HENDERSON CO., KY (WFIE) -
The live meet starts Wednesday at Ellis Park and with this extreme heat trainers are taking extra precautions with their thoroughbreds.
14 News spoke to some celebrity horse trainers on Tuesday about what they are doing to make sure their horses don't get overheated.
The shades are drawn in the stables and fans are at full blast to keep horses as comfortable as possible in this triple digit heat.
Cindy and Larry Jones are a pair of celebrity trainers at Ellis who won this year's Kentucky Oaks.
"We have shades on them and we have the fans on them up in the barn to keep them a little cooler, but you try to get them good and wet with cold water before you go over," Cindy said. "We soak a fly sheet in cold water, it kind of keeps them cool until we get to the paddock and then we sponge them again with cold water."
There are 29 days of live racing at Ellis most weekends from July through the first week of September. The first week is kicking off with extreme heat.
Cindy says the hottest part of the day for horses is walking over to the race. Horses have to be ready in the saddling paddock, 30 minutes before each race. They are soaked before and after, and sometimes a fly sheet is used to keep them cool.
"A light mesh blanket that you can get real cold and put on them and it automatically drops their body temperature," Cindy said.
Horses are monitored and crews are vigilant of signs of heat exhaustion.
"They kind of become disoriented. They don't know where they are, where they are going and they want to lay down," Cindy said. "They just want to drop so you've got them cool immediately. You've got to get cold water on their head and cold water on their body to start lowering their body temperature."
Most of the day the horses are kept in the stable where the temperature is dramatically lower.
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The shades are drawn in the stables and fans are at full blast to keep horses as comfortable as possible in this triple digit heat.
