When the holders of extreme views vie for attention, they often rely on the cheap tricks of skilled propagandists, like using highly charged and often outrageous language to make emotional appeals infused with urgency. Claims are often built around a kernel of truth so that they seem credible. And comparisons are made between their issues and common human experiences; the more emotional the better ...

... “Sterilization to extinction” and lies are not the answer to making racing safer for horses and riders. Progress, however, is what all the people involved in horse racing will continue to work toward now and in the future.

U.S. Senate Repulican Leader, Ky Senator Mitch McConnell:
Kentucky's signature horseracing industry is a key part of our heritage and supports 24,000 workers across the Commonwealth. Working closely with sport leaders, horse advocates, and fans, Congressman Barr and I led the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act of 2020 to passage to promote safety and fairness across Thoroughbred racing, ensuring the sport's future viability. This legislation's advocates knew from the beginning that it was fully constitutional, and I am pleased the court agreed with our arguments, which I supported through an amicus brief. I congratulate the Horse Integrity and Safety Authority for their recent positive momentum, moving us all closer to a safer, better-regulated American Thoroughbred racing industry.

Ky Congressman Andy Barr:
The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act was carefully and thoroughly drafted with an eye toward ensuring the Authority it created was constitutional in its structure and powers. Throughout the process Senator McConnell and I consulted with lawyers and relevant precedent to ensure the statute would survive any constitutional challenge. The fact that the Northern District of Texas has upheld HISA reinforces that due diligence. I look forward to seeing the Authority begin its programming this summer and the further advancement of the sport.

Remember the time Travis Tygart, as head of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, came up to Lance Armstrong and gave him a big hug after one of Armstrong's seven Tour de France victories?

Yeah, me neither.

I've been told horse racing is different, that it's unique. We are expected to accept things that probably wouldn't fly in other sports or industries.

So I guess it's perfectly OK for Jonathan Rabinowitz, an attorney who chairs the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, to hug Bob Baffert near the Churchill Downs infield winner's circle after Baffert-trained Medina Spirit finished first in the 2021 Kentucky Derby.

It's also fine that another KHRC member, Charlie O'Connor, director of sales for Coolmore America, gave Baffert a congratulatory hug. After all, Coolmore and Baffert have done a lot of business together, whether it's at Thoroughbred auctions or on the racetrack, where Baffert has trained a number of horses for the Ireland-based global Thoroughbred powerhouse.

Oral arguments took place Feb. 16 in a federal case filed by the National Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association and several state affiliates seeking nullification of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act. 

The HBPA organizations argue that the HISA, passed by Congress and signed into law in December 2020, violates the non-delegation doctrine of the U.S. Constitution in that it gives governmental authority to a private, unaccountable organization overseen by a federal agency with no expertise in horse racing. According to the HBPAs, the act authorizes the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority, also known as HISA, to make federal laws and tax the industry to pay for its operations.

All this, say the plaintiffs, is in violation of Article I of the U.S. Constitution which states that all legislative powers granted by the Constitution are vested in congress.

It was not until 2020, after the sprawling federal case exposing horse racing doping, that Congress finally approved a law to establish national regulations for the sport and replace the current balkanized system of rules and enforcement varying by state.

The federal Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) is now in the process of creating the new rules that will govern thoroughbred horse racing and shopping for a new enforcement agency to oversee drug use in the sport, after failing to reach an agreement with the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) to do the job. HISA is expected to take over regulation of the sport in the next year or so.

Who will be HISA's new partner on drug testing and how they will remedy the issues that have challenged state drug testing operations is still unknown.

The ‘gold standard’ of drug testing

When it comes to testing for PEDs, the protocols of the United States Anti-Doping Agency and its international counterpart, the World Anti-Doping Agency, have been called the “gold standard” of testing. The US agency was created to oversee the US Olympic team and tests athletes for the Ultimate Fighting Championship, the professional mixed martial arts league. 

In fact, UFC is the only professional league in the country to turn its testing over to the USADA. Major League Baseball, the NFL and others craft their testing policies as part of the collective bargaining process between the players’ union and the league. And some critics say that relationship can result in putting the leagues’ interest ahead of the players...

...It was former US federal agent Jeff Novitzky, now vice president of athlete health and performance for the UFC, who was hugely instrumental in bringing the two organizations together a year and a half ago.

Novitzky got involved in the world of anti-doping in 2002 and made a name for himself for the investigation he conducted on BALCO Laboratories. It involved several dozen high-profile athletes, including baseball stars Barry Bonds and Jason Giambi and Olympian Marion Jones, who were clients of BALCO. 

January 11, 2022 – The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) Board of Directors announced today that Lisa Lazarus will serve as Chief Executive Officer of the Authority starting February 15, 2022. The board reached this decision after engaging Russell Reynolds to undertake a nationwide search for a permanent Chief Executive Officer. Under Lazarus’ leadership, HISA will implement the racetrack safety program on July 1, 2022, engage a best-in-class independent enforcement agency to oversee the Authority’s Anti-Doping and Medication Control (ADMC) program, and work with stakeholders across the U.S. to evaluate and improve both programs on an ongoing basis.

The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) announced the suspension of negotiations pertaining to USADA's potential future role as the independent enforcement agency for HISA's Anti-Doping and Medication Control (ADMC) program. As mandated by the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act of 2020, USADA and HISA had been engaged in good faith negotiations but were unable to reach final terms. To date, USADA has led the process of authoring draft rules for HISA's ADMC program. As set forth in the HISA statute, the Authority is evaluating options for engagement with other leading independent enforcement agencies.

Whatever the reason may have been, Authority Chairman Charles Scheeler and his crew and Tygart and his team need to lock themselves in a room with the understanding that no one can come out until they have reached an agreement that will bring USADA back into the fold. That may mean that it will be the Authority that has to blink first, that it will have to find a way to give Taggart whatever it is that he is looking for. Horse racing needs USADA a lot more than USADA needs racing.

Maybe the relationship between the two is beyond repair and nothing can be done to salvage it, but racing has to try. The alternative is that everything goes back to the status quo and that, without USADA, the bad guys continue to run amok. HISA, without USADA's involvement, becomes so irrelevant that the act might as well be repealed. That depressing possibility should be considered unacceptable by the Authority, The Jockey Club and everyone else who has been trying so hard to bring meaningful change to a sport that needs just that.

There has to be a way. Make it happen.

“We are deeply disappointed to announce that we have been unable to reach an agreement with the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority for USADA to become the enforcement agency for the anti-doping and medication control program for thoroughbred racing under the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act.  After months of negotiations, we have been unable to enter an agreement in line with the requirements of the Act, and one which would have given us a reasonable chance to put in place a credible and effective program.  While we are obviously saddened by the outcome at this stage, we tried our absolute best to find a way forward but without success.” 

“While we desperately tried to reach an agreement to implement the program, without compromising our values, we have always said the passing of the legislation and the finalization of uniform, robust rules are huge victories for the horses and the equine industry.  We are honored to have been involved with these efforts to restore the integrity of thoroughbred horse racing. Though we are unsure what the future holds for USADA – if any – in this effort, we have offered to assist the Authority and others in the industry to ensure that the sport gets the program it needs and that the horses deserve.”

HISA Drug Testing Will Be Phased In

Charles Scheeler, the chairman of HISA, outlined the progress the organization has made during a very compressed timeline from passage of the legislation in December 2020 until its mandated launch July 1. A board of directors and chairman was named in May 2021, interim staff including a CEO was hired in July, when meetings and collaboration with the presumed enforcement arm, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), began. In September, stakeholder talks started, along with meetings with current state regulators. HISA presented its draft of proposed safety regulations to the FTC on the eve of the Symposium. It requested and received a waiver from the FTC to delay submission of proposed anti-doping and medication policies for at least 10 days (until Dec. 16). Draft anti-doping/medication regulations shared with industry organizations were met with considerable feedback. The FTC will conduct public register review in January and February and the rules must be approved by March 1 – four months in advance of HISA's launch.

Scheeler said the final regulations approved “will not be perfect” or “written in stone.

It's clear, from the proposed rules and comments by Tygart and Muir in a series of media interviews, that racing is in for some significant changes.

Gone will be the good old boy community of racing commissioners with conflicts of interest involving some of the people they are regulating. It is hoped the cavalcade of attorneys appealing fines, suspensions and disqualifications on behalf of trainers will grind to a halt as well, with strict, understandable and loophole-free regulations in place when the transition to the Authority occurs next July...

...Tygart added, “When you sign up to be a 'covered person,' you agree to the rules of the game. If you don't like the rules, you don't have to play.”

Racing has needed a new sheriff for some time. It may finally have found one.

That's my view from the eighth pole
Ray Paulick

To coincide with the release of its anti-doping guidelines for the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency's CEO Travis Tygart and Equine Program Director Tessa Muir joined the TDN Writers' Room presented by Keeneland Wednesday evening. Sitting down for an expansive, near hour-long interview as the Green Group Guests of the Week, Tygart and Muir broke down all facets of the potential uniform medication policies and regulations, talked about the varying  working relationships they've developed with state racing commissions, elucidated how testing and doping investigations would work under HISA and much more.

“Some of this can be a challenge because it is a bit of transformational change,” Muir, who has previously worked for Racing Victoria and the British Horseracing Authority, said of USADA's overarching goals. “But it's about securing a future for the sport and making sure we've still got the social license to operate. And the end goal, the vision of what we're all here for, is for the horse. To keep the horse safe. We're here to make the sport fair for the trainers, owners and bettors, the people who invest in the sport and come to the races to embrace it. Those are the principles behind what we're doing, and it's a huge privilege to be involved in this process.”

Draft rules for the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) were unveiled Thursday morning, auguring fundamental shifts to the way the industry is policed, including a markedly more stringent approach to medication violation penalties.

Far from concrete, these draft rules are subject to the red pen. Nevertheless, as currently written, they raise notable differences to the working status quo.

Broadly, the draft rules take a binary approach to drug testing, breaking medications down into primary and secondary categories.  A primary substance is one that is always prohibited, while a secondary substance is one generally prohibited on race day.

The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority's (the Authority) Standing Advisory Committees, comprised of experts from inside and outside the thoroughbred racing industry, and the independent U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), have published initial drafts of proposed rules on hisaus.org for public comment.

As prescribed by the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act of 2020 (HISA), USADA has led the drafting process for the Anti-Doping and Medication Control Program. Three of the six documents pertaining to the Anti-Doping and Medication Control Program, including the proposed Equine Protocol, Prohibited List and Definitions, have been posted for public comment. The remaining documents, which include Equine Arbitration Procedures, Testing and Investigation Standards, and Standards for Laboratories and Accreditation will be published over the next two weeks.

In a 155-page filing Sept. 2, U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss outlined a case that built on itself as a wiretap of trainer Jorge Navarro—that wiretap already has been found to be legal—brought additional persons of interest into the investigation. Intercepted conversations between Navarro and prominent trainer Jason Servis, discovered in the Navarro wiretap, was one example of how the case built on itself, and, the Attorney argues, were important evidence in justifying further wiretaps.

The wiretap of Navarro already was allowed into court and the trainer pleaded guilty to charges related to performance-enhancing drugs Aug. 11. Now 11 other defendants, including Servis, are attempting to suppress evidence obtained from their premises, cellphones, and electronically stored information

Last week, prosecutors filed a 155-page response document in an ongoing fight over wiretap evidence against trainer Jason Servis and a handful of other defendants in the well-known federal drugs case. While it remains unclear when U.S. District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil will rule on a series of motions to exclude intercepted phone, text, and email conversations among the defendants, the response did include previously unpublished transcripts that shed new light on the case......

.....You can read the full response document here.

If the letter of the law is any reliable prognosticator, this time next year the United States horse racing industry will already be nearly a month into what promises to be a major realignment of the planets.

With the official enactment of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) on the first of July, 2022, racing jurisdictions North and South, East and West will be bound by the same medication standards, safety rules, and enforcement mechanisms–a hallelujah for many who have long championed the ouster ofl'ancien regime to pave the way for national uniformity.

Last month, the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) announced that in Dr. Tessa Muir, it had plucked from foreign shores a new hire to head its equine program at a time when the agency plays an integral role in implementing the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA), overhauling the industry's governing status quo.

Before Muir joined the USADA staff roster, she had hopscotched her way up the industry ladder, from exercise rider to private veterinarian to head of the British Horseracing Authority (BHA)'s anti-doping program between 2013 and 2019. Her last position was as a regulatory veterinarian in Australia, for Racing Victoria.

Former British Horseracing Authority anti-doping manager Dr. Tessa Muir has been recruited by the United States Anti-Doping Agency to head its new equine program, which will fully implement the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act from July 1, 2022.

Muir, who worked for the BHA from October 2013 to November 2019, before taking up the role of regulatory veterinarian with Racing Victoria in Australia, has been charged with putting into practice systems that will ensure the integrity of the U.S. Thoroughbred racing industry is in line with the majority of international jurisdictions.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – A prominent and well-respected racing-law expert predicted Monday that federal courts are ready to revisit doctrines regarding the delegation of government powers to private companies, a development that could lead to a drawn-out legal battle over a new national regulatory authority for horse racing.

The expert, Bennett Liebman, a former member of the New York State Racing and Wagering Board, told attendees of the Racing and Gaming Conference on Monday that while the Supreme Court has not made a prominent ruling on delegation powers since 1936, the present make-up of the court includes several new justices who have indicated that they may want to revisit the issue. If that were the case, it would jeopardize the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority, a private horse racing regulatory body created by federal legislation passed late in 2020.

“The Supreme Court is looking for an opportunity to review this issue,” Liebman said. “And if it does, we are in for a very long and difficult amount of litigation. . . . This should be a major concern for the industry and for the proponents of HISA.”

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The principals seeking to implement the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority expect to submit draft rules and regulations to the Federal Trade Commission by the end of this year after several months of deliberation among industry constituencies, the chairman of the authority said Sunday in prerecorded comments broadcast as part of The Jockey Table Round Table Conference on Matters Pertaining to Racing.

Charles Scheeler, the former legal counsel to former Sen. George Mitchell (D-Maine) who was appointed chair of HISA in May, said that a draft of the rules should be ready to be distributed and discussed among racing constituencies in “the fall,” in advance of the year-end submission to the FTC. HISA is committing to that timetable to ensure that the rules can meet the public-comment requirements necessary to obtain formal approval by the effective start date of the authority, July 1, 2022.

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss said: “Kristian Rhein and Jorge Navarro represent the supply side and the customer side of the market in performance enhancing substances that have corrupted much of the horse racing industry.  As he admitted today, Navarro, a licensed trainer and the purported ‘winner’ of major races across the world, was in fact a reckless fraudster whose veneer of success relied on the systematic abuse of the animals under his control.  Rhein previously admitted that he flouted his oath as a veterinarian to protect the animals under his care, choosing instead to pursue money through the sale and administration of unregulated substances used by trainers engaged in fraud and animal abuse.  These latest convictions demonstrate the continued commitment of this Office and our partners at the FBI to the investigation and prosecution of corruption, fraud, and endangerment at every level of the horse racing industry.”

The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HiSA) got off to a solid start last month when Maryland attorney Charles Scheeler was elected by other directors to chair the nine-member board that will act as the independent medication and safety regulator for thoroughbred racing in the United States .

The board includes a few names horse racing should be familiar with (z, and Joseph De Francis, whose family previously owned Maryland Tracks Laurel and Pimlico).

But there are others who bring major league sports experience to the agency. Adolpho Birch spent 23 years at National Football League headquarters, focusing on enforcing integrity and drug issues while Leonard Coleman served as President of the National League for Major League Baseball (and a former member of the Board of Directors of Churchill Downs Inc. . is).

From the political world comes board member Steve Beshear, who served as attorney general, lieutenant governor and governor of Kentucky (his son Andy is the current governor of Kentucky). Dr. Susan Stover of the University of California at Davis pioneered groundbreaking research in equine injury and prevention. Scheeler played a prominent role in Major League Baseball’s Mitchell Report, which examined the use of performance-enhancing drugs in the sport.

They are an outstanding group with a variety of skills that should work well together as the industry ventures into uncharted waters with the development of national drug and safety regulations that require approval from the Federal Trade Commission in Washington, DC .

Charles Scheeler, who was elected chairman last week, made the prediction during a half-hour question-and-answer session with media members on Wednesday afternoon conducted over an internet-conferencing service, his first public appearance on HISA matters.

During the appearance, Scheeler said that the authority had just begun its work in devising standards that the authority will enforce in all 38 racing states, and he characterized that work as being “very early in the process.” But he said that despite that workload, and despite the potential for complications presented by two separate lawsuits challenging the agency’s legality, HISA officials expected to meet their mandate.

“It’s our intention, and we have every expectation, of being up and running in July ’22, and meeting the deadlines in the act,” Scheeler said.

The new sheriff in town is going to need more ammunition.

Charlie Scheeler, the first chairman of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA), recognizes that cleansing his sport’s drug culture will be a “steep climb.”

Robust rules enforcement will require more resources. Penalty structures now in place must be revised if they are to deter bad actors. Governance by 38 separate jurisdictions has been a recipe for inconsistency and inefficiency... 

“Until now, horse racing has been governed like the old revolutionary era Articles of Confederation, where the states called the shots, made the rules and you ended up with some results, and you see them here (with Baffert) which are sometimes consistent, sometimes inconsistent,” Scheeler said on a media teleconference Wednesday afternoon.

"Mr. Baffert's record of testing failures threatens public confidence in thoroughbred racing and the reputation of the Kentucky Derby. Given these repeated failures over the last year, including the increasingly extraordinary explanations, we firmly believe that asserting our rights to impose these measures is our duty and responsibility."

The suspension, which includes trainers directly of indirectly employed by Bob Baffert Racing Stables, is effective through the conclusion of the 2023 Spring Meet at Churchill Downs Racetrack, CDI said.

“I'm honored to be selected by my fellow board members as the first chairperson of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority. We have a monumental task ahead of us, and I want to thank the nominating committee for bringing together this outstanding group of individuals whose inherent integrity and combined expertise give me confidence in our ability to meet the challenge,” said Scheeler. “All eyes are on the thoroughbred industry as we move into the third leg of the Triple Crown, and on behalf of the board and its standing committees, I'd like to express our unwavering commitment to our mission to protect the wellbeing of human and equine athletes and the integrity of the sport."

“Doped” horses. “Hopped” horses. “Drugged” horses. Cheating. Indictments. Scandals. Let the bettor beware.

Those terms don't describe the current conditions in horse racing, but the overarching problems that dogged the sport nearly 90 years ago when racing had basically no reliable security system in place to protect the betting public. As is the case today, horse racing in the United States had no national governing body that set uniform standards and rules to police the sport. (Thankfully, this will finally change on July 1, 2022, with the federally mandated Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority.)

"Fox News Primetime" host Brian Kilmeade sounded off after renowned horse trainer Bob Baffert pushed back on claims his Kentucky Derby-winning horse Medina Spirit was drugged before the race, as a preliminary post-race test reflected. https://video.foxnews.com/v/6253578594001#sp=show-clips

Attorneys representing three Congressional proponents of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) have filed an amici curiae brief in support of a motion by defendants to dismiss a federal lawsuit by the National Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association and several affiliates alleging that the federal law establishing national oversight on medication and safety policies for horse racing is unconstitutional.

Attorneys Eric Grant of Texas and Paul E. Salamanca of Kentucky submitted the “friend of the court” brief on behalf of Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell, who pushed for the passage of HISA as part of omnibus funding bill in December while serving as Senate majority leader; Kentucky Rep. Andy Barr; and New York Rep. Paul Tonko. Barr and Tonko were the primary sponsors of HISA in the House of Representatives. The bill was signed into law by former President Donald Trump.

The brief pushes back against a partial motion to dismiss from HBPA attorneys filed April 30 seeking the court to declare HISA unconstitutional and order an injunction preventing the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority, the agency created by the law, from operating as a national oversight body.

In the U.S., there isn’t a national horse racing regulatory authority—yet. Each state’s horse racing commission sets its own anti-doping rules and develops its own system of how to deal with rule-breakers, from drug testing and investigations to levying penalties.

But in December 2020, Congress passed a law establishing the federal Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority. When it goes into effect on July 1, 2022, this body will set national standards for the sport, including regulations, testing, and enforcement.

“It’s been a long time coming,” Scollay says. For years, the patchwork of rules across the U.S. has caused confusion, and it’s at least partly to blame for the high level of failed drug tests, she says. Trainers must keep track of what each state says about the dosage of a drug that can legally be administered and how soon before a race.

Ever since March of last year, when more than two dozen trainers, veterinarians, and others were indicted for using or selling misbranded and adulterated drugs, racing fans everywhere have been asking – when is the next round of federal indictments coming? A May 14 status conference in the case provided no more clarity on whether or when a new indictment could be filed.

U.S. District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil pressed prosecutors on the question Friday, since they – and The Jockey Club, which claims responsibility for part of the federal investigation – have talked about the possibility of a superseding indictment for months. The topic has come up in court before, since defense counsel argue they can't reasonably prepare a defense when they don't know if there are new twists coming for their clients. (A superseding indictment would replace an older indictment, and could include new charges for existing defendants, as well as the addition or removal of defendants.)

Led by Michael Beychok, the winner of the 2012 NTRA National Horseplayers Championship, four gamblers have filed a Class Action Lawsuit against trainer Bob Baffert and owner Amr Zedan, alleging fraud. Each maintains that they made bets that would have won had GI Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit (Protonico) not been “doped.” The plaintiffs allege that Baffert and Zedan are in violation of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), the California Control of Profits of Organized Crime Act (CCPOCA) and for committing state common law and equitable fraud.

The suit was filed Thursday in United States District Court for the Central District of California.

Medina Spirit failed a drug test after the race, and he may be disqualified. Officials at Churchill Downs, the legendary track in Louisville, Kentucky, where the Derby has been run for nearly 150 years, have temporarily suspended Baffert from entering horses there. An investigation is underway. If it’s rigorous, it will lead to reform of a troubled and often tawdry sport, where gambling, horse breeding, drug abuse, wealth, animal abuse and glamour intersect.

“These are pretty serious accusations here, but we’re going to get to the bottom of it and find out. We know we didn’t do it,” Baffert told reporters. He called the test results an “injustice to the horse.”

Yeah, well, it’s an injustice to a lot of things, including common sense.

Association of Racing Commissioners International chair Robert Lopez said May 11 that the U.S. members of ARCI are focused on a smooth and expeditious implementation of the newly enacted Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act, the organization announced in a release.

"We view this as an opportunity to achieve improvements we support and believe necessary," he said.   

The ARCI had, in the past, advocated a different path to address these needs, specifically the creation of an interstate compact as an alternative to involving the federal government.  But only a few states picked up that mantle leaving interested lawmakers in Washington no other choice but to pass the new federal law.   

"Uniform rules, uniform testing, expanded jurisdiction over horses, and the creation of a multi-jurisdictional investigative entity are all tremendous improvements that will result from this law" said Ed Martin, ARCI's President. 

Baffert in November vowed to “do better,” hiring a veterinarian for extra oversight and saying, “I intend to do everything possible to ensure I receive no further medication complaints.”

Then one happened on horse racing’s biggest stage.

“Somehow, here we are again,” Moss said. “A lot of people in racing are sort of scratching their heads as to why this would repeatedly happen to one guy.”

Lukas said Baffert has “been hit with some circumstances that are uncontrollable.” While Irby and others point to the Horse Racing Integrity and Safety Act that goes into effect in July 2022 as an opportunity to better police drugs in horses, the 85-year-old Hall of Fame trainer thinks it should raise the threshold “to what’s realistic” for therapeutic medications above the 21 picograms Medina Spirit tested positive for.

Upon further review, Bob Baffert says there’s no conspiracy against his Kentucky Derby-winning horse after all.

The Hall-of-Fame trainer acknowledged Tuesday that Medina Spirit was treated with an anti-fungal ointment that includes betamethasone, an anti-inflammatory drug at the center of a controversy that could cause Medina Spirit’s Kentucky Derby win to be invalidated.

There is one household name in horse racing, a man so well-known that TMZ has stopped him at restaurants and ESPN has invited him to be the celebrity guest picker on "College GameDay."

Bob Baffert is the only person involved in the sport at any level who is likely to be stopped for an autograph or picture away from a racetrack, the product of his ubiquitous presence on television during the Triple Crown and his unmistakeable flop of white hair on top of a head whose eyes are constantly covered by sunglasses.

And now, that may well be the image of horse racing’s greatest shame.

As the facts now stand, the substance was in the horse at a level it should not have been. The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission is investigating and will take appropriate action based on the facts of the case as they develop.

But I can say this as someone who had to investigate such matters, if there was contamination, other horses will also trip the wire. The "only my horse was contaminated" claim usually doesn't stand up. Complaining about picograms doesn't either as today's sensitivity of the lab is a good thing. And let's be blunt, some substances have an enormous affect at a minute level.

Claims that this won't affect the performance of the horse in the race miss one of the main points of the rule. It's not just about whether something can make a horse run faster, but also if the masking of pain or injury might put the horse at risk. Collectively, the more stringent rules are helping reduce breakdowns.

To discuss some of the issues that Baffert has raised in his interviews, the TDN spoke with Mary Scollay, executive director and chief operating officer of the Racing Medication and Testing Consortium (RMTC). Scollay was recently appointed to the Anti-Doping and Medication Control Standing Committee arm of the Horseracing integrity and Safety Authority.

The TDN spoke with Scollay both prior to, and after, Baffert released his statement Tuesday. In her first interview, Scollay raised the possibility that the positive could be the result of exposure through use of a topical product that contains betamethasone.

The two interviews have been spliced into the following, which has been edited for brevity and clarity.....

Louisville, Ky. (AP) -- Medina Spirit’s victory in the Kentucky Derby is in serious jeopardy because of a failed postrace drug test, one that led Churchill Downs to suspend Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert on Sunday in the latest scandal to plague the sport.

Baffert denied all wrongdoing and promised to be fully transparent with the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission during its investigation. Baffert’s barn received word Saturday that Medina Spirit had tested positive for an excessive amount of the steroid betamethasone, which is sometimes used to treat pain and inflammation in horses.

Medina Spirit’s win over Mandaloun in the Derby stands — for now.

“To be clear, if the findings are upheld, Medina Spirit’s results in the Kentucky Derby will be invalidated and Mandaloun will be declared the winner,” Churchill Downs officials said in a statement shortly after Baffert held a hastily planned morning news conference outside his barn to announce and respond to the allegations.

US racing has been rocked with news that last week’s Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit has failed a drugs test.

The colt is facing disqualification after anti-inflammatory drug betamethasone was detected over the legal limit in Kentucky racing.

Medina Spirit had given 68-year-old trainer Bob Baffert a record seventh Kentucky Derby win.

US racing has been stunned after Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit failed a drugs test.

Trainer Bob Baffert said he is ‘totally shocked’ by the findings, which he called a ‘gut punch’.

Baffert-trained horses have been involved in a string of positive tests in the last year but insisted he is innocent of any wrongdoing after announcing Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit has tested positive for 21 picograms of the anti-inflammatory drug betamethasone.

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) - An event full of prestige, long-standing history and a good bit of controversy.

“If the lab is able to detect the substance, it is an automatic violation,” said Executive Director of Racing Medication and Testing Consortium Dr. Mary Scollay.

Another Kentucky Derby winner making headlines after Medina Spirit failed a post-race drug test, according to trainer Bob Baffert. An initial test finding the anti-inflammatory drug betamethasone in his system.

“It’s used in treating injuries and allowing a horse comfort while it recovers. But if you use the medication to treat the horse, then continue pressing it with training and racing, you put it at an increased risk of injury,” said Dr. Scollay.

Trainer Bob Baffert announced Sunday morning that Medina Spirit, winner of the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby on May 1, has tested positive for betamethasone, a corticosteroid, and faces a possible disqualification from the race – the first medication DQ since Dancer's Image lost his Derby victory in 1968 after a disputed positive test for the anti-inflammatory phenylbutazone.

If the drug is confirmed in a split sample it would be Baffert's fifth medication violation since May 2020

The 2021 Kentucky Derby winner, Medina Spirit, failed a drug test after the race, putting a new stain on a sport troubled by doping problems and placing thoroughbred horse racing’s most recognizable personality, the Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert, under uncomfortable scrutiny.

If he is disqualified, Medina Spirit will be stripped of the Derby title and its winning purse, and become only the third horse in the 147-year history of the race to receive such a penalty after finishing first. The colt cannot be disqualified until a second sample, collected at the same time as the first, confirms the result in a test expected in the coming weeks. Mr. Baffert will then have an opportunity to appeal.

The Horseracing Safety and Integrity Act (HISA) is facing a second legal challenge after Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter announced this week he is filing a federal lawsuit calling into question the act's constitutionality. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern Division of Kentucky, includes a number of plaintiffs, including the states of Oklahoma and West Virginia and their racing commissions, the U.S. Trotting Association and Pennsylvania-based Hanover Shoe Farm, as well as the Oklahoma Quarter Horse Association and a number of track ownership entities in Oklahoma. Defendants include the United States, the Federal Trade Commission, and a number of individuals working for the FTC and the HISA nominating committee.

This suit, much like one filed in March by the National Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association and a number of its state affiliates, questions the ability of HISA to delegate regulation to a private group while not making it accountable to a government organization. The suit questions the new authority's relationship to the FTC, which critics say can only approve or deny new rules, but has no substantive input on their construction.

It's been almost a year since Bob Baffert-trained Gamine and Charlatan won races at Oaklawn – Gamine in an allowance race and Charlatan in a division of the Grade 1, $1-million Arkansas Derby – and then subsequently were disqualified when post-race drug tests detected the prohibited drug lidocaine.

Those disqualifications were appealed, as was a 15-day suspension given Baffert by the Oaklawn board of stewards. Earlier this week after a two-day hearing, the Arkansas Racing Commission voted unanimously to restore the horses' wins, eliminate Baffert's suspension and instead fine him $5,000 for each positive.

Paulick Report editor-in-chief Natalie Voss, who viewed the 15-hour proceedings online and reported on the commissioners' vote, joins Ray Paulick in this week's Friday Show to discuss the case and the challenges made by the Hall of Fame trainer and his attorneys to the drug testing process and stewards' rulings.

People apparently have strong feelings about the poll published over the last week in the Paulick Report asking readers whether they support or oppose the lawsuit filed by the National Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association and state affiliates to stop the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act from being enacted.

We've done polls before on this legislation, asking whether readers were in favor of the Act while it was working its way through Congress and then, following its passage in December 2020, whether the creation of a national office (the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority) for medication and safety regulations will have a positive or negative impact on racing.

All those polls expressed strong support for the legislation.

The creation of the first federal regulatory body for horse racing hit a not unexpected speed bump this week when a national horseman’s group filed a lawsuit arguing the new law is unconstitutional.

The National Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association filed the suit Monday in a U.S. District Court in Texas in an attempt to prevent the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act of 2020 from being implemented next year as planned.

The law, passed by Congress and signed by former President Donald Trump in December, calls for the creation of a federal body to design and implement uniform national horse racing medication and racetrack safety standards in the 38 states that conduct pari-mutuel horse racing.

In the past five years, hundreds of thousands of pre-race and post-race drug tests throughout the country by professional accredited testing laboratories found that less than 0.06% were positive for drugs having no business being in a horse other than cheating. That is a far cry from the rampant corruption asserted by Mr. Finley in his support of HISA.

Let me end by saying the National HBPA has always condemned cheaters and believes they should be kicked out of the industry. And we support uniform medication and safety rules along with their strict enforcement. No doubt improvements can be made to the status quo, but an unconstitutional HISA is not the answer.

This is in response to Bill Finley's editorial “Horsemen's Groups Turn Their Backs on Honest Trainers, Owners”.

I don't share the opinion that “every honest horseman should be 100% behind the Horseracing Integrity Safety and Integrity Act (HISA).” I do agree that every honest horseman wants to see our sport cleaned up and cheaters caught and removed. The points of disagreement in the HISA bill have been the removal of race-day Lasix and funding, which I'm not addressing here, and the makeup and selection process for the HISA governing bodies.

Any governing body including the one established in the HISA bill should be one governed by the owners. The owners are who finance the entire sport. They put up the money for the horses who are on the track. The owners are who govern other professional sports.

Opponents of a new federal law that would move oversight of horse racing medication rules and drug testing from state regulators to an authority under the Federal Trade Commission by the summer of 2022 have shifted their efforts from the political arena to federal court.

The National Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association filed a lawsuit March 15 that aims to prevent the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act of 2020 from being implemented. Throughout the political process the National HBPA contended that HISA was unconstitutional while the bill's supporters countered that it would withstand judicial scrutiny.

That scrutiny is now scheduled to take place. The lawsuit (National Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association v. Black), filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas, argues that HISA is unconstitutional in handing the power to regulate horse racing over to a private group.

“HISA, a well-crafted and comprehensive piece of legislation, creates the national framework that addresses our industry’s critical need for consistent, forceful anti-doping control and equine safety standards. The NTRA Board of Directors, which consists of representatives from tens of thousands of breeders, owners and trainers from more than 40 states, as well as thousands of horseplayers and virtually every major racetrack in the United States, voted to support HISA. We plan to work tirelessly on behalf of our members and a broad array of interested parties and stakeholders to support HISA’s successful launch in July 2022.”

Alex Waldrop,

President and Chief Executive Officer,

National Thoroughbred Racing Association

The Horse Racing and Integrity Act signed into law late last year has garnered broad support among industry stakeholders. But it is by no means unanimous.

This week, the National Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association and 11 affiliated chapters announced it had filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the law, which would create a national board to regulate the sport and also hand over drug enforcement duties to the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.

The law is scheduled to go into effect no later than July 1, 2022.

“I would have gotten the message a year ago if I was the trainer, but I don’t know if some people did,” said Jockey Club chairman Stuart Janney. 

“It’s great when they are caught in the regulatory framework and penalties become severe, but people need to go to jail. It’s not fun and games. Unfortunately, we continue to see things that look suspicious to us. 

“We have been communicating with 5 Stones intelligence (5Si) [a leading private investigation firm retained by the Jockey Club] and they are not indicating that we’ve gotten to the bottom of the bucket. To the extent that we have knowledge, we believe there is a long tail to this. Maybe people are more careful of how they are cheating, but I don’t see a lot of evidence that people have stopped cheating.”

I think it's fair to say that most people in the racing industry were disgusted when they read the federal indictments last March of 27 people, including trainers, veterinarians, and drug makers. The very first person from that group of 27 was sentenced this week to 18 months in prison after pleading guilty to one count of drug adulteration and misbranding.

I've reported on companies affiliated with Scott Robinson for several years now, and I had reason to suspect the conditions under which he and his co-conspirator Scott Mangini made illegal drugs were poor. Even I was surprised at some of the details in court documents filed around his sentencing, and I don't think I've been so horrified by a legal document since the original indictments.

The pre-sentencing report filed by the prosecution is littered with strong language about Robinson's involvement in peddling products designed to act as performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) or as substitutes for more expensive prescriptions. Possibly the most upsetting part of the document, which you can read here, was intercepted messages between Robinson and Mangini describing issues Robinson was seeing with products headed off for sale.

“This new group that is being formed is unchecked in how much they can charge us as the state of Iowa in order to actually regulate the racing industry within the state,” Moss told radioiowa.com. “There's going to be a reckoning coming — we're going to be in a tough position. We may reach out and request something of your assistance to try and help stop this from being implemented.”

One of the biggest stories of the year received a big update in the final days of 2020 when President Trump signed an omnibus bill Dec. 27 that included the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act, which was approved Dec. 21 by the Senate after being approved earlier this year by the U.S. House of Representatives...

...The years-long, sustained push for the legislation came from The Jockey Club and prominent breeders who rallied support through the Water Hay Oats Alliance.

"With the passage of this bill, we restore confidence with our fans that the competition is clean, the game is fair, and the horse and rider are protected," said The Jockey Club chairman Stuart Janney III in a release.

"The HISA is important to all of horse racing to demonstrate that we are addressing the problems that have plagued the sport for the last several decades. It is clear the past and current policies do not work.

"Virtually all the horsemen that I have asked support trying to eliminate trainers that drug the horses. Having the Federal government involved will put some teeth into the effort to stop them as the indictments and subsequent arrests of last March showed.

"It seems inconceivable that in 2022 every thoroughbred racetrack will have uniform rules and be governed by this legislation while every standardbred racetrack will continue to be governed by the states despite the fact that 27 of the 29 people indicted earlier this year were associated with standardbred racing and only two were thoroughbred trainers.

"Hopefully we can work with the USTA to modify the law next year to meet our needs which are considerably different than the thoroughbreds. If the USTA continues to oppose the legislation it would be our intention to ask the Racing Commissions in New York and New Jersey to allow us to opt in to the legislation since it does provide that option.

"I remain confident that the majority of the issues that concern the Standardbred industry can be addressed and adjusted to where we can live with them," said Meadowlands Chairman Jeff Gural.

The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency said on Monday the recently-passed Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) that will allow the body to oversee a national drug testing program for horse racing signifies a new era in the sport.

HISA, which will put anti-doping/medication control and safety programs under the umbrella of one independent, non-governmental authority as opposed to individual state racing commissions, was signed into law by U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday.

“This passage signifies the beginning of a new era in the storied history of the horse racing industry,” USADA chief executive Travis Tygart said in a statement.

“USADA is honored and grateful to be tasked with the anti-doping duties outlined in the Act. We are excited to spend the near future contributing to the design of a robust set of rules and customizing our gold-standard athlete service and testing model to ensure clean competition for equine athletes.

“Thank you to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) for his leadership in getting this bill through Congress, and to Congressmen Paul Tonko (D-NY) and Andy Barr (R-KY), and Senators Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Martha McSally (R-AZ) the original cosponsors of the Horseracing Integrity Act.

“USADA welcomes the opportunity to partner with horse racing stakeholders to develop uniform rules and to implement robust independent testing and enforcement that will contribute to the longevity and legacy of the sport of horseracing.”

“There’s a new sheriff in town,” Jockey Club General Counsel Marc Summers told WAVE 3 News, “and that sheriff is going to be very, very committed to ensuring that the game is safe and that there’s the integrity necessary for our fans to have confidence in the results of races.”

Currently governed by 38 separate jurisdictions and a patchwork of regulation, the Horse Racing and Safety Integrity Act does what racing could not do for itself, get all tracks in all states to adopt the same rules protecting horses.

“There’s a lot of money being made under the status quo and we saw that when we took over the Olympic world as well,” Tygart said. “So are we going to be able to get people off their little fiefs that are churning money? Let’s hope they come along and get on board, but if they are earning that money the wrong way they’re going to get sanctioned and that’s the way it ought to be. The health and safety of the equine athletes in this case is too important for the long term to let the status quo that obviously hasn't worked continue.”

While horse racing has badly needed this kind of change and a national structure to regulate the sport, it’s too early to say everything will be fixed with one signature of a president. But if horse racing wants to get serious about catching and sanctioning its drug cheats, the willingness to hand that work to USADA shows they at least have a chance. 

“Kentucky's cherished horseracing traditions deserve to be protected. I'm proud the Senate agreed to my legislation to preserve our signature racing industry and the 24,000 workers who support it,” said Senator McConnell. “With the leadership of Congressman Andy Barr and the partnership of sport leaders, horse advocates, and fans, we're one step closer to promoting fairness and safety across Thoroughbred racing. As Majority Leader, I made this Kentucky-focused legislation a top priority in the Senate. I look forward to this major advancement for our beloved sport becoming law.”

The U.S. Senate on Monday night approved an omnibus legislative package that included a bill that will establish a national regulatory body for racing beginning in the summer of 2022.

The passage of the bill represents the culmination of 10 years of effort by its supporters, a cast of characters that has broadened over the past two years to include most major constituencies in the Thoroughbred industry. Under the bill, a non-profit, private company called the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority will approve national rules on medication policies and drug testing, to be enforced by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, another private, non-profit company.

The bi-partisan bill, known as the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act, has already passed in the House of Representatives, and the legislation is expected to be signed by the White House or, alternately, survive a veto attempt.

WASHINGTON — A bill to ban race-day doping of horses and set national medication and track-safety standards for the horse-racing industry is nearing the finish line. Lawmakers gave final approval to the bill late Monday as part of the massive legislation on spending and pandemic relief.

President Donald Trump is expected to sign the bill in the next few days.

Passage of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act comes after a series of doping scandals and a rash of horse fatalities in recent years. More than two dozen people were charged last March in what authorities described as a widespread international scheme to drug horses to make them run faster.

After years of effort on similar bills that failed to advance, the U.S. House of Representatives approved the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act Sept. 29. The legislation would see formation of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority to oversee the sport's equine medication, anti-doping policies, and drug testing—taking that responsibility away from state regulators. The bill's supporters, including The Jockey Club, prominent track owners, and animal welfare groups, believe the new approach will improve integrity and uniformity in these areas. The House action followed Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Republican, Kentucky) voicing his support for the legislation—with some tweaks—Aug. 31 at Keeneland. The House bill was updated to include those changes and approved about a month later.

“With today’s passage of HISA in Congress we are in the final stretch of achieving the most transformational and consequential reform of the thoroughbred horseracing industry since enactment of the Interstate Horseracing Act of 1978,” said Congressman Barr. “For almost a decade, I have worked with industry stakeholders and my Congressional colleagues to build consensus around reforms that will protect equine athletes and strengthen confidence and international competitiveness in the sport. I am proud to champion this historic, bipartisan legislation with Congressman Paul Tonko and Leader McConnell and I look forward to President Trump signing it into law.”

New federal legislation to regulate the horse racing industry on a national level passed the U.S. Senate late Monday and is expected to be signed into law by President Donald Trump.

The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act, included in a year-end government funding bill, was shepherded through Congress with support from multiple members of Kentucky's Congressional delegation. The legislation will have major impacts on one of the commonwealth's most prominent industries by addressing medical and safety standards in horse racing.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) led the Senate today in passing his Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act, which was included in the year-end government funding bill. The legislation now goes to President Trump’s desk to become law. Senator McConnell introduced the bipartisan legislation in September, only days after the 146th Kentucky Derby, to recognize a uniform, national standard for Thoroughbred racing.

With the United States Senate including the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act in an omnibus bill crafted around a funding package that would prevent a government shutdown, the industry landmark legislation that would overhaul oversight of racing's drug and medication rules and its equine drug testing appears poised to become reality.

Jason Servis and two veterinarians involved in the scheme to allegedly drug race horses could be spending considerable time in prison after the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York released a superseding indictment Friday that includes the charge of Mail and Wire Fraud Conspiracy. The maximum sentence under federal guidelines for the charge is 20 years.
Five individuals named in the original indictment were not included in the superseding indictment, including former Servis assistant Henry Argueta. That could lead to speculation that the five are cooperating with law enforcement authorities.

In addition to Servis, the wire fraud charges were directed at Alexander Chan and Kristian Rhein. According to the indictment, the two conspired with Servis to administer misbranded and adulterated PEDs.

If the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) gets passed by the United States Senate and then signed into federal law, the National Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association (NHBPA) could launch a legal challenge against it based on the alleged unconstitutionality of the independently overseen anti-doping, drug testing, and racetrack safety standard programs that the new federal law would create.

The bill approved by the House today also has companion Senate legislation introduced recently by U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and U.S. Senators Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Martha McSally (R-AZ), and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA).

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell: “Our bipartisan legislation to recognize a national standard for Thoroughbred racing is receiving support from all corners. Now, it's earned the approval of the House. Today's vote was another important step toward protecting our beloved sport for the horses, jockeys, trainers, breeders, and fans. I'd like to congratulate Congressmen Andy Barr and Paul Tonko and their colleagues for championing this legislation in the House. I look forward to their continued support as work continues to pass this bill into law.”

WASHINGTON—Congressman Paul D. Tonko’s bipartisan national horse racing reform bill, H.R. 1754, the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act, passed the U.S. House of Representatives today. The bill has long been co-led by Congressman Andy Barr (R-KY) and would designate the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority to design and implement uniform national horse racing medication and racetrack safety standards.

“The horse racing industry must accept and adopt forward-thinking solutions as the health and welfare of the sport’s human and equine athletes are paramount to their future in California,” Newsom said in a statement. “These bills are an essential step to create a safer and more transparent horse racing experience for everyone involved and can serve as a model for other states to follow.”

The doping of American racehorses has been the subject of Congressional attention over the past five years with hundreds of horses dying on racetracks weekly, and the indictment of 37 trainers and veterinarians in March of 2020.

The bill has the support of Animal Wellness Action, the Animal Wellness Foundation, and key players throughout the horse racing industry, including all three Triple Crown racetracks. Churchill Downs, which runs the Kentucky Derby, is the most recent corporation to get on board. The effort continues to enjoy the support of the Coalition for Horse Racing Integrity, which includes The Jockey Club, the Breeders Cup, Keeneland Racecourse, the Thoroughbred Owners & Breeders Association, the Water Hay Oats Alliance, and AWA and AWF.

WASHINGTON — The House approved a bill Tuesday to create national medication and safety standards for the horse racing industry as lawmakers move to clamp down on use of performance-enhancing drugs that can lead to horse injuries and deaths.

The “Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act” comes after a series of doping scandals and a rash of horse fatalities in recent years. More than two dozen people were charged in March in what authorities described as a widespread international scheme to drug horses to make them run faster.

Jason Servis, whose champion horse Maximum Security crossed the finish line first at the 2019 Kentucky Derby before being disqualified for interference, was among those charged.

The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act includes a ban on race-day doping, the establishment of a uniform national standard for rules and regulations for U.S. horseracing that would be overseen by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA). The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) is landmark legislation that would directly address the safety and welfare of racehorses, and the integrity of the sport itself, through better anti-doping measures and racetrack safety standards.

Columbus, OH — The North American Association of Racetrack Veterinarians (NAARV), a group whose mission is to ensure the health and well-being of the racehorse through protecting and improving the veterinary care and welfare of the equine athlete, opposes the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act, believing that its enactment would do just the opposite.

Last week, the group wrote to the Congressional Budget Office to provide details regarding some of the devastating economic effects to the horse racing industry that the legislation would create.

Edited Press Release – Last night leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives announced a scheduled a vote on H.R. 1754, the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act, led by U.S. Reps. Paul Tonko, D-N.Y., and Andy Barr, R-Ky. The House Energy and Commerce Committee passed the bill 46 to 5 earlier in the month. The bill mirrors S. 4547 – legislation introduced by U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Senators Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., Martha McSally, R-Ariz., and Diane Feinstein, D-Calif. and promises to end the era of widespread doping of horses in Thoroughbred racing in America.

The Jockey Club on Wednesday released a response from its general counsel, Marc Summers, to the United States Trotting Association's (USTA) recent assertion that the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) is unconstitutional.

In a recent press release, the USTA touts a secret “white paper” purportedly concluding that the HISA is “possibly” unconstitutional. Of course, no one else has set eyes on this white paper. But it is hardly surprising that — after months of USTA opposition to any bill like HISA — the USTA's hired-gun law firm would come up with the USTA's preordained conclusion.

The USTA's unwillingness to release its legal analysis is telling: In reality, HISA is carefully crafted and constitutionally sound. The bill has been rigorously vetted. Many attorneys from different sectors (including Supreme Court and constitutional experts from Akin Gump Strauss Hauer and Feld LLP) have thought through the very issues the USTA raises, because we anticipated that those who oppose the bill for other reasons would lob this type of unfounded attack. In the face of decades of precedent supporting the proposed statutory scheme, none of the USTA's four constitutional arguments withstands scrutiny.

Statement from the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association:
For eight years, there have been various attempts to enact federal legislation aimed at standardizing equine medication policy across the country. Typically, horsemen's groups have opposed those efforts. On Friday, the Board of Directors of the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association (NYTHA) voted unanimously to support the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) that was recently introduced by Senator McConnell. Simultaneously adopted by the House of Representatives, the new HISA features significant changes that vastly improves upon previous proposals. As a result of these improvements, the HISA now deserves our support.

Horse Racing is at a crossroads. The 2019 breakdown crisis and this year's shocking indictments of veterinarians and trainers have exposed the industry's uneven commitment to both equine safety and competitive integrity. What's been obvious for years, to owners, trainers, bettors and fans – is that our industry's institutions need structural change.

The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act of 2020 is proposed national legislation that outlines a uniform anti-doping and medication control program to be developed and enforced by an independent horse racing anti-doping and medication control authority.

While the American Quarter Horse Association is strongly committed to the welfare of the racehorse and supports industry reform to improve horse safety, the Association cannot support the current version of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act until key questions are adequately addressed.

The Association of Racing Commissioners International is preparing an analysis of the newly proposed legislation, the “Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act,” by Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell (R), so the group can prepare for a “smooth transition” should the measure be enacted. Earlier this week, the ARCI released an initial statement looking at the bill's effect on breeders.

The federally sanctioned authority empowered by newly proposed legislation by Senator McConnell will be able to impose strict controls on the use of any therapeutic medications administered to a “covered horse,” effectively setting the stage for a program that could require a veterinarian to receive prior permission before treating the horse with a prescription medication.

Even if you are queasy about the pending federal legislation you should be alarmed that the USTA is operating in this manner. I have heard from many horsemen and horsewomen over the past few weeks who are simply shocked to discover that the USTA’s vitriolic opposition to federal legislation-- seemingly any federal legislation-- has found such profound expression in the association’s budget. Many are growing less skeptical of the pending federal legislation-- in its new and improved form-- and more skeptical of the USTA’s divisive and dangerous antics in opposing it.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and U.S. Senators Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Martha McSally (R-AZ), and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) introduced the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act today to help set national standards to promote fairness, increase safety, and help preserve Thoroughbred racing. At a press conference last week in Lexington, the Horse Capital of the World, Senator McConnell joined U.S. Congressman Andy Barr (KY-06) and leading Kentucky stakeholders, including Keeneland, Churchill Downs Incorporated, Breeders’ Cup Limited, and the Jockey Club in announcing the introduction of the bill. 

They also announced the launch of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority, an independent, non-governmental regulatory body responsible for improving current regulations and bringing a new level of transparency. The Board will set national standards for track safety, anti-doping and medication rules, and lab protocols. Senators McConnell and Gillibrand’s bipartisan bill will provide federal recognition and enforcement power for the Board to enable them to develop uniform, baseline standards for Thoroughbred racing. 

Regarding organizational structure, I believe USADA will be a huge asset on all aspects of medication testing and enforcement. It has been very active in U.S. Olympics and internationally in track and field, cycling and swimming. 

USADA may not have worked in racing, but it has closely followed and exposed Lance Armstrong in cycling and Alberto Salazar in track and field. Not surprisingly, many of the same performance-enhancing drugs used in horseracing can be found across the broad range of sports. 

As for finances, I shake my head every time I think about that amount of money that was spent on drug testing in the eight years I worked at NYRA with nothing to show for it.

Finally, I am cautiously optimistic that, for many reasons, people in the industry are currently more willing to work together towards a mutually rewarding outcome than ever before. The battles that we have all endured over Lasix were very destructive for many aspects of the industry. 

I spent 15 years on one side of the argument and now ten on the other, and little progress was made. We must make the Horse Racing Safety and Integrity Authority work. It may well be the last chance we get.

U.S. SENATE – U.S. Senators Martha McSally (R-AZ), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) introduced the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act today to help set national standards to promote fairness, increase safety, and help preserve Thoroughbred racing.

The Senators’ bipartisan bill will provide federal recognition and enforcement power to a nine-member Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority. This independent, non-governmental regulatory body will set national standards for track safety, anti-doping and medication rules, and lab protocols for Thoroughbred racing.

"Our bill delivers commonsense medication and track safety standards that protect America's horses and jockeys, needed progress that will put this popular and historic sport on track for a strong recovery and a bright future," said top sponsor Paul Tonko, D-N.Y., whose district is home to Saratoga Race Course.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., whose state is home to the country's top breeding outfits and the Kentucky Derby, introduced identical legislation with senior Democrats from California and New York, which also have top racetracks and breeding operations.

We asked United States Trotting Association (USTA) president Russell Williams, who also is the CEO/president of Hanover Shoe Farms, and Jim Gagliano, the president of The Jockey Club, to engage in a virtual debate with one another over the legislation. Williams ardently opposes the HIA. Gagliano supports it and thinks the harness horse community should, too.

The ground rules were this. In Round 1, we submitted questions to Gagliano, who answered them. Then Williams responded to Gagliano and Gagliano replied to Williams. The order was reversed in Round 2.

In his remarks concluding the very first digital edition of the Jockey Club Round Table on Matters Pertaining To Racing, Stuart S. Janney III indicated there are likely more arrests to come in connection with doping in horse racing.

Janney, who is chairman of The Jockey Club, cited a working relationship between the organization and 5 Stones Intelligence that goes back to 2015, when The Jockey Club first became suspicious about the prevalence of doping and other illegal activities in racing.

“In a short time they proved to our satisfaction that our worst fears were correct,” Janney said.

Like the testing results in human and Olympic sport, these numbers should not lessen the resolve of the sport and its regulators to pursue substances that the labs are unable to test for. This is an ongoing challenge for the anti-doping programs in all professional sport and underscores the need for intelligence based efforts in this regard as well as intelligence based out of competition testing.

Horse racing has always been a game of tingling highs and jarring lows. Bob Baffert has experienced plenty of both, with longer sustained runs of success than just about anybody, ever. But after being pummeled by injuries and positive drug tests, he’s careened from being the sport’s leading ambassador to its cautionary tale.

Lidocaine can be used legitimately for suturing wounds or as a diagnostic tool to determine whether horses are sound enough to compete. The drug may also be present in ointments or creams used on cuts or abrasions. It is regulated because of its potential to mask lameness in an unsound horse.

38 More Cosponsors will Trigger New House Rule to Move Legislation

We applaud Reps. Collin Peterson and Scott Perry for joining our cause and cosponsoring the Horseracing Integrity Act. — Marty Irby, executive director at Animal Wellness Action

WASHINGTON, DC, UNITED STATES, April 22, 2020 / EINPresswire.com / -- U.S. Reps. Collin Peterson (D-MN-07), Chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Agriculture, and Scott Perry (R-PA-10) – who represents the district where Penn National Race Course is located in Grantsville, Pennsylvania – are the latest to join in cosponsoring the Horseracing Integrity Act, H.R. 1754 this week, bringing the total number of cosponsors to 252.

Seven trainers, including two of the biggest names in the sport in Jason Servis and Jorge Navarro, are among 27 individuals indicted for doping horses. The scheme involves Eclipse Award winner Maximum Security (New Year’s Day), G1 Dubai Golden Shaheen winner X Y Jet (Kantharos), exotic drugs you’ve never heard of and the killing of horses to hide the evidence. It does not get any uglier.

With this, coming on top of the breakdowns and fatalities at Santa Anita, many were left to wonder if the sport can survive another devastating scandal. That’s a reasonable fear. But I choose to believe this will prove to be the moment that horse racing came together and finally got serious about cheating and put an end to it. I am not alone.

Compared to other major horse racing nations, our regulation of drugs is weak, fragmented, and ineffective. Horse racing is an international sport that operates coast-to-coast in the United States. Just look at the Kentucky Derby: major prep races for it are run in Florida, Louisiana, Arkansas, New York, California, and Kentucky. When a race is run at Keeneland, people bet on it from all over the country. American horses travel to England to run at Ascot every June, and during the Breeders’ Cup, American horses run against competitors from around the world.

Which brings us to an important set of questions: Shouldn’t every United States race be run under the same rules that are tough enough to prevent cheating? Shouldn’t American regulations be in sync with international rules? And shouldn’t the entire regulatory framework be designed and operated to protect horses and the brave jockeys who ride them? Much of the industry is advocating for drug reform, and we believe that the answer to these questions is, “Yes!”

Cranbury, NJ..... On behalf of the Hambletonian Society I would like to applaud the efforts of the FBI and all of the law enforcement agencies that were involved in the historic horse racing investigation and subsequent arrests.

I would also like to commend Jeff Gural, the Jockey Club, and all the entities and individuals who were responsible for the initial investigation that led to the FBI getting involved.

Some of the intercepted conversations that have been released are beyond appalling and one can only hope that the people found responsible for these statements and actions will be dealt with severely and no longer be allowed to participate in our industry or have any interaction with horses.

Jason Servis and Jorge Navarro, the top names in federal indictments unsealed last week tying the trainers into a doping scheme, will plead not guilty on their charges when they appear in a New York court on Monday.

That's according to an Asbury Park Press investigation published Tuesday by reporter Stephen Edelson, who detailed that 12 deaths of horses in Navarro's care at Monmouth Park since 2010 are the most there of any trainer. Servis had seven horses from his barn die at the track to rank second on that list.

While Monmouth Park does not appear in the indictments, Navarro and Servis base a large part of their respective stables at the New Jersey track each summer. According to Edelson, the trainers' barns were next to one another.

Horseracing Integrity Act Gives Racing Hope and a Future

By, Marty Irby

In 1919, Sir Barton became the first horse to claim the Triple Crown of Thoroughbred racing in America. Back in those days, winning three marquee races back to back really meant something to the American people. It gave people hope after the trauma of World War I.  It gave kids something to dream about.
A year later, the National Football League was founded.  "Pudge" Heffelfinger got a $500 contract to play in a game for the Allegheny Athletic Association against the Pittsburgh Athletic Club, and from that humble start, professional football was on a trajectory for mass appeal in the nation.
For decades, both horseracing and football flourished. But today, while tens of millions of Americans enjoy football, a tiny fraction of that number have the same enthusiasm for horseracing...... 

“Unscrupulous trainers that drug horses are not only putting animals and jockeys are risk of life and limb, but they are rigging the system and making a mockery of anyone who bets based on their knowledge of the athletes involved,” said Marty Irby, executive director at Animal Wellness Action based in Washington. 

“The betting public will no longer tolerate the racing industry’s drug addiction, and we applaud the Department of Justice for stopping doping abuses."
 

"Horse racing is experiencing the most profound crisis in the long history of the sport," Baffert wrote. "To emerge stronger, we must act decisively to protect the horses who are the stars of the show; nothing else will restore the confidence of fans, gamblers and the general public. And that means federal action."

The Horseracing Integrity Act would create a national, independent horse racing anti-doping authority.

Baffert wrote that he hadn't supported the HIA until now because he was uncertain whether adding new federal regulations to the industry would create more burdens than benefits.

"However," he wrote, "these federal indictments have convinced me that horse racing needs immediate and drastic action to fix a broken system."

Noting that the industry has 38 state racing jurisdictions, and that each has its own regulatory body, he wrote that it's important to develop national policies that align with international standards and rules.

The FBI and the Department of Justice have done what the horse racing industry had failed to do for decades. They caught and are prosecuting high-profile trainers for doping infractions as part of an investigation that has finally torn the lid off of what had been the shadowy and secretive world inhabited by racing’s cheaters. The entire industry owes a debt of gratitude to these agencies.

The problem is, it’s not the FBI’s job to clean up horse racing. It has more important matters to deal with. There may be more arrests, more indictments, more names, but the feds will soon pack their bags and move on. The worry is that when that happens, racing will revert to the status quo, even though the status quo was a miserable failure.

In the meantime, the sport needs to look at itself in the mirror and seriously contemplate why it has been so ineffective when it comes to catching the bad guys. If we learned one thing from these indictments it is that change is imperative.

I have long been an advocate and fan of horse racing. My love for the sport goes back decades, and I am still very much involved with racing. So when the news broke on Monday that the FBI had charged 27 people in an elaborate doping scheme designed to enhance the performance of race horses, my reaction was two-fold.

1) Embarrassment for the sport I have invested so much in over the years.

2) Happy to see these scumbags caught.

On Monday’s Ron Flatter Racing Pod, VSiN.com/podcasts, I shared this morsel: While reading the Southern District of New York’s 44-page indictment which included high profile “super trainers” Jorge Navarro and Jason Servis, NTRA Pollsters received a notification from Alicia Hughes, Director of NTRA Communications, that read:

“In the woke of today’s announced federal indictment and allegations… including Jason Servis, trainer of Maximum Security…we are giving voters the opportunity to adjust their [ballots] if they so choose.”

At first, I was appalled by what initially appeared as an impropriety. But with due consideration, it provided a different prospective: Was Maximum Security worthy of my first-place vote? Is it too late to get my 2019 Eclipse ballot for champion three-year-old rescinded?

Then I consider Thoroughbred racing’s big picture: Servis is not an isolated case; far from it. There are too many trainers with win percentages comparable to Barry Bonds’ 73 home-run season. And everyone knows how Bonds did it.

Let’s start here: All but the most cynical among us with a passion for sports – or for a single sport – cling to an illusion of purity. To the idea that college coaches don’t buy recruits. That runners and cyclists and home run hitters don’t inject themselves with performance enhancing drugs. That baseball teams don’t steal the other teams’ signals. That players and referees don’t bet on games. It is a fragile position, a fairy tale where disbelief is suspended in service of escapist pleasure. And we know this. When that illusion is dashed, and it almost always is at some point, we retrench to a lesser position of near-purity: There are always a few bad actors, we reason, but most of my favorite sport is as clean as a whistle. We just have to flush out those bad actors who are giving us a bad name.

That approach gives us comfort. It’s human nature to seek an outlier when the goodness of our sports devotion is challenged. The problem is this: It’s rarely just outliers. Instead, we get these light-bulb moments that illuminate the broader reality.

tate racing regulators in New York March 10 summarily suspended the licenses of 11 individuals tied to a doping scandal that has rocked the racing industry, including prominent conditioners Jason Servis, trainer of champion Maximum Security, and multiple grade 1-winning trainer Jorge Navarro.

The suspensions, which go into effect immediately in New York and in states that offer reciprocity for disciplinary actions by New York, come one day after federal prosecutors secured criminal indictments against the trainers and others for seeking to enhance the performance of horses over multiple years. Typically other racing jurisdictions have offered such reciprocity and will recognize New York's license suspensions.

The indictments and arrests this week of trainers, veterinarians and others on charges of operating a massive, multi-state horse racing doping network deliberately designed to avert detection from racing, veterinary, and pharmacology regulatory agencies as well as federal authorities is not a negative for the racing industry, but testimony to the fact that the system can and does work when all these agencies cooperate.

With the dust still settling from Maximum Security's historic disqualification from the 2019 Kentucky Derby last June, trainer Jason Servis nearly had another controversy on his hands.

According to an indictment handed down Monday by the U.S. District Attorney’s Office of Southern New York, which includes extensive allegations of Servis doping his horses with an illegal substance, Maximum Security had received a shot of SGF-1000 in the days leading up to his return race. But New Jersey regulators wanted a drug test.

From February of 2018 to February of 2020, trainer Jorge Navarro entered horses in approximately 1,480 races. And during that span, it turns out he was doing so under the watchful eyes of federal agents.

In a bombshell indictment handed down Monday by the U.S. District Attorney’s Office of Southern New York, the leading conditioner, who has saddled Grade 1 winners such as X Y Jet and Sharp Azteca, was said to be the ringleader in a “widespread scheme.”

Trainers Jorge Navarro and Jason Servis are among 27 people indicted on federal charges in connection with the use of performance-enhancing drugs on racehorses, according to indictments released Monday by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.

Alongside Navarro and Servis, several assistant trainers, veterinarians, pharmacists and drug distributors are also named on a variety of charges related to drugs that were mislabeled or misbranded. According to evidence taken by federal investigators, those products were (or purported to be) blocking agents, masking agents, EPO agents, and products similar to clenbuterol and Viagra.

This is a developing story, and more information will be added as it becomes available.

AWA released a statement expressing gratitude for Comer’s decision.

“We’re thrilled to see Rep. Comer’s support for the Horseracing Integrity Act and applaud him for stepping up to protect the horses, the sport, and the Commonwealth’s best interests. Comer’s support is a significant milestone that shows the tide has turned against doping in Kentucky, and the Horseracing Integrity Act has more momentum than ever.

“We anticipate the bill will receive a vote on the U.S. House floor before the end of May, and call on U.S. Reps. Brett Guthrie, Thomas Massie, Hal Rogers, John Yarmuth, Senator Rand Paul, and U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to join Reps. Barr, Comer, and 267 other members of Congress in supporting the Horseracing Integrity Act.”

Meanwhile, in Congress, the proposed federal Horseracing Integrity Act would establish a much-needed independent, private nonprofit authority to set and oversee nationwide rules on medications. The bill has been co-sponsored by more than half the members of the House but faces a more difficult course in the GOP-controlled Senate. 

It will be interesting to see if the reforms at Santa Anita make a difference in horse fatalities. Racetracks have to restrict the rampant and all-too-frequent administration of drugs to horses and overhaul a culture in which some trainers and owners are willing to run an injured horse.

If things don’t change for the better, if death from racing cannot be made rare, the question that will loom large is whether the sport should continue at all.

HRI Edited Release — A majority of the U.S. House of Representatives has co-sponsored the Horseracing Integrity Act of 2019 (HIA). The legislation now exceeds 218 co-sponsors, which is a majority of the 435 voting members of the House. The bill was introduced in the House by Reps. Paul Tonko (D-NY) and Andy Barr (R-KY).

“Bi-partisan support from more than 218 members is a critical milestone because it demonstrates to House leadership that the bill will pass on the House floor,” said Shawn Smeallie, executive director of the Coalition for Horse Racing Integrity. 

WASHINGTON, DC, UNITED STATES, December 18, 2019 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Today, the Horseracing Integrity Act garnered its 218th cosponsor in the U.S. House of Representatives, now a majority of the chamber a key milestone for this landmark legislation that would end the doping of American racehorses in competition.

The Horseracing Integrity Act (HIA), H.R. 1754, led by U.S. Reps. Paul Tonko (D-NY), and Andy Barr (R-KY) in the House and S. 1820, led by U.S. Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), and Martha McSally (R-AZ) in the Senate, now with 17 cosponsors, is a horse-first bill that would create a private, independent national horse racing anti-doping authority responsible for developing and administering a strict anti-doping and medication control program.
 

The 2020 Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes (G1) and Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational Stakes (G1T) will be run free of race-day medication for purses of $3 million and $1 million, respectively, The Stronach Group announced Dec. 15. Both races are scheduled for Jan. 25 at Gulfstream Park.

The format is consistent with the International Federation of Horse Racing Authorities standards and will go one step further—giving 2% of the purse winnings to Thoroughbred aftercare.

"We are investing in the future of our sport by creating new opportunities for horsemen and horses to run without medication," said Belinda Stronach, chairman and president of TSG. "The Pegasus World Cup Invitational Series has always been about innovation. The new and exciting medication-free format, along with giving back to horse care, showcases the leadership our industry is taking together to evolve beyond past achievements to create a more modern, sustainable, and safer sport."

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) “was founded with the aim of bringing consistency to anti-doping policies and regulations within sport organizations and governments… across the world.”  Last week, WADA’s Compliance Review Committee (CRC) recommended that Russia be barred from global sports for four years as punishment for flagrantly violating WADA rules. 

If the WADA board follows the recommendation at its December meeting, Russia athletes will be banned from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics as well as from soccer’s World Cup and other sports.

This is the type of no-nonsense oversight that American horse racing needs if it is to continue as a viable sport.  A Horseracing Anti-Doping and Medication Control Authority (HADA) would have such power under the provisions of the proposed Horseracing Integrity Act, which has been introduced in both the House of Representatives and Senate.  HADA would create a set of uniform anti-doping rules and specify lists of allowed and prohibited substances, thereby replacing the existing hodgepodge of rules in 38 different racing jurisdictions.  The U. S. Anti-Doping Agency would hold six of 13 seats on the HADA board and would be in charge of enforcement.

The debate of race-day furosemide has once again taken over the websites and social media accounts of our industry. Trainers tell us how inhumane it would be to not allow a horse that has experienced exercise-induced pulmonary hemorrhage (EIPH) to receive furosemide (Lasix). The public does not understand why we tell them that horses love to run on their own, yet we give more than 95% of horses a drug on race day that certain groups claim that horses need to be able to run.     

Earlier this year the second of two projects funded by Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation that examined furosemide administration at 24 hours prior to a race was published in the Journal of Veterinarian Internal Medicine, and Grayson believes we have a way forward.

U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-California) has become a co-sponsor of the Horseracing Integrity Act, a bill introduced in mid-June by her fellow senators Martha McSally (R-Arizona) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-New York). 

According to a release from Feinstein, the Horseracing Integrity Act sets out to establish a uniform, national standard to prohibit doping and medication for racehorses; creates a new, independent body to oversee the use of drugs and medication, a body to be overseen by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA); and bans the use of Lasix and other medication ‘dangerous’ to racehorses.

He suggests that the best way to accomplish this is to work together in efforts to self-police the sport and to eliminate those people who abuse the privilege of competing in it.

“There are those who love and care about horses. There are those who treat horses as commodities or business property. There are also those who abuse and neglect race horses,” Stettin summarized. “You are only as strong as your weakest link. We have weak links. Those other two groups can bring down the we love horses people like a house of cards.”

Saying that horse racing “failed a critical test” during this past weekend’s Breeders’ Cup meeting at Santa Anita, United States Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-California) issued a statement late Monday afternoon, renewing her call for the suspension of racing in her state. The statement was precipitated by the catastrophic injury suffered by Mongolian Groom (Hightail) in the closing stages of Saturday’s GI Breeders’ Cup Classic.

Meanwhile, Congress should pass the Horseracing Integrity Act, creating an independent horse-racing authority to set nationwide rules.

In short, Thoroughbred racing does not have anyone who can speak on behalf of the entire industry. That flaw is magnified when the industry is in crisis mode, as it is today. 

Through Labor Day, it appears that top Chicago-based trainer, Larry Rivelli, has a safe but not insurmountable lead amongst all trainers with 13 non-Lasix wins. Mr. Rivelli finish 2018 as the second leading trainer in wins without Lasix with 18.

His closest rival for year-end honors is Delaware Park-based trainer, Stacy Hendry, with 10 wins. Mr. Hendry has already exceeded his  total of nine wins last year without Lasix when he finished in a three-way tie for fifth place nationally.

ARCADIA (KUSI) – An official with an animal rights group Sunday called for a nationwide suspension of horse racing following the 33rd death of a horse at Santa Anita Park since Dec. 26.

The call by Kathy Guillermo, the senior vice president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, came one day after the 5-year-old gelding Ky. Colonel collapsed and died from an apparent heart attack.

In California, a proposed new rule would, if passed, prohibit horses at California Horse Racing Board (CHRB)-regulated facilities from racing or working within 30 days of being treated with extracorporeal shockwave therapy. At the moment in California, horses are unable to race or work for 10 days after a shockwave therapy. Should the rule go into effect, it would be by far the toughest of its kind throughout the country. 

At the same time, the proposed rule change reignites the debate on one of the more controversial veterinary technologies in modern veterinary medicine, raising hard questions about the suitability of such machines on U.S. racetracks and training centers at a time of laser-focused scrutiny on animal welfare.

A unified industry group believes banning Lasix will adversely impact the health and welfare of racehorses, as well as the strength of our industry. Today, a letter was released with more than 600 signatures in support of protecting Lasix as a choice for horsemen and veterinarians to administer on race day for the well-being of equine and human athletes. The initial round of signatures from racing stakeholders features individuals from across the industry.

In 2015, The Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation sought research on Exercise Induced Pulmonary Hemorrhage (EIPH) and how to control the condition without race-day medication. Two research projects were selected for funding, and now results are in. Both studies, which were recently published in peer-reviewed journals, were designed to test the effect of furosemide (Lasix) under various circumstances.

In a letter to The Times released on social media, Baffert’s attorney, W. Craig Robertson III, said that Justify’s positive test for the banned substance scopolamine had been the result of “environmental contamination” and commended the California Horse Racing Board’s handling of the case. As reported by The Times, the board apparently did not follow its own procedures and ultimately closed the investigation without ever disclosing the positive test result to the public.

For a horse racing industry contending with declining participation and mounting concerns about its safety standards, evidence that 2018 Triple Crown winner Justify failed a drug test days before his history-making run turned a moment of celebration into another instance of bad publicity.

Justify, the 13th Triple Crown winner in the sport’s history, tested positive for banned substance scopolamine just days after he qualified for the Kentucky Derby, the New York Times reported. Rather than disqualifying Justify, the California Horse Racing Board allegedly delayed, and ultimately dismissed, its inquiry into the failed test, in a departure from its normal standards.

Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert denied giving 2018 Triple Crown winning horse Justify a banned substance that caused a positive test prior to last year’s Kentucky Derby and blamed the result on contaminated food.

Baffert said Thursday that he “unequivocally” rejects the implication he’d give Justify or any other horse scopolamine, which the colt tested positive for after winning the Santa Anita Derby in April 2018.

Having spent the first six months of the year under intense media scrutiny as 30 horses died either racing or training at Santa Anita, US racing suffered another immense blow to its reputation on Wednesday when it emerged that Justify, last year’s Triple Crown winner, tested positive for a banned substance after winning the Santa Anita Derby, the race in which he qualified to run in the Kentucky Derby.

There are a couple of chapters to this story. The first is that the horse tested positive for a potentially performance-enhancing drug after victory in a vital trial for the first leg of the Triple Crown. Justify was a 12-1 shot for the Kentucky Derby before he ran in the Santa Anita Derby on 7 April. After a three-length success there, he was the favourite for the Run for the Roses. Two months later, he was Bob Baffert’s second Triple Crown winner in four seasons.

On June 9, 2018, a colt named Justify thundered home to the full-throated cheers of a capacity crowd to win the 150th running of the Belmont Stakes and claim horse racing’s Triple Crown, one of the most storied achievements in sports.

It was the perfect ending to an improbable journey for a talented horse, his eclectic ownership group, and his Hall of Fame trainer, Bob Baffert.

Only a few people, however, knew the secret that Baffert carried with him into the winner’s circle that day: Justify had failed a drug test weeks before the first race in the Triple Crown, the Kentucky Derby. That meant Justify should not have run in the Derby, if the sport’s rules were followed.

Thoroughbred horseracing’s leaders need to wake up to the fact that the industry isn’t an endangered species and get back to competing with sports betting, which is likely to have a much greater negative effect in the industry than horse deaths.

In one year, the narrative has changed from how to grow the sport to how to save it. The issues of growth have not changed, nor has the chance horseracing will be banished.

The time has come to take the reins and drive the sport into the future, not shrink from the actions of animal rights activists.

For as long as I've covered horse racing, I've been asking people to define their biggest concern about the sport. For my entire career, the top two, conveniently dovetailed answers have been the same: central regulatory authority and uniform rules. Those who want a commissioner of horse racing usually want one so they will impose and enforce uniform rules............While in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., this month, I heard more than ever about uniformity and the way forward – primarily from proponents of the proposed federal legislation known as the Horseracing Integrity Act. The Jockey Club Round Table featured lots of well-crafted mentions of the benefits of the legislation, including a segment from William Lear Jr., vice chairman of The Jockey Club, who I thought summed up the history of our sport's own attempts at uniform rules better than anyone else I've heard so far:

Horse racing industry leaders gathered at Saratoga, N.Y. on Sunday for the annual Round Table Conference on Matters Pertaining to Racing, and as it has for almost all of 2019, safety and animal welfare dominated the discussion.

The event, organized by The Jockey Club, featured speakers on improving racing surfaces, handling crises, and support for the Horseracing Integrity Act (HIA), federal legislation that calls for the establishment of national standards in the sport.

The conference comes after 30 horses died at Santa Anita in a six-month span that ended in June. The Southern California track, which will host the Breeders’ Cup championship races in November, suspended racing for several weeks in March to inspect track conditions and determine why the horses died.

In addition, The Stronach Group, the track’s owner, proposed an ambitious reform package to promote equine safety, including an eventual ban on giving race day injections of drugs, such as Lasix, that can mask injuries. Other major national industry players have since pledged to help implement similar reforms in their states.

William Lear Jr., vice chairman of The Jockey Club, laid it out succinctly in his remarks in support of the bill sponsored by US Reps. Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.) and Andy Barr (R-Ky.).

“We all know things have to change,” Lear said. “And prominent among them is the way we handle medication regulation in the United States.”

A statistic presented during the 67th annual Round Table Conference in Saratoga Springs Sunday put the current horse racing crisis into sobering perspective: according to David Fuscus, president and CEO of crisis management company Xenophon Strategies, there have been 20,000 news stories published since January 1 on the racing industry's struggles, brought to light by the Santa Anita equine fatalities. The 27thfatality alone sparked 300 articles in three days, which Fuscus believes appeared in publications accessing 90 percent of the American public.

“I am the most anti-alarmist person in the room; with that being said, this story is not going away,” said Fuscus. “You can't wait it out, you can't part the waters. This is the most critical time American horse racing has ever experienced.”

When horse fans make a $2 bet at the track, they might be sentencing their chosen thoroughbred to death. 

A staggering 4,649 racehorses died on the track between 2009 and 2015, according to data published by The Jockey Club. A later 2018 analysis published by the same organization found an aggregate “fatal injury” rate of 1.68 for every 1,000 race starts. Age, surface, and other factors all play a role in “breakdowns,” the euphemism often used when a horse drops dead on the track, but performance enhancing drugs exacerbate matters, according to activists. 
 

LOS ANGELES — If one local animal commissioner has his way, Los Angeles will soon become the first major city in the country to ban all activities related to horse racing.

Commissioner Roger Wolfson, who recently encouraged the Los Angeles Board of Animal Services to pass a motion banning rodeos in the city, has placed an item on the board’s Tuesday agenda described as “Opposition to Horse Racing in the State of California.” Its goal is to have the board recommend that the City Council draw up an ordinance that would prohibit horse racing and off-track betting in the city of Los Angeles.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has a message for the horse racing industry: If you aren’t going to stop racing, which you should do for the protection of the horses, then at least stop harming them. Stop putting their lives at risk. Take care of the thoroughbreds you bring into this world from the day they’re born through their retirement to the day they die. And don’t let that death be at a track, in a slaughterhouse or at the hands of someone who neglects them.

The message to the horse racing industry in California must be clear: Implement tough safety standards at your tracks or risk the state closing them down altogether.

Gov. Gavin Newsom last week signed legislation giving the California Horse Racing Board greater authority to close tracks that aren’t adequately protecting the health and safety of horses and jockeys. That’s a good first step. But much more is needed.

This is a national sport and a national problem. The horse-racing industry should step up to set and enforce tough safety standards across the country before Congress or states like California do it for them.

Race horse fatalities of this magnitude are not inevitable. In a May interview on HBO's Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, Gina Rarick, who trains in France, said that "our horses have long careers, run drug-free, and don't die on the track like their American cousins. ...On race day there can be no drug in the horse's system. None." The key phrase is drug-free.

In his May 17 Sun piece about the "existential crisis" facing the horse racing industry, Childs Walker noted the Horse Racing Integrity Act of 2019 introduced in Congress that would bring uniformity to racing regulations across the U.S., set up an organization to oversee a new anti-doping program, and ban all medications for horses within 24 hours of a race (“As it prepares for 144th Preakness, horse racing industry faces larger 'existential' crisis,” May 17). Similar legislation has been before the Congress since at least 2013. Those with financial interest in the status quo have lobbied against passage and continue to do so.

I love the sport of thoroughbred horse racing. The runners are majestic, the jockeys strong and brave, and the races are thrilling adrenaline rushes. But the sport of kings has become a blood sport in the U.S. If it doesn't reform itself, it could go the way of dog racing, which Florida voted to ban by the end of 2020.

On a recent Monday, after one of the rare weekends when Santa Anita conducted three days of racing without a horse fatality, Ms. Stronach sat in her empty racetrack and talked about the aggressive, wide-ranging drug and safety protocols she had demanded.

A review of the medication violations over the past 10 years for the trainers of the 30 horses that died at Santa Anita showed that many had been cited with unusual frequency. Amid growing complaints in March, the Stronach Group made changes to its drug and veterinary policies that would match international standards.

That’s why attention has returned to federal legislation of Lexington’s own Congressman Andy Barr. The Horse Racing Integrity Act seems like a common sense approach, one that even a casual race fan can understand. First, it creates one central oversight authority that creates and administers the same medication rules, just like just about every other sport in the nation. It would ban race-day medication, which mirrors international racing rules.

Barr had a similar bill two years ago, which faced opposition from big organizations like Churchill Downs. But Barr thinks the bi-partisan bill, co-sponsored by New York Democrat Paul Tonka can pass this time around. Similar legislation recently appeared in the Senate. Barr hopes his bill will get a hearing this summer.

“I certainly think it has more momentum because the problems at Santa Anita raised the public’s awareness and lawmakers’ awareness that there’s a problem that needs to be fixed,” Barr said. “What we want to avoid is legislators who are overreaching — we want to prevent them from doing something like ban the sport because they’ve heard from PETA or some other group. It’s so important for the industry to demonstrate a record of integrity and safety and show everyone we’re treating these animals with humane practices.”

Read more here: https://www.kentucky.com/opinion/article231513783.html#storylink=cpy

The horse racing industry is under fire for the use of drugs in the sport and even facing accusations that retired animals end up in meat slaughterhouses. A report in May by The Journal News/lohud revealed the growing concerns about horse deaths in the industry in New York and across the country.

The sport is having an existential moment across the country, after a series of deaths at a prominent California track sparked a debate about the morality of the industry.

Proposed legislation that would establish a uniform national standard for drug restrictions, testing, and enforcement at horse racing venues is receiving pushback from veterinarians and national equine associations...

“The AAEP is committed to funding research into alternative EIPH management strategies, which would eliminate the need to administer furosemide on race day,” said association president Jeff Berk, VMD, MRCVS. “The proposed phase-out of the medication’s use beginning at many thoroughbred racetracks in 2020 emphasizes the urgent need for continued research into new methods for mitigating EIPH.”

The National Horseman's Benevolent and Protective Association (HBPA) announces its opposition to the Senate version of the Horseracing Integrity Act (S. 1820), introduced last week by Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Martha McSally (R-AZ). On behalf of thoroughbred race horse owners, and trainers, the HBPA has been steadfast in its opposition to the House companion measure introduced earlier this year by Reps. Paul Tonko (D-NY-20) and Andy Barr (R-KY-06) (H.R. 1754).

“Senator Gillibrand and Senator McSally have clearly been misguided. Banning race day Lasix will cause more equine deaths, and additional regulations will cause jobs to be lost,” stated Eric Hamelback, CEO of the HBPA.

Citing a new formula determining board seats and philosophical differences over medication policy, the California Horse Racing Board will consider withdrawing its membership in the Association of Racing Commissioners International at Thursday's regularly scheduled CHRB meeting in Pleasanton, Calif.

According to the meeting package prepared for Thursday's meeting, the CHRB has been a member of RCI since 1994 and currently pays $27,500 in annual dues to the non-governmental agency that has no direct regulatory authority. “Its members individually possess regulatory authority within their jurisdictions and each jurisdiction solely determines at its discretion whether to adopt RCI recommendations on policies and rules,” the CHRB meeting package says of RCI.

Earlier this year, lawmakers in Congress introduced bipartisan legislationbacked by the Jockey Club and others in the industry. The Horseracing Integrity Act would create a uniform national set of drug rules as well as greatly improved standards for drug testing race horses. The industry desperately needs a governing body that will ensure transparency and consistency in the medical treatment and health of race horses. The passage of this legislation would help to restore the faith of our fans.

The sport is divided. On one side are horse breeders and owners who back a federal bill to create a uniform national standard for drug testing and medication rules in racehorses that would be overseen by the United States Anti-Doping Agency. On the other are horse trainers and racetrack owners who find the proposed changes too expensive and intrusive.

In March, after the 22nd fatality at Santa Anita, the Stronach Group announced a ban on the use of whips and medication on racing days. It was applauded by animal rights activists but angered horsemen in California and beyond.

What is going to happen next? This is a sport that has a U.S. Senator (Feinstein), a U.S. Congresswomen (Judy Chu), the Governor of California (Gavin Newsom) and the entire animal rights community on its back and watching its every move. To ignore them and their demands for serious reform would be foolish, if not suicidal.

The Santa Anita meet does not end until June 23. The sport would have to be very lucky for there not to be at least one more fatality at that track between now and closing day. Let’s hope it doesn’t happen, but what if it does? What happens if there are three or four?

Will the “other side” realize that is a sad and unfortunate part of a sport that is steeped in history, is an economic engine that provides tens of thousands of jobs across the country and that the vast majority of racehorses are pampered and beloved by their owners and trainers? Will it accept that if serious efforts to make the sport as safe as possible are undertaken, racing has earned the right to carry on and vow to continue to make the sport as safe as possible? Or will it say no sport in which any animals die for the pleasure and economic benefit of human beings is acceptable? And will the voting public agree?

That question is inevitably going to be answered. Hold your breath.

A local trainer who injected a racehorse with performance-enhancing drugs in 2010, then was caught six weeks later intending to do it again, has been fined $3,750 and is “branded with the scarlet letter of a cheat,” the prosecutor in the case said Friday.

Derek Riesberry’s convictions for fraud over $5,000 and attempted fraud over $5,000 mark the first time in Canada horse doping was prosecuted criminally, instead of having regulatory agencies such as the Ontario Racing Commission hand out fines and suspensions.

Riesberry, 46, now carries a criminal record, noted assistant Crown attorney Brian Manarin, speaking at the end of a 5½-year legal odyssey that took the case all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada.

“He’s been branded with the scarlet letter of a cheat, which is a terrible thing,” he said. “He’s going to have to do a lot of things to make amends for shooting up a horse with a performance-enhancing drug.” 

I’m not sure how many of you watched the HBO Real Sports segment on horse racing last week, but it was met with a lot of disdain from the horse racing side. I can’t exactly say I watched it, but I certainly listened to it. A lot of the first part of the segment were replays of horses going down. And in the second half there were videos from inside the horse slaughterhouse.

Regardless of your stance on racing as a sport, those are tough to watch. And I guess that’s HBO’s point.

When, say, the president, regardless of which one, gives a major speech, the networks usually follow it with a rebuttal statement from those of the opposite party. I don’t know if Alex Waldrop, president and chief executive of the National Thoroughbred Racing Assn., was chosen to do it on behalf of the industry or he just felt he needed to it, but this is a slightly edited version of the letter he sent to Joe Perskie, executive producer of HBO Real Sports:

For the past five months, like just about everyone else whose life and livelihood is entrenched in horse racing, I have watched horses at Santa Anita in California die in record numbers and the owners of the track, The Stronach Group (TSG), scramble to diffuse what has become a very volatile issue with minimal success. It’s no secret I’m not the biggest fan of TSG these days for various reasons and I’ve been flabbergasted by some of their actions in shifting blame and muddying waters with issues having nothing to do with now 26 dead horses, but I also know that this situation isn’t deliberate and none of the powers that be enjoy seeing injured and dead horses anywhere, let alone on their watch.

Not even the staunchest defenders of horse racing could deny the brutality of the incidents HBO shows, nor would most even try, but viewers won’t know that. The segment features interviews with a variety of people along a continuum of dissatisfaction with horse racing, from a veterinarian who expresses outrage at the trainers who race sore horses and the veterinarians who able them to do that, to the chairman of The Jockey Club Stuart Janney, who suggests that various industry organizations that resist his organization’s suggestions do so because they want power, to a racing fan-cum-activist who organizes protests at tracks and maintains a list of the horses that die during racing in the United States.

Trainers have been accused of making an already risky situation worse by drugging horses with performance-enhancing substances or painkillers,animal welfare advocates say.

Such drugs allow horses to run faster and power through the pain. For example, the drug furosemide, popularly known under the brand name Lasix, is a “performance-enhancing drug cloaked as a therapeutic medication,” according to a March report by the Jockey Club.

While it’s prescribed to treat bleeding in the lungs, the medication also causes urination and, consequently, weight loss. Lighter horses run faster, and Lasix has been shown to help horses run three to five lengths faster. The legality of each drug varies by state. (

As breakdowns mounted, Santa Anita shut down twice as a national expert probed and studied the dirt surface. Nothing seemed wrong. Deaths continued, although not since early April. The cause or causes remain a mystery.

But many say the root causes have long been obvious and rampant across horse racing: Drugs to make horses run faster and mask injuries. Whipping them down the stretch. Decades of breeding that have yielded maximum muscle and power, but relatively light bones. A decline in thoroughbred births, forcing horses to race more often.

Now powerful voices, including the owners of Santa Anita, are backing major change.

“We are taking a step forward and saying, quite emphatically, that the current system is broken,” said Belinda Stronach of the The Stronach Group, which also owns Pimlico in Baltimore.

The poll also looked at the Horseracing Integrity Act of 2019, which would establish a private, independent horse racing anti-doping authority involving the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA); require full transparency into the medical treatment, injuries, and health of all racehorses; and create one, universal system of medication regulation.

Ninety-one percent of respondents said they would view horse racing “much more” or “somewhat more” favorably if the industry adopted the national regulations and strict anti-doping rules embodied in the HIA.

But many say the root causes have long been obvious and rampant across horse racing: Drugs to make horses run faster and mask injuries. Whipping them down the stretch. Decades of breeding that have yielded maximum muscle and power, but relatively light bones. A decline in thoroughbred births, forcing horses to race more often.

Now powerful voices, including the owners of Santa Anita, are backing major change.

"We are taking a step forward and saying, quite emphatically, that the current system is broken," said Belinda Stronach of the The Stronach Group, which also owns Pimlico in Baltimore.

The influential Jockey Club, a 125-year-old organization that works to improve racing and thoroughbred breeding, issued a damning white paper warning the sport must rid itself of drugs or face a public and political backlash that could kill it.

"This isn't about a single track — horse fatalities are a nationwide problem, one that has shocked fans, the industry, the regulators, and the general public," the Jockey Club wrote.

The American Quarter Horse Association has a paramount concern for the welfare of the American Quarter Horse, as well as the integrity of the races in which they compete. 

Unfortunately, following the March 14 introduction of the proposed bill HR 1754 (commonly referred to as the “Horse Racing Integrity Act”), as well as sweeping actions taken after a series of fatalities at Santa Anita Race Track in California, the racing industry is in the animal welfare spotlight.

In advance of the Kentucky Derby, several prominent racetracks announced the formation of a coalition to eliminate Lasix as a race-day medication for 2-year-old and stakes races. Additionally, Churchill Downs announced a set of safety protocols and procedures, including medication reform, limits on crop use, an increased investment into equine medical facilities, and an initial set of limited medication reforms, which are all laudable and will move safety forward. 

The Jockey Club commends those associations on their commitment to the health and safety of racehorses, and the integrity of the sport on the threshold of another Triple Crown season. But for reform to be truly effective, it would have to be adopted across the 38 separate state and regional regulatory bodies that govern horse racing. This fragmented system means we don’t have national standards that are in line with international standards, which are designed to better protect horses. It means that initiatives, such as those announced last week, are faced with a long and tortuous path that may take years to implement.

The last horse to win the Kentucky Derby without a race-day dose of Lasix was Grindstone in 1996.

The end of that streak is now in sight.

A coalition comprised of most of America’s major racetracks Thursday announced a gradual phase-out of the only medication allowed to be administered on the day of a race. Beginning next year, 2-year-olds would be required to run without Lasix at Churchill Downs, Keeneland and other prominent tracks, with the ban extending to stakes races in 2021.

“Churchill Downs will advocate in the strongest possible terms with Kentucky regulators and the regulators of other U.S. racing jurisdiction to achieve this result,” the track said in a prepared statement. “It is our intention to run the 2021 Kentucky Derby without. . .Lasix.”

One of the meatiest bones of contention from last week’s Lasix phase-out debate is that representatives from the National Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association (NHBPA), the Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association (THA), and the Association of Racing Commissioners International (ARCI) all told TDN they were left out of discussions that led to the multi-track proposal to end Lasix usage in juveniles starting in 2020 and in all stakes races by 2021.

You can easily flip this argument on its head by pointing out that from the perspective of the coalition tracks–those owned/operated by the New York Racing Association (NYRA), The Stronach Group (TSG), and Churchill Downs Inc., plus Oaklawn, Del Mar, Keeneland, Lone Star, Remington, Tampa Bay Downs, and Los Alamitos (Thoroughbreds)–it’s unlikely that this bold first step for United States medication reform would have ever gotten off the ground had horsemen been asked to actively partner in and shape the proposed phase-out.

Galvanized by tragedy and united in bad publicity, horse racing’s major racetracks have teamed up to collectively phase out race-day use of the medicine Lasix.

Sounds great, right? No one is going to argue against improved safety for horses

In another major reform growing out of the deaths of 23 horses at Santa Anita Park this season, the chief of the state’s regulatory agency said Thursday it will now assign an investigator and a steward to dig into every death at California racetracks, even if it means having to subpoena records.

The state already pays for postmortem examinations for every horse, but these simpler investigations were often inconsistent, particularly when it came to analyzing medications in a horse’s system. Toxicology was requested only on a case-by-case basis until about a year ago and veterinarians were not required to provide medication histories to the laboratory conducting the exams.

“Now, every necropsy is going to be part of a more thorough investigation,” said Rick Baedeker, executive director of the California Horse Racing Board.

More than half of California voters want the state's governor to create an independent review panel to study the highly-publicized equine fatalities at Santa Anita Park. A poll from Quinnipiac University's Polling Institute released Thursday and examined a number of political topics on voters' minds, including the death penalty and sanctuary cities. Fifty-five percent of those polled said Gov. Gavin Newsom should appoint a panel to study the deaths; 35 percent did not support the idea.

Poll results show just 19 percent of voters had a “favorable opinion” of horse racing, while 20 percent had an unfavorable opinion of the sport. Fifty-nine percent had no opinion.

Veterinarians and animal rights groups said there is more to the deaths than a prolific rainy season and track maintenance, reasons that are more entwined with long-standing racing practices and culture.

“Compaction of the surface can make the surface harder, increasing loads to the horses’ limbs,” wrote Stover, the UC Davis professor. “However, it is unlikely that the surface was solely responsible for the rash of catastrophic injuries. Inherently healthy horses may not have had injuries on a racetrack managed to handle the rain.”

Race-day drugs and the jockey’s whip are horse racing staples receiving new scrutiny. Both are used to drive thoroughbreds — sometimes beyond their physical capabilities — to win.

LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — The future of horse racing is at a crossroads over the controversy surrounding the treatment of Thoroughbreds.

Animal welfare groups like PETA are calling for medication bans at tracks, and now Keeneland is also facing backlash after a horse was euthanized on the track this past Saturday.

A series of drug positives issued by the Pennsylvania Horse Racing Commission in early February raised a few eyebrows, including those on the face of trainer Gerald Lee Jr. Lee, who has been in the Standardbred business some 30 years, has maintained a small stable and stayed on the right side of the Pennsylvania rulebook for most of that time. He had just one ruling against him in the state previously, a $200 fine stemming from a late driver change on one of his horses four years ago. In late 2018, he suddenly found himself the recipient of four positive tests for strychnine, a Class 1 drug in the Association of Racing Commissioners International's uniform classification of foreign substances. Lee said he was as surprised by the news as anyone.

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) - The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission's equine medical director is warning the horse racing industry that its future is in doubt if California's problems make it to the Commonwealth.

"California racing is having an existential crisis, and I think we all need to look closely and say, 'That could be us,'" Dr. Mary Scollay said. "We need to think very carefully about what we do, why we do it, and what we can do better."

In mid-March, U.S. lawmakers introduced a bill aimed at improving horse-racing safety by requiring a uniform anti-doping and medication control program. Medicating thoroughbreds has been a long-running controversy in the U.S. — some medications mask symptoms which critics say can lead to catastrophic horse injuries. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office has assigned investigators to work with the California Horse Racing Board to try to figure what's caused the Santa Anita deaths.

California Sen. Dianne Feinstein called for the suspension of races at Santa Anita until an investigation into what has caused 23 horses to die at the track since late December is complete.

In a letter sent to California Horse Racing Board chairman Chuck Winner on Tuesday, the Democratic senator wrote she is "appalled that almost two dozen horses have died in just four months."

In an attempt to prevent any recurrence of this spate of horse deaths, The Stronach Group, owners of Santa Anita Park and other top tracks in America, made a forward-looking announcement to end the use of drugs and whips at the track.

It’s a move certain to spark a reaction from unscrupulous trainers and veterinarians who profit from widespread doping, but it’s actually an attempt not only to help the horses, but to save the sport.

The new policy to ban drugs and whipping came on the heels of the introduction of the Horseracing Integrity Act, (H.R. 1754), by U.S. Reps. Paul Tonko, D-N.Y., and Andy Barr, R-Ky., who represent two of the meccas of horse racing: Saratoga Springs, New York, and Lexington, Kentucky.

THE ISSUE:

Horse racing is plagued by drug use and a poor reputation, and casual fans are turning away.

THE STAKES:

The Horseracing Integrity Act could rescue a sport that seems unwilling to save itself.

While stressing the causes of this carnage were “multifactorial,” track consultant Mick Peterson said the racing industry should respond with the singular urgency the U.S. space program showed after the Soviet Union’s 1957 launch of the Sputnik satellite.

“It really is one of those moments where we need to step back and say we’ve got to do this better, and we’ve got to change how we’re doing it,” said Peterson, director of the University of Kentucky’s agriculture equine programs. “Because otherwise the industry is not going to survive. People don’t accept (racing fatalities) the way they did.”

But it is fair to argue that the medication ban, as a response to the breakdowns, was at least in some part a misdirection. However, it is also possible that good can come from the ban. Both of these things can be true. Lasix was first made legal for U.S. racing in the 1970s and has been controversial almost from the start. It is the designated hitter of racing. I first wrote at length about Lasix in the mid-’80s—when there was a $5 million bonus for winning the Triple Crown—but New York, home of the Belmont Stakes, did not allow Lasix, creating a thorny inequality. It does now, as does every major racing jurisdiction in America.

Yet its efficacy remains in question. Ken McKeever, professor of animal sciences at Rutgers, has done, and seen, studies that leave him unconvinced that Lasix effectively controls bleeding. "It’s a drug that really doesn’t work very well," says McKeever. Yet trainers use it in massive numbers. Motion is regarded as one of the cleanest trainers in America, yet he uses Lasix. "I’m not holier than thou when it comes to Lasix," he says. "I don’t want my horses to be at a disadvantage, if they’re running against horses who are using Lasix."

The following statements were released Tuesday by the North American Association of Racetrack Veterinarians (NAARV) and Eric Hamelback, CEO of the National Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association (HBPA), regarding the recent breakdowns at Santa Anita and the issue of Lasix.

It was extremely troubling that 21 horses died in relatively short order at the venerable Santa Anita Park in California before management finally closed its tracks to all racing or training on March 5. But it’s absolutely unconscionable that the park reopened less than a week later for training — only to have a 22nd horse die.

This week, the Stronach Group announced that all race-day medication, including Lasix, would no longer be permitted at two of its thoroughbred race tracks, Golden Gate and Santa Anita.

So I ask the question: should harness racing ban race-day meds? Harness racing legalized race-day Lasix years ago following the legalization of the drug by the thoroughbred industry. This is in North America alone. Horses don’t race on Lasix in Europe, Asia, or anywhere else, for that matter.

John Campbell said the harness racing industry should be prepared to answer questions about horse safety following the tragedy at thoroughbred racing’s Santa Anita Racetrack in which 22 horses have died since the current meet opened the day after Christmas. 

Campbell, the president and CEO of the Hambletonian Society, said Saturday the Santa Anita issue is not officially on the agenda for today’s society meeting in Florida, but it needs to be.

He said he doesn’t know what specific questions will be coming the harness racing industry’s way from animal rights activists and mainstream reports, “but there are going to be some and I think we better be prepared as an industry. It’s just a tragic disaster (at Santa Anita) and if you don’t think it affects us, you’re sadly mistaken. I think it’ll be a discussion and the industry has to take notice and see how the thoroughbreds handle it.”

Initially, all race-day Lasix was to be prohibited, under a proposal by the Stronach Group, which owns and runs Santa Anita. But the compromise position is that it will be applied only to 2018 foals, or horses that won’t race until next year. Horses currently on Lasix will be allowed to continue to receive the medication on race day but in a maximum dosage of 5cc, instead of the 10cc currently allowed.

“[Race-day Lasix] far and away was the biggest topic of conversation from top to finish,” said Greg Avioli, TOC president and CEO. “But [this compromise] was unanimously approved by the TOC board. And we had a call of 250 TOC members and no one objected to it.”

Racing at Santa Anita will not resume on March 22 as previously announced after officials with The Stronach Group – owners of the Arcadia, Calif., track – were unable to reach an agreement on a ban of the anti-bleeding medication Lasix with the Thoroughbred Owners of California.

A ban on race-day Lasix, or furosemide, was one of several medication and welfare reforms put forth as “house rules” by Belinda Stronach, chairman of The Stronach Group, in response to the unusually high number of fatal injuries – 22 since the Dec. 26, 2018, opening day – sustained by horses racing or training at Santa Anita.

What has happened at Santa Anita over the last few weeks is beyond heartbreaking. It is unacceptable to the public and, as people who deeply love horses, to everyone at The Stronach Group and Santa Anita.

The sport of horse racing is the last great sporting legacy platform to be modernized. If we expect our sport to grow for future generations, we must raise our standards.

Today, I'm announcing The Stronach Group will take the unprecedented step of declaring a zero tolerance for race day medication at Santa Anita Park and Golden Gate Fields. These Thoroughbred racetracks will be the first in North America to follow the strict International Federation of Horseracing Authorities (IFHA) standards.

The following statement was distributed to media Thursday afternoon as an “open letter” from Stronach Group chairman and president Belinda Stronach following the track's 22nd fatal breakdown during morning training at Santa Anita. 

What has happened at Santa Anita over the last few weeks is beyond heartbreaking. It is unacceptable to the public and, as people who deeply love horses, to everyone at The Stronach Group and Santa Anita.

The sport of horse racing is the last great sporting legacy platform to be modernized. If we expect our sport to grow for future generations, we must raise our standards.

Today, I'm announcing The Stronach Group will take the unprecedented step of declaring a zero tolerance for race day medication at Santa Anita Park and Golden Gate Fields. These Thoroughbred racetracks will be the first in North America to follow the strict International Federation of Horseracing Authorities (IFHA) standards.

On Thursday afternoon, horse racing was forever changed.

Belinda Stronach, chairman and president of The Stronach Group, announced it was banning race-day medication at California tracks Santa Anita Park and Golden Gate Fields.

Huge step, this one. Let's not view it any other way. It was massive, not just for what was said but when it was said. This was a game-changer at a time that called for one.

As noted in Stronach's letter, this was unprecedented, and it surely had to do with the run of tragic horse fatalities at Santa Anita and the negative, national light they were casting in this sport.

"We have arrived at a watershed moment," Stronach said. "The Stronach Group has long been a strong advocate for the abolishment of race-day medication, but we will wait no longer for the industry to come together as one to institute these changes. Nor will we wait for the legislation required to undertake this paradigm shift. We are taking a stand and fully recognize just how disruptive this might be."

Deep in the heart of every racetracker, devoted fan or horseplayer, is the knowledge that the sport, livelihood, and an entire way of life for generations of racetrack families, united by blood or love of the game, is now at peril.

The time for hand-wringing and shooting messengers has long since passed. Racing’s present goes far beyond politics, far beyond the recent tragic events at Santa Anita Park, which sadly are symptomatic of a much larger problem: 

Survival, at every level of racing society. 

Stakeholders who believe that this premise is just more hyperbole, or fear mongering, doomsday preaching or just sensationalism for the sake of commerce, are in denial and far more out of touch with reality than they know.
Survival, at every level of racing society. 

In 2018, according to records maintained by The Jockey Club, 10,146 starts were made by horses without Lasix in the U.S. out of a total of 279,774. That equates to only 3.6%.

Lasix is the commonly used name for the potent diuretic furosemide (though its trade name was changed to Salix). This medication can mitigate the episodes of exercise-induced pulmonary hemorrhage (EIPH) — otherwise known as “bleeding” — in racehorses. Compared to the majority of major racing centers across the globe, the United States is an outlier in permitting the use of this drug on race day.

The mindset of Lasix as a necessity among many horsemen in the U.S. has not kept some from successfully racing without it.......

As President and CEO of the Japan Racing Association, Masayuki Goto is one of the most influential racing figures in the world, and a man whose views should carry significant weight for everyone in the industry.

When asked by TRC: "What do you see as the biggest problem racing faces today?"   Mr. Goto replied:

“Particularly, we need to introduce unified medication rules throughout the world. I personally feel the biggest challenge we are currently facing is the standardization of the rules of racing across the globe.”

There is also the Horseracing Integrity Act, led by U.S. Reps. Paul Tonko(D-N.Y.), and Andy Barr (R-Ky.), which would end the doping of American race horses by creating a uniform national standard for drug testing overseen by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, a private entity that oversees testing at the Olympics, and many other sporting events. With dozens of horses dying on racetracks each year, the need for this legislation that’s supported by a vast array of industry groups and racetracks is great, and the future of horse racing hangs in the balance of its enactment.

“As the representative of the horse capital of the world, this legislation has been and will continue to be a priority for me,” Barr said in an emailed statement. “I continue to believe the future prosperity of Kentucky’s signature horse racing industry depends on national uniform medication standards and testing procedures. My colleague, Congressman Paul Tonko, and I plan to re-introduce this legislation early in the 116th Congress with the objective of holding another hearing and mark-up in the committee of jurisdiction. Last Congress, we secured over 100 cosponsors and I look forward to continue to build upon this bipartisan work to ensure the safety and integrity of this great American sport.”

The New Year dawns with a host of initiatives underway full of important opportunities for the future of the Thoroughbred racing industry. Here are five that I will be focusing on particularly.

1. Progress of the Thoroughbred Horseracing Integrity Act

The movement of this hugely important legislation through the two houses of Congress represents the most significant opportunity for the future of Thoroughbred racing and breeding in the U.S. in 2019. I encourage everyone to support it.

There's an old saying in politics, originating I think in the Watergate scandal, that the cover-up is always worse than the crime. It's a phrase that may as well have evolved in horse racing. 

When I recently reviewed 2018's top stories on the Paulick Report, I was reminded of Joe Gorajec's dogged investigation into post-race drug test detections in Pennsylvania that didn't result in positives or regulatory action.  But Pennsylvania isn't the only place where regulators have been presented with evidence of rule violations (or potential rule violations) and appeared to ignore it.

More than six months ago, we brought you the story of Quarter Horse trainer Clinton Crawford, who entered ten horses on the June 2 card at Remington Park. On the evening of June 1, members of the independent AQHA Integrity Team observed a veterinarian in Crawford's stalls, treating horses inside the 24-hour pre-race window for the June 2 races.

TUCSON, Ariz. - What do a dog, a ratio, and a randomly generated test have in common?

They are all tools developed recently by racing regulators to address integrity concerns at racetracks, according to panelists appearing on Tuesday afternoon at the annual Symposium on Racing.

The panelists, which included a New Mexico steward, a New York regulatory veterinarian, and a New Mexico racetrack general manager, described the novel developments in a session called “Tools of the Regulatory Trade: Insuring Integrity in Racing.” Although it was the penultimate session of the day, and therefore was not as well attended as earlier panels, the session itself was well received by the conference audience, which included a large number of regulators and operational racetrack staff.

Two leading world organizations, the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities (IFHA) and the International Stud Book Committee (ISBC), are to work together on ways of combating gene doping in Thoroughbreds, which one expert has said could put the whole integrity of racing and the breed in jeopardy....

......The ISBC meeting heard from Kanichi Kusano, chairman of the IFHA gene doping control sub-committee, who in a presentation to the IFHA annual conference in Paris on Monday raised the specter of gene doping as a major threat to racing. "It will endanger the integrity of the sport and wagering, and will risk creating genetically modified Thoroughbreds," he said.

Dr. Kusano added: "The worst-case scenario of gene doping will happen at the breeding stage, by modifying eggs, sperm, and embryos. If this happens, it could have a major impact on those racing jurisdictions that use Thoroughbreds.

"The second scenario is if a horse was triggered by genetical medication, it would have possibilities to create genetically modified horses in the next generation."

Detecting genetically modified thoroughbreds needs more studies, more time and more resources, Dr Kusano said. But, he added: "Gene doping is not a rumor anymore."

Robin Mounsey, head of media for the BHA, told the Racing Post that English racing's rulemaking authority is concerned about the threat to racing integrity there.

“It would be naive to think this is the only time the substance has or will be used in Britain, and this is why detecting and acting on cobalt has formed an increasing part of our anti-doping strategy and we will continue to be vigilant about it,” he said. “The main outcome from this case from our point of view is that the individual who was responsible for administering prohibited substances on race day has been disqualified from the sport for three years.”

In a world where integrity might have different connotations, we must first ask what is meant by integrity in sport. According to the UK’s Sport and Recreation Alliance, ‘a defining characteristic of competitive sport is that the contest should be unpredictable and decided by the skill of the participants alone. Where sporting outcomes are determined by other, illegitimate means – such as doping or match-fixing- the integrity of the competition is called into question and confidence in sport is undermined.’ 

Stuart Janney, chairman of The Jockey Club, and Breeders' Cup president and CEO Craig Fravel have written to the Congressional committee that recently held a hearing on the Horseracing Integrity Act of 2017 (H.R. 2651) in rebuttal to the testimony of several witnesses who spoke against the legislation.

The Jockey Club and Breeders' Cup are members of the Coalition for Horse Racing Integrity that supports the bill, co-sponsored by Reps Andy Barr (R-KY) and Paul Tonko (D-NY). The Horseracing Integrity Act would create a private, independent regulatory board in association with the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) to oversee all medication regulations, testing and enforcement on a national basis. The bill would also eliminate the race-day administration of the anti-bleeding diuretic furosemide (Lasix).

Belinda Stronach, the president and chairman of The Stronach Group, wrote a letter to congress in support of H.R. 2651, the Horseracing Integrity Act of 2017. Frank Stronach, founder and honorary chairman of The Stronach Group, previously expressed his support for the legislation in April 2017.

H.R. 2651 would require that a uniform anti-doping and medication control program be developed and enforced by a private, non-profit, self-regulatory organization known as the Horseracing Anti-Doping and Medication Control Authority.

Trainer Bill Mott has reached a court settlement with the New York State Gaming Commission after a nearly-four-year legal battle concerning a disputed medication overage from September 2014.

Mott agreed to take a seven-day suspension, effective July 5-11, and pay a $1,000 fine to end the case, which began when Saratoga Snacks, a horse he trained, was found to have two alleged medication overages in tests conducted after an allowance race at Belmont Park on Sept. 20, 2014. The NYSGC originally imposed a 15-day sanction against Mott for overages of Banamine and Lasix that were for such excessive amounts that they seemed to defy logic.

It’s a subject TRC has returned to time and again. I have written about out-of-competition testing myself, and we have published the views of other industry experts on many occasions. For over a decade, the sports of cycling, baseball, track and field, swimming and others have developed and implemented effective out-of-competition tests. The racing industry will not survive without taking serious action now.

Unfortunately, the U.S. State and national horseracing regulatory authorities have been very slow in implementing OOCT programs. As a result, the racing industry cannot effectively catch cheaters that are currently using drugs and other substances that cannot be detected by the traditional post race testing practices.

The Paulick Report published a disturbing commentary this week from Pennsylvania attorney Alan Pincus regarding potential cover-ups of positive drug tests in that state's harness racing business.

In this edition of The Friday Show, Scott Jagow and Ray Paulick discuss the implications and broader impact of those developments.

I was disturbed to see an article in the Herald-Leader about the Barr-Tonko bill, federal legislation dealing with race-day doping of horses.

The article, written by a Washington reporter, was presented in a lopsided fashion and put out on the national wire as fact. Even worse, the local staff did not see through the false narratives in the article.

First and foremost, if I told you that over 90 percent of people who work with these horses every day support the use of Lasix for horses diagnosed with exercise-induced pulmonary hemorrhage (EIPH), would you feel that this article fairly represented that fact? I doubt it. 

Would you refer to people who take medication for blood pressure or heart disease, prescribed by a physician, a doper or dope addict? I doubt it.....

In a June 8 opinion piece, Dr. Andy Roberts, a reputable veterinarian for whom I have a lot of respect, asserts that my legislation, the Horse Racing Integrity Act, primarily aims to ban Lasix. 

This characterization is imprecise and incomplete. In fact, this bipartisan legislation would allow the out-of-competition administration of Lasix and enact reforms to enhance uniformity, safety and integrity in horseracing. 

The most recent draft of this bill was developed through a highly deliberative, bipartisan process, resulting in support from over 110 members of Congress and all facets of the horseracing industry, including breeders, owners, trainers, racing associations and jockeys. 

I am honored to represent the Horse Capital of the World and have worked diligently to enact a wide range of polices that will promote growth in this key Kentucky industry. In addition to medication reform, I have worked successfully to broaden financial institutions’ acceptance of advance deposit wagering platforms to increase fan participation in wagering.

You only get one chance to make a good first impression. So which side’s message resonated most effectively at last Friday’s Congressional subcommittee hearing on HR 2651, the federal bill that would implement a uniform anti-doping and medication control framework upon horse racing in the United States?

Neither side scored a landslide victory. But if you momentarily suspend whatever your personal position is on the Horseracing Integrity Act and take in the testimony through the eyes and ears of a newcomer to our complex industry (like the politicians on the Commerce and Consumer Protection subcommittee all are), the talking-point edge went to the side that wants to preserve the status quo.

It’s been like pulling teeth.

I am referring to my quest to obtain information on the number of out-of-competition tests that each state in the U.S. conducts. Specifically, statistics from 2016.

This is information that should made public on an annual basis by the end of the first quarter each year. In other words, 2016 information should have been available in April 2017. The statistics for 2017 should available to the public now.

If you are interested in out-of-competition in British horse racing, you can simply go to the British Horseracing Authority website (it’s on page 38 of the 2016 Annual Report and Accounts). If you want to know about human athletics, you can go the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) website...

There are the mint juleps. There are the fancy hats. There's all the money, those big bets people throw down. But behind the glitz of the Kentucky Derby tomorrow, there is actually a debate happening in horse racing. It is all about doping and whether certain drugs should be given to horses on race days. As Erica Peterson from member station WFPL reports, this issue has made it all the way to Congress.

Listen to the NPR broadcast

Many racetracks and racing organizations support the Horseracing Integrity Act, U.S. House Resolution 2651, which would provide an independent, uniform national doping system for horse racing. Unfortunately, Penn National Gaming, based in Pennsylvania and owner of several racetracks, has not offered its support. Fans would think that doping horses to cheat during races in Pennsylvania is not an issue. But they'd be wrong. 

Last summer, Penn National trainer Stephanie Beattie admitted to habitually and illegally doping horses she trained, testifying at the trial of another Penn National trainer convicted of doping racehorses that “almost everybody did” and “It was a known practice. We wanted to win and they weren't testing for those drugs at that time.”.............

The Swiss authorities notified the organization in the United States that investigates sports doping, the United States Anti-Doping Agency, and shared the return-address sticker. The packages were shipped by someone named Thomas Mann.

His name drew puzzled shrugs from Usada investigators. That name had never crossed their radar, and they could not find a home listing for someone with that name in their database in Arizona or anywhere else.........

On the whole, though, these regulations have strengthened the industry in Germany as they mean no “soft” horses will find a place at stud there. Breeders sending their mares to be covered in Germany can be confident the prospective mate will be healthy, have no defects and be drug-free. This is undoubtedly a major factor in the worldwide success of German-breds and helps account for the soundness, longevity, and stamina for which they are admired.

I’ve read with interest the reasons that people I know and respect such as Graham Motion, Brad Weisbord, and Terry Finley have joined WHOA since the beginning of this year, and they all make very solid points. In my opinion there is no question the current system is broken and needs an overhaul. We must have uniform rules across all states with agreed-upon banned substances, limits and penalties. Our current system has different rules everywhere; it tests in picograms and makes obscenely strict rulings against honest horsemen while it’s almost certain that widespread cheaters use performance-enhancing drugs where the science outpaces regulation. The horsemen must be involved in the process of finding a solution instead of only using their platform to poke holes in the current proposed bill. And the WHOA group must understand that without horsemen getting on board, it’s unlikely that any meaningful change will be enacted.

Based on an updated opinion from its testing lab on its findings, Kentucky stewards will rescind three ractopamine positives initially called at the 2016 Kentucky Downs meeting.

Trainer George "Rusty" Arnold planned to appeal his two class 2 positives to the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, but that move became unnecessary after the KHRC lab, LGC Science Lexington, reversed its initial findings. The lab also rescinded its positive found against trainer Joe Sharp.

A Kentucky stewards' ruling nearly a year and a half in the making could have a profound impact on the career of highly respected trainer Rusty Arnold. Horses in Arnold's care in 2016 tested positive for ractopamine, a feed additive listed as a Class 2 drug by the Association of Racing Commissioners International.

But given Arnold's almost pristine training record over several decades, what questions should be asked concerning this situation? In this edition of The Friday Show, Scott Jagow and Ray Paulick discuss what happened, how officials have responded and what this might mean in the bigger picture.

I am not a fan of government overreach. However, when government regulations have the potential to save an industry and the countless jobs that support it, I change my tune. The horseracing industry in Pennsylvania supports many jobs that include hay farmers, feed stores, breeders, trainers, transporters, jockeys, and backstretch workers.

These Pennsylvanians, as well as fans of racing, expect the racing industry to maintain and grow the fan base by ensuring that the sport is not rife with cheaters.

Penn National Gaming, which profits from horseracing, has an obligation to this industry, but refuses to support the Horseracing Integrity Act, a federal bill that would establish a uniform set of rules, testing procedures, and penalties, created by the non-profit U.S. Anti-Doping Agency to rid racing of unethical drugging and doping of horses.....

Pamela Murray

“I think it's going to shake things up,” Gural said. “I can't imagine any sane person, who owns stakes horses using anyone that is considered a drug trainer or someone who has had violations in the past because the consequences are so Draconian.”

“I know the big debate in the States is can we run horses without medication. We seem to be doing quite well over here,” Barrelet said. “We don't run them without drugs, just without raceday medications. They're clean on race day within protection limits. Those times within forensic value are pretty well defined and from a pharmacological value are pretty well defined.

This is one of those “guy walks into a bar…” jokes. Except the punch line isn’t even remotely funny.

Imagine a baseball player walking into a sports bar located inside his team’s home stadium after he’s finished playing for the day. The player has a history of producing suspiciously off-the-charts home run numbers, has already served a suspension related to the prohibited use of pain killers, and has a separate drug abuse case currently under appeal.

The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) has announced its strong support for the Horseracing Integrity Act of 2017...

...The ASPCA's support of the legislation was conveyed in a recent letter from Richard Patch, vice president of federal affairs for the ASPCA, to Reps. Andy Barr (R-KY) and Paul Tonko (D-NY), who introduced the legislation on May 25, 2017.

The letter read, in part, “By establishing a national, independent authority to govern medications administered to racehorses, this legislation will promote the safety of our equine athletes and encourage consistent enforcement of doping regulations across state lines.”

The Jorge Navarro video scandal offers racing a golden opportunity to come down hard and demonstrate that it will not tolerate cheaters. Yet the reaction has been far less than decisive. Some jurisdictions have banned Navarro but others, including industry leader NYRA, have taken no meaningful action. This raises the question of whether the sport really wants to clean up its act or is just posturing when it says it does. 
 

The United States Trotting Association Sept. 5 announced its opposition to the Horse Racing Integrity Act of 2017 for multiple reasons, including a proposed ban on race-day Lasix and the makeup of the authority that would oversee equine medication policy and a financing scheme for increased testing.

"To help ensure the safety of the horses and the jockeys and to enable racing fans to take comfort in the integrity of the sport, it is vital that the industry adopt a uniform set of rules across the 38 jurisdictions regarding testing and penalties administered by an independent body," Viola said in a written statement. "We have an opportunity now to improve significantly the safety and fairness of this beautiful and proud sport that has brought joy to millions of fans. It is important that all of us act on it with a sense of urgency."

The Jockey Club Round Table Conference on Matters Pertaining to Racing is arguably the most important meeting on the annual Thoroughbred racing calendar in America. That has arguably never been more the case than at this year’s conference on Sunday, when powerful representations were made by some of the most respected people in the business in favour of the proposed Horse Racing Integrity Act of 2017.

Following are closing remarks by Stuart S. Janney III, chairman of The Jockey Club, at Sunday's Jockey Club Round Table Conference on Matters Pertaining to Racing in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

My sense is that we are at a crossroads. There are many signs of hope, progress and accomplishment...........But now let's look at a darker side. Sadly, the list is just as long and the issues no less important. We have talked about many of these issues, either today or in previous conferences. The scope of some of these problems can be daunting and their persistence is disheartening.

It must be disheartening at times to be an honest Thoroughbred owner or trainer, especially one that happens to race in Pennsylvania.

It's bad enough, as we learned last week in the federal trial of trainer Murray Rojas, that widespread and systematic cheating has been going on at Penn National racecourse in Grantville, Pa. for more than a decade.

Making matters worse is the financial support provided to Rojas by the National Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association through a legal defense fund the horsemen's organization established last year. The Pennsylvania HBPA, the representative horseman's organization at Penn National, also helped pay her legal fees.

This adds insult to injury.

The flip side of all this is we do have a problem here. Being a racehorse trainer is a tough gig these days. Most of your employees are undocumented, you barely break even on the day money–that’s if you get paid on time–and the pressure to win is overwhelming. Trainers take an edge, often too much of one. In the Paulick Report Friday Show, Editor-in-Chief Scott Jagow glibly referred to “the cesspool of PA racing.” If Jagow or anyone else thinks this is just a PA problem, then I’ve got some nifty dockage in the Mojave to sell them. The trouble with the view from the eighth pole is the angle stinks. The Rojas trial testimony was just a window in to a national issue because in every track in the land the motto exists: “If you ain’t cheatin’, you ain’t tryin’.”

A trainer at Penn National Race Course testified under oath that 95 to 98 percent of the trainers at the racetrack used illegal drugs on their horses within 24 hours of races in which the animals ran.  The trainer said it was well known that laboratory testing was not done for the drugs.

Assume that the trainer was testifying truthfully.  That means that virtually every trainer at Penn National Race Course was flagrantly violating rules and regulations.....

I found it more than a bit ironic that a slew of damaging headlines preceded and followed the May 25 announcement of the reintroduction of Reps. Barr and Tonko’s sponsored federal bill, the Horseracing Integrity Act of 2017.

If anyone needed further convincing that the medication regulation system in the United States is broken beyond repair, the stories behind those headlines reiterated one message loudly and clearly: The status quo is unacceptable.

The veterinarians who treat racehorses are not backing U.S. Rep. Andy Barr’s bill to ban all race-day medications. 

The American Association of Equine Practitioners on Tuesday released a statement opposing Barr’s “Horseracing Integrity Act,” which would place the regulation of horse racing’s drug rules under federal jurisdiction. The vets oppose it because it would include a ban on furosemide, known as Lasix or Salix.

The group supports the uniformity of medication rules in U.S. horse racing but its current policy endorses the use of the anti-bleeder medication “to help mitigate the occurrence of exercise-induced pulmonary hemorrhage in the racehorse,” according to the statement. “This policy is based on the overwhelming body of international scientific and clinical evidence.”

The HRI has had firm support from The Jockey Club since it was first introduced. However, as Bill Finley points out in his column for Harness Racing Update, the United States Trotting Association “is not ready to commit one way or the other” on the legislation.

“Since the proposed legislation was introduced just last week and there hasn't been an opportunity to convene the USTA Board or even its executive committee, we have no official position on the bill at this time,” Mike Tanner, the USTA's executive vice president said.

The legislation, an updated version of the Thoroughbred Horseracing Integrity Act of 2015 that never came up for a federal vote, would establish an authority to create and implement a national uniform medication program with input from the horse industry.

The authority would be governed by a board composed of the chief executive officer of the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), six individuals from the USADA board, and six individuals selected by USADA who have demonstrated expertise in a variety of horse racing areas.

The Coalition for Horse Racing Integrity (CHRI) today announced its strong support for the Horseracing Integrity Act of 2017, introduced by U.S. Reps. Andy Barr (R-KY) and Paul Tonko (D-NY) earlier today.

The bill, designated H.R. 2651, would require that a uniform, anti-doping and medication control program be developed and enforced by a private, non-profit, self-regulatory organization known as the Horseracing Anti-Doping and Medication Control Authority.

“With growing momentum and support, the time has come for uniform medication rules in American horse racing,” Barr said. “Uniform rules will ensure the integrity and competitiveness of American horse racing and lay the groundwork for the future success of this great American sport.”

The Coalition for Horse Racing Integrity (CHRI) applauds the decision of Frank Stronach, the founder and honorary chairman of The Stronach Group, to strongly support the Horseracing Integrity Act, legislation that will create a uniform, nationwide, conflict-free drug testing enforcement program for horse racing. 

Arguably the most significant changes look like this:

• Elimination of furosemide on race-days and in training (as in Hong Kong),

• No anabolic steroid use both in and out of competition,

• Tighter restrictions surrounding corticosteroid joint injections (I get into the particulars further down)

• Elimination of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs in racing.

This is, of course, a hypothetical reality. The legislative, bureaucratic, financial, logistical and political hoops that would need to be jumped through to reach such a point are, to say the least, considerable.

But, with no inconsiderable weight behind the call for uniform medication rules, and with the likes of the Water Hay Oats Alliance pushing to eliminate the use of performance-enhancing drugs in horse racing, this idea alone raises all sorts of questions, including a vital one:

How would the tightened medication regulations outlined above affect the way U.S. racehorses are trained, raced and managed?

Bruce Doupe is a special agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation who has spent the last five of his 13 years at the FBI's Harrisburg, Pa., office investigating what he calls ”allegations of criminal wrongdoing in the conduct of Thoroughbred racing at Penn National Race Course.”

Ed Martin, president of the Association of Racing Commissioners International, submitted the following as a rebuttal to a recent two-part series in the Paulick Report, written by former Indiana Horse Racing Commission executive director Joe Gorajec. Those articles, dealing with what Gorajec referred to as a “culture of cheating,” can be read in WHOA press.

Polling of  U.S. horse racing bettors has repeatedly demonstrated that drugs and integrity issues are two of the top three issues facing the sport, and 92 percent of them say they want to see uniform medication policies implemented faster than they are being adopted now.

We all know the problem. But what is the best solution?

The members of the Coalition for Horseracing Integrity believe we need a systematic change in the way Thoroughbred racing is regulated.

• We need better and more uniform rules.

• We need harsher penalties for integrity-related violations.

• And we need improved drug testing, including much more out-of-competition testing and more robust investigations.

   

There are several areas in which the Thoroughbred racing industry has made progress in recent years. Random, out-of-competition drug testing isn't one of them.

In this edition of The Friday Show, Scott Jagow and Ray Paulick discuss why out-of-competition testing is vital to racing and why it's been such a struggle to put it in place in many jurisdictions.

The Paulick Received the following Letter to the Editor from the Coalition for Horse Racing Integrity, whose members include national and local organizations representing breeders, owners, sale consignors, racetracks and veterinarians 

As a group that shares the common belief that the Thoroughbred racing industry is in serious need of medication reform, we would like to commend the Paulick Report for its insightful, ongoing coverage of a saga involving a Florida-based trainer with numerous medication violations (“Vitali License Reinstated, Despite Record That Includes Complaint Of Cruelty.”

Trainer Marcus Vitali, currently serving a 120-day suspension for multiple medication violations in Florida, has been told by officials with The Stronach Group – owners of Gulfstream Park in Florida, Laurel Park and Pimlico in Maryland and Santa Anita Park and Golden Gate Fields in California – that they will not take entries from him in the future and asked Vitali to leave the Gulfstream Park property.

Trainer Allan Hunter, in whose name Vitali's horses have been running over the last two months, has also been told his entries will not be accepted by Stronach Group tracks. Hunter has been given 10 days to remove all of the horses currently under his care from Gulfstream Park. Hunter has one former Vitali horse entered on Friday's Gulfstream Park program that will be allowed to run, according to Tim Ritvo, chief operating officer of The Stronach Group's racing division.

Horse racing may not appear to have much, if anything, in common with mixed martial arts. Still, an official with that sport’s most prominent league will attempt to lay out its common ground with racing on Sunday as a guest of The Jockey Club at its Round Table Conference on Matters Pertaining to Racing in Saratoga Springs.

Jeff Novitzky, the vice president of athlete health and performance for the Ultimate Fighting Championship, is scheduled to speak just prior to the Round Table’s keynote speaker, Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges, the chief executive of the Hong Kong Jockey Club. Novitzky’s placement near the end of the program telegraphs The Jockey Club’s estimation of his message, which will focus on the UFC’s recent hiring of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency to design and enforce the sport’s drug-testing program.

The exchange of ideas was a central theme at The Jockey Club's 64th annual Round Table Conference, which took place at the Gideon Putnam Hotel in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. on Sunday morning. Two of the speakers on the schedule brought inspiration for improvement to American racing from other businesses: Jeff Novitzky, vice president of athlete health and performance for Ultimate Fighting Championship (better known as UFC, the leading mixed martial arts organization), spoke about anti-doping, while Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges, CEO of the Hong Kong Jockey Club, spoke about customer service and integrity.

Last week, this space discussed and theorised about the potential impact of drugs that seek to enhance the peak performance levels of racehorses. Unsurprisingly, the piece generated quite a bit of comment given just how hot a topic performance-enhancing drugs in sport is right now. However, while drugs such as anabolic steroids and cobalt chloride that bid to enhance peak performance levels are the ones that many people fear the most, horse racing arguably has far bigger problems with another medication-related issue, that of an over-reliance on and abuse of therapeutic medications.

“In the rest of the world, horse racing is more of a sport. In the U.S., it’s got a little bit of a business aspect to it,” said Rick Arthur, the equine medical director at the California Racing Board. “Horse racing needs to become drug-free, and when I talk about drug-free, I’m talking about international standard. I think we need to do that to be able to convince the public that the horse is our primary interest. I think that’s absolutely imperative for horse racing to succeed in a very changing environment.”

One reason for the enduring interest in cobalt lies in the public’s voracious appetite for drug, and drug-related, storylines – especially in horseracing. Another reason, however, belongs to a dearth of empirical data into exactly what effect cobalt has on the physiology of a racehorse, and why.

A number of studies launched in the wake of the scandal have taught us much. But can cobalt make horses run faster? 

Known since the middle of last century, cobalt does stimulate the production of Erythropoietin (EPO) in mammals. But, as a paper recently published in the Veterinary Journal, points out: “Currently there is no evidence to suggest that cobalt chloride can enhance human or equine performance.”

The powerful Jockey Club is working with the Humane Society to eliminate the scourge of doping and, in the process, get the fragmented racing industry to play by a single set of rules.

The two groups are supporting federal legislation, the Thoroughbred Horse Racing Anti-Doping Act of 2015, that would put the United States Anti-Doping Agency in charge of monitoring the administration of race-day medication at the track. The organizations hope to put USADA, an independent agency, in a position to police the sport’s deeply rooted doping culture.

Race-day doping is particularly troublesome. It can give horses an advantage, but it can also put already injured horses, who should not be racing, at risk of greater, even catastrophic, injury.

Former Maryland Jockey Club CEO Joseph A. De Francis watches the Triple Crown races with growing anxiety, worried that an overmedicated horse will collapse in front of millions of viewers, sending the industry's already tenuous fortunes tumbling along with it.

Questions about drugs in the sport have "the potential to explode on the industry like a nuclear bomb," said De Francis, 61, who spent 35 years in the business and once was a partner in Laurel Park and Pimlico Race Course, which will host the Preakness on Saturday.

Members of the Congressional Horse Caucus held a hearing-style discussion of a bill seeking to restructure the regulation of U.S. racing on Thursday afternoon in Washington, D.C., with supporters vowing to continue to press for adoption of the legislation.

The meeting was put together by Reps. Paul Tonko of New York and Andy Barr of Kentucky, the co-chairs of the Congressional Horse Caucus and the sponsors of the legislation. Five panelists were invited to provide comments about the legislation, with four of the panelists clearly in support of the bill. The fifth, a representative of a national horsemen’s organization, urged legislators to keep the current state-by-state approach to regulation in place.

WASHINGTON–A new day, another hearing, a familiar story. That’s often been the case over these many years as reform-minded politicians have held several hearings to discuss efforts to bring reform to horse racing, particularly in the area of drugs. Thursday’s hearing of the Congressional Horse Caucus, which has been pushing for passage of the Horse Racing Integrity Act of 2015, didn’t exactly crack the mold as it failed to accomplish much in the area of breaking new ground.

But it did feature a relatively new player in the debate over federal intervention and drugs and one who came with a powerful message. Joe DeFrancis, the former chief executive of Pimlico and Laurel who is currently advising the Humane Society of the United States, brought his A game to the nation’s capital Thursday. DeFrancis was unwavering and unapologetic when he warned the racing industry that if major changes are not made, the sport could suffer dire consequences.

The public's dwindling confidence in American horse racing's medication policies "has reached a critical state" bordering on an industry "crisis," former Maryland Jockey Club chief executive Joseph A. De Francis told members of Congress Thursday.

Speaking before the Congressional Horse Caucus, De Francis said that the industry has failed "to address on a national level" the issue of abuse and misuse of racehorse medications.

The Thoroughbred racing industry is divided over whether Congress should create a national regulatory body to monitor the use of drugs in racehorses competing in races all the way up to the Kentucky Derby.

“I’d be willing to publicly debate anyone who has the nerve to stand up and take the stance that racing is better with drugs,” racehorse owner and celebrity chef Bobby Flay told lawmakers on Thursday.

Thoroughbred racing has a drug problem and, collectively, we hold the blame, yet we can fix it. I personally do not care about semantics, misinformation, mischaracterizations and hurt feelings. Let me restate: I do not care one bit. I care about horses, horse racing, and the owners who have skin in the game, who put up their money, their hopes, their desires, their time and their dreams.

Jockey Club Executive Vice President and Executive Director Matt Iuliano had the guts to speak out in a recent letter to the editor to the TDN [click here], arguing that those opposed to medication reform base their position on “the bedrock assumption that everything is totally fine in the realm of Thoroughbred medication regulation.” I agree with Iuliano. That assumption is totally false.

Imagine, for a minute, that the rules governing the National Football League were developed the same way as horse racing regulations.

During an annual meeting, personnel from the NFL league office would discuss and approve “model rules” for the game, then team owners around the league would be encouraged – but not required – to adopt them. We might have instant replay to help officiate games in Chicago but not in Green Bay. The Houston Texans may decide they don't want to follow protocol for concussions. The Seattle Seahawks could develop their own definition of pass interference. And the New England Patriots might thumb their nose at the league's “model rule” for inflating footballs.

“I’m grateful for the members of Congress from both parties who have stepped forward to support the goals of the Thoroughbred Horseracing Integrity Act,” said Congressman Andy Barr (R-KY). “Achieving this milestone is evidence of the growing support for uniform medication standards which will enhance the safety and integrity of Thoroughbred horseracing in America.” 

“I am energized to see this critical, bipartisan legislation approach 25 cosponsors,” said Congressman Paul Tonko (D-NY), “and I look forward to working with Congressman Barr to push this closer to the finish line.

On March 10, 2016, in Department 85 of the Los Angeles County Superior Court, the Honorable James C. Chalfant, Judge presiding, granted Quarter Horse Owner Gustavo De La Torre's petition for a writ of mandate directing the California Horse Racing Board to set aside its approval of the Los Alamitos Race Course “house rule” providing for disqualification of horses resulting from hair testing for albuterol and clenbuterol, both authorized medications in California. Additionally, the court ruled that De La Torre is entitled to declaratory and injunctive relief against both the California Horse Racing Board and Los Alamitos regarding enforcement of the illegal “house rule.”

Horses found to have been administered prohibitive substances, including anabolic steroids, are set to be handed lifetime bans in Ireland.

Eric Hamelback likes to focus on the positive in horse racing. Running his first winter convention as chief executive officer of the National Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association, the former general manager of Frank Stronach's Adena Springs in Kentucky put together several panels on Thursday's opening day designed to give HBPA members reassurance that the light at the end of the tunnel isn't an oncoming train.

Steve Beshear, the former two-term governor of Kentucky whose run ended in December 2014, said the recent winter storm that dumped about 10 inches of snow in Lexington and twice that much in eastern parts of the state drove home the point he didn't have the same responsibilities.

Kiaran McLaughlin spent 10 years training racehorses for the Maktoum family in Dubai, where horses cannot be given any medications within seven days of a race. The trainer referred to the ability to run horses without Lasix or other race-day medications as “eye-opening” in an interview at thoroughbredracing.com.

Minutes before the kickoff of the 2016 National Football League playoff game between the Denver Broncos and the Pittsburgh Steelers, an announcer casually reported that Pittsburgh quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who had a separated shoulder, had been injected with a painkiller so he could play.  Imagine the outcry if such an announcement were made during a Kentucky Derby telecast about one of the entries.

Sunday's Hong Kong International Races at Sha Tin race course will, from a drug control standpoint, be among the cleanest anywhere in the world.

Dr. Jennifer Durenberger wonders if Americans are “asking too much” of the National Uniform Medication Program in an editorial on Thoroughbred Racing Commentary.

The 2014 GI Wood Memorial was approaching and Dr. Russell Cohen not only wanted to win the race with Effinex (Mineshaft)–he wanted to make a statement. Cohen is a veterinarian who practices at the NYRA tracks, is a breeder and manages Tri-Bone Stables for his mother, Bernice, and he’s an outspoken hay, oats and water advocate. He was determined to succeed without any drugs, particularly Lasix, and prove that it could be done.

In reading the charges and fines against trainer Steve Asmussen in the Nov. 24 issue of TDN, I was upset to read that the administration of the thyroid hormone, thyroxine, T4, (a thyroid hormone molecule with 4 attached iodine atoms), was being referred to as a thyroid “supplement”. A supplement, in the truthful sense of the word, is/are the building blocks, which when administered to an animal/human allows the body to make its own natural chemicals and structures.

The results of a Daily Racing Form survey on medication last month attracted scant attention when published Oct. 26, understandable since entries had just been taken for the Breeders’ Cup races later that week. They are worth another look, however, as they contained a key finding that contradicts a theory that many in the industry have been promoting for years.

The Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association announced today that it will become a member of the Coalition for Horse Racing Integrity and support HR 3084.

“I think a lot of us use Lasix as a crutch."

Absent a smoking gun that would lead to evidence of unethical behavior on the part of Joe Gorajec, the dismissal of the former executive director of the Indiana Racing Commission sends the wrong message to regional and national participants in horse racing.

The following commentary was written by Joe Gorajec, who on Saturday was relieved of his job as executive director of the Indiana Horse Racing Commission (IHRC), a position he held for nearly 25 years... Gorajec was advised, in no uncertain terms, that he was not to have the article published.

There's no way to know how many Thoroughbreds would go to the post free of a controversial, but popular, drug until more tracks offer some Lasix-free races. That's why Gov. Steve Beshear should open the door to such races in Kentucky, even though a legislative committee recently turned thumbs down on the proposal from the Racing Commission.

The New York State Gaming Commission unanimously proposed a series of updates to the state’s codes for post-race drug testing Thursday, including adding a threshold for cobalt.

You Said Yes to US Anti-Doping Agency Oversight in Horse Racing – But Tentatively So... In July, the Horseplayers Association of North America commissioned a survey of its membership, with regards to the Tonko-Barr Bill. 

As someone with longstanding personal and professional commitments to equine health and safety, I found the recent “Where’s the Positive” commentary by Eric Hamelback, the chief executive officer of the National HBPA, in the August 20, 2015, edition of the Thoroughbred Daily News to be disappointingly misleading.

The Coalition for Horse Racing Integrity recently announced that Centaur Gaming – which owns and operates Indiana-based Hoosier Park Racing & Casino, Indiana Grand Racing & Casino and several off-track betting facilities – has joined as a member.

Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation today announced that it has launched the funding of two projects aimed at in-depth investigation of the pathophysiology of Exercise-Induced Pulmonary Hemorrhage (EIPH) and the effect of the medication furosemide on that condition. The American Association of Equine Practitioners’ AAEP Foundation is playing a prominent role in funding the projects, and Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation has reached out to racetracks to complete the funding.

Beyond the Triple Crown races each spring, the Breeders’ Cup World Championships each fall and the occasional feature film profiling legendary horses like Secretariat or Seabiscuit, the American public has limited mainstream exposure to thoroughbred horse racing.

In fact, recent polling found that while the vast majority of adults in the U.S. called horse racing both exciting and fun to watch, only 14% had a very favorable view of the industry.

The United States Anti-Doping Agency assisted the Drug Enforcement Agency in a nationwide series of enforcement actions targeting the global underground trade of anabolic steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs, the DEA said Sept. 1.

The leadership of California Thoroughbred Trainers (CTT) has voted unanimously to pledge $150,000 from its reserves to initiate and assist in leading a comprehensive race‐day camera surveillance and security program in stable areas at Thoroughbred tracks in California.

I’m sure my money won’t be missed, but I can’t in good conscience place any more bets on races in California – not after what happened at the California Horse Racing Board meeting last week.