HISA

One day after an arbitrator ruled that Phil Serpe would be suspended for two years in a contested clenbuterol positive case from last summer at Saratoga Race Course, the 66-year-old trainer was back in federal court Tuesday seeking to renew his request for a preliminary injunction in his nine-month-old lawsuit against the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). At the same time, Serpe's legal team also wasted no time in filing an immediate appeal with the FTC to have his July 14 Horseracing Integrity...

The arbitrator in charge of trainer Phil Serpe's contested clenbuterol positive detected in a filly who won last summer at Saratoga Race Course has issued a final decision that metes out the exact penalties sought by the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit (HIWU)--a two-year suspension, plus a race disqualification and forfeiture of purse winnings. Beyond the potentially career-ending banishment of the 66-year-old trainer, what was striking about the decision is that it did not impose any monetary fine upon Serpe. According to ADMC Rule 3223, Serpe could have faced a...

In discussing the evolution of his StrideSAFE wearable sensor, Dave Lambert turns to a tufty-haired German philosopher called Arthur Schopenhauer, who described new truths as a play in three parts. "First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as self-evident." Lambert has had the rejection and a little bit of ridicule, he said. "Some people have thrown rocks at me," he added, one recent afternoon via Zoom in a brightly lit corner of his Kentucky home, a small bronze horse as his virtual companion. "But...

A member of the Internal Adjudication Panel (IAP) for the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) and the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit (HIWU) on July 10 imposed a two-year suspension and a $25,000 fine on a veterinarian who has practiced on the New York circuit for more than three decades for "failing to submit over three thousand veterinary treatment records to HISA within 24 hours after examination or treatment of Covered Horses during the period from Jan. 1, 2023, through Mar. 7, 2024." The veterinarian, Michael J. Galvin, could...

When the National Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association first started warning that the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act would flunk constitutional due diligence as a violation of the private nondelegation doctrine, its arguments were laughed off. The smart set scoffed that the private nondelegation doctrine was dead, a defunct relic of pre-New Deal "Lochner era" jurisprudence. The NHBPA pressed ahead anyway with the simple yet powerful point that in our constitutional system, a private entity cannot wield public powers like making and enforcing law. The Fifth Circuit agreed--twice--and now the...

Every week, the TDN posts a roundup of the relevant Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) related rulings from around the country. The following rulings were reported on HISA's "rulings" portal and through the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit's (HIWU) "pending" and "resolved" cases portals. Resolved ADMC Violations Date: 07/08/2025 Licensee: John E. Salzman, trainer Penalty: Disqualification of Covered Horse's Race results, including forfeiture of all purses and other compensation, prizes, trophies, points, and rankings and repayment or surrender (as applicable); a fine of $500; imposition of 1.5 Penalty Points. Final decision by HIWU. Explainer: Medication violation...

The Horseracing Integrity & Welfare Unit (HIWU) has suspended the Pennsylvania Equine Toxicology and Research Laboratory's (PETRL) probationary Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) Equine Analytical Laboratory (HEAL) accreditation status for a minimum of six months, beginning July 8, 2025, the organization announced in a release Wednesday morning. Effective immediately, samples collected in Pennsylvania are being sent to Industrial Laboratories for analysis. HIWU's independent Laboratory Expert Group, which evaluates the performance of Program laboratories, recommended the suspension of PETRL's probationary HEAL accreditation due to nonconformities associated with HEAL compliance. HIWU,...

The Illinois-based trainer Gerald Butler, who is currently suspended 20 months and was fined $10,000 after a Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA)'s arbitration panel for Anti-Doping and Medication Control Program (ADMC) matters ruled in February that he possessed the banned substance levothyroxine (Thyro-L) in his Fairmount Park barn last summer, sued HISA in federal court July 3, seeking a stay of his penalties in a case that challenges the  definition of the word "possession." According to the sequence of events described in the arbitrator's decision, on June 13, 2024,...

The United States Supreme Court punted on Monday the constitutionality of the Horseracing and Safety Integrity Act (HISA) back down the legal ladder, requiring three different federal appeals courts to reconsider their earlier decisions on the matter in light of a fresh ruling by the highest court in the land. The Supreme Court's Friday decision in Federal Communications Commission (FCC) vs. Consumers' Research saw a 6-3 majority of justices essentially dismiss an argument that the agency delegated too much authority to a private company to administer the program. With this...

Every week, the TDN posts a roundup of the relevant Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) related rulings from around the country. The following rulings were reported on HISA's "rulings" portal and through the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit's (HIWU) "pending" and "resolved" cases portals.   Resolved ADMC Violations Date: 07/01/2025 Licensee: James Nicholson, trainer Penalty: 7-day period of Ineligibility for Covered Person, beginning on July 2, 2025; Disqualification of Covered Horse's Race results, including forfeiture of all purses and other compensation, prizes, trophies, points, and rankings and repayment or...

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law Monday a budget package that includes a continuation to, and in certain ways a redistribution of, the incentives and promotions that lawmakers have funnelled towards the state racing and breeding industries in recent years. The budget includes the following details: $15 million to Gulfstream Park and $5 million to Tampa Bay Downs for purses "and for the maintenance and operation" of these facilities. This mirrors the amounts listed for such purposes in last year's budget. $6 million to Gulfstream Park and $1.5 million...

The three lawsuits that have been simmering in the federal court system for several years and were all vying for the attention of the United States Supreme Court to decide the constitutionality of the Horseracing and Safety Integrity Act (HISA) are all headed back to their originating appeals courts, likely adding several more years to an already drawn-out adjudication process. The Supreme Court on Monday morning issued nearly identical "summary dispositions" for all three of the active petitions before the court involving the constitutionality of HISA. Each of the separate...