Dan Ross | Horse Racing Free Tips

Dr. Rick Arthur Q&A: Part Two

After 15 years as California's equine medical director, Dr. Rick Arthur has stepped away from the post. A vocal proponent of tightened welfare practices in the sport, Arthur has spearheaded during his tenure a slew of equine safety reforms that have made California arguably the most stringent regulatory environment in the States. Arthur's forthrightness, however, has led to him staking out positions that have at times proven polarizing.

The day after Arthur officially stepped down, he conducted a Q&A with the TDN, the first part of which can be seen here. In it, he discussed his tenure as California racing's chief veterinarian, the impending implementation of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA), and the recent controversy stirred up by a Washington Post report into his investigation into a series of sudden deaths among Bob Baffert trainees between 2011 and 2013.

The following is the concluding half of the interview. It has been edited only very lightly for grammatical and clarification purposes.

TDN: Another Washington Post story from earlier this week details a 23-page California deputy attorney general analysis of the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB)'s handling of the Justify case in which it states, “The court could find the CHRB abused its discretion and acted in a manner that was arbitrary, capricious, or entirely lacking in evidentiary fact.” Now, you've repeatedly said that the only part of the CHRB's handling of the case that concerned you was the secrecy aspect. If you could go back and redo that whole case, would you do anything differently?

RA: First of all, the case was handled at the recommendation of staff counsel in Sacramento, after consulting with attorneys in the business consumer services and housing agency which oversees the CHRB and with the attorney general's office. That is what was proposed. I certainly agreed with that, in accordance with California law. The dismissal of those cases was done entirely in accordance with regulations and California law.

There is no question that the only person who questions it is obviously Darrell Vienna [attorney representing plaintiff Mick Ruis], who planted the story with the Washington Post. I told the reporter he was being played. But anyway, that's a different issue. The only issue as far as I was concerned was that it was unfair to disqualify this horse when we were going through a process simply because of bureaucratic inefficiency by the California Horse Racing Board. I won't get into the details about why that was the case, but if you go back and look at the regulatory structure or the regulatory processes in California or of the CHRB at that time, I think it's pretty easy to see.

Since then, just to be clear, there have been five scopolamine positives in California. Not one trainer was sanctioned. Not one horse was disqualified. That doesn't include almost a dozen other horses that had scopolamine in their samples below the international screen limit that we use in the laboratory. So, I really have no regrets over it. I have no apologies.

You're talking about information that was provided, most likely, by [CHRB] commissioner Oscar Gonzales, who used to work for Darrell Vienna, to Darrell Vienna to promote this story because it just lost in a court case in superior court. So, where this is going to go, I don't know. But we had a reporter that was played by a plaintiff's attorney as far as I'm concerned.

TDN: Are you saying that Commissioner Gonzales was the one who leaked the document?

RA: I don't know if Oscar was the one, but Oscar has certainly been the proponent of keeping the Justify issue alive. Actually, I filed a whistleblower complaint against Commissioner Gonzales for basically arguing the Justify case as if he was representing Ruis with talking points that were clearly provided by Darrell Vienna.

TDN: When did you file that?

RA: Over a year ago.

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TDN: Has anything happened?

RA: No, I haven't heard back and the state auditor's office told me not to expect to hear back. I'm sure Commissioner Gonzales knows that I filed a whistleblower complaint. I think I haven't hidden my disdain for Commissioner Gonzales for a long time.

There certainly have been attorneys that have tried to play commissioners over the years. And I think that we have an ambitious petty politician that wants to make a name for himself that allowed himself to be played. The Justify case was dismissed in accordance to state law, and it was not dismissed by Rick Arthur. It was not dismissed by [former CHRB executive director] Rick Baedeker. It was dismissed by the board, which is required by law. And that was done properly in accordance to law.

It is a done deal as far as I'm concerned, as much as people would like to keep it alive.

TDN: Now, you brought up the equine safety improvements that have occurred in California. We've made large demonstrable strides forward in that regard. But economically, the sport faces any number of serious challenges. What do you think it needs to do to ensure its longevity and sustainability?

RA: It's a real challenge to maintain the economic health of horse racing and make sure that we're doing everything right by the horse. They don't always go in the same direction. For example, we've raced almost 50% of our starts on the turf course here on a meet that is almost six months long. That really puts a lot of stress on the turf course. But that's where people like to run their horses. You have to have full fields.

We'd obviously like to have breaks so that the turf course could be in better condition. Maybe we need an additional turf course. I don't know exactly what it would be. But we do have to make it more economically viable for the owners, otherwise they're not going to [be able to afford] the PET or MRI [scans], all the other diagnostic techniques and examinations that we now require. So, somehow we have to improve the economics. But the key to sustainability is to make sure that we are taking care of the horse.

Sarah Andrew

TDN: Do you think any of these safety measures are overkill?

RA: I don't know if they're overkill. They're maybe a little bit further than we need to go. But I think we'll sort those out over time.

TDN: Which ones?

RA: For example, a 30-day stand down for fetlock injections with corticosteroids. Not unreasonable, but probably more than needs to be required.

[Note: Arthur subsequently clarified his remarks that his frustration is with what can be the “inability” to regulate in a “meaningful way,” and pointed out that most international racing authorities use at most a 14-day corticosteroid injection stand down.]

TDN: Do you think racing in California is in better shape now than when you first took your position?

RA: I think in terms of the regulations, I think we're in better shape now. I do think that we have lost some public support for horse racing that is going to be very hard to get back. I think we're always going to be under the gun. The animal rights activists are never going to be satisfied with horse racing, just like they aren't satisfied with any other animal use.

California's an odd state that way–most people don't know anything about horses. They don't know a lot about animals. There's not that rural background. Not very many people were raised on farms or around animals. So, there's really kind of a disconnect about how animals should be used in society, and that may not be sustainable for a long period of time.

I think the horse racing structure is in very good shape to go forward. But whether it will satisfy the public in California, I think is going to be hard to predict. I mean we've decreased fatalities, like I said, by 75%. Is that good enough? We will never have racing when there's zero fatalities, just like there will never be flying with zero crashes. I mean, that's just the reality of it.

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TDN: How real an existential threat do you think that is to California racing?

RA: I think it's a real existential threat to racing in California. The Santa Anita fiasco really exposed horse racing to people who weren't paying attention. The racing press understood that horses were injured in racing. The non-racing press really had no idea.

The type of questions that I had from reporters who had never covered racing before, never covered sport, were pretty astounding. I think a lot of people didn't realize that there are fatalities in horse racing. I think it came as a big surprise. And when you look at the numbers, it can be pretty frightening. I'm talking about nationally–there's a lot of horses in training.

TDN: How successful has the sport been thus far in challenging that narrative and what do we need to do better?

RA: I think we pride ourselves on the care we give our horses. There are certainly risks associated with it, just like there is with a lot of different production agriculture. But, I mean, [compare that] to the wild horses out in the fields, which have a life expectancy of about a third of what the horses that are managed have. I think sometimes people don't understand how well we take care of horses, and I think we have to present that message.

It used to be that people came around to the barns, look at the horses and pet them. A lot of people have never touched a horse, and I think if they get that interaction with the horse, that's something that we can sell.

To me, racing is a sport. Horses are athletes. I'm not involved in the gambling aspect of it myself. Gambling pays for the sport for the rest of us. Obviously it's a business. Gambling is key to it and getting horses and getting full field sizes or having the more races, the better the business model. But really to me, I think we have to sell the sport more than we do.

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TDN: What advice would you like to give to your successor, Dr. [Jeff] Blea?

RA: Well, I think Dr. Blea is well suited for this position. He's been in national leadership positions. He certainly is aware of controversy, which comes with this job. You can't avoid it if you're going to do the job right. I think the real issue is to do what you think is right and stand up for what you think is right.

TDN: And what's next for you?

RA: I'm still going to stay involved. I'm still involved in national and international organizations. I'll continue to do that. I've certainly had some opportunities that I'm mulling over in the future. But how hard I want to work? I really don't know.

I have some research projects that [are] still in the works. I'm involved with the Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation, RMTC [Racing Medication and Testing Consortium]–those sorts of things that I'm going to continue to do. And the Oak Creek Charitable Foundation as well. So, I'll keep involved in those.

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Dr. Rick Arthur Q&A: Part One

After 15 years as California's equine medical director, Dr. Rick Arthur has stepped away from the post.

A long-time vocal champion, both in his home state and at the international level, of tightened welfare practices in the sport, Arthur has spearheaded a slew of precedent-setting medication and equine safety reforms in California.

During those 15 years, Arthur has been at the helm of the industry's veterinary ship while California has navigated a series of tumultuous storms, including a benighted venture to switch from dirt to synthetic racetrack surfaces during the first few years of his tenure, as well as the Santa Anita welfare crisis that erupted near the beginning of 2019. Known on occasion to be pugnacious and forthright, Arthur has also endured his fair share of criticism as California racing's chief equine veterinarian, most recently concerning the case surrounding Justify's scopolamine positive subsequent to the horse's GI Santa Anita Derby victory of 2018.

Bearer of many hats, Arthur is a former private veterinarian, Thoroughbred owner and breeder, and a member of The Jockey Club. He was also a past-president of the American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP) and was honored with the organization's President's Award in 2014. Dr. Jeff Blea, a SoCal-based private veterinarian with 28 years of experience and another former AAEP president, has filled Arthur's vacant seat.

The following is the opening half of a conversation Arthur conducted with the TDN on his first day off the job. It has been edited only very lightly for grammatical and clarification purposes.

TDN: After 15 years as California's equine medical director, what is your main takeaway from that period?

RA: My main takeaway is that horse racing has to pay attention to the horse and develop policies and programs and regulations that put the horse first.

TDN: And looking at the totality of what's happened during those 15 years, has California been successful at doing that?

RA: If you look at the numbers objectively, we've decreased fatalities almost 75% over that period. Some of it is [due to] decreased racing, but far and away, the majority is [due to] the policies and the regulations we put in place and [by] encouraging the culture change to put the horse first.

TDN: How would you characterize that “culture change” during your tenure?

RA: Up until the Santa Anita situation in 2019, I don't think a lot of horsemen really understood that society has changed and that it's necessary to make changes that put the horse first. And there certainly was a lot of push-back when you look at things like the fatality review program, when you look at voided claims, to the continuing education program, to put more science into the art of training. All those things we had tremendous push-back on really until the Santa Anita fiasco.

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TDN: You bring that up. So, the last two years has arguably been the most transformative period in California in terms of medication and safety reforms, many of which you'd been trying to push through prior. You've talked a lot about the cumbersome administrative law process, but why do you think it took something like the Santa Anita welfare crisis to bring about those modifications?

RA: It is very easy to stop regulations in the way that the California Horse Racing Board [CHRB] operated previously. And if you go back and look at all those initiatives that we started–continuing education for trainers, voiding claims, third party Lasix, post-mortem review programs, restricting intraarticular injections, even banning anabolic steroids back when I first started–there was always somebody who was opposing those changes. Even lowering toe grabs that were demonstrated to be associated with increased injury. There was always push-back at every step.

As I said, it's very easy to stop a regulation. Even though everybody thinks that it's easy to add regulations, it's actually just the opposite.

TDN: Immediately after the Santa Anita crisis, these changes arrived very suddenly, a mixture of in-house rules that dictated state policy and sweeping regulations that came thick and fast. Looking back, do you think it was done in a manner that was, in its entirety, fair to the horsemen and their livelihoods, and would you have done things differently given a second chance?

RA: Well remember that many of those were initiated by The Stronach Group.

TDN: That's what I meant by in-house rules…

RA: Some of them were a major change to trainers. In reality, I think some of them were a little bit stricter than they needed to be and done a little bit precipitously. But the fact is, it did open the door for many changes that have been shown to be quite effective.

TDN: Multi-factorial is the key term in any catastrophic injury and in the case of what happened at Santa Anita, official reports point to a variety of precipitating factors. What do you see is the main factor which made that particular Santa Anita winter/spring meet so deadly?

RA: Racing on a bad racetrack.

TDN: Can you elaborate on that?

RA: Look at the weather in the first two months of 2019–the previous year, 90% of the starts were on a fast track. In 2019 for the first two months, 60% of the race starts were on a fast track. We had so much rain during that period of time, there was really not an opportunity to refurbish the racetrack.

In early March, when they stopped racing, we had a dry period. They were able to bring in their previous track superintendent to rework the racetrack. And after that period of time, we really had a relatively safe racetrack. So, the real issue was continuing to race on a compromised racetrack. And it's not just the racetrack that's responsible for that, but horsemen that actually entered their horses and trained their horses on tracks that were not ideal.

TDN: Many see The Stronach Group's ban of Jerry Hollendorfer as an act of scapegoating. Do you think they [TSG] were right to ban him?

RA: I was not involved in that decision.

[Note: Arthur explained that he's involved in ongoing litigation between Hollendorfer and several entities in California, and was therefore unable to comment further]

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TDN: Now, the changes have been extensive over the last two years but we've a lot more on the horizon. In exactly a year's time, the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act is expected to be implemented. How do you see it fitting into California's existing regulatory and safety and welfare infrastructure?

RA: It will be very, very difficult for the [HISA] safety program to come up with a program as extensive as California's and send it around the rest of the country. That suggests to me that California will still continue to have a stricter, or let's say a more robust, safety program than HISA is going to be able to develop.

How will that actually work? In my reading of the regulation, it's hard to understand because the funds for that safety program will no longer be available to the CHRB–those are some of the nebulous aspects of the HISA law as to exactly how those funds will be developed and how they'll be distributed.

For example, in California we have monitoring veterinarians as a matter of law. As of right now, those are provided by the track associations. That [would conceivably] be something the regulatory agency would oversee. But those individuals are supervised by law and by regulation and by the CHRB official veterinarians. So, how that all mixes together I think is going to be a real challenge for HISA to sort out.

TDN: Ultimately, do you see it as a plus or a minus to California racing?

RA: I suspect it's going to be a step back. I think eventually, long-term for national racing, I certainly understand the need for HISA. I think the national state-by-state regulation of racing and organizations like the ARCI have found themselves incapable of developing a national sport. NTRA was supposed to have a legal office that never came to be either. So, having one entity with control over all of racing, I certainly understand the need for it. And I think it's really, probably, the only way racing is going to survive long term.

TDN: Arguably, the biggest problem in drug testing in the future concerns the detection of genetically engineered products like EPO that mimic the body's own hormones and proteins. If USADA is HISA's drug enforcement agency, do you think they'll do a better job of policing these substances than the sport already does?

RA: It really depends. I certainly know that USADA and WADA [World Anti-Doping Agency] have capabilities in looking at gene doping. The IFHA [International Federation of Horseracing Authorities] has gene doping committees as well. In fact, there's liaison between WADA and the IFHA that I'm involved with. I do think that genetic testing, particularly gene doping, is going to be a real challenge, very expensive. So, I do think having a central entity is going to be critical to addressing that threat.

I don't think you could do it state by state, even though the best school, UC Davis, has some very, very talented people that understand genetics very well. But it's going to take it an international effort to address the risk of gene doping and gene manipulation.

TDN: So, what you're saying is USADA brings…

RA: …They bring international cooperation. It looks as if, even though USADA is different than WADA–certainly internationally–the racing industry is teaming with the FEI [The International Federation for Equestrian Sports], IFHA and WADA to try to pool our resources and understand the risks of how detection of gene doping and gene manipulation could affect horse racing going forward, and how to test for it.

Breeders' Cup/Eclipse Sportswire

TDN: Knowing what you know, how prolific is gene doping and gene manipulation in the sport?

RA: Right now, there is no evidence that it is being used. However, this is an area that has made leaps and bounds in advancement since we started the IFHA gene doping subcommittee five, six years ago. It's an entirely different environment today.

I do think there are potential risks in terms of getting genes or administering genes to horses. The real problem with gene doping is it's easy to get a gene in a horse, but it's not easy to get it to do what you want it to do. Well, that's true of even gene therapy and other uses of gene manipulation.

Having said that, I do think it's a bigger risk today than it was five years ago. And there is a lot of advancement in this area that caused us concern. But as of right now, I know of no instance internationally of gene doping being used in horse racing. That doesn't mean it hasn't happened. That doesn't mean it's not going on. We're looking for it.

TDN: In the last month, The Washington Post has come out with a couple of reports, in one of which it's alleged that trainer Bob Baffert used political coercion against you to influence the outcome of your investigation into the series of sudden deaths among his trainees between 2011 and 2013. In the final report, you concluded that although the blanket prescribing of thyroxine to all Baffert horses does appear unusual, “The fatalities remain unexplained and there is no evidence whatsoever CHRB rules or regulations have been violated or illicit activity played a part.”

You told the Post the two things–the political pressure and the report's findings–were unrelated. If you were to conduct the investigation today, would the findings and the outcome be any different?

RA: No. If you look in the necropsy reports that are up on the CHRB website, you'll see that there's all different sorts of explanations that are associated with some of the sudden deaths.

One of them was an anticoagulant rodenticide. We had a number of cases in California over the following years that were associated with anticoagulant rodenticide poisoning, including ponies, so it's not as if somebody was trying to drug a pony with rat poison. So, the real issue is that there were no violations of CHRB rules.

That does not mean that you condone the blanket administration of thyroxine. And certainly, if you look at my comments, either during the presentation at the CHRB meeting or in the report, Bob Baffert trains his horses hard. They were all on thyroxine. A number of them were on clenbuterol at the same time. And all of that, even though there's no violation of rules, really reflects on Bob Baffert's management of his stable.

If you look, there's actually a statistical analysis that shows this was not a random event, that there's something that was associated with those horses–whether it was Hollywood Park, whether it was Bob Baffert, whether it's the way the horses were managed, thyroxine, the entire program–there was something associated with those horses that put them at greater risk than the average horse. We just didn't know what it was.

TDN: Given the ethical framework that you abide by, how would you characterize the way Baffert managed his barn?

RA: The way the barn was managed was to win races–win big races with very expensive horses.

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TDN: Ethically–by your ethical framework.

RA: How would I best answer that question. It's not the way I like to see horses managed.

TDN: Since then, has the way in which he manages his barn improved?

RA: He actually quit using thyroxine before the report, after consulting with his own veterinarians about some of the things that were going on. I do think that they did change some management practices in the barn, but if you watch the way that Bob trains horses, he trains them very aggressively.

In fact, probably, and I've said this before, Bob Baffert really changed the way that horses are trained here. They're trained much harder than they were back 30 or 40 years ago when I started practicing. He works his horses very fast, very hard. And unfortunately, other trainers who try to emulate him don't have those million-dollar yearlings that can work 58 and change.

I think it used to be, everybody tried to emulate Charlie Whittingham, the way he trained, which was a more considered approach to training horses as compared to the Bob Baffert Quarter Horse style of training.

TDN: Do you think that change ultimately has been for the better or to the detriment of the Thoroughbred racehorse in California?

RA: I'm a big fan of Charlie Whittingham, Ron McAnally, Dick [Richard] Mandella. Those types of trainers.

Stay tuned for part two of this Q&A with Dr. Arthur.

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Labor Reform in Washington: Could it Help Racing?

For many trainers around the country, their biggest practical worry from day to day isn't the patchwork quilt of medication rules and regulations, or the fear that one trainer has an unfair competitive edge over another, but whether they've enough grooms, hotwalkers and riders populating their barns to properly tend to the horses in their care.

With fewer and fewer North Americans siphoning into horse racing, the sport has turned for relief, of course, with growing reliance on Central and South America–what has proven an increasingly tenuous stable of talent the more calcified the topic of immigration has become politically.

“It's always been tough,” said trainer Dale Romans, about the hiring of immigrant workers. “The whole system is messed up no matter what administration is in. It just needs to be changed and fixed.”

After many years of political atrophy surrounding the issue, however, there are a number of bills either floating around Capitol Hill already, or else waiting in the wings, which offer the promise of long-needed assistance to the industry, an integral component of which appears to be a sweeping piece of legislation called the Farm Workforce Modernization Act.

The act passed the house earlier this year, and farmworker groups met Wednesday with a bipartisan group of senators, along with agriculture secretary Tom Vilsack, to discuss introducing a senate version of the bill.

“There's all of a sudden multiple buckets,” said Eric Hamelback, CEO of the National Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association (HBPA), of these various pieces of legislation. “All of them, to some extent, are positive for our industry and the overall guest workers program.”

Returning worker exemption

Arguably the most commonly requested visa for backstretch workers is the H2-B, awarded to seasonal “non-agricultural” workers like those in landscaping, hospitality sectors, seafood and in some construction jobs.

The number of H-2Bs is capped at 66,000 annually, with an even split of 33,000 available for each half of the federal government's fiscal year. And while additional visas are frequently made available, they're not always enough to meet demand.

Just look at this February, when the fiscal year 2021 H-2B cap of 33,000 slots was easily reached. The Department of Labor (DOL) reported receiving applications for nearly 100,000 separate workers.

To help release a bit of steam from the system, congress has periodically enacted a returning worker provision, which permits those who had previously been in the U.S. on an H-2B visa–granted during a particular period–to be exempt from that cap.

The last time this program went into effect–towards the end of Dec. 2015–the returning worker exemption permitted those who had previously held an H-2B visa issued between Oct. 2012 and Sept. 2015 to be cap-exempt for fiscal year 2016.

That exemption expired at the end of 2016 and has not been re-enacted since.

On Tuesday, however, a bipartisan group of senators introduced the H2-B Returning Worker Exception Act of 2021 designed to develop a long-term solution to permanently address the annual H-2B visa cap.

As currently written, the bill does a number of things, including amending the definition of “returning worker” to include anyone who has entered the U.S. on an H-2B visa in any one of the 3 previous years.

The bill also seeks to streamline the application process, requiring the DOL to maintain a public online job registry. It would also implement new integrity measures and anti-fraud provisions.

Romans calls the re-enactment of the returning worker exemption something that would make it “much easier” for him to hold onto valuable employees.

“Think about running a business where you have to have 60 employees at all times, and you never know for sure if you're going to get classified or get the visas,” he said. “How can you consistently operate your business like that?”

According to Hamelback, of all the pieces of legislation swirling around Washington, this bill potentially has the most political traction.

“This is something we've always advocated for,” Hamelback said. “And this has been the first time, at least since I've been in my current role, there's been a strong champion for that.”

Agricultural worker classification

One of the biggest obstacles to securing, and then holding onto, immigrant labor in horse racing surrounds the way backstretch grooms, hotwalkers and exercise riders are not legally classified as agricultural workers.

This means they are not eligible to apply for H-2A visas, geared towards field workers and general farm laborers, among others. Why is that important? For one, there's no cap on the number of H-2A visas issued annually.

According to various sources, there's a potential bill being drafted that, if introduced and passed, would redefine the remit of the agricultural worker to include laborers related to the breeding, care and feeding of horses.

According to these sources, the bill could be attached as an amendment to the Farm Workforce Modernization Act, a sweeping piece of legislation that would provide undocumented farmworkers and their family members with a path towards legal citizenship, and impose mandatory employment verification (“E-verify”) in agriculture, among a host of other changes.

Any move to reclassify equine laborers as agricultural workers, Hamelback said, needs to be done in such a way that backstretch workers are eligible for both H-2A and H-2B visas.

“The definition is very general and open, which usually is good, and we don't want it to close the door on H-2Bs at this point,” said Hamelback.

H-2C

Back in 2017, a bill–the Agricultural Guestworker Act of 2017–was introduced into Congress which, had it proven successful, would have created an entirely new category of guestworker visa, coined the H-2C.

As envisioned, the H-2C visa was seen as a replacement to the H-2A system–seen as cumbersome, outdated and broken–bringing a more flexible program, one potentially open to workers in racing.

Indeed, the legislation received support before from key industry groups like the National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA) and the Thoroughbred Owners of California (TOC).

According to Hamelback, there is talk among legislators on Capitol Hill for similar legislation to be potentially reintroduced in the near future.

“But we don't have a lot of details on that at the moment,” he said, stressing the tenuous nature of any immigration-related negotiations in the current political climate. “It's a difficult topic that sometimes isn't approached properly.”

Differences

While these bills maneuver their way through Washington–successfully or not, as we'll find out–the daily woes surrounding staffing will continue to chaff.

And so, has the advent of a new administration brought about any meaningful change to the immigration environment? Attorneys and trainers send different messages.

“The difference is huge,” said Will Velie, an Oklahoma-based immigration attorney with many clients in the racing industry.

The stringent immigration policies of the Donald Trump administration saw pretty much any illegal immigrant apprehended by law enforcement vulnerable to deportation proceedings, no matter their criminal background, said Velie.

But the new administration, he said, has reinstituted a prior policy, whereby illegal immigrants who come into contact with law enforcement are priorities for deportation only if they fit the following five categories of criminal history: Felons, gun possession, drugs, gang membership or domestic violence.

This change has had a knock-on effect for racing, said Velie, explaining how it has loosened the pressure valve on backstretch communities. “Just like that, the temperature dropped.”

Due to a COVID-related backlog in biometric appointments–a reported 1.3 million pending applicants earlier this year–the U.S Citizenship and Immigration Services has suspended fingerprint requirements for certain petitions, another development that has helped ease pressure on the system, said Albany-based immigration attorney, Leonard D'Arrigo.

“Every day, it seems, they're issuing a new executive order or some policy guidance, undoing what the prior administration has done,” he said.

According to Romans, however, from a practical standpoint, the task of finding talented and reliable staff is as difficult as it has always been. Which is why any change to the system should be broad and sweeping rather than incremental, he added.

“We need a comprehensive overhaul of the whole thing,” Romans said. “Not just a few little pieces they try to patch it up with.”

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CBD: Should It be Used on the Backstretch?

In March of 2018 when the ground around Ontario was frozen solid as a rock, Warren Byrne took a nasty spill.

He had just hopped on a hot-headed unraced 3-year-old gelding when it took off blindly. Byrne was pitched onto the hard ground, breaking his upper arm–an extensive fracture that required a plate and seven screws.

After the surgery, doctors warned Byrne that he was suffering bone-density issues from a medication he had long taken, describing the problem as being akin to early osteoporosis. He also reacted badly to the prescribed opioid painkillers, and instead, was given a set of cannabidiol (CBD)-containing products to manage the pain.

At the nine-week follow-up, the surgeon looked at Byrne's X-rays and laughed. “He said, 'get the hell out of here. You have enough bone regrowth here I could take some out and give it to my next patient,'” recalled Byrne. A little more than two weeks after that, Byrne was back on a horse.

A former bloodstock agent and show jumper, Byrne ascribes the rapid turn-around in his bone density problems to CBD, and was so enamored with the part it played in his convalescence, he started his own company called CannaHorse, which gears CBD products to the horse community.

His fledgling business–recently invested in by animal health giant Bimeda–capitalizes on the fast-growing popularity of CBD in human use to treat a score of common problems besides fractures, including arthritis, anxiety, and inflammatory diseases. Athletes are using it to manage many common physical stresses that come with high-level training and performance.

The rollout of CBD products in the world of equine athletes has been rockier, due mainly to a lack of hard research into its effects in horses and in the longevity of CBD and its metabolites in the horse's system. That, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved it only for human use.

Just recently, a CBD positive in California prompted the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) to issue a memo to trainers warning of the consequences of CBD use, especially in a marketplace that's currently largely unregulated.

“You have to be really careful when you use these herbal products because you really don't know what's in them,” said CHRB equine medical director Rick Arthur. “And there are products out there that have CBD in them that they may not be aware of.”

Coady

But Byrne said he believed that as the rules surrounding the use of regulated therapeutic medications continue to tighten in horse racing, and as the scientific literature behind CBD continues to grow, CBD could provide a useful alternative tool to manage the typical aches, pains, and stresses of training and racing.

“As more and more people are starting to see cannabinoids are medically beneficial, I think we're hopeful this becomes a holistic issue for horses,” he said.

Primer

While derived from both marijuana and industrial hemp plants, CBD is not responsible for any intoxicating effect. What it does is stimulate the endocannabinoid system (ECS), described as “one of the most important physiologic systems involved in establishing and maintaining human health,” impacting as it does things like sleep patterns, mood, memory, appetite, and fertility.

Endocannabinoids–molecules made within the body–and their receptors are ubiquitous throughout the brain, organs, connective tissues, glands, and immune cells.

CBD already has its foot firmly in the door in the human sport's world. In 2018, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) approved its use in athletics, and many international sports federations, said Byrne, have followed suit.

Indeed, leading lights from the worlds of UFC, golf, and track and field tip their hat to CBD use. This year's Olympics at Tokyo will be the first time athletes will be legally permitted to use it at the games. But at present, equine sports have largely pressed the handbrake.

In May of 2019, the U.S. Equestrian Federation (USEF) prohibited CBD and CBD metabolites in competition, warning that CBD products are likely to affect the performance of a horse due to its reported anxiolytic effects, which are those related to anxiety and stress reduction. “This substance is no different than legitimate therapeutics that affect mentation and behavior in horses,” the federation wrote.

Its burgeoning use prompted the Racing Medication & Testing Consortium (RMTC) to issue a cannabidiol bulletin in 2019, warning of some of the risks from CBD use in racehorses, especially when it comes to the threat of a positive finding, the consequences of which are not inconsiderable. The Association of Racing Commissioners International (ARCI) currently lists CBD as a class 2 category B penalty.

While CBD products are required to contain less than 0.3% tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)–the main psychoactive ingredient in cannabis–poor regulatory oversight of the CBD market means that some contain much more THC than that. The ARCI lists THC a class 1, category A substance.

Extracted THC and CBD | Getty Images

Among some of the research conducted in small animals, CBD has been shown to potentially ameliorate anxiety in rats and osteoarthritis in dogs, and even help reduce the frequency of seizures in dogs. As for horses, the RMTC release noted how at that time, “no peer reviewed published research was identified that evaluated the effects of CBD.”

Since then, however, researchers out of Murray State University in Kentucky have studied the pharmacokinetics–the behavior of the drug in the body–in Quarter Horses fed pellets containing CBD up to a maximum of 250 milligrams.

They found that after 12 hours, none of the horses had levels of CBD above the lower level of quantitation. The results suggested a peak concentration in the system after two hours.

This March, a group of researchers from U C Davis published a paper showing the drug's behavior in Thoroughbreds administered oral doses of CBD up to two milligrams per kilogram (mg/kg).

They found that in the majority of cases, CBD was below the level of quantitation at 72 hours, but that two common CBD metabolites were above that level at that same point in time, suggesting that certain CBD metabolites are going to be an important factor in determining any future CBD product withdrawal time for competition.

While neither study found any negative behaviors or effects from CBD in horses–including any gastrointestinal or cardiac issues–Arthur said the findings of the UC Davis study shows how ingredients that remained in the blood had an inflammatory effect at 72 hours.

Indeed, this recent University of Kentucky study found that CBD appears to have an anti-inflammatory effect in senior age horses.

Arthur said that this effect could “conceivably” lead to questions of equine welfare and safety.

“All we're saying is that drugs have an effect longer than you can measure the drugs,” said Arthur. “EPO's probably the best example. We can find EPO for 48, 72 hours at most. But the effect lasts for weeks, possibly months.”

Coady”

According to Byrne, there's an important physiological difference between the anti-inflammatory effect that CBD has versus a commonly prescribed anti-inflammatory like phenylbutazone, or bute.

“The way the endocannabinoid system works is to push the body towards homeostasis,” he said. “That's the crux of why WADA feels that it's safe. It's not going to block the pain. It's not going to numb the pain. It helps the body manage the pain better.”

Future studies

The overall science, however, behind CBD use in horses is still noticeably scant, which is why CannaHorse conducted its own private study in Prague in January looking at the effects from low doses of CBD administered orally to horses.

The data's still being processed, said Byrne, but he was able to share how CBD did not trigger gastrointestinal problems, cause sedation, harm the liver, or change blood pressure and heart rate outside of usual ranges. In this regard, “it has lined up with all the other studies that have been done,” said Byrne.

Unlike some of those other horse studies, however, those tests conducted in Prague suggested CBD helped calm the horses and reduce anxiety, said Byrne.

The results of the January study precipitated the launch of their first product, called Equilibrium, for which the company has earmarked further research.

One planned study will seek to see if it has any calming effect on horses boxed up and vanned for three hours. Another is a fracture healing study, geared around horses with bucked shins. The other will test the product's CBD elimination time, including metabolites, from the horse's system.

Testing concerns aren't just driven by the uncertain elimination times. CBD products are largely unregulated, leading to much variation in purity, consistency, and safety. Indeed, inconsistencies in concentration are said to occur frequently even among batches from the same manufacturer.

Byrne, however, swears that his products–designed, he said, by a team of equine science specialists–are created in such a way they maintain their quality and consistency to a much higher degree than others.

Using a manufacturer in California, he said, they isolate only “pharmaceutical grade” cannabinoids and terpenes, another part of the hemp plant with therapeutic properties.

“When we combine them, we're able to create a very repeatable product, which is very rare in cannabinoid medicine,” said Byrne.

Because of this consistency, Byrne said that he's confident CBD in Equilibrium can be eliminated from the blood within 48 hours. However, “The million-dollar question is: Can we get the metabolites to clear that quickly? That I can't tell you,” said Byrne. “When it comes to withdrawal times, that's what we really need to [focus] most of the further research on.”

Given these hovering question marks–and the potentially serious consequences from a CBD positive–Byrne said that he treads lightly when discussing his products to figures in racing. “I have not spent much time pursuing the racing world,” said Byrne. “Having this around the racetrack is probably not something I want to be pushing at this point.”

That said, Byrne does push back against claims in some quarters about the ease with which the use of CBD products in humans is said to possibly lead to inadvertent positives in horses via skin-on-skin touch.

He pointed to a human study showing how the topical application of a THC-containing product didn't trigger a positive finding in blood or urine.

“One of the popular products for people who want the pain relief, but they have to be careful of passing the drug test, is topical THC,” said Byrne, who described topical THC as a much stronger analgesic than topical CBD. “People will use it because it does not break the blood barrier, unless there was an open wound or something.”

Arthur, however, is more circumspect. “This is all relatively new,” he said. “We don't know all the ways horses can be exposed with CBD.”

Arthur added that one of his colleagues at U C Davis believes “it may be possible if someone smoked marijuana in close proximity to a horse, you might be able to [transmit] some of these cannabidiol metabolites. But we don't know that for certain.”

Sarah Andrew

Legal maze

Another reason for Byrne's cautious approach to promoting his products concerns the legal maze that surrounds how CBD is sold and prescribed across the country, with some states banning the sale of certain CBD products for both human and animal use.

Indeed, according to Arthur, the team at U C Davis had to “jump through hoops” to get their CBD study approved by the FDA.

Does Arthur see a future, however, where CBD products are widely used on the backstretch? “I could certainly see a pharmaceutical with cannabidiol in it that you could actually control and measure the withdrawal time, set at an appropriate threshold or screening limit.”

In the meantime, interest in CBD is likely only to grow, said Byrne, pointing to “a name you would know in Kentucky” who voiced interest in CBD to help an 18-year-old mare who hadn't had a foal in three years.

Byrne said he explained CBD wasn't necessarily a fertility drug, but that it could be a useful tool to help reduce her nervous energy and manage inflammation issues she had been troubled with.

“They had the mare on it for about 18 days. She was bred last Thursday, and was checked prior to breeding, and had two follicles that were as big and healthy as she had had in the three years this man had taken care of her. She ovulated properly, and the vet did not need to prescribe her an anti-inflammatory,” said Byrne.

“This is a single situation,” Byrne added. “It's a long, long way from carrying a foal term. But it's interesting anecdotally.”

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