Industry Notice: Updates to Australian harness traceability rules

Recent changes have been made to the Australian Harness Racing death notification rules that all standardbred owners and trainers must be aware of.

The new obligations for standardbred owners and trainers are:

• If your horse dies while it is registered and in the care of a licensed trainer, you must notify the Queensland Racing Integrity Commission (QRIC) immediately.
• In all other cases, when a horse dies, you must notify QRIC within 24 hours.
• You must not dispose of a horse carcass in either circumstance without the permission of QRIC stewards.
• Owners and trainers must notify QRIC within 7 days of the decision to retire a horse, not commence racing a horse, or if a horse has been retained for breeding purposes.

Watch QRIC’s Chief Steward (Harness) David Farquharson explain the changes.

Those who are identified as non-compliant with any of these rules could be penalised and referred to QRIC stewards for further investigation.

Compliance with traceability rules will also help you to prepare and protect your horses from disease outbreaks.

Real-time traceability will ensure animal welfare and industry transparency, and will help to restore public confidence in racing and the sustainability of racing in Queensland.

We encourage you to ensure that your horse’s status and location are correct.

If your horse’s records are incorrect, please lodge a notification online at HarnessWeb or by emailing licensing@qric.qld.gov.au.

Thank you for your ongoing compliance.