As Thoroughbred racing and breeding stakeholders we all love both the horse and the sport of horse racing. That is what brought us to this industry and, at the end of the day, that is what unites us.
It has been admittedly a difficult and challenging year, and a time for reflection and assessment of the steps we are taking to keep horse and rider safe. Our sport is committed to doing better and doing even more to create the safest environment possible for racing and training. Like many of you, I have gotten a lot of questions from friends and loved ones about equine injuries and what the sport is doing about them. This is how I respond.
In fact, we have made substantial, steady progress over the past several years. And we are poised to make more progress.
I tell them the sport has reduced the incidence of fatal injuries to its lowest point in the 14-year history of The Jockey Club’s Equine Injury Database, 1.25 per 1,000 starts, including a 25% decrease in the past five years. According to Dr. Tim Parkin, an epidemiologist and veterinarian at the University of Bristol (UK), the rate of injury reduction in United States racing since 2008 is the best of any country that he monitors.
I tell them that the reform measures put in place in California since 2019 have cut the rate of fatal incidents in half in that major racing state. Those measures include increased veterinary inspections and monitoring, review panels to help determine race readiness, enhanced training protocols, and state-of-the-art imaging technology installed at tracks to help detect pre-existing conditions that could put a horse at risk.
I tell them those reforms are working, and they are a model for the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority, the new federal body given oversight responsibility for the sport nationally under the Federal Trade Commission. The legislation creating HISA passed Congress in December 2020 with strong bipartisan support. The authority is responsible for oversight and enforcement of uniform national integrity and safety rules, replacing the confusing hodgepodge of state-by-state regulations. HISA has a purview over everything from drug testing and enforcement to which type of shoes horses wear.
Under CEO Lisa Lazarus, HISA rolled out its Racetrack Safety Program last year and started its Anti-Doping and Medication Control Program in May. In less than three months, the program has made a significant step toward transparency in the sport and toward making horse racing cleaner, safer, and fairer for all with better testing, increased transparency, faster adjudication, and stiffer penalties for rule breakers. HISA will also gather and analyze data that can help injury prevention.
We need to give HISA every chance to succeed. Change can be daunting but ultimately, racing fans and the people who work hard and follow the rules will be the ultimate beneficiaries. We owe it to all of those people, and to the horses, to make the sport the best it can be.
I tell them that the extremist organizations who target the horse racing industry give no consideration to the economic devastation their actions may mean for hundreds of thousands of working families and family farms.
And finally, I tell them that the public doesn’t expect perfection, but it certainly deserves assurances that sports authorities are doing everything they can to minimize risk to participating athletes. Without the ability to control every external or health factor, the goal of zero injuries may seem impossible, but we will continue our work and progress toward that goal.
Tom Rooney is president and CEO of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association. He is a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives, serving Florida’s 17th congressional district. He and his family own and operate Shamrock Farm, a Thoroughbred breeding farm in Carroll County, Md.
