Racing regulators discuss current data, future initiatives

Officials from the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority and the Horseracing Integrity & Welfare Unit held a joint town hall to discuss findings in their 2024 annual reports, provide context around the collection and verification of data, and shed light on upcoming initiatives to increase and refine data collection.

The meeting included summaries of major statistics from the HISA annual metrics report from 2024 as well as the HIWU Annual Report from 2024, both of which were published earlier in the year. But it expanded on some things mentioned in the reports, as far as data validation and related initiatives.

Racing and training fatality data

In a presentation, HISA executive director Lisa Lazarus began with a focus on how HISA statistics are collected in a standard and understandable way. She emphasized that HISA uses the same definition of racing fatalities that The Jockey Club uses for its equine injury database, as well as the definition recommended by the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities and used internationally. For racing fatalities, that means "horses that die or are euthanized within 72 hours of a race as a direct result of injuries sustained participating in a race."

Lazarus underscored that HISA takes a conservative view for what a racing or training fatality is. She explained that, unless there is clear information that a fatality within 72 hours of racing or training is not connected, it is counted as a racing or training fatality. Lazarus and Jennifer Durenberger, a veterinarian who is the director of equine safety and welfare for HISA, pointed out that the agency was being conservative by using numbers of published workouts as the denominator when discussing training fatality rates.

Published workouts are readily quantified, and using them means the reported rate is conservative in the sense that the published rate will always be higher than the actual fatality rate for published works. Durenberger explained that about a third of training fatalities happen during published works, about a third during other training such as gallops or two-minute licks, and about a third are not yet clearly attributed to a phase of training.

In her explanation of data collection by HISA, Lazarus also discussed levels of verification that the data went through before being interpreted and reported. Those include comparison to HIWU reports and tests, review by HISA's veterinary team, review by the HISA safety director and cross-checks between HISA's data and The Jockey Club's EID.

Lazarus discussed the downward trend in racing fatalities since HISA was established but also mentioned the slight upward move of racing-related fatality rates at non-HISA tracks in 2024 compared to 2023. According to that report, racing-related fatality rates dropped from 1.23 per 1,000 starts in 2023 to 0.90 per 1,000 starts in 2024 at HISA tracks, but rose from 1.63 per 1,000 starts in 2023 to 1.76 per 1,000 starts in 2024 at non-HISA tracks.

Lazarus said some individual non-HISA tracks had comparable fatality numbers to HISA tracks, but others were significantly higher. "This is obviously something of concern," Lazarus said, since horse safety impacts not only HISA tracks, but the industry at large.

HIWU leader addresses metformin review

Ben Mosier, the executive director of HIWU, spent much of his segment of the town hall reviewing statistics from his organization's annual report. He specifically addressed metformin, an anti-hyperglycemic medication that is commonly prescribed to humans with type 2 diabetes but has been banned under HIWU rules. HISA announced a scientific review of metformin in June 2024 in conjunction with a deferral of active suspensions for positives for the substance.

"It has been reported to me by the RMTC (Racing Medication & Testing Consortium) that their scientific advisory committee is reviewing information but should be nearing the end of that study," Mosier said. He also pointed out that findings of metformin, as well as other substances like methamphetamines that are used by humans, have decreased since an education initiative in summer 2024. That initiative focused on circulating posters to stables, explaining ways in which people working in the stables can reduce the risk of environmental contamination.

Future data and initiatives

Anjali Salooja, HISA's director of operations and compliance, discussed HISA's plans to provide more refined data around racing and training fatalities. She said that HISA hopes to make public, as soon as this year, a more granular view of racing-fatality types, including rates of fatalities related to musculoskeletal injuries, sudden deaths and other reasons. Salooja also said HISA was considering providing fatality information organized by other factors such as track surface and condition in order to get a clearer view of how certain injuries and fatalities happen and to help industry stakeholders make better informed decisions.

One of HISA's planned avenues of inquiry for the near future is scratches. Lazarus pointed out that there was less than a 1% rise in scratches in the 30 months before HISA and the first 30 months of HISA. She noted that the data reflected only the number of scratches, but HISA planned to look more closely in 2025 at the reasons for scratches as well as trends in scratches by state or track.

According to Salooja, HISA's current hypothesis is that most of the scratches are for non-veterinary reasons like track condition or not drawing off an also-eligible list, but HISA wants concrete data to drive the conversation around scratches.

Durenberger also discussed an initiative to research and try to reduce proximal forelimb fractures. Technically fractures of either the humerus or the scapula, these injuries are called broken shoulders in common racetrack parlance. According to Durenberger, these injuries account for about 15% of fatalities. HISA plans to analyze data to find out more about the profiles of horses that are susceptible to these injuries, and follow up with an advisory.

"My goal to be to reduce these proximal forelimb fractures ... by helping the industry understand which horses are at risk," Durenberger said.