February 2021 Issue

EAST COAST EQUESTRIAN February 2021 Page 23 Horse Racing Integrity and Safety Act Becomes Law Deanna Manfredi, a race- horse breeder from Kennett Square and a board member of the Pennsylvania Thoroughbred Breeders Association, said she feels the law is certainly “better than nothing,” but as written is more unwieldy than earlier ver- sions, leading to higher costs and more bureaucratic red tape. “The most important accom- plishment is the USADA involve- ment that will bring an ability to investigate.” She also said fund- ing is needed to continue to keep up with the research on new types of “designer” drugs being intro- duced to defeat testing. “Using doping agents to deceive tests is why Lance Armstrong never had a positive test,” Manfredi said. Decades Long Effort The fight for racing drug reform dates to late 1970s, a few years after drugs became legal in racing, according to Baker. But calls for reform escalated in recent years with the near-weekly deaths at California’s Santa Anita race track and several high-pro- file drugging scandals, including those at Penn National in PA and Monmouth Park, NJ. In the Monmouth Park case, more than two dozen trainers, veter- inarians and others in horse racing were charged early last year in a widespread doping scheme involv- ing horses running in five states and the UnitedArab Emirates. Baker, a former race horse owner, called the new law “very consequential.” He says it will likely lead to fewer injuries and deaths attributed to classes of drugs that mask pain and those that enhance performance. Baker and Pringle said the law will help save an industry that was facing growing backlash from the public over break downs on tracks. “Racing is inherently cruel,” Baker said. “Horses are started too young. They are not mature skeletally till age five. The law won’t solve that problem, but if you take drugs out of the equa- tion there’s less incentive to race an injured horse and maybe more incentive not to race as early.” Pringle said the law will mean more horses leave the tracks healthier and with fewer injuries and better able to transition to com- petition or use as pleasure mounts. “Thousands of racehorses will get better treatment and be able to go on to second careers,” she said. Two other major equine welfare provisions were included in the COVID relief bill: Language ensuring that U.S. horse slaughter plants remain closed by blocking taxpayer money from being allocated to fund U.S. Depart- ment of Agriculture inspections. And doubling funding for USDA enforcement of the Horse Protection Act to over $2 million to address the “soring” of Ten- nessee Walking Horses, racking horses and spotted saddle horses. Soring is the intentional infliction of pain on the horses' hooves and legs to achieve the high-stepping gait for the showring. (Continued from page 1)