The racing fatality rate at racetracks under the jurisdiction of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority was 0.83 per thousand starts during the first three months of the year, HISA reported on Wednesday.

The 0.83 rate was a 38 percent decline compared to the fatality rate during the first three months of 2023, HISA said. With the exception of Rillito Park in Tucson, Ariz., the same number of tracks were operating in the first quarter of this year as the first quarter of last year, HISA said.

The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority has appointed four new members to its Horsemen’s Advisory Board, including Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher, HISA said on Monday.

Pletcher was appointed along with Craig Bandoroff, a leading consignor though his Denali Stud; Jonathan Green, the owner of D.J. Stable, a racing and breeding operation; and Michael Levinson, the racing manager and parti-owner of L&N Racing.

Frank Stronach, the prominent former Thoroughbred owner-breeder and racetrack owner, was arrested on Friday by police in Peel, Ontario, Canada, and charged with five counts related to sexual assault, according to a release from the police.

Stronach, 91, was charged with rape, indecent assault on a female, forcible confinement, and two counts of sexual assault, according to the police. He was booked and released and will be scheduled to appear in the Ontario Court of Justice “at a later date,” the police said.

The Federal Trade Commission has approved a voluminous set of new rules devised by the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority that includes provisions allowing HISA to block a track from sending its signal to out-of-state racing locations if the authority believes conditions are unsafe at the track.

The Louisiana Racing Commission on Friday wholly rescinded a bloc of new medication regulations set to go into effect on Saturday in an acknowledgement that the blowback to the rules would have dramatically weakened the state’s racing product and isolated the state’s Thoroughbreds.

The commission voted swiftly on Friday to rescind the new rules through an emergency meeting conducted via video-streaming service that lasted six minutes. The vote was unanimous, including from three veterinarians on the commission who were the prime consultants for the new rules.

The Louisiana Racing Commission has called for a second emergency meeting this week, this time to consider rescinding its approval for an entire suite of amendments to its therapeutic medication rules passed in late April that are significantly more relaxed than those in most other racing states.

Total wagering on Thoroughbred races held at U.S. tracks during the month of May was up marginally on a slight decrease on the number of races held when compared to the same month last year, according to figures released by Equibase on Thursday.

The total wagering figure reversed a steep slide in April, when total betting fell 11.4 percent on a 4.5 percent decline in the number of races held, during a month that had only eight weekend dates, compared to 10 weekend dates in April 2024.

Horses shipping from the state of Louisiana to tracks under the jurisdiction of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority will be required to be placed on the vets’ list beginning on June 9, according to a memo HISA sent to tracks and racing officials on Wednesday.

HISA announced the policy in advance of new medication rules set to go into effect in Louisiana on June 8. The new medication rules, which were passed on an emergency basis in April, pose “significant risks to both equine welfare and the integrity of Thoroughbred racing,” HISA said in the memo.

The Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit has lifted the provisional suspension of George Weaver for a positive for metformin following a recommendation that the use of the substance in horses be studied further.