ADMC | Horse Racing Free Tips

Texas Judge Says No to ADMC Injunction

The Texas judge handling the National Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association (NHBPA) constitutionality lawsuit that is trying to halt the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) on Wednesday refused to grant an injunction that would delay the May 22 implementation of the Anti-Doping and Medication Control (ADMC) program.

In issuing his order, United States District Court Judge James Wesley Hendrix of the Northern District of Texas (Lubbock Division) pointed out that it is the second time in two weeks that he has informed the plaintiffs in a court order that they have not established a likelihood of success on the merits of their case.

The judge also stated in the May 17 order that the horsemen “misunderstand” the legal standards that apply to the granting of an injunction in this particular instance.

“The Court denies the motion for an injunction pending appeal,” Hendrix wrote. “As detailed in its 55-page Memorandum Opinion and Order [issued May 4], the plaintiffs have not established a likelihood of success on the merits. And even if their proposed standard applied, they have not made a substantial case on the merits given the congressional amendment in response to the Fifth Circuit's opinion…

“Because the plaintiffs have not established a right to an injunction pending appeal under either the correct standard or their preferred standard, the Court denies the motion,” Hendrix wrote.

“The plaintiffs misunderstand the correct standard for a district court considering a motion for injunction pending appeal,” Hendrix continued, adding at a later point, “The 'substantial case on the merits' standard does not apply to injunctions pending appeal.”

The planned appeal to the Fifth Circuit is the latest wrinkle in a lawsuit that has lingered in the courts for over two years.

On Mar. 15, 2021, the NHBPA and 12 of its affiliates sued personnel from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the HISA Authority, seeking to keep HISA from being implemented. Judge Hendrix dismissed that suit on Mar. 31, 2022.

The NHBPA plaintiffs appealed, leading to a Fifth Circuit Court reversal on Nov. 18, 2022 that remanded the case back to Hendrix's court. In the interim, an amended version of HISA got signed into law on Dec. 29, 2022. That fix was designed to make HISA compliant with the constitutional defects the Fifth Circuit had identified.

On May 4, 2023, Hendrix validated the newer version of HISA as constitutional. One day later, the NHBPA informed him it is planning another appeal back to the Fifth Circuit, and it wanted the ADMC's rollout stopped while that process played out.

On May 8, Hendrix wrote that, “The Court previously denied injunctive relief, but the plaintiffs again request an injunction, arguing that they will be injured by the ADMC rule during the pendency of an expected appeal.”

Nine days later, on May 17, Hendrix handed down his decision denying that motion, noting that “the Court is not persuaded by these passing references to [cases that the NHBPA cited as precedents], especially when the plaintiffs have not identified any case in which a district court granted an injunction pending appeal after denying a motion for preliminary injunction (much less following a consolidated bench trial).”

The post Texas Judge Says No to ADMC Injunction appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

NHBPA ‘Will Not Exploit the Deaths of Horses To Make a Point’

Not even 24 hours after the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) Authority and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) alleged links between the sport's recent adverse headlines and the National Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association (NHBPA)'s request to delay the May 22 implementation of the Anti-Doping and Medication Control (ADMC) program, the NHBPA fired back with a response that stated the fatalities of seven horses during GI Kentucky Derby week shouldn't be used as a means to make legal arguments in the 2-year-old lawsuit.

“The Horsemen will not exploit the deaths of horses to make a point, because this industry is not going to fix anything moving forward by pointing [fingers],” stated the first line of the NHBPA's May 12 filing.

United States District Court Judge James Wesley Hendrix of the Northern District of Texas (Lubbock Division) had given the NHBPA until the close of the court on Monday, May 15, to file a response to the arguments against delaying the ADMC that were articulated May 11 by the HISA Authority and the FTC defendants.

But because the HISA Authority alleged in its Thursday filing that “recent headlines provide fresh reminders” of “inconsistent regulation,” and because the FTC claimed that the NHBPA has “repeatedly challenged” HISA's efforts to “prevent these kinds of tragedies,” the horsemen plaintiffs wasted little time in trying to address those accusations with a legal response by midday Friday, well ahead of the judge's deadline.

The NHBPA's filing stated that the equine fatalities during Derby week did, in effect, occur under the HISA regulatory framework, citing a May 8 statement released by the HISA Authority that said, “Churchill Downs has been cooperating with HISA since its inception and is in full compliance with our rules and processes.”

The NHBPA also stated that it was the FTC itself, and not any legal efforts by the NHBPA, that kept the ADMC from being in place before the Triple Crown series started.

“It was also the FTC's choice to delay the ADMC from May 1 to May 22. The NHBPA did not delay the ADMC rules until after the Kentucky Derby. The Defendants made that choice because in their view the rules were not ready for implementation in prime time on the most important race of the year,” the NHBPA's filing stated.

“[T]he Authority is still caught in its own logic trap as to the ADMC,” the NHBPA filing stated. “On the one hand, they say, 'few substances that were broadly legal under most states' preexisting regulations are prohibited under the new HISA rules.' On the other hand, they say the ADMC must go into effect immediately or horses will die because current state regulations are insufficient.”

On Mar. 15, 2021, the NHBPA and 12 of its affiliates sued the FTC and HISA Authority personnel, seeking to derail HISA's implementation on constitutional grounds. Judge Hendrix dismissed that suit on March 31, 2022.

The NHBPA plaintiffs appealed, leading to a Fifth Circuit Court reversal on Nov. 18, 2022, that remanded the case back to the Lubbock Division. In the interim, an amended version of HISA was signed into law Dec. 29, 2022. That fix was designed to make HISA compliant with the constitutional defects the Fifth Circuit had identified. On May 6, 2023, Hendrix validated the newer version of HISA as constitutional.

Now the NHBPA is planning another appeal back to the Fifth Circuit, and it wants the ADMC's rollout stopped while that process plays out.

The HISA Authority's May 11 filing explained that it sees the overall issue this way: “Congress, the Executive, and both federal courts [have] come to the same correct conclusion: the Act is now constitutional.”

The NHBPA's May 12 filing countered that claim: “Congress did not 'follow the blueprint'–it made the barest tweak possible to keep the law alive and take a second shot at the courts allowing it to go through.”

The post NHBPA ‘Will Not Exploit the Deaths of Horses To Make a Point’ appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Lazarus Outlines HISA Approach To Churchill Deaths

Lisa Lazarus, the CEO of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA), has written an open letter to industry participants, addressing the measures HISA plans to implement in the wake of a spate of fatalities during the first week of the Churchill Downs meet leading up to and including Kentucky Derby day. The statement, in its entirety, reads:

Fellow racing participants,

I wanted to take a minute of your time to share an update on HISA's role related to the events of last week along with a perspective on what's to come.

Our first priority is to support efforts to better understand, to the degree possible, the root causes of the deaths last week at Churchill Downs.

Here's what you can expect from the team at HISA and our counterparts at the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission (KHRC) in the coming weeks:

The KHRC is leading an Equine Catastrophic Injury Review to investigate the circumstances of and potential contributing factors to each of the fatalities that occurred. The investigations are already under way, and involve, at a minimum, interviews with the horses' connections and security personnel and review of the horses' racing, training, veterinary and pre-race exam inspection records as well as video surveillance. This is in addition to the mandatory necropsies that will be performed to further inform our collective understanding of the circumstances as outlined by HISA's Racetrack Safety Program. All findings will be submitted to HISA upon the completion of the review.

HISA will conduct its own, independent investigation of each fatality to inform whether additional steps need to be taken. HISA's investigation will include the following:

A review of the records pertaining to each horse which died, including the necropsy report, Vets' List history, past performances, exercise history, treatment records, pre-race inspection, and video records;
A review of Churchill Downs equine fatality rates from the recent period, the same period the year prior, and the most recently concluded year; as well as training fatality data;
A review of racetrack maintenance records, surface measurements, and testing data;
Interviews with the Regulatory Vet, Attending Vet, track management officials, and other relevant third parties.

HISA's findings, including the determination of whether any rule violations occurred to refer for potential enforcement proceedings, will be made public following the investigation's conclusion.

The findings associated with these investigations will also be recorded and aggregated along with other industry-wide data for in-depth analysis to eventually establish a baseline for determining with greater clarity factors that may contribute to risk of injury.

While these changes take time and do little to address the immediate and pressing concerns we share as an industry, we have operational safety rules in place that by most accounts are making a difference. And soon, we'll take another critical step toward an improved, more modern sport when the Anti-Doping and Medication Control (ADMC) Program resumes on May 22 under the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit (HIWU).

For the first time in the storied history of Thoroughbred racing, there will be one set of uniform, consistent rules across all racing jurisdictions. Under the ADMC Program there will also be greater efficiency for all participants and real consequences for those who seek to break the rules for their own benefit and to the detriment of the horses under their care. The rules also create a rational, fair system for adjudicating penalties and taking into account environmental and other accidental contamination.

There is no doubt that the combination of the Racetrack Safety Program and the ADMC Program will make our sport safer for the horses entrusted to our care.

As we move forward from this collective low, I hope it is together, united with a renewed commitment to what matters most: the safety of our horses and our riders. We owe it to them to get this right. And we owe it to them to do it now.

Yours in racing,
Lisa Lazarus
HISA CEO

The post Lazarus Outlines HISA Approach To Churchill Deaths appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

HISA’S ADMC Program To Take Effect May 22

Following a launch March 27, the Horseracing Integrity & Welfare Unit (HIWU) plans to resume enforcement of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority's (HISA) Anti-Doping and Medication Control (ADMC) Program May 22. The program seeks to implement the following:

Transparency: The ADMC Program requires public disclosure of alleged Anti-Doping Rule Violations once the Covered Person has been notified of the violation and Provisionally Suspended. The alleged violation will be reported by HIWU on its website, and the public information disclosed will include the date of the collection, the name of the Covered Person, the identity of the Covered Horse, the alleged ADMC Program Rule Violation, and the Prohibited Substance or Method detected/involved. Alleged Controlled Medication Rule Violations will be publicly disclosed once the B (“split”) Sample is confirmed by another lab or analysis of the Sample is waived by the Covered Person. In short, it will take weeks, not months, for an alleged violation to come to light.

Efficiency: The ADMC Program articulates specific timelines for the results management and adjudication processes, and parties can request an expedited hearing to resolve the eligibility of a Covered Person or Covered Horse prior to an upcoming race. Hearings of Anti-Doping Rule Violations will be held within 60 days of being requested, absent exceptional circumstances. Controlled Medication Rule Violations will generally be adjudicated in a few months. In summary, cases will not drag on for years.

Consistency and Fairness: In addition to samples being tested to the same levels and standards regardless of which laboratory performs the analysis, all alleged violations will be subject to the same penalties regardless of jurisdiction. Cases will be adjudicated by members of an independent Arbitral Body (Anti-Doping Rule Violations) or the Internal Adjudication Panel (Controlled Medication Rule Violations). For all cases, adjudicators will be selected so as to be free from conflict of interest, thus addressing any integrity concerns in the prosecution of cases.

The post HISA’S ADMC Program To Take Effect May 22 appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post