The University of Louisville (UofL) Equine Industry program launched the first-ever Racing Investigator Certificate Program Monday. The two-day program, an initiative of the Association of Racing Commissioners International (ARCI), was conducted online, but the ARCI is working with UofL and the University of Arizona’s Racetrack Industry Program to hold future programs in person.
“The job of a racing investigator is a specialty involving knowledge not only of police procedures concerning interrogation and evidence gathering, but also of horse racing, the backstretch, and the horses themselves,” said ARCI Chair Tom Sage.
The participants will receive certification upon successfully passing an examination on the material presented, including basic horsemanship skills, safety procedures, racing terminology, overview of officials and their duties, constructing a condition book and drawing for races, equine medications, veterinary records, investigatory tools and techniques, evidence gathering, methods used by those attempting to avoid detection when violating medication testing procedures, and much more. The contents were 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.
“There is a tremendous amount of expertise and experience that is required to do this job properly,” said RCI President Ed Martin.
The ARCI suggests commissions and racetracks include a requirement for the present Racing Investigator Certificate as essential for employment. Initially expected to include 30-35 participants, the program already has exceeded expectations with more than three times the number of registrations than anticipated.
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.”
The Association of Racing Commissioners International is preparing an analysis of the newly proposed legislation, the “Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act,” by Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell (R), so the group can prepare for a “smooth transition” should the measure be enacted. Earlier this week, the ARCI released a statement looking at the bill's effect on breeders, and another looking at control of medications in training.
The newly proposed Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act of 2020 (S.4547) may provide an incentive for States to defund existing anti-doping and medication rule enforcement programs.
“COVID-19 has economically devastated many state budgets and the additional resources just may not be there to improve upon the existing anti-doping and medication enforcement program infrastructure to comply with S.4547,” said Ed Martin, President of the ARCI.
The RCI President said It is not unreasonable to expect that a State Budget Director or Legislative Committee will look at this law and question why the state needs to continue paying for the existing program, any new unfunded mandates, and a new federal authority as well as it's contracted enforcement agency. As the law allows the state to “off load” their current program and have the federally dictated system operate and pay for it, there will be an economic incentive to do that.
At that point racetracks, owners, trainers, breeders, and veterinarians may be assessed costs to replace the lost state investment and pay for the additional two entities envisioned by the bill.
Depending on the state, the local racing industry will continue to pay all current state assessments and taxes and may discover that they now must pay newly levied assessments to pay for the now federally mandated privatized program.
According to the analysis and assuming that there will be no industry specific state tax cut in these jurisdictions and existing revenue sources will remain, the racetracks, owners, trainers, breeders, and veterinarians in the following states (partial list) are potentially exposed to paying again should their state program be shifted to the newly created NGO:
Illinois
Colorado
Michigan
Florida
Oregon
Arizona
Massachusetts
Nebraska
Virginia
Washington
Indiana
New Mexico
Wyoming
Louisiana
Some states have the ability to directly bill racetracks for their program. These states may continue to operate their existing program and simply forward the newly enhanced bill for the current program, additional mandates and the two new entities directly to the racetracks which will then be required to pay the state. These jurisdictions include:
New Jersey
Texas
Kentucky
Delaware
Iowa
Oklahoma
Massachusetts
Nebraska
Virginia
Maryland* (see below)
West Virginia
Minnesota
New York* (see below)
In New York, state general fund monies are used to pay for the drug testing enforcement program and shortfalls are recouped from a commission determined industry assessment on racetracks and owners. Given New York's post virus severe financial needs going forward it would be possible for the state to cut funds for drug testing and allow the commission to impose fees on tracks and owners to pay for the shortfall and any additional costs imposed by the legislation.
If that were to happen or should the State hand the program off, the prospect for an industry specific tax cut would be slim and the industry would be totally required to make up the loss of state investment.
In Maryland, only certain costs can be forwarded to the tracks and additional mandates may require legislation in order to be passed through.
S.4547 envisions that racing commissions will pass the overhead costs for the new authority and its enforcement agency to industry participants based on the assessment bill received each year. The states do not have the authority to unilaterally impose and set such assessments with the possible exception of New York as indicated above.
The States have had to do the best job they could with the available funding. State budgets have always considered the ability of people to afford the assessments. This bill puts no limit on program funding which is a luxury no State Racing Commission ever has had.
The Association of Racing Commissioners International is preparing an analysis of the newly proposed legislation, the “Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act,” by Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell (R), so the group can prepare for a “smooth transition” should the measure be enacted. Earlier this week, the ARCI released an initial statement looking at the bill's effect on breeders.
The federally sanctioned authority empowered by newly proposed legislation by Senator McConnell will be able to impose strict controls on the use of any therapeutic medications administered to a “covered horse,” effectively setting the stage for a program that could require a veterinarian to receive prior permission before treating the horse with a prescription medication.
Such a system, if implemented, would parallel the “therapeutic use exemption” program in human sport. Under the requirements of the World Anti-Doping Agency code, advance permission must be obtained before a controlled substance is administered to an athlete in training or competition.
Unlike human sport, it is not expected that the new Authority would depart from current ARCI Model Rules or International Federation of Horseracing Authorities standards that prohibit such drugs to be present in the horse when it races.
But S.4547 does give the new Authority powers to control all substances administered to horses under its jurisdiction. Under the proposal, a “covered horse” comes under the jurisdiction of the new Authority after its first timed workout at a racetrack.
The analysis finds that the new Authority could, for the first time, put in place a system to control what some believe is the overuse of certain drugs in the care and preparation of horses intended to race. Whether it will actually do so, the timing of such a change, or how it would work is not yet known.
Given the number of racehorses potentially regulated by the new Authority such a program would require additional resources than what is currently available in the regulatory network in order to review such applications.
State Racing Commissions are not authorized to regulate the practice of veterinary medicine. There has, however, been a trend within the ARCI and the Racing Medication and Testing Consortium to require commission notification of certain treatments and in some limited circumstances advance approval. Current regulatory policy relies largely on the ability of a commission to exclude a horse from competition. In some jurisdictions legal and liability concerns have affected the extent of the changes that could be done.
In July 2019, the ARCI proposed a private regulatory scheme using existing breed registry authority to require submission of all veterinary treatment records, including the diagnosis required for treatments, of all intended racehorses from birth forward, These records would be electronically reviewed to “red flag” horses in need of greater monitoring in order to help regulatory veterinarians assess whether a horse is high risk and should be excluded from competition.
As S.4547 has a greater focus on anti-doping, it does not require such a system. The bill does effectively put the actual horse under the regulatory authority of the new Authority at a uniform and consistent point in its career, eliminating inconsistencies that currently exist in state-based statutes and rules.
It remains unclear whether the Authority will require the submission of all veterinary records or will fall short of what the ARCI had asked the Jockey Club to require in 2019.
