International Federation of Horseracing Authorities

History

The IFHA's origins begin in 1961. On the eve of the year's Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, horseracing authorities from Great Britain, the United States of America, Ireland and France agreed to coordinate their rules and actions to establish a more harmonized rules across the world. While this original committee was originally informal, by 1967 the committee's goals had grown popular enough to lead to the creation of the more formal International Conference of Horseracing Authorities in Paris, an annual conference designed to bring the world’s main racing authorities together to discuss and align the sport. To more easily facilitate decisions made at the conferences, the IFHA was formally founded on the IFHA was officially founded on December 23, 1993 in Paris.

On June 16, 2013, the IFHA announced a long term partnership with the Swiss watchmaker company Longines. Longines, who have long had an association with timekeeping for sporting events, have sponsored many racing events and awards associated with the IFHA since.

In July of the same year, the IFHA and the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) signed an agreement to coordinate matters related to the health and well-being of racing horses. The IFHA and OIE have hosted several conferences since on the subject of horses' health, including the first workshop in Asia to focus on the safe international transport of sport horses.

Later that year, on 7 November, 2013, the IFHA and Fédération équestre internationale, a global governing body that oversees non-racing equestrian sports, announced a partnership to launch the International Horse Sports Confederation, a not-for-profit organization designed to help better facility communication and cooperation between the two federations.

On October 8, 2024 at the 58th International Conference of Horseracing Authorities, the IFHA announced a new Racing Integrity Handbook, a series of guidelines and principals designed to improve regulations and combat corruption in the sport. The handbook has also been described as a way to promote horseracing's wider achievements against other sports. Alongside this, it announced the creation of the Council on Anti‐Illegal Betting & Related Crime, an expansion of the Asian Racing Foundation's regional council of the same subject.

Horse rankings

One of the more prominent roles the IFHA has is maintaining several annual standing lists related to the quality of horseracing.

In January of every year, the IFHA release the "World's Top 100 Group/Grade 1 Races for 3yos and upwards," a list that rates the strongest Group 1 races in the last few years in terms of the quality of horses partaking. This is compiled using the IFHA’s ratings of the races’ first four placed horses.

The IFHA also maintains a standings table for both horses and jockeys, based on their performance over the previous year. The World's Best Jockey table began in 2014, with ranking being scored via performance in races included in the most recentTop 100 Group/Grade 1 Races list. The World's Best Racehorse Rankings, the current form of which began in 2008, allow for performance from races outside the Top 100 Graded Races list, but takes into account the relative performance and quality of other horses in each race a horse partakes in.

The leading horse and race for the year are presented with an award as part of the annual Longines World Racing Awards ceremony in January. The winning jockey is celebrated in December.

Objectives

The IFHA state objectives for their organization on their website, including:

• Maintaining and amending the International Agreement on Breeding, Racing and Wagering (the IABRW), a voluntary agreement designed to promote fairness of members of affiliates.
• Improving the welfare and safety of both horses and riders, via standardised global racing rules.
• Planning international races, and overseeing the grading procedure for current and new races.
• Maintaining racing integrity via combating anti-illegal betting and doping.
• Certifying IFHA Reference Labs, facilities that specialise in equine drug testing.

While there have been calls since the early 2020s a "Olympic" style or other world event to help boost the awareness and popularity of horseracing, the IFHA have not committed to implementing such an event.

Membership

The IFHA have numerous members of various levels of affiliation.

Main members

Honorary members

National and regional organizations members

Affiliate members

Authorities that have signed some of IFHA's International Agreements but are not full members

References

References

1. "IFHA Annual report 2016".
2. (2013-11-07). "International Horse Sports Confederation unites equestrian sport".
3. (2019-10-18). "Horse Racing Organizations:International Federation of Horse Racing Authorities".
4. (2023-12-31). "International Federation of Horseracing Authorities".
5. Breining, Tim. (2024-09-25). "Longines and Equestrian Sports".
6. Anthony, Paul. (7 November 2017). "Longines Watch Brand History - An Enduring Quest For Elegance".
7. Milan, Jaime. (2025-07-01). "How Longines Became the Official Timekeeper of Equestrian Events".
8. "AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF HORSERACING AUTHORITIES (IFHA) AND THE WORLD ORGANISATION FOR ANIMAL HEALTH (OIE)". World Organisation for Animal Health.
9. (2014-02-18). "Historic Asia, Far East and Oceania Collaboration on Movement of Sport Horses".
10. (2024-10-08). "IFHA Unveils Racing Integrity Handbook and Launches Anti-Illegal Betting Council – Racing News – The Hong Kong Jockey Club".
11. "Racing Integrity Handbook".
12. Morgan, David. (2024-10-09). "Integrity Handbook Can Assist Global Rules Harmonisation".
13. Federation, Asian Racing. (2025-10-19). "Globalising the ARF Council – Moving to the IFHA".
14. (2025-10-19). "Asian Federation Countries feature prominently in 2019 Top 100 Group and Grade 1 races".
15. (2023-12-31). "Longines World's Best Jockey".
16. (2024-11-27). "James McDonald Crowned Longines World's Best Jockey".
17. (2023-12-31). "Longines Rankings".
18. (2025-09-11). "Ombudsman on Top in World's Best Racehorse Rankings".
19. Headd, Liam. (2025-01-21). "City Of Troy crowned world's best racehorse alongside Laurel River at Longines awards".
20. (2023-12-31). "Mission".
21. "International Agreement on Breeding, Racing And Wagering And Appendixes: 2024 edition".
22. (2022-07-26). "2022.07.26 Laboratory of Racing Chemistry Becomes 6th IFHA Reference Laboratory".
23. "How a horse racing Olympics could work to make the sport better".
24. Finnegan, William. (2021-05-15). "Can Horse Racing Survive?". The New Yorker.
25. (2023-12-31). "Members".