racing fatalities
Earlier this month, the Association for Racing Commissioners International (ARCI) issued a 28-page report assessing the effectiveness of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) after three years of operations. The report covers a lot of ground, including the federal authority's approach to collecting and calculating its equine fatality statistics. In this regard, the ARCI identified several points of concern, namely: That "there has been no uniform reporting policy governing how this data is collected and maintained." That in 2024, HISA reported thirteen fewer equine deaths than those...
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, a longtime critic of many of the practices in horse racing, has purchased stock in four companies which own racetracks--VICI Properties, Boyd Gaming, Penn National Gaming, and Gaming and Leisure Properties—in order to make their case in the boardroom, according to a press release from the organization. The release says that, "PETA's proposed changes include replacing dirt tracks with high-quality synthetic ones, banning trainers who have multiple medication violations, and banning whipping. Tracks will be encouraged to work with state racing authorities when...
Santa Anita, which concluded its 16-day Autumn Meet Oct. 25 with 1,106 horses racing and 51,200 training sessions since Sept. 5., when the Del Mar Summer Meet was winding down, had no racing or training fatalities during that time. The meet was pushed back due to the Bobcat Fire in the neighboring San Gabriel Mountains and the track did not host live racing until Sept. 25. The main dirt track at the Arcadia oval has not had a single racing fatality in 2020, including during the Winter/Spring Meet which began...
The California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) is scheduled to conduct an emergency meeting early Friday morning to discuss whether to suspend or impose certain operational conditions to Los Alamitos's racing license. The emergency meeting comes in the wake of a series of equine fatalities at the track—nine since May 26 alone. The Long Beach-located facility is primarily associated with Quarter Horse racing. A seven-day thoroughbred meet recently concluded. This story will be updated with news from the meeting.