Lisa Lazarus

by Dr. Sara Langsam After having read Dr. Thomas Little's Open Letter to the Industry regarding HISA, I thought it was important to share a different voice and perspective. For the last 20 years, I have practiced as a private racetrack practitioner with one of the largest racetrack veterinary practices in the country. I agree with Dr. Little that private veterinary practitioners are a critical component of making sure horses are ready and sound for racing. However, I disagree with his views on HISA and its relationships with private practitioners....

Editor's Note: This week, we start a series in the TDN where we attempt to clarify a HISA regulation that has been the subject of confusion in the early days of the rollout. This week, we discuss the test barn, where we have received letters to the editor saying that sample collection personnel may not be practicing proper hygiene, nor wearing gloves. What do the rules say, and what should you do if you observe this? HISA CEO Lisa Lazarus answers us below. Sample collection procedure requirements in the test...

The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) and the Jockeys' Guild have announced that they have created a Steering Committee to recommend and develop programming in support of the mental health and wellness of jockeys. The announcement comes on the heels of a symposium held last week in Saratoga. The Steering Committee will be co-chaired by Ambassador Earle Mack, a businessman, philanthropist, former U.S. Ambassador to Finland and Thoroughbred owner and breeder, and Dr. Yuval Neria, a professor of Clinical Medical Psychology at Columbia University Medical Center and Director of...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - A panel on computer-assisted wagering (CAW) and its pros and cons, and another on trainers' reactions to the new Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) regulations, took center stage at the 2023 Jockey Club Round Table Conference on Matters Pertaining to Racing held in Saratoga Springs, New York on Thursday. Patrick Cummings, the moderator of the panel on CAWs, is the Executive Director of the Thoroughbred Idea Foundation, a racing-industry think tank. Cummings took the panel through a brief history of parimutuel wagering and the changes...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY - The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) and the Jockeys' Guild hosted a symposium on the mental health and wellness of jockeys on Aug. 1 at the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in Saratoga. The event was organized after a similar discussion conducted in May at Keeneland shared the results of a survey of 230 jockeys that revealed that, among other findings, a third of jockeys had faced challenges in their daily lives over the past month due to feelings of sadness, anxiety...

The Horse Racing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) has changed their provisional suspension policy regarding banned substances and will now wait to suspend a trainer until the split (B) sample is returned, according to a press release from HISA Friday morning. "Last Friday, HIWU was informed that a split (B) sample did not confirm the original laboratory finding, and, accordingly, pursuant to the ADMC regulations, HIWU dismissed the violation against a trainer who had been provisionally suspended 20 days earlier," the statement read. "This raised concerns regarding the imposition of...

by Brent J. Malmstrom I am the owner of a small stable with 35 horses in training split between multiple states. I wanted to share my first-hand experience on what happens when your trainer has been provisionally suspended, as well as my own thoughts on what is happening within our beloved industry. HISA/HIWU testing and enforcement went live roughly 60 days ago. Every week, there is news in the trade publications of trainers who have been provisionally suspended or have had an unfavorable test result. The rules continue to be...

HISA CEO Lisa Lazarus joins this week's TDN Writers' Room to discuss recent developments with HISA's Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit.

Because of a number of developments over the last few weeks that can be characterized as missteps, Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) Chief Executive Officer Lisa Lazarus has had a chance to reflect on what's gone right and what's gone wrong since the Anti-Doping and Medication Control (ADMC) Program went into effect in May. Appearing as this week's Green Group Guest of the Week on the TDN Writers' Room podcast presented by Keeneland, Lazarus addressed the problems and made no attempt to sugarcoat them. "If we look at the...

As the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act's (HISA) drug and medication control program has rolled out over the past couple of months, various questions have been raised over the mechanics of the new law. As such, the TDN has decided to maintain a Q&A on this new program comprising questions raised by readers, and answers fielded by representatives from either HISA or the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit (HIWU), which implements HISA's anti-doping and medication control (ADMC) program. The first set of responses can be read here. Note: This is not a...

The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act's (HISA) drug control program has encountered some choppy waters since its launch on May 22, encapsulated by events surrounding the law's rules on intra-articular joint injections. At the end of last month, HISA CEO Lisa Lazarus explained that the Authority--the non-profit umbrella broadly overseeing implementation of the federal law--had temporarily suspended full enforcement of its rules surrounding intra-articular joint injections prior to workouts. Under HISA's rules as written, trainers are prohibited from giving their horse intra-articular joint injections within 14 days prior to the...

by Bill Finley and Dan Ross A day after telling the TDN that it was not obligated to make public the names of horses who were ineligible to race or work because they were found to have had an intra-articular injection within seven days of a timed workout, the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit (HIWU) reversed course Friday and published a list on its website of the 19 horses that were provisionally suspended. Horses that violated Horseracing Safety and Integrity Authority (HISA) Rules 3313 and 4222, which cover intra-articular injection...