HISA becomes first national organization to publish per-workout fatality rate
Horses exercising at U.S. tracks and training centers under the jurisdiction of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority suffered fatalities at a rate of 0.50 per 1,000 timed workouts, HISA said on Monday.
The per-workout fatality rate is the first tracked and published by a national organization in the U.S. HISA said that it was determined after collecting fatality data from the tracks and training centers and comparing the number of non-racing fatalities with the number of timed workouts at those facilities.
“This is a conservative ratio, as HISA’s training-related data includes fatalities that occur during all training activities, not just workouts,” HISA said.
HISA recently announced that the racing fatality rate at tracks under its jurisdiction was 0.90 per 1,000 starts, the lowest rate recorded by the Thoroughbred industry. Last week, The Jockey Club announced a rate of 1.11 fatalities per 1,000 starts, including data from tracks not under the jurisdiction of HISA. That was also the lowest rate since the launch of the Equine Injury Database in 2009.
Although the California Horse Racing Board has tracked all fatalities at tracks and training centers under its jurisdiction for decades, HISA is the first national organization to put in place procedures to record non-racing deaths.
HISA began collecting exercise-related fatality data in 2023 with the intent of publishing full-year 2024 numbers and subjecting the records to data analysis to improve health and safety measures at tracks. Critics of racing have contended that the industry has deliberately withheld training deaths from national fatality rates to make the sport appear safer than it is.
“While it is too early to establish trends in combined racing- and training-related fatality data, transparency is a critical first step in identifying risk factors and developing targeted safety initiatives,” HISA said in a statement accompanying the release of the data. “The information collected on training-related fatalities has served to expand the already significant database HISA has built and will be instructive as the organization moves into the next phase of its data-driven efforts, identifying patterns to help racing stakeholders make more informed decisions for their horses and proposing guidance and rules designed to make training safer.”
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