A “Responsible Person” means the Trainer of the Covered Horse. If the Covered Horse does not have a Trainer, the Responsible Person shall be the Owner of the Covered Horse. A Responsible Person is personally liable for the Covered Horse and is subject to specific record-keeping and reporting requirements. The Responsible Person is designated when a Covered Horse is registered.
The owner may be the Responsible Person prior to selecting a trainer, during an extended lay-off period, during a period in which one trainer is being replaced by another, and other similar situations. Otherwise, the trainer is the Responsible Person.
If the Covered Horse is owned by more than one individual or by a partnership, corporation, limited liability company, syndicate or other association or entity, the Designated Owner is the individual designated in the Authority’s database as the representative for the other owners of the Covered Horse authorized to receive communications or notifications and fulfill any reporting requirements on their behalf in respect of the Covered Horse.
There are three classes of jockey crop use violations:
The Claims Clerk is responsible for changing the Responsible Person designation in the HISA system. The system is updated within minutes of the posting. After this happens, the previous Responsible Person will:
A step-by-step document explaining the process can be downloaded from the Resources page on the HISA website at www.hisaus.org.
The original owner is responsible for all costs if the claim is voided. The claimant shall be entitled, upon submission of expense records, to recoup reasonable expenses from the prior Owner related to the care, custody and control of the Covered Horse incurred after the date of the claim.
The veterinary treatment records submitted to HISA by the Attending Veterinarian are associated with the horse data record, and as such, they travel with the horse. As soon as the Designated Owner and/or Responsible Person are changed in the Portal, the new Designated Owner and Responsible Person have access to the treatment records of the claimed horse.
However, trainer treatment records, which are only required to be maintained (and not submitted to HISA unless requested), must be transferred manually.
Yes, all Shock Wave machines must be registered with HISA.
No. At the end of the 30 days, horses that were treated with Shock Wave Therapy automatically come off of the Veterinarians’ List. Any Covered Horse treated with Shock Wave Therapy shall be placed on the Veterinarians’ List and shall not be permitted to Race for 30 days following treatment or perform a Workout for 14 days following treatment.
Being on the Veterinarians’ List will be recorded on the horse record in the HISA Portal. The Responsible Person (typically the trainer) and Designated Owner for the horse will receive a message through the HISA messaging system that the horse has been placed on the Veterinarians’ List.
Horses may not be released prior to the expiration of the 7-day stand down time after a scratch due to illness.
Yes, horses placed on the Veterinarians’ List for unsoundness are required to have a blood test in addition to working for a Regulatory Veterinarian. There may also be other requirements to be determined by the Regulatory Veterinarian prior to the horse being removed from the Veterinarians’ List.
Regulatory Veterinarians do have the discretion to order diagnostics at any time for any horse and may therefore require additional diagnostics when assessing a horse for unsoundness during a workout for removal from the Veterinarians’ List.
Trainers and Responsible Persons are not required to submit horse treatment records to HISA, but they must maintain treatment and medication records and make them available if requested by HISA, stewards or Regulatory Veterinarians. HISA has developed templates that trainers may use to document their horses’ treatment and medications if they do not have a program in place.
For horses returning to race after a layoff of 150 days of more, the trainer must create a Post-Layoff Report in the Portal and document:
Requiring this information will assist HISA in analyzing the factors associated with the high rate of catastrophic injuries that occur in horses soon after return from layoff. For this purpose, the information will be treated anonymously (the identities of the trainer, horse and layup/rehabilitation facility will not be disclosed).
Any veterinarian working on a Covered Horse must be registered as a Covered Person and must upload treatment records to the horse’s HISA Portal.
Please note that the Responsible Person (typically the trainer) must cooperate with records requests and if a veterinarian has not reported treatments to HISA, the veterinarian may be asked to provide any veterinary treatment records related to the Covered Horse.
Veterinary records will be maintained by HISA on its database and available to Regulatory Veterinarians for use in connection with pre-race inspections and other diagnostic and safety-related purposes. Access to the information in the HISA database will be limited to HISA officials for the purposes of research conducted by the Authority in accordance with the Act to enhance the safety and welfare of racehorses. Subject to the approval of the Authority, records may also be accessed by the State Racing Commission or the Stewards.
The required and most efficient method for Attending Veterinarians to submit examination findings to HISA is through the HISA Portal or through one of HISA’s software integration options.
Yes. HISA has a model emergency action plan available here. This document addresses emergency preparedness with respect to issues that occur on the racetrack during training and racing, and the management of jockeys and racing personnel who may have sustained critical injuries. Racetracks are expected to have separate response procedures in place, with a different set of emergency medical services, for incidents that occur in the grandstand, in any casino, if applicable, and in other public areas; those procedures are outside the scope of the emergency action plan document.
HISA has partnered with Sports Medicine Concepts, Inc., a leading provider of elite sports emergency care training and emergency action planning services, to help Thoroughbred racetracks operating under HISA’s rules use these procedures to evaluate and develop their own emergency action plans.
HISA has a template of hazardous weather protocols that Racetracks can use and/or modify to match the Racetracks’ specific environmental circumstances and considerations. In addition, HISA Rule 2164, Hazardous Weather, mandates that no Timed and Reported Workouts or Covered Horseraces shall be conducted when the Air Quality Index at a track is 175 or above.
Racetracks are welcome to develop their own protocols that align with racetrack-specific considerations. HISA will provide biosecurity guidelines and templates online that racetracks can use or modify.
HISA has a document outlining necropsy guidelines that the racetracks (and diagnostic laboratories) can use and/or modify for their own circumstances. This can be found on the Resources page. All Covered Horses that die or are euthanized on Racetrack grounds shall have an autopsy (necropsy) examination performed. All Covered Horses that die or are euthanized due to, or related to, a musculoskeletal injury within 72 hours of leaving Racetrack grounds shall have an autopsy (necropsy) examination performed.
The HISA system checks the Equibase databases. The HISA system may not recognize a person’s name if:
When the system doesn’t find a match, it will display the message “you might be new to racing.” If you select “yes,” the system will allow you to continue with the registration process.
To register an LLC, corporation or partnership, one member of the LLC, partnership or corporation must register first. That person will then create the “Entity.” The Entity must have a default Designated Owner and a default Responsible Person. The Entity can have multiple Covered Persons associated with the “Entity” as an Owner. If there is more than one owner of a horse, the Designated Owner can share a horse’s information with the other owners once they are registered with HISA.
See the following video for more detail: How to Create an Ownership Entity – Video
Stable names cannot register with HISA. The owner’s name must be identified as the Designated Owner for a horse. If there is more than one owner of a horse, the Designated Owner can share a horse’s information with the other owners once they are registered with HISA.
A horse that is a Covered Horse under HISA’s rules is considered to be a Covered Horse at all times, regardless of location. However, HISA does not regulate horse racing outside of the United States. If a horse that resides outside of the U.S. races at a Covered Racetrack in the U.S., the horse must be registered. The horse’s owners, trainers and jockeys are also required to register.
The person who registers the horse can enter the Coggins information, the Responsible Person can update the Coggins information after registration, and the Racing Office can enter the information into its system, which will update the HISA system.
If all owners are required to be licensed by a state racing commission, all must register with HISA, and one of the owners must register as the horse’s Designated Owner. The Designated Owner will have the ability to share access to the horse’s information with the other owners. Owners who are not required to be licensed by a state racing commission are not required to register with HISA. If a horse is in training, the Responsible Person is typically the trainer.
Racetrack employees are required to register with HISA if they have a state racing commission license and are directly involved with Covered Horses and Covered Horseraces. Racetrack Chaplains and Jockey’s Agents are required to register with HISA.
However, racetrack employees or contractors who do not have access to restricted areas of a racetrack (the stable area or paddock, for example) in the ordinary course of carrying out their duties are exempted from registering. This means that if a racetrack employee’s job does not regularly require the employee to access the stable area in the normal course of work, the employee is not required to register. A few examples may help illustrate the registration exemption rule.
It is important to note that HISA registration does not affect barn and track access. State and racetrack rules continue to control access.
Once the legal ownership of the horse is settled, the current Designated Owner will select the function to change the owner designation. This will send a message to the new Designated Owner, who must accept the role for the transfer of the Designated Owner status to occur.
The Designated Owner must change the name of the trainer (Responsible Person) in the HISA system.
The trainer remains the Responsible Person for the horse and is required to obtain the treatment records or ensure the Attending Veterinarian submits the treatment records related to the elective or emergency care.
The Designated Owner can go into his or her account and “take back” the horse by becoming the trainer. The former trainer will not be able to prevent the owner from designating himself or herself as the trainer.