FTC

Last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued an opinion that reiterated a conclusion they had reached two years prior--that even though the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA)'s rulemaking structure is constitutional, its enforcement provisions are not. It was nearly this time last year the United States Supreme Court punted the question of HISA's constitutionality back down the legal ladder, telling the Fifth, Sixth and Eighth Circuits of the U.S. Courts of Appeal to consider in their various HISA decisions a then-recent Supreme Court ruling...

Nearly one year after being tasked by the Supreme Court of the United States to re-examine a 2024 ruling that the Horseracing and Safety Integrity Act (HISA) is partially unconstitutional, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on Thursday issued a new opinion that essentially came to the same conclusion that the three-judge panel had reached two years ago: Even though HISA's rulemaking structure is constitutional, its enforcement provisions are not. The case dates to a 2021 lawsuit spearheaded by the National Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association (NHBPA)...

With a view to pulling the veil back on the hows and whys of their operations, a representative of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) Authority or the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit (HIWU) will every week answer a question of industry importance posed by the TDN. If you have any questions you'd like to ask HISA or HIWU, please feel free to send them over to us at the following email address: danross@thetdn.com Q: There appear to be a lot of cases stayed "pending the FTC's approval of...

Tuesday's Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) virtual town hall was a free-wheeling affair, with the bulk of the two-hour meeting spent on a discursive question-and-answer segment moderated by trainer Ron Moquett and bloodstock agent David Ingordo, two members of HISA's horsemen's advisory board. The initial focus of the town hall was HISA's 2026 budget. This year's gross budget, recently approved by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), comes to $77.2 million. If all the available credits are utilized by the industry, the net budget comes out to $60.6 million (though...

A federal court in Kentucky on Wednesday issued a declaratory judgement in a lawsuit brought by Churchill Downs, Inc. (CDI) against the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act Authority (HISA), ruling that assessment fees based on a purse-weighted methodology that the Authority used between 2022 and 2024 were "arbitrary and capricious, and therefore unlawful." However, the ruling did not vacate any of the previously issued HISA orders relating to those fees, noting that since the start of 2026, HISA and its governmental overseer, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), have abandoned the...

A federal judge on Monday ended a nearly two-year-old lawsuit by dismissing seven of the eight counts in litigation initiated by two Iowa horsemen who alleged unconstitutionality of the Horseracing and Safety Integrity Act (HISA) and the way the HISA Authority collects assessment fees. The eighth count, which pertained to an order from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regarding the fees, will simply be remanded back to that agency for a reworded explanation because, the judge wrote, "there is a 'strong possibility' that the FTC Order is guilty of nothing...

Trainer Phil Serpe, who is fighting both in federal court and at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) level to overturn a two-year suspension imposed by the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit (HIWU) for a clenbuterol positive in one of his trainees, on Wednesday was notified by the FTC that his legal team would not be allowed to have new evidence considered in his nearly 18-month-old case. Serpe's suspension stems from clenbuterol detected in the urine of Fast Kimmie (Oscar Performance) after her Aug. 10, 2024 victory in a $30,000 claiming...

The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) seeks public comment on proposed modifications to the Rule Series 5000 (Equine Testing and Investigation Standards) and 7000 (Arbitration Procedures) of its Anti-Doping and Medication Control (ADMC) Program by Monday, Feb. 23, the regulator said via a press release on Thursday. The proposed modifications build on HISA's ongoing review of the ADMC Program. In November, HISA distributed for public comment proposed modifications to other Rule Series comprising the ADMC Program (1000, 3000 and 4000). Comments received in response to that request are under...

The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) has received official approval by the Federal Trade Commission for a series of proposed changes to its Enforcement Rules (Rule Series 8000), the group announced Friday. These changes will take effect January 19, 2026. HISA's updated Enforcement Rules are available in full here and include the following changes: Clarification that it is a violation to enter a Covered Horse or cause a Covered Horse to compete in a Covered Horserace prior to registering the Covered Horse with HISA (note that it is a...

For the second time in 2 1/2 years, the same panel of three judges on the Sixth Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Cincinnati has affirmed the constitutionality of the Horseracing and Safety Integrity Act (HISA) in a lawsuit spearheaded by the states of Oklahoma, West Virginia and Louisiana. The case had alleged that the HISA Act gave a private corporation--the HISA Authority, which operates under the auspices of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)--far too broad regulatory authority. The plaintiffs claimed that was a violation of the non-delegation...

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has stayed trainer Eusebio Juarez's two-year suspension and combined $18,000 fine (including arbitration costs) handed to him in October by a Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) arbitrator for possession of the banned substance diisopropylamine. As a consequence, a further evidentiary hearing will be held. During this, Juarez will have the chance to present a witness, not present at a prior hearing, who allegedly has evidence of "significant exculpatory potential" in the case, according to FTC administrative law judge Jay L. Himes in a written...

In the first oral argument since the United States Supreme Court remanded three lawsuits related to the constitutionality of the Horseracing and Safety Integrity Act (HISA) back to their originating appeals courts five months ago, a panel of three judges on the Sixth Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Cincinnati on Wednesday heard from lawyers on both sides in a case that alleges the HISA Act gives a "private corporation broad regulatory authority." This same Sixth Circuit panel, back on Mar. 3, 2023, already upheld a lower court's...