The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority and New York Racing Association are celebrating improved equine safety.
HISA was founded in 2020 to establish a unified set of regulations for the racetracks across the United States. Two years later, racing’s first federal regulator’s racetrack safety regulations went into effect, and in May 2023 it implemented an Anti-Doping and Medication Program.
According to HISA, the fatality rate for racehorses has dropped for four consecutive quarters, resulting in a nearly 50% decrease over the past year.
CEO Lisa Lazarus says she expects the trend to continue:
“Quarter after quarter we've been going down. So, that's really encouraging. It's not, obviously, just HISA. We've got tremendous support from the horsemen and the veterinarians. And I think it's really been an industry initiative working together. But while it's still too early to take a victory lap, the numbers and the data are really encouraging,” said Lazarus.
HISA says deaths fell from 1.48 racing-related equine fatalities per 1,000 starts in the first quarter of 2023 to .78 fatalities per 1,000 starts in the second quarter of 2024.
Lazarus says the new safety regulations look at three “buckets”— surface conditions, and anti-doping policies, and health.
“Veterinary protocols, inspections, more veterinary eyes on horses, more technologies around things like PET scans and emerging technologies that help us diagnose and catch equine injuries before they really develop in something more serious. And so, I think in that bucket, you're going to see, you know, more introduction of these new technologies, more reliance and some of these scanners and integration and sort of the day to day,” said Lazarus.
The organization has completed accreditation visits at 31 tracks across the country including Aqueduct and Saratoga Race Course in New York.
HISA uses data on more than 40 risk factors to determine which horses on each race card need the most immediate attention from on-hand vets. Lazarus says having a national organizing body prevents horses with out-of-state records from falling through the cracks.
Long-time trainer H. Graham Motion says that the industry is better off with HISA than without it.
“I've been in the sport 30 years, and I think my biggest gripe has always been that every state has different rules. So, it'd be like if you were in the NFL, and every time you traveled out of town you'd be playing under different rules, which would be almost impossible. We train in Maryland. I run in a lot of different states on any given weekend, and that made it very difficult to follow. Now, under HISA, we are all under a national standard set of rules, which is actually much better for all of us in the long run, once everybody gets used to it,” said Motion.
Spokesman Pat McKenna says NYRA is committed to long-term safety improvements.
“Now, just more than a year into HISA’s regulations being the law of the land in terms of thoroughbred racing, again, those equine fatalities, those serious equine injuries, continue to decrease. And that is obviously welcome news,” said McKenna.
In 2023, 17 horses died at Saratoga Race Course. The New York State Gaming Commission finds nine racing fatalities was a sharp increase from 2022’s three racing deaths.
A gaming commission report authored by the office of Equine Medical Doctor Scott Palmer, suggested that while a number of factors contributed to the fatalities, track conditions were the most significant.
Saratoga Race Course was closed August 9th as the remnants of tropical storm Debby battered the region. McKenna says improvements to safety remain a priority.
“So that turned out to be the right call. But as we see increasingly, at least here in upstate New York, those kinds of extreme weather events continue to impact not only horse racing, but outdoor events, outdoor sports in general. So we will continue to obviously make decisions in the best interest of the safety of racing participants, fans, as well as the 1,000 or so employees who are here on the property each and every day,” said McKenna.
Motion supported the rain check.
“I think this was a this was a great move, and I think it does show a new attitude. And I think a lot of this has been brought about by HISA, but complements the N-Y-R-A for making that decision they were looking after safety of the animals and the jockeys over their pocketbooks, if you like. You know there's a lot of pressure on these racetracks on these big days, because certainly that's when they're able to make their biggest income through the betting handle. So yes, I do think this is going to be a change in policy,” said Motion.
McKenna expects this summer’s meet to continue the 10-year trend of attracting upwards of a million attendees. So far three horses based at Saratoga Race Course have died this year.
