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ARCI Lexington Conference to Focus on HISA and Sports Betting

The 2022 annual conference of the Association of Racing Commissioners International (ARCI) will be held Apr. 11-14 in Lexington at the Lexington Griffin Gate Marriott. The conference will focus on the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA), specifically on the issues and details surrounding implementation, and on the expanded responsibility of many ARCI members involving regulation of sports betting.

The annual ARCI conference–now in its 88th iteration–attracts senior racing regulatory personnel from across North America as well as racing industry leaders representing the Thoroughbred, Standardbred, and Quarter Horse sectors, in addition to prominent horsemen, racehorse owners/breeders, and veterinary organizations.

For more information and to register, visit arci.com.

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Straight Talk About HISA: NHBPA, ARCI CEOs To Appear On Kentucky Racing Spotlight This Friday

The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA), legislation scheduled to go into effect July 1, will be the subject of a special edition of Kentucky Racing Spotlight this Friday from 6-7 p.m. ET on Louisville's ESPN 680 AM.

Eric Hamelback and Ed Martin, the CEOs respectively of the National Horsemen's Benevolent & Protective Association (NHBPA) and the Association of Racing Commissioners International (ARCI), will be the featured guests discussing one of the most fundamental changes to the administrative structure of horse racing in history. Peter Ecabert, the National HBPA's general counsel, also will participate.

HISA general counsel John Roach and the HISA Authority's interim executive director Hank Zeitlin declined invitations to take part.

“We look forward to opportunities for discussion with you after Lisa Lazarus takes on her role as CEO next month,” Zeitlin responded in an email.

Roach and Zeitlin referenced pending litigation as the reason for not participating. The National HBPA and 12 of its state affiliates have a lawsuit pending in Federal District Court in Lubbock, Texas. Additionally, nine individual states, along with two state racing commissions and the Oklahoma Quarter Horse Association, filed a separate suit in Federal District Court in Lexington, Ky.

The National HBPA believes HISA is an unconstitutional delegation of legislative authority to a private non-governmental organization – the Authority. The Kentucky HBPA, the radio show's presenting sponsor, did not join the suit, though it was represented on the National HBPA's executive committee that voted unanimously to pursue a legal challenge.

HISA is now the acronym for both the legislative act and the regulatory Authority the law created.

The HISA legislation was passed by Congress in late 2020 and included as part of a year-end spending and Covid-19 relief bill. The law grants the Authority broad powers to create, regulate and enforce rules with respect to medication/drug, safety and integrity matters for thoroughbred racing in the United States. The Authority is under the jurisdiction of the Federal Trade Commission, which must approve any regulations it proposes. Currently, regulations have been submitted to the FTC and published for public comment, others await submission, while no regulations have been approved or disapproved.

“We are less than 5 1/2 months from HISA's legislatively mandated implementation,” said Kentucky Racing Spotlight co-host Jennie Rees, a veteran turf journalist who works as a communications consultant for both the National and Kentucky HBPA along with other entities in horse racing. “Our show by design is not political. HISA is clearly a polarizing issue, but we thought this close to such a paradigm shift in thoroughbred racing that it was important to get straight talk, facts and informed perspective about what it means for the industry – including racing's consumers, the horseplayers – without the rhetoric or heated emotions.

“We are disappointed that HISA thus far has declined to participate. The invitation remains. I dare say the majority of racing participants – including many supporting or opposing the law – have no idea what is and isn't in the legislation. We wanted to take one step toward changing that.”

The National HBPA represents close to 30,000 licensed owners and trainers throughout America, making it the largest thoroughbred horsemen's organization in the world. ARCI is the umbrella organization of the official regulatory and rule-making bodies for horse and greyhound racing throughout North America and parts of the Caribbean. The organization's members heretofore were the only independent entities recognized to license, enforce and adjudicate matters pertaining to racing.

Kentucky Racing Spotlight, co-hosted by Joe Clabes, airs weekly through March 4 on ESPN 680-AM/105.7 FM, the region's sports-talk leader. The program also will be streamed live at espnlouisville.com, on the ESPN 680 app and the TuneIn and iHeart apps. The replay will be available on espnlouisville.com under the podcasts tab. All shows also are archived at davisinnovation.com/kyracing.

Kentucky Racing Spotlight is also sponsored by Davis Innovation equine marketing, the Louisville Thoroughbred Society and NKYTribune.com.

Previous shows archived at
https://www.davisinnovation.com/kyracing

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ARCI Urges On-Time Implementation Of Horseracing Integrity And Safety Authority

The Board of Directors of the Association of Racing Commissioners International (ARCI) has unanimously indicated that the delay in HISA implementation suggested last week by the Authority's Chair Charles Scheeler was “not necessary and legally problematic” as the US State racing commissions are all eager to negotiate and finalize agreements with both the Authority and it's Enforcement Agency (assumed to be the United States Anti-Doping Agency).

“The people and organizations that have worked hard to pass the federal legislation have been waiting for ten years for these reforms and we see no reason why HISA and the enforcement agency cannot assume control on July 1, 2022, as required by the law,” said RCI Chair Robert Lopez.

Since late August State racing commissions have participated in fifteen implementation work sessions with both HISA and USADA senior staff. Those meetings were coordinated by the ARCI and the last session occurred early November.

The only missing pieces are how the HISA Authority plans to pay for things and what the additional costs of the Authority and Enforcement Agency will be. Existing program costs are matters of public record in each state and have been provided by the state commissions months ago.

“This is not rocket science,” said RCI President Ed Martin. “The big cost of collecting and testing samples is known in each state. Investigator salaries are known. Prosecutor salaries are known as is the number of cases that come on appeal. What is not known are the HISA/USADA enhancements to the existing system and if nobody has their arms around what they will cost by now it makes one wonder if this entire thing is structured correctly.”

Lopez said the states are eager to work with both HISA and its Enforcement Agency, presumably USADA, to achieve a smooth transition.

“State specific agreements need to be negotiated now and the state racing commissions are ready to begin those talks with both HISA and the Enforcement Agency individually.”

“We have been told that the HISA goal is to preserve as much of the existing public investment as possible to mitigate new costs of expanded integrity on racetracks, owners, breeders, horsemen, veterinarians and fans,” Martin said. “Delaying full implementation agreements as has been suggested only gives external forces more time to shift state support for racing to other areas.”

The ARCI said it was “most likely” that it will avail itself of the opportunity to comment directly to the FTC during the public comment period.

Martin said the initial read of the proposed Racetrack Safety rules were positive compared to previous versions, but that a complete analysis is underway. He also said that the ARCI had a productive meeting in Tucson last week with Travis Tygart and senior leaders from the US Anti-Doping Agency as well as two HISA Board Members, D.G. Van Clief and Dr. Sue Stover the next day.

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ARCI Urges HISA To Find Individual With State Government Experience For Executive Director Position

The Board of the Association of Racing Commissioners International voted unanimously today to urge the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority to select someone with experience and intricate knowledge of US state government operations in order to effectuate a smooth implementation of the reforms embodied in the new US federal law.

“Failure to appoint someone who does not have this level of expertise jeopardizes a successful and timely implementation by July 1, 2021 as required by law. As the implementation is complicated and sensitive as to preserve millions of dollars in public funding for programs that will become the responsibility of the Authority, someone who clearly has experience with the ins and outs of state budgets, operations, public private partnerships, and a familiarity of the US and state governmental processes is absolutely necessary,” said Robert Lopez, ARCI Chair.

The ARCI Board was informed by HISA Directors this morning that they have conducted a worldwide search and that the Authority is seeking to finalize a selection.

The HISA had retained the services of Executive Search firm Russell Reynolds to recruit a replacement for Interim Executive Director Hank Zeitlin. The RCI has been informed that HISA hopes to have someone in the position by the end of January.

At the meeting ARCI President Ed Martin stressed the importance of someone who can hit the ground running as state specific agreements need to be negotiated in order to successfully preserve and leverage the publicly funded infrastructure and not impose an impossible financial burden on owners, trainers, and racetracks.

RCI has expressed concerns that literally tens of millions of dollars in public funding for integrity programs could be jeopardized unless rules were crafted and operational agreements finalized between both the HISA and its Enforcement Agency, which has yet to be put under contract.

“To say we're concerned, is an understatement,” said Martin.

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