A five-person panel of veterinarians and racing officials will review entries at the Del Mar summer meeting after entries have been completed, a change from the format in place for the final two weeks of the Santa Anita spring-summer meeting that ended on June 23 and the current meeting at Los Alamitos.

The procedure was announced in a statement released by the California Horse Racing Board on Friday afternoon.

The review panel at Del Mar will consist of veterinarian Rick Arthur, California's equine medical director, state veterinarian Tim Grande, veterinarian Will Farmer, chief steward Darrel McHargue and steward Luis Jaurgeui.

At Santa Anita, three stewards and two veterinarians reviewed horses entered to race before post positions were drawn and eliminated 38 horses from consideration in the final six days of racing. ARthur, Grande, and McHargue were part of that panel.

At Los Alamitos, a four-person panel of two veterinarians and two stewards, which will be expanded to five people next week, are using the same format and excluded two runners from Saturday's opening day program, track officials said. It was unclear if any horses, or how many, were excluded from Sunday's program.

The panel was formed after California Gov. Gavin Newsom published a statement in mid-June criticizing races for a series of equine fatalities in training and racing at Santa Anita and calling for greater veterinary oversight.