HISA chief executive Lisa Lazarus keynote speaker at Round Table Conference on Matters Pertaining to Racing

Lisa Lazarus, the chief executive of the embattled Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority, will be the keynote speaker at the Aug. 14 Round Table Conference on Matters Pertaining to Racing in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., the organizer of the conference, The Jockey Club, announced on Wednesday.

Lazarus, a former top executive of the Federation Equestre Internationale, the international governing body for equestrian sports, will provide an “update” on the activities of HISA since its jurisdiction took effect on July 1 in most racing states. She will also discuss HISA’s future plans for its Anti-Doping and Medication Control Program, which is scheduled to go into effect on Jan. 1.

HISA, which was created by legislation supported by The Jockey Club, has encountered several setbacks in the past few months due to pockets of aggressive resistance within the racing community. In the past two weeks, a judge in Louisiana has granted a temporary injunction barring HISA from enforcing its rules in Louisiana and West Virginia, and The Jockeys’ Guild is in open rebellion against a HISA rule limiting whip use in races.

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In a release, The Jockey Club said that the keynote speech would be “complemented” by Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, “who will offer his perspective on the significance of the passage of HISA to the Thoroughbred industry.” Schumer will be appearing in a video presentation, a Jockey Club spokesperson said.

Other speakers will include John Penza, a director of International Investigations at 5 Stones Intelligence, a firm hired by The Jockey Club in the mid-2010s to investigate the use of illegal substances in racing. Penza will be interviewed by James Gagliano, the chief operating officer of The Jockey Club. According to the release, Penza will discuss his experiences during the investigation, the results of which were passed on to federal investigators, who indicted and arrested more than two dozen individuals involved in racing in March 2020.

In addition, Tom Rooney, the chief executive officer of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, will give a presentation on the NTRA’s federal lobbying work; Dennis Madsen, the head of racing for the Swedish Horseracing Authority, will discuss Sweden’s new rules limiting use of the whip during a race; and Dr. Lauren Stiroh, a managing director of NERA Economic Consulting, will review her findings from an analysis of economic trends in Thoroughbred racing and breeding.

The Round Table conference will be an in-person event for the first time since 2019 this year. In the previous two years, the conference was live-streamed due to the pandemic.