On Monday, the University of Louisville Equine Industry program commenced the ARCI Racing Investigator Certificate Program online. The program, the first of its kind, will be conducted over the course of two days and will conclude on Tuesday, October 6, 2020.
The program, an initiative of the Association of Racing Commissioners International, holds tremendous value to not only current investigators but to those who hope to hold the position in the future. The content was produced through the efforts of the late John Wayne who was considered to be one of the foremost authorities on racing regulation in the U.S. Wayne was employed by 20 racetracks over 15 years as an investigator with the Thoroughbred Racing Protective Bureau (TRPB) and spent almost a decade in management at Atlantic City Race Course in New Jersey and the 21 years as the executive director of the Delaware Thoroughbred Racing Commission.
He was a board member of the Association of Racing Commissioner's International, which honored him in 2003 with the Len Foote Award and the former chairman and a driving force with the Organization of Racing Investigators (ORI).
“The job of a racing investigator is a specialty involving knowledge not only of police procedures concerning interrogation and evidence gathering but also of horseracing, the backstretch, and the horses themselves,” said RCI Chair Tom Sage of Nebraska, a former longtime law enforcement officer and racing investigator and past chair of ORI.
Although this program will be initially conducted online, the ARCI is committed to working with the University of Louisville's Equine Industry Program and the University of Arizona's Racetrack Industry Program to hold future programs in person.
The participants in the program will receive certification upon successfully passing an examination on the material presented. The RCI suggests commissions and racetracks include a requirement for the present Racing Investigator Certificate as essential for employment.
The content for the program will concentrate on basic horsemanship skills, safety procedures in the barn or paddock areas, racing terminology, overview of officials and their duties, constructing a condition book and drawing for races, as well as what is included in preparing a horse to race. Equine care and medications, veterinary records, investigatory tools and techniques are also reviewed. In addition, their will be extensive coverage of interactions with other enforcement entities, evidence gathering and methods those attempting to avoid detection when violating medication testing procedures. The program will also focus on the sensitivity of medication testing and the process of how results are obtained and determined.
RCI President, Ed Martin, who previously served as the New York regulator responsible for some of racing's most notable investigations—Breeders' Cup Pick-6 Wagering Scandal, the NYRA Mutuel Department fraud conspiracy, OTB mismanagement, Yonkers Raceway drug search lockdown—noted that “proactive investigators will develop intelligence networks and not be hesitant to dig deep into any situation where things do not seem as they should.”
“There is a tremendous amount of expertise and experience that is required to do this job properly,” he said, noting the work of the NY Gaming Commission in its effective records audit investigation.
Initially expected to include 30-35 participants, the program already has exceeded expectations with more than three times the number of registrations than anticipated.
“The University of Louisville is excited for its collaborative work with the ARCI to bring this certification program to fruition,” said Sean Beirne, Director of the UofL Equine Industry Program. “It is an important aspect of our mission to educate the professionals in the horse racing industry, to build on their knowledge, and provide resources to enhance and develop the methodology to create standards for the execution of their duties.”
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