Building upon a successful launch last year, the second Horse Racing Women’s Summit, taking place Sept. 28 at Santa Anita Park, took on some of the most challenging issues facing racing. Horse safety was paramount during the first panel on the state of the industry.
“We’re definitely at an inflection point,” Lisa Lazarus, CEO of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority, told the audience in Santa Anita’s FrontRunner Restaurant. “It’s been a really challenging year for horse racing from an equine injury standpoint. The positive is that there is a genuine recognition among all stakeholder groups that this is the time when we have to all put our heads together and do what we can to really prop up the industry, show what we all can do for the horse, and work together.”
Dr. Casille Batten, a regulatory veterinarian at Golden Gate Fields with 1/ST Racing, noted that the changes being implemented in horse safety not only are reducing injuries, but are also starting to bring people together.
“We are lucky in California that we have been implementing a lot of these rules for a few years,” said Batten. “At the beginning it was met with some fear, some suspicion. What’s really happened is veterinarians are now taking a more active role in horse welfare on the racetrack instead of a more reactive role. We are looking at these horses daily, and we actually get to know them and we’re catching things sooner.”
Lazarus addressed a question about the drug penalties that have arisen under HISA’s jurisdiction. An audience member noted that a California trainer recently switched from straw to shavings as bedding to avoid inadvertent scopolamine contamination.
Lazarus pointed out that HISA has an atypical findings policy under which contamination issues fall.
“We have 27 substances on it,” she said. “If they are detected in a horse’s sample, it goes through an entirely different process.”
If one of these substances, which includes scopolamine, is detected, HISA investigates whether it is a contamination, and if so, those cases are not made public. Lazarus said that 12 cases of scopolamine positives have been dismissed because they were from contamination.
“We’re doing our very best to balance between those threats of contamination and protecting the sport,” she said.
Lazarus discussed a new app now available from the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit, whereby someone can input any substance to find the rules for that substance. The app also notes whether it is a specified substance and thus would fall under the atypical findings policy.
Midway through the day, the HRWS honored Charlsie Cantey with the Jane Goldstein Exemplary Leadership Award. Goldstein, the retired director of publicity at Santa Anita and the first woman to head a track publicity department in this country had been honored at the inaugural summit in 2022, and the award this year was named for her.
Goldstein and Santa Anita executive Amy Zimmerman, who has produced many of the television shows Cantey worked on, presented Cantey with the award after a video tribute from many female broadcasters. Cantey spoke about how important the award was to her because it was named after Goldstein, a longtime friend and colleague. She noted others in California who had helped her in her career, including former Santa Anita announcer Dave Johnson and the late Frank Tours.
“Frank Tours wound up dragging me out of the backstretch and getting me involved with broadcasting, which I didn’t want to do,” Cantey said. “Frank Wright and Dave Johnson were so supporting and such mentors. They showed me the ropes. Somehow, 30 years later, I was still at it. To be presented this award is such a validation for me and my life and career.”
Today I met the woman who inspired me to go to journalism school and chase after this career. Thank you Charlsie from the bottom of my heart ❤️ #HRWS pic.twitter.com/YWz4hcHLaN
— Christina Blacker (@ChristinaFDTV) September 28, 2023
Cantey acknowledged the racing industry’s difficult times but praised the summit’s work.
“Take a line from ‘Hamilton,’ look around at what you have going on here,” she said. “You’ve got your work cut out for you. But you are all here for the love of the horse and the love of racing. So please carry on and keep doing this fabulous job that you’re doing.”
Panels in the afternoon included one titled “Running the Show,” with female panelists who have professions that have gone primarily to men in the past. Jessica Paquette came to Santa Anita after recently announcing the Sept. 23 big day of racing at Parx Racing as one of the few female announcers.
Announcer Jessica Paquette at Parx Racing
“I just kept saying yes,” Paquette said, explaining how her opportunities have arisen. “And Parx took a chance on someone who had called 50 Quarter Horse races.”
Asked how she found her voice with only men calling races, Paquette said, “I watched Charlsie Cantey and wanted to be a reporter. You want to be what you can see. I struggled early on trying to find my voice because I wasn’t going to sound like any of them, no matter what I did. Representation is so important in this sport to show the younger generation that they can be anything they want.”
