For the past year in particular, our organizations collectively have been actively engaged with Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority and Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit leadership to address specific issues and practices within the Anti-Doping and Medication Control Program that have caused significant concern and frustration among our horsemen and other industry stakeholders.
While we all understood that the launch of a new and sweeping congressionally mandated regulatory framework for Thoroughbred racing would present challenges, we believed it was our responsibility to work constructively with HISA and HIWU to identify and resolve problems without undermining HISA's core mission. Our experience working directly with HISA and HIWU's leadership has consistently demonstrated that collaboration—rather than confrontation—has been the most productive and effective use of our collective resources.
To its credit, HISA and HIWU have embraced our engagement. Specifically, we urged HISA and HIWU to:
- Limit the imposition of Provisional Suspensions in Banned Substances cases to certain situations in which the reported drug or substance presents an extreme and imminent threat to equine safety and the integrity of the sport—such as gene- and blood-doping agents, peptides, venoms, or similar substances—while allowing for full due process in all other cases.
- Permit the reasonable exercise of discretion when adjudicating Banned Substances cases, and determine appropriate penalties based upon all relevant facts and circumstances, including aggravating and mitigating factors and the Covered Person's regulatory history, to ensure that no horseman loses their livelihood unless such a result is truly warranted.
- Review and recalibrate the penalty structure applicable to certain Banned Substances, particularly drugs associated with widespread human use or abuse, where positive findings may plausibly result from inadvertent or unavoidable contamination rather than intentional misconduct.
- Formally recognize contamination or inadvertent exposure as a legitimate consideration in enforcement and penalty determinations, acknowledging that exposures may occur despite good-faith compliance efforts.
- Authorize the Racing Medication and Testing Consortium Scientific Advisory Committee to review the Banned Substances List and make informed recommendations for modification considering industry concerns regarding proportionality, fairness, and scientific relevance.
We trust most are aware that on Nov. 18, HISA published a comprehensive set of proposed regulatory amendments that, in many respects, directly address the concerns we have raised. Among the proposed changes are:
- The creation of defined "case circumstances" in Banned Substances cases, allowing HIWU to exercise discretion and consider additional mitigating factors when determining sanctions.
- Limiting immediate Provisional Suspensions in Banned Substances cases to circumstances where the substance poses an imminent threat to the health, safety, and welfare of the horse and the integrity of racing.
- Reclassification of certain human substance abuse drugs, with the ability to substantially mitigate penalties where contamination or inadvertent exposure is more likely than not.
- Recognition of environmental contamination and/or inadvertent exposure as a factor in enforcement and penalty assessment.
- Substantially reduced penalties for Class D substances, including commonly used anti-ulcer medications.
- Reduced penalties for positive tests involving horses working off the veterinarian's list.
- Reclassification of a number of substances from the Banned Substances List, and the establishment of a testing threshold in blood for Metformin to address contamination concerns.
- Authorization for DNA testing, when requested, upon Notice of a potential violation.
- Providing owners with hearing rights when their horses are subject to provisional suspension.
- Reductions in the length of horse suspensions in Banned Substances cases consistent with the elimination of the reported drug from the horse's system.
These are among numerous proposed changes currently subject to an industry public comment period that closes on Jan. 5, 2026. Following the close of that period, HISA may consider additional revisions before submitting final rules amendments to the Federal Trade Commission for adoption. We have communicated directly with the FTC regarding our concerns about prior delays in implementing reforms that were promised to the industry and serve the best interests of horsemen. We are optimistic that, once submitted, the FTC will publish and act expeditiously on these proposed rules modifications and bring this process to a timely conclusion.
Since the implementation of HISA, it has been our consistent view that the most effective way to serve our horsemen—the backbone of the industry—and the industry as a whole, is by engaging with HISA and HIWU to effect change when appropriate. We have long maintained that the national standardization of equine health, safety, welfare, and anti-doping rules is critical to the future of Thoroughbred racing. We will continue to engage with HISA and HIWU to ensure that horsemen are treated fairly, due process is respected, and unintended or unavoidable violations are addressed proportionately, while respecting HISA and HIWU's commitment to its core mission
