, HISA launched last year to oversee racetrack safety across the U.S. Uniform national medication and anti-doping regulations went into place May 22, overseen by the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit.
“That is unheard of under the old system,” Lazarus said by phone Tuesday. “We actually have a program that has teeth and that is having an impact.” From a horse safety standpoint, HISA is working with Amazon Web Services and Palantir to collect and analyze data, which could find more answers about the causes of horse injuries and deaths. Lazarus said Dr. Susan Stover, chair of the racetrack safety committee, has already analyzed information that found a correlation between the number of high-speed workouts a horse has had and the degree of risk for a musculoskeletal injury.
For an industry that has long been reluctant to change, Lazarus has noticed a big shift in horsemen and others recognizing HISA as the law of the land and them wanting to be part of forming policy and “part of the solution.”