Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority

More than 70,000 Thoroughbred racing participants and administrators across the country have now registered with the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA), in compliance with HISA's Registration Rule which went into effect on July 1, 2022. To date, 30,061 covered persons and 41,953 covered horses have been registered. As previously announced, HISA will require compliance with its Registration Rule in order to race beginning Mar. 27. Covered Persons and Horses who are not in compliance with the rule will be unable to race until they register in the HISA Portal....

The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority and the Jockeys' Guild have launched an industry initiative to provide jockeys and riders with mental wellness support and resources. The organizations will be sending a survey to jockeys and exercise riders relating to their mental wellness needs and will use results of the anonymous survey as a starting point for building a framework to effectively use collective resources to address riders' most important health and safety needs. "HISA is tasked with regulatory oversight for jockey welfare and we are delighted to be working...

Edited Press Release The 2023 National HBPA Annual Conference closed with a lively discussion with three prominent horsemen who questioned the need, validity and overreach of federal legislation pitched as the so-called savior of racing while the industry heads into a challenging economic and logistical future. Bret Calhoun, Ron Faucheux and Jason Barkley participated in the Trainer's Talk panel moderated by multiple Eclipse Award-winning journalist and media specialist Jennie Rees and talked about everything from the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority, challenges facing small to mid-sized stables, finding and keeping...

Edited Press Release With the anticipated March 27 implementation of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority's (HISA) Anti-Doping and Medication Control (ADMC) Program approaching, it's increasingly important for all racing participants to understand how the Program will work. The following are HISA's answers to five frequently asked questions about the ADMC Program. How will the new HISA ADMC Program impact the lives and workflow of horsemen? The ADMC Program is designed to create centralized testing and results management processes and apply uniform penalties for violations efficiently and consistently across the...

The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) will begin using "can't-race" flags to enforce its existing Racetrack Safety and Registration regulations beginning on Mar. 27, 2023. Covered Persons and Horses who are not in compliance with HISA's Racetrack Safety and Registration rules, which went into effect on July 1, 2022, will be at risk of being unable to race until they comply with the rules. In order to be in full compliance with the Racetrack Safety and Registration rules: -Covered Persons must ensure that they and their Covered Horses are...

Every week, the TDN publishes a roundup of key official rulings from the primary tracks within the four major racing jurisdictions of California, New York, Florida and Kentucky. Here's a primer on how each of these jurisdictions adjudicates different offenses, what they make public (or not) and where. With the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) having gone into effect on July 1, the TDN will also post a roundup of the relevant HISA-related rulings from the same week. NEW HISA STEWARDS RULINGS The following rulings were reported on HISA's...

A software test by the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority inadvertently went live Tuesday morning, causing multiple horses to be erroneously added to HISA's Vet's List for Clenbuterol. The issue was caught and corrected quickly, according to a statement from the Authority. "HISA's horsemen portal experienced a technical error earlier this morning," read the statement released Tuesday afternoon. "An IT team was testing the functionality of vet entries for Clenbuturol and accidentally pushed it to production instead of keeping it in test mode. Since it was dummy/test data, it caused...

by Charles Scheeler, HISA Board of Directors The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority, or HISA, was created by Congress in 2020 to implement, for the first time, uniform nationwide safety and integrity rules to govern Thoroughbred racing in America. It represents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reform a sport that in recent years has seen criminal conduct at its highest levels and welfare concerns about horse and rider safety that have raised questions about its viability. Some horsemen have recently expressed a desire to scrap the substantial progress made over the...

Last week, industry organizations announced the launch of the California Horse Power Coalition, a collaborative endeavor sold as something of a unified foghorn to extol the good word of the sport's economic and cultural impacts. The list of Coalition members reads like a who's who of California racing industry mainstays, including Del Mar, Santa Anita, the Thoroughbred Owners of California (TOC), the California Retirement Management Account (CARMA), the California Thoroughbred Breeders' Association (CTBA) and others. To discuss this new venture--along with a suite of other timely industry talking points--the TDN spoke with newly minted...

The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) has appointed Dr. Jennifer Durenberger as Director of Equine Safety and Welfare, effective Nov. 28, 2022, HISA announced Thursday. Dr. Durenberger will advise HISA's leadership and Standing Committees on equine health and welfare strategies and oversee HISA's relationships with industry veterinarians and other key stakeholders to ensure consistency in the implementation of HISA's equine safety and welfare policies nationwide. "HISA is thrilled to have Dr. Durenberger sharing her insight and expertise to help protect the health and welfare of our sport's magnificent equine...

The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) has submitted to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) a technical document listing and categorizing 1,365 Prohibited Substances covered by HISA's anti-doping and medication control (ADMC) rules and further dividing them into subcategories of Banned Substances and Controlled Medications. The document is now subject to final approval by the FTC ahead of the ADMC Program's Jan. 1, 2023 implementation date. This technical document was developed by HISA's ADMC Standing Committee and approved by the Horseracing Integrity & Welfare Unit (HIWU), which will administer the...

The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) has announced the members of its Horsemen's Advisory Group, who were selected from among the more than 250 applications received from hands-on racing participants from across the country. Starting in November, the Advisory Group will convene on a monthly basis to provide feedback to the Authority's executive team and Standing Committees on the implementation and evolution of HISA's Racetrack Safety and Anti-Doping and Medication Control regulations. Members will serve between 1-2-year terms to stagger changes in the composition of the group and to...