simple. But, with so much at stake, according to industry leaders, the need for accurate reporting and analysis has never been greater.

"These metrics are more important than they've ever been," said Alan Balch, executive director of the California Thoroughbred Trainers. "But they need to be right and they need to be understood properly. They all need to be put in context, refined, improved, clarified, expanded and capable of explanation."

Santa Anita recently put out its closing statement on its winter-spring meeting, lauding its improvements through statistics. It implied that midseason reforms were the