Roughly half of the individuals in racing who will need to register with the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority by July 1 to continue to participate in racing have done so, officials with the organization said on Tuesday. Lisa Lazarus, the chief executive officer of HISA, said on a Tuesday videoconference call with reporters that approximately 7,000 of the estimated 15,000 people who will need to register have completed the process. The licensees who need to register include trainers, backstretch workers, veterinarians, and owners who have at least a 3 percent stake in any racehorse (or the managing partner of a large partnership), among the other individuals who qualify as “covered persons” under HISA’s regulations. In addition, approximately a “little less than half” of all the “covered horses” have been registered, Lazarus said. Any horse that has started in a race or has had a timed workout must be registered, a job that is expected to be completed, for the most part, by trainers, HISA officials have said. Any horse or licensee that is not registered by July 1 will be unable to participate in racing, at least in jurisdictions where HISA will have authority (some fair tracks that do not simulcast will not be under HISA’s jurisdiction). Lazarus and other HISA officials have said that a system will be in place near the end of June that will issue automatic alerts from the racing office to trainers or owners if they enter an unregistered horse for a race that occurs on July 1 or afterward. “The last thing I want, speaking very sincerely, is having anyone scratch in July,” Lazarus said. HISA and a handful of racing-related organizations who support the authority have been conducting webinars and distributing materials urging licensees to register. Tabs directing users to the registration process at HISA can be found on the home pages of websites maintained by the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, The Jockey Club, and even the National Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association, which was a party to a lawsuit seeking to nullify the legislation that created HISA. Lazarus also said that HISA is making headway in reaching agreements with state racing commissions and racetracks in collecting the fees that are required from racing jurisdictions to fund the authority’s operations, despite pushback from a number of racing commissions who have voted against collecting and remitting the fees themselves. HISA will formally go into effect on July 1 as the national regulator of Thoroughbred racing. The rules that will begin to be enforced on that date include safety standards for racetracks, including use of the whip during a race. A separate tranche of rules governing medication use and the authority’s drug-testing and drug-control programs is expected to go into force on Jan. 1. The rules were posted for public comment on HISA’s website on Friday.