Welcome to the official California Horsemen’s Safety Alliance Website. The introduction of this website opens a new era of convenience and education for California trainers and their employees. A special thanks goes out to CHSA Administrator Sonia Pishehvar for her efforts in establishing this website. The CHSA was created in 2002 in order to deal with the Workers Compensation crisis that was facing the thoroughbred industry. Skyrocketing rates were causing trainers to leave the State and owners to leave the industry. California racing was in danger of becoming a shell of its former self or an extinct industry.
    As a response to this crisis the trainers, owners and racing associations joined together in an effort to create a program that would lower rates, reduce injuries and monitor treatment for those who were injured. The CHSA searched the country and literally the world in an attempt to find an insurance company that was interested in providing coverage. Only one such company, AIG showed any real interest. After extensive negotiations AIG agreed to provide coverage and give the industry a chance to manage a program with the hope of lowering the high cost of worker’s compensation insurance. None of this would have been possible had the racing associations and the Thoroughbred Owners of California not been willing to put up over ten million dollars to secure the program.
    In just three and one half years California trainers have gone from paying the highest worker’s compensation rates in the country to paying the lowest worker’s compensation rates in the country. Furthermore the CHSA has established loss control programs and injury reduction programs that promise to create additional savings in the future. Lastly, the program has accumulated reserves of millions of dollars that will be used to provide additional benefits to trainer participants in future years.

    I hope you find the features available on this website to be useful and we would appreciate any comments or suggestions you may have.

Ed Halpern
President, CHSA