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Advocates are praising the passage of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) as the most important equine welfare legislation to ever become federal law.
The HISA, which is aimed at curbing doping of thoroughbred racehorses and improving track safety, was signed into law by President Trump as part of the COVID-19 Relief Bill on December 27.
“It’s a game changer,” said Valerie Pringle, campaign manager for equine protection for the Humane Society of the United States. “Before you had 38 states determining what drugs, the amounts and the penalties. Some states were better than others. Now you have one set of rules like major sports leagues.”
Although the rate of track deaths has dipped over the past 20 years, to 1.53 per 1,000 starts, it still means hundreds of deaths from injury or drug-related medical conditions, according to the Jockey Club and news reports.
“This is a watershed moment for our sport,” James L. Gagliano, chief operating officer of the Jockey Club, told The New York Times. “We have a chance to regulate our sports at high standards. If you don’t have safe and clean sport, you don’t have anything.”
The law will establish an independent authority under the Federal Trade Commission, that will establish uniform rules, testing and penalties to address the abuse of drugs that mask pain, contributing factors to frequent fatalities like the more than 66 horses that died at Santa Anita racetrack between 2018 and 2019.
The law also stipulates that the United States Anti-Doping Agency, the entity that oversees Olympic sports, will handle drug testing, investigations and the enforcement of any civil sanctions for violations at racetracks, said Marc T. Summers, general counsel for The Jockey Club. It will also be charged with accrediting testing laboratories.
Advising the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority will be two committees: one devoted to drugs and another to developing standards to improve track safety.
Bob Baker, executive director of the Missouri Animal Alliance, said better track surfaces will prevent injuries.
“Some tracks keep surfaces hard to draw crowds because horses race faster, but if they are too hard there’s more concussion to limbs which leads injuries and to the need for drugs to mask pain,” said Baker, an expert on race track doping.
The law applies only to thoroughbred race tracks, not standardbred or Quarter horse tracks. However, the law contains an opt-in provision for each state racing commission to elect to have additional breeds covered by the law, and the financial implications for state racing commissions are such that many commissions will have no choice except to bring Standardbred and Quarter Horse racing into the federal fold.
Implications for Mid-Atlantic
There are some 25 thoroughbred racetracks operating in the mid-Atlantic region. Racing industry officials in some states say existing regulations in their regions are already in line with many of the regulatory proposals of HISA.
“Virginia already has strict medication and safety regulations in accordance with the Mid Atlantic Racetracks Strategic Alliance which has enacted strict safety and integrity rules amongst the participating tracks in the Mid Atlantic,’ said. Jill Byrne, Vice President of Racing Operations at Colonial Downs, Virginia’s only thoroughbred track.
Nevertheless, she added: “Consistent regulations for the safety and integrity of horse racing throughout all racing jurisdictions is certainly a step in improving the industry.”
Deanna Manfredi, a racehorse 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 versions, leading to higher costs and more bureaucratic red tape.
“The most important accomplishment is the USADA involvement that will bring an ability to investigate.” She also said funding is needed to continue to keep up with the research on new types of “designer” drugs being introduced 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-profile drugging scandals, including those at Penn National in PA and Monmouth Park, NJ.
In the Monmouth Park case, more than two dozen trainers, veterinarians and others in horse racing were charged early last year in a widespread doping scheme involving horses running in five states and the United Arab 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 equation 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 competition 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. Department of Agriculture inspections.
And doubling funding for USDA enforcement of the Horse Protection Act to over $2 million to address the “soring” of Tennessee 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.