Racing Officials Blindsided, Politicians Vague on Drastic Reform Legislation

by T.D. Thornton

A day after bipartisan legislation was filed on Thursday to repeal the Interstate Horse Racing Act of 1978 as a cudgel to “clean up the sport,” industry leaders reacted with shock that the drastic bill was filed, and essentially decried the measure as an attention-getting threat akin to cutting off an arm to mend a broken hand. 

“It was a surprise,” said National Thoroughbred Racing Association president Alex Waldrop, when reached via phone at Churchill Downs on the eve of the GI Kentucky Derby. “We had no indication that this was coming. Certainly, it is overkill. We haven't talked to them. I have no idea what they have in mind. I can only speculate as to what their overall end is. Shutting down [an entire industry] is counterproductive.” 

The IHA is the federal law that permits interstate simulcasting within the United States. In 2014, $10.5 billion was wagered on U.S. horse races. The most widely cited figure for handle derived from simulcasting is 90%. Although the IHA has some critics within the industry because of the way simulcasting revenues are divided, the general consensus is that without the IHA, pari-mutuel betting in America would grind to a halt. 

“The Jockey Club had no knowledge of the bill…or advance notice that it was going to be introduced,” Jim Gagliano, president and chief operating officer of The Jockey Club, wrote in a prepared statement. “We are disappointed that they have decided to take this approach. The Interstate Horseracing Act of 1978 is the lifeblood of the industry, and we strongly oppose any effort to repeal it.”

The sponsors of U.S. Senate Bill No. 1174 (click here for a copy of the bill), Senator Tom Udall (D-New Mexico) and Representative Joe Pitts (R-Pennsylvania), wrote in a joint press release that “widespread corruption has stained the industry” and that their measure would “encourag[e] the sport to end doping and crack down on cheaters.” But they did not elaborate on how repealing the IHA would bring about proactive horse welfare changes. The bill has been referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. 

As of Friday afternoon, the text of SB 1174 was not yet available on the legislative website www.congress.gov. But a draft copy of the legislation obtained by TDN reveals that nowhere within the bill itself do the sponsors explain how repealing simulcasting laws would spur medication reform. 

SB 1174 cites a series of welfare-related articles published in 2012 by the New York Times, and an unnamed 2013 “industry study” that claims bettors avoid wagering on certain tracks “because they assume illegal drug use affects race results.” The bill then concludes that “the Interstate Horseracing Act of 1978 has not met its original policy goal of furthering the U.S. horse racing industry.” 

When asked if there was specific mechanism for “encouragement” beyond the implied threat of repealing the IHA, a spokesperson for Sen. Udall replied with the following emailed statement that she said could be attributed to the senator: 

“I previously introduced modest reform legislation to ensure the integrity and safety of horse racing. That failed bill would have designated USADA [United States Anti-Doping Agency] as the independent anti-doping body for interstate horseracing. Shutting off interstate and advanced deposit wagering is an appropriate step to help stop the terrible and growing list of dead racehorses from medication and doping abuse. Congress should not give a sweetheart gambling privilege for interstate racing if cheaters are allowed to compete and the equine athletes are not protected from doping abuse…The racing industry has promised to clean up its act for decades, yet there has been very little progress.” 

A spokesperson for Rep. Pitts did not respond to the same question prior to deadline for this story. 

GovTrack, a government transparency organization that uses logistic regression analysis to rank the likelihood of passage of the 10,000 bills that come up annually in Congress, gives SB 1174 an 8% chance of getting past committee and a 3% chance of being enacted. 

For comparison, since 2013, 15% of all bills in Congress made it past committee. Slightly more than 3% were enacted. 
The timing of the bill, which was filed roughly 48 hours before post time for America's most prominent horse race, caused Waldrop to characterize the legislation in a prepared statement as “a shameless publicity stunt that mischaracterizes one of the nation's most highly regulated sports, ignores the significant progress the industry has achieved at the state level in recent years through widespread adoption of the National Uniform Medication Program, and unfairly disparages thousands of people who work every day to make horseracing as safe and fair as possible for all participants.” 

When asked by TDN if he could think of any other example of legislators threatening to wipe out a key federal law to bring about reform within a specific industry, Waldrop responded, “Absolutely not. I've never heard of anything like this.” 
Waldrop continued: “Our focus right now is the nationwide adoption of the National Uniform Medication rules. That's the focus. That's the one group of reforms around which we have consensus in the industry. That's where we would push.” 
Waldrop said he did not foresee any sort of meeting between the sponsoring politicians and industry officials to discuss the bill. 

“I certainly don't anticipate them reaching out to [industry leaders],” Waldrop said. “They've never done that, in all the years that they've been [proposing legislation]. We've reached out to them many times over the last five years and hey have always stiff-armed the NTRA and the RMTC [Racing Medication and Testing Consortium]. They are not willing to meet with us. That's the reason we will not be reaching out to them. It would be futile.”