HISA

After a week of political uncertainty, the Senate has passed a version of the full year-end omnibus spending bill with language affording the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) more rule-making authority in the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA), according to a source close to the process. The language is designed to address a ruling in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals from November, which found the law as written doesn't afford the FTC enough latitude in the rule-making process. The Senate voted in favor of the bill 68-29, but it...

As the deadline looms for congress to insert language into the full year-end omnibus spending bill to fix constitutional question marks surrounding the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA), proponents and critics of the law have taken to an epistolary standoff. Last week, trainers Wesley Ward and Larry Rivelli issued a letter through the National Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association (HBPA) critiquing various aspects of the national program for "too many flaws, missteps and costs that could have been averted with true inclusion and transparency in its development." Earlier this...

Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) has jointly filed an amendment with Senator Manchin (D-WV) that would strip references to the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) from the 4,000-page omnibus spending bill being considered this week in Congress, according to a press release Wednesday morning from the Iowa HBPA. Tuesday, it was revealed that draft language has been inserted into the full-year omnibus spending bill designed to fix what the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals called a constitutional problem with the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA), finding in November that...

"Twelve-thousand dollars going once...twice...SOLD!" It was the Keeneland November Sale and for the second time in a year I had to watch my big beautiful chestnut mare slip out of reach. The former black-type runner was vanned 2,100 miles away to her next venture as a broodmare prospect despite having previously failed to conceive. Six years later, I would be paying that mare's bail from a Texas livestock yard after she failed to produce but one foal who has yet to race. A graded stakes-placed mare from humble beginnings with...

Over the last few months, I have read and heard numerous concerns about HISA's involvement in the thoroughbred industry. Purported issues range from, "we don't need the government in our business" to, "these new rules are too burdensome," to "they should have asked horsemen to be involved in the rulemaking." I believe most of those complaints come from a place of misunderstanding about what HISA is trying to accomplish and also how imperative it is to our livelihood that we have a centralized set of rules. As someone fortunate enough...

The National HBPA issued a letter today saying the organization was approached by trainers Wesley Ward and Larry Rivelli to help facilitate an open letter to the industry. While this is being distributed by the National HBPA, which also assisted in putting the letter together, the sentiments are those of trainers Wesley Ward, Larry Rivelli and the undersigned horsemen and racing participants. They encourage others who agree with this letter to add their name by using the link here and below. More than 400 have signed up in 24 hours...

Facing a United States Court of Appeals decision from the Fifth Circuit that the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) is unconstitutional and battling three similar lawsuits in various stages within the federal court system, the HISA Authority and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) were informed Monday that a U.S. District Court judge in Texas won't grant those defendants a requested stay that would halt the briefing schedule in that case pending a final resolution of the Fifth Circuit order. "No Good Cause Exists to Stay This Action," wrote U.S....

The attorneys general from nine states on Thursday implored United States Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell not to use the end-of-term 'lame-duck' session of Congress to ram through legislation that would tweak non-constitutionality issues with the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) by burying the measure within a much larger bill. "It has come to our attention that you are considering proposing language related to HISA in the Defense Spending Authorization Act or other end-of-year legislation," the AGs wrote to the senior senator from Kentucky in a Dec. 8 letter....

The Board of the Association of Racing Commissioners International (ARCI) has unanimously requested the Federal Trade Commission to delay final action on HISA's proposed Anti-Doping and Medication Control rules until the constitutional questions being litigated are resolved, they announced in a press release Wednesday. "We cannot have a situation where an enforcement action is overturned because the authority of the enforcing entity to act is in question," said Ed Martin, ARCI President. "The only way to avoid that is to delay approval of HISA rules leaving existing state rules and...

CINCINNATI, OHIO -- The latest challenge to the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) was the first case before the three judges selected to weigh in on the law's constitutionality Wednesday in the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, in Cincinnati. The plaintiffs comprise the state of Louisiana; Oklahoma and its racing commission, plus West Virginia and its racing commission. Three Oklahoma tracks-Remington Park, Will Rogers Downs, and Fair Meadows-are also plaintiffs, as are the Oklahoma Quarter Horse Association, the U.S. Trotting Association, and Hanover Shoe Farms,...

Lisa Lazarus, the chief executive officer for the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA), on Tuesday made an appeal for sport-wide unity with United States racing on the cusp of a Jan. 1 roll-out of HISA's Anti-Doping and Medication Control rules. "I want you to think about what this sort of change is going to mean for the industry," Lazarus said. "It's going to look and feel different, and it's going to allow us to say to those that are our detractors, to those that doubt horse racing is clean,...