Saratoga safety measures in place

SARATOGA SPRINGS — A new federal authority that was created to regulate horse racing on Tuesday announced it was imposing two additional safety precautions for the remainder of the Saratoga Race Course’s summer meet, where 14 horses have died this year from on-track catastrophic injuries or non-racing mishaps.

The safety measures, which include having a veterinarian with the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority screen horses before a race, follows the authority’s announcement last week that it would examine the spate of recent equine fatalities at Saratoga Race Course, where the season began July 13 and is scheduled to end on Labor Day.

The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority — created under the federal Horseracing Integrity and Safety and Act — said it is collaborating with the New York Racing Association and state Gaming Commission in the review, which includes “reviewing necropsy results, veterinary records, racing and training histories, surface maintenance logs and weather records gathered by local veterinarians and other officials.”

HISA, as it is known, reviews every equine fatality under its jurisdiction. But the number of deaths at Saratoga this year has prompted what the organization described as an “expanded review” with the findings made public when it’s completed and “used to inform potential interventions moving forward.”

The other safety measures announced Tuesday include having HISA’S newly formed Track Surface Advisory Group review the dirt and turf surfaces before racing resumes on Wednesday.

All horses running under HISA’S jurisdiction undergo postentry screening, which occurs between the time the entry is taken and when the regulatory veterinarians perform their in-person physical inspections on race day. The exams include studying the last 30 days of a horse’s medical history, previous injury and lameness diagnostics, intraarticular corticosteroid injections, previous surgeries and other “horse risk factors.”

Those examinations are usually carried out by local regulatory veterinarians, but HISA said having its veterinarians conduct the examinations will “provide an additional layer of independent analysis to identify any horses that may be at increased risk of injury before a race.”