The fatality rate for racehorses making starts at North American racetracks was 1.53 per 1,000 starts in 2019, according to statistics released on Thursday, the lowest rate since the launch of the Equine Injury Database in 2009.

The 1.53 rate, which includes all surfaces at all distances, is an 8.9 percent drop from the 2018 rate of 1.68, and a 23.5 percent drop from 2009, when fatalities first began being tabulated through the EID. Fatalities are recorded if they occur within 72 hours of a horse suffering an injury during a race.

The Association of Racing Commissioners International has canceled its conference in April due to the coronavirus outbreak, the organization announced on Wednesday.

The conference was scheduled to be held April 7-10 in New Orleans. In a release, the ARCI said that all registration fees will be refunded.

The cancellation of the conference is the first notable impact on the U.S. Thoroughbred racing industry of the outbreak, though many operating racetracks have put out advisories over the past two days stating that they are conducting more frequent sanitation procedures.

The U.S. Senate Commerce Committee on Wednesday passed a bill that included an amendment requiring the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, a private non-profit company known as USADA, to prepare a presentation about how it would implement an “anti-doping program” for horse racing, according to the sponsor of the amendment.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Horses based in the Belmont Park barns of Jason Servis and Mike Tannuzzo were transferred to other trainers on Tuesday and Wednesday, but when those horses will be permitted to run again is uncertain.

Servis and Tannuzzo had their New York licenses summarily suspended by the New York State Gaming Commission on Tuesday following indictments on Monday by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York alleging involvement in a horse racing doping scandal.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Horses at Gulfstream Park trained by Jorge Navarro and Jason Servis, who were arrested Monday on federal indictments alleging they participated in a scheme to administer illegal medications to their horses, are in the process of being sent to other stables or to farms, Mike Lakow, Gulfstream Park’s vice president of racing, said Wednesday.

The New York Gaming Commission on Tuesday afternoon became the first racing regulatory body in the United States to issue summary suspensions to the racing individuals named in indictments unsealed Monday, a decision that will likely trigger suspensions in other jurisdictions.

Owner Michael Dubb said Tuesday he plans on moving the approximate 25 horses he had with trainer Jason Servis to a host of other trainers, but it remains unclear when those horses - or any horse formerly trained by Servis - will be permitted to run in New York.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Twenty-four hours after being arrested in a horse-racing doping scandal, trainer Michael Tannuzzo was at Belmont Park Tuesday morning. It will likely be the last morning he is allowed on the grounds for a while.

Tannuzzo, with what he said was permission from “the court,” was permitted at Belmont Tuesday to oversee the dispersal of his 11-horse stable. NYRA safety stewards Juan Dominguez and Tim Kelly were at Tannuzzo’s barn to oversee the transfer of his horses.

No illegal medications were found in any of 23 horses who died at Santa Anita between Dec. 30, 2018, and March 31, 2019, but 21 had “pre-existing pathology at the site of their fatal injury,” 11 had received injections of corticosteroids to the joints – two within 14 days of injury – and nine of the racing fatalities occurred on sloppy or sealed tracks, according to a long-awaited report released Tuesday by the California Horse Racing Board.

The 27 defendants who were arrested and indicted Monday by federal authorities on charges related to manufacturing, procuring, distributing and administering illegal substances to racehorses are due back in court on March 23 for their initial pleas, according to individuals involved in the investigation.

All 27 defendants were arrested en masse at 4 a.m. on Monday morning in jurisdictions stretching from Florida to New York. Federal authorities confiscated the phones of all those who were arrested, according to the individuals.