Whatever prompted this major shift in position, the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission today made public information contained in horse fatality reports that it refused to disclose a month ago. Courier Journal sports writer Tim Sullivan reports that several records appeared on the agency's website today without advance notice or fanfare.

The Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting received national attention for its report on the dramatic increase in the number of deaths of thoroughbreds on racetracks in Kentucky and elsewhere.

https://www.npr.org/2019/06/08/730898394/how-kentucky-keeps-horse-racin…

On June 4 the Kentucky Open Government Coalition noted that KYCIR's report was — in the final analysis — as much about the Commission's refusal to disclose identifying information relating to the deceased horses as it was about the horses' deaths.

The Commission's refusal to disclose the identifying information was based in part on a 2001 open records decision issued by the attorney general. That decision related to necropsies conducted on deceased foals privately and voluntarily brought to the University of Kentucky Livestock Diagnostic Center for research. That research ultimately led to the diagnosis of Mare Reproductive Loss Syndrome.

The records at issue in the 2001 decision, the Coalition believed and continues to believe, were entirely distinguishable from records relating to horse deaths occurring on Kentucky's racetracks.

https://ag.ky.gov/orom/20011/01ORD143.doc

Today's change in position by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission is consistent with both the spirit and the letter of Kentucky's open government laws.