ARCADIA, Calif. - The Breeders’ Cup will have a team of 30 veterinarians monitoring the condition of horses participating in the races at Santa Anita on Friday and Saturday, an increase from 24 the last time the event was held at Santa Anita in 2016. Speaking at an hour-long press conference at Santa Anita on Wednesday morning, Deborah Lamparter of the Breeders’ Cup veterinary teams said inspections had been completed on more than 90 percent of the horses entered in Breeders’ Cup as of Wednesday morning, and the team planned to complete inspections by Thursday. The team includes veterinarians from the Stronach Group, the track’s parent company, and veterinarians from the California Horse Racing Board and other regulatory agencies in the United States and Europe. The examinations come in a year in which Southern California racing has come under scrutiny for a series of equine fatalities at Santa Anita. Lamparter said there have been 500 exams of Breeders’ Cup entrants as of Wednesday morning, with many runners examined on a daily basis this week. The exams have included physical inspections at the stables as well as watching horses in morning training. “We’re looking at horses at rest and in motion,” she said. Any abnormalities could lead to a horse being withdrawn, she said. “No horses racing anywhere have been more examined or more observed than these horses,” Lamparter said. “We will watch them from the receiving barn to paddock to the gate to the wire and on their way home. All of this is done for the best interest of the horses and that we have done our utmost for these horses.” Aside from medical testing, all Breeders’ Cup horses are under surveillance by security personnel, who keep logs of any activity in a horse’s stall. This is similar to a policy utilized by the racing board on a year-round basis in California for horses entered in stakes. While all horses entered for Breeders’ Cup races have been subject to extensive pre-race examinations in the last week, some have undergone blood and hair-follicle tests as far back as June when they won races that provided automatic BC berths. No abnormalities have been reported in those tests, officials said. Tim Grande, the racing board’s official veterinarian at Santa Anita, said veterinary records of all Breeders’ Cup runners for the last 14 days have been collected. Many of the pre-race inspections are similar to policies put in place by Santa Anita officials last spring after the track was closed for three weeks in March to inspect and renovate the main track following the early spring fatalities. At the time, Santa Anita put into place several policies to improve safety, including tighter medication restrictions, a review of racing and medical records before horses were allowed to race or have workouts, and the involvement of private veterinarians to clear horses to race or work. After the races, a minimum of the first four finishers will undergo blood and urine tests which will be sent via courier to the racing board’s official medical laboratory at the University of California-Davis where testing will begin late Sunday, according to Rick Arthur, California’s equine medical director. Arthur said if any horse appears in distress after a race, the horse will be transported to the stable area in an ambulance. “Ambulances are used liberally in Southern California,” he said. “We don’t hesitate to give a precautionary ride home. The focus is on injury prevention. We are well prepared for ontrack emergencies.”