HISA to form Veterinary Advisory Committe

The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority will form a Veterinary Advisory Committee that will provide “feedback” on the authority’s regulations related to veterinary care and medication, HISA announced on Monday.

The committee, which will include up to 16 members, is the second formed by HISA in the past two years to address criticism from the training and veterinary community that the authority has given inadequate weight to insiders about its regulations. Late in 2022, HISA formed a Horsemen’s Advisory Committee with a similar role.

HISA said that the committee would consist of “both regulatory and attending veterinarians from diverse professional backgrounds and geographies, ensuring a broad representation of perspectives.” The group will meet monthly, HISA said.

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Regulatory veterinarians are typically employed by tracks and racing commissions, while racetrack practitioners administer care and treatments to horses on behalf of trainers and owners. The two groups have often clashed in the past decade as the racing industry has sought to reform its medication and veterinary rules.

“The veterinarians who care for equine athletes day-in and day-out are critical to our collective efforts to surround horses with an ecosystem of care, and their on-the-ground insights will make us smarter and more effective,” said Lisa Lazarus, the chief executive officer of HISA, in the announcement.

Like the Horsemen’s Advisory Committee, the veterinary committee will not play a formal role in rule-making. Instead, it will “provide feedback to HISA’s executive team and standing committees on the implementation and evolution of HISA’s regulations and protocols related to veterinary care, medication, racetrack safety, equine research, and other relevant issues,” HISA said.

Currently, four members of the Horsemen’s Advisory Committee are from the veterinary community. A spokesperson for HISA, Mandy Minger, said that the horsemen’s committee will continue to include the veterinary representatives that had been appointed to the panel.

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