Jockey Club, 1/ST Racing urge industry support for SAFE Act to stop horse slaughter

Horse racing’s biggest names pushed the SAFE Act because the sport’s credibility now hinged on what happened after a horse left the racetrack. The Jockey Club and 1/ST Racing said the industry needed visible, unified action on slaughter and aftercare, not just promises, as the House version of the bill reached 226 co-sponsors and 1/ST warned that more than 25,000 U.S. horses were shipped to foreign slaughter plants in 2025.

The Jockey Club said on April 16, 2026, that it would work with 1/ST and others to advance the bill and see it become law. The organization said it stood with 1/ST president Aidan Butler, who argued racing would be judged by how it cared for horses during their careers and long after retirement. The letter called on organizations across racing and the wider equine world to contact lawmakers and publicly back the measure.

The SAFE Act was reintroduced on February 27, 2025, by Sens. Lindsey Graham and Ben Ray Luján and Reps. Vern Buchanan and Jan Schakowsky. It would permanently bar domestic horse slaughter and stop the export of horses for human consumption, while adding horses, donkeys and burros to the framework of the 2018 Dog and Cat Meat Prohibition Act. Buchanan said the House version had 226 co-sponsors and that 83% of Americans want horse slaughter permanently banned. He also noted the taxpayer ban on horse slaughter funding has been renewed every year since fiscal 2014 and in all but two years since 2005.

The Jockey Club framed the issue as part of its own long record in the sport. Founded in 1894 and serving as the Thoroughbred breed registry for the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico, it said it has partnered with the Final Stretch Alliance to End Horse Slaughter and has worked since 2016 with Humane World for Animals’ National Horse Racing Advisory Council, the Center for Humane Economy and the ASPCA. It also pointed to support for Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance and the Thoroughbred Incentive Program. The coalition behind the Final Stretch Alliance open letter includes the Jockey Club, U.S. Trotting Association, Stronach Group, Breeders’ Cup, Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association, Jockeys’ Guild, New York Racing Association and Del Mar Thoroughbred Club, a sign the industry was trying to make welfare visible before the loophole did the damage for it.