It is becoming increasingly difficult to follow as opponents of the Horse Racing Integrity and Safety Act of 2020 continue to step up their campaign to get it derailed. Like throwing spaghetti against the wall to see what’s sticky, they continue to spread misinformation and misinformation, and file countless lawsuits across the country trying to keep something in mind. legislators, judges and policy makers.
I would like to set a HISA record and comment on my opponent’s most recent actions.
Over the past few months, these competitors, primarily the National Horsemen’s Protection and Benevolence Association and several state racing commissions, have unleashed a flurry of misinformation and fabrications in an attempt to tried to deceive members of the racing industry and the public against HISA. All of this is underwritten by a few special interest, agenda-driven, unrelated groups that are not involved in our sport and are not concerned with long-term viability. its.
They argued that HISA was adopted “at midnight” in 2020. It was not. Its first bill form was introduced in 2015 and reintroduced in 2017 and 2019, it received hearings in Congress, passed by the House Committee in 2020 and passed by the House of Representatives. The House of Representatives unanimously adopted it in September of that year as an independent piece of legislation. A month later, it was passed by the Senate as part of a larger bill, as the legislative session was about to expire.
Opponents also claim there is no HISA input. Unreasonable. As someone who was completely involved in the development of HISA, I can attest countless times that groups of riders and racing commissioners, in particular, have met with the bill’s supporters and sponsors. Its original. In fact, I remember flying the leadership of the NHBPA to Colorado Springs, Colo., to meet and discuss the bill. I will foreshadow the rest of this essay by sharing that at the time the NHPBA adviser said their greatest concern was putting anything in the bill that would open the Horse Racing Act. Confederation of 1978 for any form of modification or tampering. We’ve talked to them in closed rooms and debated them in public for years—but somehow, they’re “never included.”
In this scene of fraud and dishonesty, rivals have become mass litigators: they have filed six federal lawsuits across the country — each making redundant claims — in an effort to found the “right” federal appeals court to find HISA unconstitutional.
To date, competitors who have failed in the US Sixth Circuit, from a comprehensive and reasonable view, consider HISA to be constitutional. Last week, they failed again when a federal district court in Texas released another widely held opinion that HISA was constitutional. Opponents will take another shot with the US 5th Circuit Court as the court’s previous decision on HISA was contested by amending the law in December. Dissatisfied with the With this bite, opponents have recently filed more nearly identical lawsuits in two other federal court jurisdictions.
While helping plaintiffs’ attorneys realize their dreams, HISA opponents expend a lot of energy complaining about how much HISA can cost. While reviews will continue to be refined—one thing is for sure, they are increasing the costs of the industry by continuing to sue without end.
All of this brings us to last week. Once again, the challenges facing our athletes and industry are at the forefront—live with audiences across the country at the time of our biggest sporting event. . After the unfortunate deaths of horses at Churchill Downsand attracted major national media attention, opponents of HISA have chosen not to support a collective effort to address these issues but instead, shatter the industry’s best hopes to ensure horse safety and industry integrity. Earlier this week, they continued their best efforts to derail HISA to maintain the status quo by immediately seeking a moratorium on the implementation of the HISA Anti-Doping and Drug Control Program on May 22. This, despite despite the fact that the very same courts are asking for an order showing only that HISA is constitutional.
These commands have a phone number. A judge delayed the implementation of HISA’s medication program by a month, making it impossible to start it before Derby week. HISA will not be fully implemented until the end of this month, due to NHBPA. Would a unified, independent drug and monitoring safety program make a difference? Thanks to the NHBPA, we’ll never know.
Most organizations will keep a low profile after such an embarrassment. Not NHBPA, they have doubled. They had a small number of supporters in Congress to prepare legislation that would immediately repeal HISA and create the illusion of a unified state-based regulatory model. The draft legislation would give states the choice to either keep their current state-by-state approach or create a governing body whose boards of directors will be hand-picked by state committees—according to the rules. specifically allow directors with a conflict of interest. The compact drug regulation model is a recycled version of an idea first put forward in 2010 by the International Association of Racing Commissioners and which has continued to be embraced by rivals of HISA touted since then. Apparently, it doesn’t work yet, and it won’t in the future.
Furthermore, the trojan horse of this one bill taking a carrot and stick approach could put simulated staking operations across the US at risk of immediate and short-term termination. Under this measure, if two states entered into an agreement to create a conflicting new regulator, ALL other states would be barred from broadcasting the simulation until they also entered into the agreement. As I foretold earlier, NHBPA attorneys told us years ago that anything related to the IHA was an absolute no-no for them—now blinded by hatred. HISA, they don’t seem to care anymore. The “we have to destroy this industry to (maybe) save it” approach is an absolute insult to everyone in our industry—HISA advocates and non-HISA supporters.
The horses that died last week have recent racing histories in many states without a single regulatory agency capable of conducting complete cross-border investigations. HISA changes this dynamically. In the preferred approach of HISA opponents, each state is an island of investigation, limited to investigations within its own borders. One would think that the NHBPA wanted the fullest possible investigations to assist its members who lost their horses — and to avoid the same thing happening to other horses in the future. Instead, they focus on hobbling HISA while leaving our voters as well as our equestrians and people at risk.
I have spent every moment of my professional life working in this industry, in a variety of roles, including at some of the smallest and biggest races. It’s been a sport I’ve loved since I was a kid, and it still has deep roots among my friends and family. Race safety and integrity are issues that concern everyone at all levels of the game—and a lot of people outside of the game. Who among us in the sport hasn’t heard these days: “What’s going on with horse racing?” and “What can be done to fix it?” The answer is clear: HISA.
Unlike what HISA’s competitors are selling, the industry should seize the opportunity to protect our horses and our game by moving forward with HISA, not backtracking on programs. tired and stale in the past.
