With six days left in the summertime meet, horse racing’s new federal oversight authority is implementing two new security interventions at Saratoga Race Course, the place racing is ready to renew Wednesday.
The Horseracing Integrity and Security Authority introduced the measures Tuesday on the heels of a nationally-televised stakes race breakdown and one other post-race horse loss of life on Saturday, the most important day of the meet on the New York Racing Affiliation observe. There have been 14 horse deaths at Saratoga since Could.
HISA says a required pre-race screening by a veterinarian, usually carried out by native vets, will now be carried out by a HISA vet so as to add an additional layer of unbiased evaluation to establish horses that could be at elevated danger of damage.
Moreover, members of HISA’s new Observe Floor Advisory Group are on web site reviewing the racing surfaces.
In an announcement, a NYRA spokesperson says the well being and security of horses and jockeys is its highest precedence and that it strongly helps HISA’s work.
NYRA provides racing surfaces are already inspected earlier than, throughout and after every racing day, and its evaluate has not discovered any anomalies. It says a veterinarian will now need to attest that every entered horse is sound and match to race after a bodily examination.
