The Jockey Club Press Release
LEXINGTON, Ky.—On Thursday, March 23, OwnerView hosted a Virtual Thoroughbred Owner Conference panel to provide information for owners about the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) and its Anti-Doping and Medication Control Program (ADMC), which goes into effect today.
The panelists were Lisa Lazarus, chief executive officer of HISA, and David Ingordo, a Thoroughbred owner and bloodstock agent and a member of HISA’s Horsemen’s Advisory Group. Gary Falter, project manager for OwnerView, moderated the discussion. Attendees were able ask questions through Zoom’s Q&A feature, and the questions were answered toward the end of the webinar.
Lazarus and Ingordo discussed topics such as the overall HISA and ADMC programs, benefits to owners, contamination versus administered substances, bisphosphonates, and misconceptions about HISA.
“If you are doing the right things and following the rules, you are going to be fine,” Lazarus said. “You are actually going to be better because you’re not going to feel like you need to break the rules to win. Ultimately, we are trying to protect trainers, the vast majority of which want to compete clean.”
“In my lifetime, we’ve never had uniformity. You know, every state is different, every track might have different rules,” Ingordo said. “Under HISA and the Anti-Doping, and Medication Control portion of it especially, we are going to have uniformity.”
The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act, which was signed into law in December 2020, established HISA as an independent agency to draft and enforce uniform safety and integrity rules in Thoroughbred racing in the United States.
HISA’s Racetrack Safety Program rules and regulations were approved by the Federal Trade Commission and implemented on July 1, 2022.
Nine additional Thoroughbred Owner Conference virtual panels are scheduled for 2023.
The next session will be held April 4 at 2 p.m. ET and will feature expert handicappers discussing the details of a variety of betting options and handicapping your horse’s race. A full schedule can be found here: bit.ly/OVSchedule.
There is no registration fee for the 2023 virtual conference series, but registration is required. For more information about the owner conference series, including the schedule of panels and registration, please visit ownerview.com/event/conference or contact Gary Falter at 859.224.2803 or gfalter@jockeyclub.com.
OwnerView is a joint effort spearheaded by The Jockey Club and the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association to encourage ownership of Thoroughbreds and provide accurate information on aspects of ownership such as trainers, public racing syndicates, the process of purchasing and owning a Thoroughbred, racehorse retirement, and owner licensing.
A replay of the conference.
The need for a central resource to encourage Thoroughbred ownership was identified in the comprehensive economic study of the sport that was commissioned by The Jockey Club and conducted by McKinsey & Company in 2011. The OwnerView site was launched in May 2012.
