HISA issues advisory on ‘unsound’ horses

Regulatory veterinarians should take extra care in declaring horses fit to race and train when those horses have been placed on the vet’s list for unsoundness at any time in their careers, according to a health advisory issued by the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority on Friday.

While the caution would seem to be common-sensical, HISA said that it was issuing the warning after analyzing data from 2025 and the first quarter of 2026. According to HISA, 20 percent of all horses that suffered fatal injuries when either racing or exercising during that time period were either on the vet’s list as unsound at the time of death, had been scratched from a recent race as unsound, or removed from the vet’s list after being declared unsound within the prior six months.

HISA also said that 60 percent of all horses placed on the vet’s list as unsound since the beginning of 2025 had not made a subsequent start, or 1,904 from a population of 3,297.

Veterinary scratches have become a major topic of discussion over the past several months, with some horsemen complaining that regulatory veterinarians have become too quick to scratch horses. Last month, the connections of White Abarrio filed a lawsuit against Breeders’ Cup and other organizations over the scratch of the horse just prior to last year’s Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile.

HISA is currently undergoing a project to review the vet’s list criteria in all racing jurisdictions in the hopes of standardizing the criteria. The project is being led by HISA’s director of policy and industry initiatives, Dr. Jennifer Durenberger, who is a former regulatory vet.

“Decisions to place a horse on the veterinarians’ list as unsound are made with the utmost care and expertise by regulatory veterinarians, and it is crucial that they are supported in their work with as much data as possible, along with strong collaboration with trainers and attending veterinarians,” Durenberger said in a statement announcing the health advisory.

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