HISA

Santa Anita Park concluded the six-month 2023-24 Winter-Spring season on June 16 which, when combined with the six-week Autumn Meet from 2023, produced a 99.97% safety record, making the 1/ST Racing facility the safest track in North America among those with a comparable volume of racing and training according to a release from the track Monday. Since the Opening Day of the Autumn meet on Sept. 29, 2023, through the Closing Day of the Hollywood Meet on June 17, 2024, 6,678 horses ran in races over Santa Anita's main track...

You have to root for the people who strive so hard to make a go of racing in Northern California after Golden Gate Fields shut its doors for good June 9. Racing has a rich history in Northern California and there are hundreds of people, from hotwalkers to grooms to trainers to breeders, and everybody in between, who depend on the sport to put food on the table. They deserve better than the uncertainty that has left most everyone worrying about their futures after The Stronach Group announced it was...

I have enormous respect for TDN writer Chris McGrath and Wayne Lyster. One's an outstanding journalist and eloquent writer who works for an essential trade publication; and, the other's built a highly-successful breeding operation. I, nevertheless, must respectfully disagree with their characterization of calls for replacing dirt tracks with synthetic surfaces as "hysterical." While I cherish racing's dirt traditions (my goodness, Man o' War is my favorite horse of all-time), I'm also mindful of existing data that explicitly show that synthetic racing is the safest surface in the U.S. Numbers...

Tickets are now on sale as the Horse Racing Women's Summit returns to Saratoga Springs, New York, for an educational networking event to be held Tuesday, July 23 at the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame, the volunteer organization said in release on Friday. The proceedings include a keynote conversation with Lisa Lazarus, CEO of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA), hosted by NBC Sports's Donna Barton Brothers. Following the keynote, two panels focused on horse safety and aftercare are scheduled. Finally, Jane Lyon, owner of Summer...

Monday, HISA announced four new members to its Horsemen's Advisory Group, replacing six outgoing members. The advisory group was formed in 2022 to provide feedback to HISA from the boots on the ground in the racing industry. It is comprised of 18 members, representing a variety of viewpoints across the industry. We sat down with outgoing member David Ingordo to talk about how the group operates and what the experience was like. SF: Can you explain how members are chosen for this group? Is there a committee who picks them?...

Every week, the TDN posts a roundup of the relevant Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) related rulings from around the country. Among this week's rulings, trainer Adolfo Macias has been suspended 18-months and fined $12,500 for the possession of levothyroxine, a banned substance under HISA. Levothyroxine is a synthetic thyroid hormone used to treat ailments like hypothyroidism. Due to its metabolic properties, levothyroxine is believed to aid recovery in performance horses and help weight loss. There is also a possible link between levothyroxine and equine sudden cardiac death. There is currently no detailed...

On the heels of a clean Triple Crown season, the first quarter of 2024 (Jan. 1-Mar. 31) witnessed an approximate 38% decrease in racing-related fatalities year-over-year, according to a new Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) metrics report, which the organization released on Wednesday. The reduction by over a third took place at racetracks operating under HISA's rules. During this year's first quarter, tracks reported 0.84 racing-related equine fatalities per 1,000 starts, compared to 1.35 racing-related equine fatalities per 1,000 starts in the first quarter of 2023. Excluding Rillito Park...

Craig Bandoroff, proprietor of Denali Stud, D J Stables' Jon Green, L&N Racing racing manager and part-owner Michael Levinson and trainer Todd Pletcher have been added to the HISA Horsemen's Advisory Group, the organization said Monday. The new members replace the outgoing Mark Casse, Tom Drury, Jr., Linda Gaudet, Fred Hertrich III, David Ingordo and Tom Robbins. The Horsemen's Advisory Group is a group of racing industry participants formed in 2022 to provide formal feedback to HISA's executive team and Standing Committees. "I want to thank all of the members...

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has approved the proposed rule changes to the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA)'s Racetrack Safety Program and the changes will take effect starting July 8, the organization announced Friday via presser. The 30-day window before the official start day allows for an educational campaign so as to prepare the industry for the changes, an effort which will include handbooks, webinars, posters, HISA portal messaging and social media outreach. The revisions come after extensive dialogue and feedback from industry participants, including from the Horsemen's Advisory...

The Louisiana Racing Commission went back to square one Friday, announcing that it will adhere to the guidelines set by the Association of Racing Commissioners International (ARCI) regarding medications. The move came just nine days after the commission announced an emergency set of rules that were about to take effect and would have meant that Louisiana had, by far, the most lenient medications policies in the U.S. The withdrawal times for dozens of medications had been reduced and the threshold levels had been increased. The laundry list of changes included...

The National HBPA has filed a 'motion to supplement the record' to their longstanding case currently before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in which they challenge the lawfulness of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority. This new motion charges that it again shows that HISA, and not the FTC, is actually in charge of horseracing rules, pointing to the new policy governing how Metformin cases were handled. On Tuesday, June 4, HISA announced that some trainers whose horses had tested positive for Metformin would have their...

One day after the Louisiana State Racing Commission (LSRC) rolled back changes set to go into place on June 8 to allow more permissive use of Clenbuterol and Depo-Medrol, the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) sent a memo to owners, trainers, regulatory veterinarians, and track management advising that horses coming out of Louisiana must be placed on the vets' list. While the LSRC did go back to the ARCI model rules on those two drugs, they did not make changes to tens of others where guidelines for their usage...