Frank Becker

By Bill Finley & Dan Ross The bombshell decision Friday out of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit that ruled that the Horse Racing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) was unconstitutional has opened up a pandora's box of problems and had legal experts scrambling to make sense of the opinion and figure out what is the best path forward for HISA after a resounding setback in court. "We have a chaotic situation right now," said attorney Alan Foreman, an expert in equine law and the Chairman/CEO...

The simmering stand-off between the Texas Racing Commission and the powers behind the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) bubbled higher Monday, when the commission's executive director issued a letter warning Texas will prohibit the import and export of pari-mutuel simulcast signals at its racetracks if the Act goes into effect on July 1 with jurisdictional authority over the state's Thoroughbred racing operations. In the letter, Amy Cook, the Texas Racing Commission's executive director, invokes various statutes in the Interstate Horseracing Act, the Texas Racing Act and the Texas Rules...