In this added role, Haydon, who will be responsible for industry engagement, will report to The Jockey Club Executive Vice President and Executive Director Matt Iuliano. Haydon will engage with the industry on initiatives of the company and foster collaboration among industry organizations on health, safety, and promotion of the Thoroughbred. Among his field duties, he will seek feedback from customers of The Jockey Club's commercial subsidiaries regarding products and services.

“Because of his work with our industry initiatives and as president of Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation, Jamie has been engaged with people from every facet of the sport,” said Gagliano. “He will be an excellent advocate for The Jockey Club and for racing as a whole, and we look forward to furthering The Jockey Club's engagement with other stakeholders through his efforts.”

Haydon, who assumed his position as president of Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation in 2019, joined the organization in April 2018. He joined The Jockey Club in 2008 as the manager of Industry Initiatives after stints with Breeders' Cup, Ascot Racecourse, National Thoroughbred Racing Association, Four Star Sales, and Kentucky Horse Racing Authority.

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Repole, who did not have a horse in the race, recently announced the formation of The National Thoroughbred Alliance (NTA), an organization he hopes can bring needed change to a sport he has said is rudderless and in steep decline.

“I'm asking for the immediate resignation of both the Chairman/CEO and President of The Jockey Club and I appeal to the board members of The Jockey Club to terminate the operating leadership,” Repole wrote. “The industry needs help, we are in an extreme crisis. Let's take action!!!!!”

Neither Gagliano nor Janney responded to a request for comment at deadline for this story.

The Jockey Club employs Samantha Randazzo, one of the three stewards working at the NYRA tracks. Other than that, it was unclear why Repole placed the blame for controversy on The Jockey Club. He did, however, make it clear that he is frustrated with the organization and labeled it the “old guard.”

In a roughly run race, there was an incident near the quarter pole in which three horses came together, bumped and were steadied. At the time, Brick Ambush was racing well outside of that trio, kept a straight path and did not make contact with another horse. The consensus since the race is that the stewards mistakenly took down the wrong horse.

Race winner Antonio of Venice (Laoban) may have started the pile-up when he came off the rail under Manny Franco after being blocked. It's also possible that the stewards mistook Brick Ambush for Solo's Furry (Solomini), who may have come over a path or two. Brick Ambush was racing outside of Solo's Fury, who was eased after the incident, and the jockeys of both horses wore green silks.

Brick Ambush's owners Dean and Patti Reeves attempted to appeal the decision, but were informed by the New York Gaming Commission that disqualifications are final once the race is made official and cannot be reversed.

The disqualification cost the owners second-place money of $100,000.

Not only did the stewards disqualify Brick Ambush, they handed his jockey, Junior Alvarado, a three-day suspension for careless riding.

“Dean and Patti Reeves are great owners and wonderful people,” Repole wrote. “This sport is very fortunate to have them. The events at Aqueduct last Saturday were brutally unfair to them. Their horse should have been placed first, instead he was disqualified. The bettors, the fans, the trainers, jockeys and owners were blatantly hurt in this situation. With no governing body in place or people policing the sport, they can't even appeal an atrocious ruling.

“The more I dig deeper into this situation, the more I place the blame on the operating leaders, Chairman/CEO and President of The Jockey Club,” Repole wrote. “I have an incredible respect for the great leaders on the board of The Jockey Club. They have great passion for this sport. Let's unite and work together and rebuild The Jockey Club into a trusting organization that can represent and govern this wonderful sport while working with all people associated in the industry to make racing better. We all need to have an immense sense of urgency and we must move quickly.”

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Patrick Cummings, the moderator of the panel on CAWs, is the Executive Director of the Thoroughbred Idea Foundation, a racing-industry think tank. Cummings took the panel through a brief history of parimutuel wagering and the changes the industry has seen before landing at the crux of the subject matter: CAWs.

“The CAWs are individuals with well-resourced staffs, developing couture models assessing vast amounts of data,” said Cummings. “They deploy finely-honed algorithms to efficiently place bets, often at the last possible second, all while receiving significant rebates for their play.”

The rebates, he said, while sizeable, were only one of the challenges that CAWs present to racing. The other is their ability to bet large amounts of money at the last possible second before the race, which gives them an advantage over regular players.

Pat Cummings | Skip Dickstein

“In pari-mutuel wagering, betting late has always been beneficial,” Cummings said. “But, when all betting was done on-track, betting late came with the risk you might not get your bet down at all.

“That's not a concern now, especially for the CAWs, who've been given the ability to place batch bets, dumping vast amounts in the final cycle of betting. The impact of that is witnessed every day, in nearly every race and across almost every pool.”

That impact, he said, has led us to where we are now: CAWs have grown from 8% of total handle in 2003 to around 33% of handle today. At the same time, when adjusted for inflation, non-CAW wagering is down by nearly two-thirds over the same time period. That's a concern because the money returned to racing in the form of purses is much greater from normal bettors than from those receiving huge rebates. So while handle may be up, “the greatest source of growth has been a handful of high-frequency bettors,” who pay less back into the system.

“How the evolution of CAWs is managed and how we support the existing customers we still have might be key to the future of wagering on racing in today's tech-forward world–one with unfathomable processing power, machine-learning, AI and more,” Cummings said.

Cummings led a Q-and-A session with Joe Longo, the General Manager of Content Managing Solutions for NYRA, which owns an ownership stake in the Elite Turf Club, one of the largest computer syndicate operations; and Dr. Marshall Gramm, a horse owner and professor at Rhodes College.

Gramm said he had written models with partners based on statistical probabilities. He started receiving rebates in 2011, and said that doing so not only allowed him to turn a profit, but to increase his handle enormously, from $49,000 in 2010 to $25 million in 2015. He has gone on to be a major racehorse owner, with 116 horses he now owns alone or in partnerships.

Gramm said that some in the industry have come to believe that rebates are all negative, but that his churn had increased exponentially because of it.

Love it or hate it, though, CAWs are here to stay, said Gramm.

“There's no walking back from it,” he said. “The computers aren't going away. You can't step back in time.”

Neither panelist addressed the issue that Cummings talked about in his introduction and that was covered in Jerry Brown's TDN op/ed, Existential Crisis, that because in parimutuel markets, players are playing against one another, regular people are effectively paying more, and leaving the game.

Longo discussed how NYRA has become the only racing organization to ban CAW bettors in the win pool within two minutes to post in order to negate the late odds fluctuations which have become so frustrating to horseplayers. Longo said that while no other organization had followed that lead, he felt that others eventually would.

HISA Panel Discusses Adjustments to New Rules

Trainers Jena Antonucci and Ron Moquett served as panelists, along with Ben Mosier, Executive Director of the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit (HIWU), and HISA's Lisa Lazarus on a Q-and-A panel moderated by Jim Gagliano, the President and COO of The Jockey Club, on how trainers were adjusting to the new HISA regulations.

Gagliano asked the two trainers how their life had changed under HISA.

Trainer Jena Antonucci | Skip Dickstein

Antonucci said that she was already running her business along the lines that HISA requires in terms of record-keeping, but acknowledged that that part of the business had been a learning curve for other horsemen. Moquett said that, “as a Thoroughbred trainer, there's a new set of rules to follow and we're going to adapt to those rules, but primarily, we keep the priority on the horse.”

Antonucci acknowledged that there were concerns and bumps in the road as the program has gotten underway, but urged people to come forward with those problems so that the solutions could be found. But the benefits, she said, were dramatic.

“I may be a minority in this thought,” she said, “but I find it has been the great equalizer. It isn't a secret that there is availability of different levels of pharmaceuticals on different levels. Really smart chemists, and people looking to gain an edge. So I feel the biggest benefit has been to probably the hardest hit of this industry, which is the middle and the smaller side, where it has allowed a level playing field and where that guy or gal who busts their butt 24/7 can walk into a race and not feel like they're going to watch another horse re-break at the top of the stretch. That their plied trade and their skill set will have an opportunity to shine, where that eight-percent trainer historically, where it looks like I can't train a racehorse? All of a sudden, he's winning more, or she's winning more, and it's not because we've done anything different in our practice. And you know what? What I do, I do darned well, and my horse–whether it's in the Grade I Belmont Stakes or a $12,500 maiden–is going to have the chance to march down that stretch and compete eye-to-eye with the horses next to them, and there's not a pharmaceutical in our way.”

The crowd gave her an ovation after the comment.

“There are a few parts of it that have been very challenging,” said Moquett. “You're dealing with a large group of people who are now just getting introduced to technology. I'm helping people who are sometimes my competitors try to understand and navigate the system.

“I wear a number of hats,” he said. “I train horses. I own horses. I'm a member of the HBPA, and I'm on the HISA Advisory Committee. I'm constantly a sounding board. People come to me and say this is unfair, and I come to [HISA]. It's new. There are going to be problems, and they're going to have to listen to horsemen. It doesn't matter how good [Lisa Lazarus] is at her job, we need the Bill Motts and the Steve Asmussens. My job is to say, `look, I understand what you're trying to do, but we need to do a better job of explaining to people what the differences are between accidental contamination, an overage of an allowed medication and someone trying to gain an edge.' I'm basically representing 4,500 people that have to go through every regulation that HISA believes is okay. So [Lazarus] and I will get together, we'll battle, and we'll come to a solution. I will say we don't always get along that great, but she has been very good about hearing me out.”

Lisa Lazarus said, “One of the things we heard a lot was that if the public hears that a trainer has a medication overage, they think that they're a cheater. That they don't understand the difference between true doping substances, and medications that are allowed, but just not on race day. And so, one of the things that the [AMDC] does is distinguish very clearly between allowed substances and banned substances.” Violations for each were very different, she explained. “We're there to protect the 99% of trainers who are competing cleanly, so that they get a fair race.”

Safety, and The Traceability of Thoroughbreds

Tracing what happens to a Thoroughbred when it leaves racing or breeding has long been a problem for the industry, an issue that Kristin Werner, the Senior Counsel for The Jockey Club, addressed in her report on Thoroughbred Safety.

“I am pleased to announce that the `Transferred as Retired from Racing' process has gone digital,” said Werner. “The permanent removal of a horse's eligibility to race is beneficial to the retiring racehorse, but the process requires thoughtfulness and transparency on the part of the seller and buyer to avoid contractual disputes or other disagreements. To that end, the previous process required a notarized signature and hard-copy form to retire a Thoroughbred from racing. With the assistance of digital signature verification, we are now able to confidently collect the required signatures through the Interactive Registration website, which will make the process easier for everyone involved.”

Kristin Werner | Skip Dickstein

Werner also reported that the ease of traceability is increasing due to the replacement of hard-copy certificates with digital ones starting with the foal crop of 2018. This, she said, “will allow The Jockey Club to follow up with the certificate manager to try to trace a Thoroughbred that has exited the racing or breeding population with an unknown outcome. When this system is in place in 2024, an automated prompt will be triggered when a horse has not been reported dead and has no racing activity, no breeding activity, and no Thoroughbred Incentive Program number for a specified time period. The communication will explain why the prompt was triggered and will ask the manager to indicate the horse's current status.”

For foals born in 2017 and prior that had made a start in the past 10 years, she said, The Jockey Club would be reaching out to the last connections to try to determine their status.

Werner also addressed racing's safety issues.

“In 2022, data analysis from the 14th year of reporting to the Equine Injury Database (EID) showed a decrease in the rate of fatal injury in 2022 to 1.25 fatalities per 1,000 starts,” said Werner. “This is the lowest cumulative fatality rate since the EID was launched in 2009, and is the fourth consecutive year that the rate has decreased. While 99.88% of Thoroughbred races were completed without a fatality last year, clusters like those that occurred in April and May of 2023, unfortunately, cast a shadow over the good news and bring equine fatalities back into the headlines of national media,” she said, referring to the fatalities during the week leading up to the Kentucky Derby.

Werner said that the advent of the EID had allowed them to identify 35% of the risk factors which put horses at increased risk for breakdown during the running of a race. Those factors include a horse's vet list history, the race distance, and the time a horse has spent with a trainer. Long races, and longer time with a horse's trainer make that horse statistically safer.

The Safety Committee is also calling for the dissemination of information regarding the consistency and maintenance of track surfaces. “The Thoroughbred Safety Committee today calls for that information to be frequently measured at periodic distances and made available to the public,” said Werner. “Working with other key industry stakeholders, especially the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority and the Racing Surfaces Testing Laboratory, The Jockey Club recommends exploring the best methods for providing the racing surface data to the horsemen and public, including through an app, website, or other electronic feed. As with all of its recommendations, The Jockey Club will help provide resources to ensure this recommendation is met.”

Analytics in Sport

Michael Lopez, the Director of Football Data and Analytics for the National Football League, is a Saratoga resident who used to teach at Skidmore College in town, and a long-time horse racing fan. He talked about how the NFL uses data to drive decision-making, and ways in which he felt horse racing could do the same.

Michael Lopez | Skip Dickstein

And while the sports are completely different, there were several interesting parallels.

Wearable technology has been an interesting new potential safety tool for horses, designed to measure things like their regular stride to detect any changes that might indicate a problem. The NFL is doing the same.

“Recently,” said Lopez, “all NFL players are now wearing RFID chips in their helmets, shoulder pads, and cleats, small enough so that the players don't feel them, but enough so that a signal is emitted each time they step onto the practice or game field. The burden is heavy–this data is messy and the tracking cumbersome–but the idea of a cleat specific to a running back on turf, or a helmet specific to a quarterback who likes to scramble–gives the league plenty to work on. And each practice, each club is required to wear tracking devices that give insight into a player's load, distance traveled, speed, etc., which enables sports scientists to evaluate performance, if players need to tone down, or injury recovery.”

Moreover, the NFL is timing the replay review process to ensure that a coach's challenge in a more prominent game is treated the same way that it would be in a less-prominent one. After the non-disqualification of Forte (Violence) in the July 29 GII Jim Dandy S. prompted much discussion over whether a less well-publicized event would have merited a DQ, the topic struck home. “The horse racing corollary is obvious,” said Lopez. “When, why, and how stewards decide for or against a disqualification, because a possible DQ at Del Mar should have the identical decision-making process to one at Saratoga.”

Engagement With Racing

Lindsay Czarniak | Skip Dickstein

Lindsay Czarniak was just a baby when her father Chet took the job as the first-ever horse racing reporter for USA Today in 1982. Today, she is a sports broadcaster who anchored SportsCenter for six years and who works as a Fox Sports sideline reporter. She is a studio host for NBC's summer and winter Olympics. She is also an influencer with America's Best Racing and a West Point Thoroughbreds partner who was one of the co-owners of Jace's Road (Quality Road) in this year's Kentucky Derby. “My goal was to give folks that pay attention to my content the VIP access,” said Czarniak. “I had so many people pulling for Jace's Road because they knew we were in the big race.”

Her advice for racing? Lean into storytelling and access; just because it feels normal to people within the industry doesn't mean that it is to fans. “There is a family aspect, a necessary aspect, a high-stakes aspect to this sport that your average sports fan would consume.”

She also advised racing to place itself where young people consume content, i.e., streaming platforms, digital and social media, etc., and to communicate the safety steps that have been taken.

Racing and Data

Kyle McDoniel was named the President and COO of Equibase on June 1, 2023, and comes from a sports and data background, having most recently served as vice president of U.S. Strategic Partnerships for SportRadar, a sports technology company.

McDoniel talked about the challenges inherent in GPS tracking of horse racing, and said that Equibase is now producing tracking at 28 tracks across the U.S. and Canada, representing over 75% of North American handle. In addition, he said the company was continuing to invest in graphical representations of past performances, including those that illustrate stride frequency and length averages, among other things.

Janney's Closing Remarks

Stuart S. Janney III | Skip Dickstein

In his closing remarks, Jockey Club Chairman Stuart Janney said that the advent of HISA had done a lot to secure racing's future.

“Four years ago, at this program, a great Australian breeder-owner, John Messara, speaking about the proposed federal legislation, said, `You've got everything to unleash your monster of economic rewards if you were to join the rest of the world in this harmonization in terms of the drug rules.' John was right and we are here today and it's now time to capture that future.”

To do so, said Janney, “I have two suggestions. First, we have to embrace the international aspect of the sport. Racing is global and thankfully, in many parts of the world, the sport is thriving.”

His second suggestion, he said, involved marketing. “We need to get past the concerns that we are constantly in turmoil, rocking from one crisis to the next. Another Round Table speaker from the past, David Fuscus, [who] discussed crisis management, said, `If we come together as an industry, negative perception can be turned. There is hope we can come through these dark days, but to do so, the public needs to understand what we're doing and believe we are on a path to success.'”

Entire Conference Available Online

To watch the entire Round Table conference, click here.

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While we will not respond in a tit-for-tat with The Jockey Club, we want to make one thing abundantly clear. That is to quote the Authority's own statement in response to these tragic deaths last week: “Churchill Downs has been cooperating with HISA since its inception and is in full compliance with our rules and processes.” To suggest that these deaths were somehow attributable to the HBPA is simply wrong. HISA clearly stated in its own press release that Churchill Downs has been and is in full compliance with the HISA rules, and HISA has been the law of the land for almost a year. To insinuate any other narrative is backwards and is shameful coming from those who wanted and did gain control of the regulations of this industry.

The National HBPA has never done anything more than insist that the regulatory authority writing the rules for this industry be structured in a way that respects the constitutional rights of all horsemen and be operated in a way that is transparent, responsive and accountable. We will continue to fight for these rights in court. We believe the best path forward for the industry — the best way to keep our horses and their humans safe — is a regulatory framework built on those principles: transparent, responsive, accountable, constitutional.

Now is not the time to go low, point fingers or assign blame. This is a time to come together as an industry, not to drive a deeper wedge with personal attacks and gratuitous insults. Both sides' lawyers should make their best arguments in court, while outside the courthouse we all work together to keep horses safe under the governing rules.

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I would like to set the record straight about HISA and to comment on its opponents' most recent actions.

Over the past months these opponents, principally the National Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association (NHBPA) and a handful of state racing commissions have trafficked in a series of mistruths and fabrications to try to hoodwink members of the racing industry and the public to oppose HISA. All this is underwritten by a couple of unrelated, agenda driven, special interest activist groups, which have zero involvement in our sport and have no interest in its long-term viability.

They have argued that HISA was passed in the “middle of the night” in 2020. It wasn't. It's first form of a bill was introduced in 2015 and re-introduced in 2017 and 2019, it received hearings in Congress, was carried forward by a House Committee in 2020, and was, in September that year, passed unanimously by the House of Representatives as a stand-alone piece of legislation. A month later it was passed by the Senate as part of a larger bill, due to the expiring legislative session.

Opponents also claim to not have had input into HISA. Nonsense. As someone fully involved in the development of HISA, I can attest to the countless times horsemen's groups and racing commissioners, specifically, met with backers of the bill and its original sponsors. In fact, I recall flying leadership of the NHBPA to Colorado Springs to meet and discuss the bill. I'll foreshadow the rest of this essay by sharing that at that time counsel for the NHPBA said their most significant concern was including anything in a bill that would open the Interstate Horseracing Act of 1978 (IHA) to any form of amendment or tampering. We've spoken with them in closed rooms and debated them in public for years – but somehow, they were “never included.”

Against this background of spin and untruths, the opponents have become serial litigators: they have filed six federal lawsuits across the nation – making redundant claims in each – in an effort to find the “right” federal appeals court to find HISA unconstitutional.

Thus far, the opponents have failed in the U.S. Sixth Circuit, which in a comprehensive and well-reasoned opinion found HISA to be constitutional. Last week, they failed again when a federal district court in Texas issued another extensive opinion finding HISA constitutional. The opponents are going to take another shot at it with the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court now that the court's earlier decision on HISA has been made moot by way of a legislative amendment in December. Not being content with these bites at the apple, opponents have recently filed additional nearly identical lawsuits within two other federal circuit court jurisdictions.

While helping plaintiff's lawyers live their dreams, the HISA opponents expend great energy complaining about how much HISA might cost. While assessments will continue to be fine-tuned – one thing is for sure, they are driving up the industry's expenses by continuing to sue with no end in sight.

All this brings us to this past week. Once again, the challenges facing our athletes and our industry have come to the forefront – directly to a national audience at the time of our sport's biggest event. Following the unfortunate equine fatalities at Churchill Downs, and the massive national media attention it garnered, opponents of HISA have chosen not to get behind a collective effort to solve these issues but, instead, to break down the industry's best hope for ensuring horse safety and industry integrity. Early this week, they continued their scorched earth efforts to derail HISA in favor of maintaining the status quo by immediately seeking an injunction against the rollout of the HISA anti-doping and medication control program on May 22. This, despite the fact that the very same court they are asking for the injunction just found HISA to be constitutional.

These injunctions take a toll. One judge delayed HISA's implementation of its medication program by a month, making it impossible to begin before Derby week. HISA will not be fully implemented until later this month now, due to the NHBPA. Would a unified, independent medication and track safety program have made a difference? Thanks to the NHBPA, we will never know.

Most organizations would have kept a low profile after such an embarrassment. Not the NHBPA, they doubled down. They got their few supporters in Congress to prepare legislation that would immediately repeal HISA and offer the illusion of a state compact-based regulatory model. The draft legislation would enable states to choose to keep the current state-by-state regulatory approach or create a regulator whose board of directors would be hand-picked by state commissions – under rules that specifically allow the directors to have conflicts of interests. The medication regulation by compact regulatory model is a recycled version of an idea first trotted out by the Association of Racing Commissioners International in 2010 and which has continued to be touted by opponents to HISA since. Obviously, it hasn't worked yet, and it will not work in the future.

Further, this trojan horse of a bill takes a carrot and stick approach that would put simulcast wagering across the U.S. at risk of an immediate and summary cessation. Under this bill, if two states enter into a compact to create the conflicted new regulatory body ALL other states would be forbidden from simulcasting until they enter into the compact as well. As I foreshadowed earlier, NHBPA's lawyer told us years ago that anything touching the IHA was an absolute no-go for them – now that they are blinded by their hate for HISA, they seemingly no longer care. This “we have to destroy the industry to (possibly) save it” approach is an absolute affront to everyone in our industry – those who support HISA and those who do not.

The horses that perished last week have recent racing histories within numerous states for which there is no single regulator that has the ability to conduct complete cross-border investigations. HISA changes this dynamic. Under the HISA opponents' preferred approach, each state is an investigatory island, limited to inquiries within their own borders. One would think that the NHBPA would want the fullest possible investigations in support of their members who lost horses – and to avoid the same things happening to other horses in the future. They focus instead on hobbling HISA while leaving their constituents and our equine and human athletes at continued risk.

I've spent every living moment of my professional life working in this industry, in many roles, including at some of the smallest tracks and the largest. It's a sport I have loved since I was a child, and it remains with deep roots among my friends and family. Racing safety and integrity are matters concerning everyone at all levels of the game – and to so many outside of it. Who among us in the sport didn't hear over the last few days: “What's going on with horse racing?” and “What can be done to fix it?” The answer is clear: HISA.

Unlike what the opponents of HISA are peddling, the industry should embrace the opportunity to safeguard our horses and our game by moving forward with HISA, not taking a trip backward to the tired and worn-out programs of the past.

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Guided by a goal to develop a platform for youth in horse racing, Montplaisir co-founded Amplify with Madison Scott in 2019, and has served as the organization's president since its incorporation in 2020. Scott remains on the board of directors alongside Price Bell, Jordyn Egan, Hallie Hardy, Laurel Humbert-Stock, Katie LaMonica, and Cate Masterson.

Originally from Fargo, North Dakota, and an alumna of North Dakota State University, Montplaisir completed internships with Fasig-Tipton, Keeneland and Mill Ridge Farm before getting accepted into the Godolphin Flying Start Program. Her professional background includes project managing for global networking organization Together for Racing International (TfRI), co-hosting Hípica TV's Spanish coverage of the Breeders' Cup in 2021 and 2022, and producing and co-hosting the Spanish language online horse racing program, La Trifecta, with America's Best Racing. Montplaisir recently culminated a 2-year term as equine education coordinator of the Kentucky Equine Education Project (KEEP) Foundation.

“It is an honor for me to work with Amplify Horse Racing to showcase how enriching the Thoroughbred industry can be,” said Montplaisir. “From the time I started my own career journey in horse racing, my ambition has been to streamline the pathway for other youth to be involved. Amplify fulfills that purpose by creating new opportunities and promoting existing initiatives, and I believe it is going to be impactful in the lives of many youth.”

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The language in the bill relating to HISA is meant to address issues raised by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in November. That court ruled that HISA was unconstitutional because the FTC's powers were limited and that HISA had too big of a role. It is believed that the relevant language in the bill allows the FTC to “abrogate, add to, and modify the rules of the Authority promulgated in accordance with this Act as the Commission finds necessary or appropriate to ensure the fair administration of the Authority, to conform the rules of the Authority to requirements of this Act and applicable rules approved by the Commission, or otherwise in furtherance of the purposes of this Act.”

While Friday's development was a win for HISA, the battle between pro and anti-HISA forces is far from over and it's unclear what will happen next. However, it appears likely that the National HBPA and other groups fighting HISA will not back down and will continue to challenge the many issues that have been raised in the courts. It's also unclear what steps will now be taken by HISA and the FTC in order to get HISA back on track. Possibilities include asking the Fifth Circuit to reconsider its ruling in light of the fact that the FTC will have more power going forward. It's also possible that the FTC can essentially start the entire process over and ask HISA to resubmit its proposed rules.

Should the Fifth Circuit reverse itself and give HISA the green light to go forward, there are other lawsuits out there that could once again change the direction of the dispute. One is a case in which plaintiffs have made familiar arguments relating to the constitutionality of HISA that has been argued in the Sixth Circuit, which has yet to issue a ruling. Another case is pending in the U.S. District Court of Texas-Northern District, Amarillo Division, which raises several constitutional problems with the law, other than FTC rule-making input. The bottom line is that, from a legal standpoint, nothing yet is certain when it comes to HISA.

After the spending bill passed the house, the NTRA issued a press release celebrating the victory that included comments from several industry leaders.

“On behalf of NTRA members, which include broad representation of every aspect of the Thoroughbred industry, we welcome the successful bipartisan efforts of Congress to reaffirm Congressional support for HISA's mission,” said NTRA President and CEO Tom Rooney. “HISA is critical to our sport and we look forward to working collaboratively with every industry constituency to continue to support the essential role of HISA going forward. We especially want to thank Congressional leadership in Leader McConnell, Leader Schumer, and Speaker Pelosi, committee leadership in Chairman Pallone, Chairwoman Cantwell, and Rep. Schakowsky, and our longtime champions Reps. Tonko and Barr and Senators Feinstein and Gillibrand. Finally, I thank the many people from far and wide across the industry who advocated for this law with their elected officials.”

“The Jockey Club is extremely appreciative of the efforts Congress is making in support of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act,” said The Jockey Club President and COO Jim Gagliano. “The Jockey Club has supported nationwide, uniform rules and regulations for Thoroughbred racing for decades through numerous initiatives. HISA is Thoroughbred racing's best solution to greatly improve regulation of the sport and to help ensure our sport is clean and is safe for our athletes–both equine and human.”

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Leading the group is a significant painting by John Frederick Herring Sr., titled: The 1828 Doncaster St. Leger Won by The Colonel, which is estimated to fetch between $400,000 and $600,000. John Frederick Herring Sr.'s series of racing pictures inspired by the 1828 St Leger S. are some of his most highly prized sporting works and this piece is one of the most valuable by the artist to come to auction in over a decade.

The 1828 Doncaster St. Leger Won by The Colonel depicts the 1828 St Leger race led by The Colonel*, who can be seen on the far right of the image above, overtaking the group made up of Belinda, Velocipede, and Besy Bedlam, who are all identified by the inscription underneath. Adding to the drama of the scene, Herring depicts the galloping horses with all four legs outstretched and off the ground (something which was proved impossible half a century later by Eadweard Muybridge's series of cabinet cards capturing a horse in motion), nevertheless, Herring's cinematic composition freezes the rush and excitement of racing horses flying through the air in physically impossible strides.

“The Jockey Club has owned these beautiful works of art for many years, and for that time they have been displayed in our offices in New York City,” said The Jockey Club's Jim Gagliano. “Early next year, we are moving to a location in New York that doesn't have the space to accommodate the collection. As a result, The Jockey Club board of stewards authorized management to research options for the collection, including a sale. We are pleased that Sotheby's has agreed to handle the auction, and we look forward to these pieces finding the right homes so they may continue to be appropriately enjoyed.”

Proceeds from the auction will benefit the Club's initiatives in support of the Thoroughbred industry.

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“Aspects of this law will have a devastating effect on our industry and put many hardworking horsemen and horsewomen out of business,” said National HBPA CEO Eric Hamelback. “We've been saying for several years that this legislation was illegal. We are considering our options to appeal the decision and remain committed to doing due diligence to ensure a legal solution that protects the health and welfare of our equine and human athletes is adopted.”

The statement continued, “In his decision, Judge Hendrix acknowledged his court cannot “expand or constrict” the precedents, which makes the ruling ripe for appeal. Judge Hendrix wrote, 'The Horsemen are correct that HISA creates a novel structure that nationalizes regulation of the horseracing industry…Although the Horsemen make compelling arguments that HISA goes too far, only appellate courts may expand or constrict precedent. This Court cannot.'”

National HBPA and affiliates in Arizona, Arkansas, Indiana, Illinois, Louisiana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Washington, West Virginia and Tampa Bay are represented by the Liberty Justice Center, a national nonprofit law firm.

“We are encouraged that Judge Hendrix recognized the strength of our arguments and plan to push them vigorously on appeal,” said Daniel Suhr, managing attorney at the Liberty Justice Center. “Congress cannot cede its legal authority to regulate an entire industry to a private organization. This case remains important to protect the integrity of not only the horseracing industry but also our Constitution.”

The statement concluded, “HISA still faces a separate federal lawsuit challenging its constitutionality. That suit filed in Lexington, KY., was brought by the United States Trotting Association; the states of Oklahoma, West Virginia and Louisiana with support from six additional states; and other entities that include two racing commissions and the Oklahoma Quarter Horse Association. In the best interest of horse racing, horsemen and horsewomen, we must continue to exercise our due diligence and see this through. The National HBPA appreciates the process. We believe Judge Hendrix has done deliberative, supportive work and has provided a path to move forward with our challenge.

 A number of state and industry officials also issued statements on the decision:

James L. Gagliano, President and COO of The Jockey Club:
The Jockey Club congratulates the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority and its counsel on the Federal Texas District Court's finding that the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act of 2020 is indeed constitutional.

For those long supporting the passage and implementation of the Act, this is a result we have long anticipated. To HISA Chairman Charlie Scheeler, CEO Lisa Lazarus, and the entire HISA team and its counsel, we express our gratitude for your continued dedication to the cause of equine safety and integrity in our sport. We look forward to HISA beginning the first prong of its programs to enhance our sport on July 1.

Marty Irby, Executive Director of Animal Wellness Action:
We applaud the court for validating what we knew all along, the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act is in sync with the U.S. Constitution and intent of the Commerce Clause–some of the most brilliant legal minds in Congress, the animal protection space, and Thoroughbred horse racing prepared and vetted a bullet-proof measure that's now the law of the land.

It's time for the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority to swiftly implement the new law as intended and secure a contract with the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency to oversee all testing and enforcement so the eradication of doping can begin. We congratulate the Authority on this tremendous victory leading up to the running of the 148th Kentucky Derby.

U.S. Senate Repulican Leader, Ky Senator Mitch McConnell:
Kentucky's signature horseracing industry is a key part of our heritage and supports 24,000 workers across the Commonwealth. Working closely with sport leaders, horse advocates, and fans, Congressman Barr and I led the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act of 2020 to passage to promote safety and fairness across Thoroughbred racing, ensuring the sport's future viability. This legislation's advocates knew from the beginning that it was fully constitutional, and I am pleased the court agreed with our arguments, which I supported through an amicus brief. I congratulate the Horse Integrity and Safety Authority for their recent positive momentum, moving us all closer to a safer, better-regulated American Thoroughbred racing industry.

Ky Congressman Andy Barr:
The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act was carefully and thoroughly drafted with an eye toward ensuring the Authority it created was constitutional in its structure and powers. Throughout the process Senator McConnell and I consulted with lawyers and relevant precedent to ensure the statute would survive any constitutional challenge. The fact that the Northern District of Texas has upheld HISA reinforces that due diligence. I look forward to seeing the Authority begin its programming this summer and the further advancement of the sport.

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The bill calls for new regulations that would make the three-year depreciation schedule permanent for racehorses, no matter their age when put into service. Currently, Congress must reauthorize this provision in the tax law on an annual basis.

The legislation would also reduce the holding period for equine assets to be considered long term capital gains, putting them on a level playing field with other similar assets.

“Permanently delivering tax incentives for owners and breeders will strengthen investment in our signature equine industry,” Congressman Barr, who serves as Co-Chair of the Congressional Horse Caucus, said in a statement. “I want to continue the momentum started with the enactment of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act to push another key industry initiative across the finish line that will help solidify the sport for decades to come.”

Barr's bill has been endorsed by the National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA), the Kentucky Thoroughbred Association, the Jockey Club, the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association, Keeneland, and the American Horse Council.

“The three-year depreciation of racehorses (similar to other investment assets) is critically important to encourage robust investment in Thoroughbred horses and to maintain the vibrant economy and trade we have seen throughout this Thoroughbred sales cycle and consistently over the past 85 years at Keeneland,” Shannon Arvin, President and CEO of Keeneland said in a statement. “We appreciate Congressman Barr's consistent support of this legislation and the entire Thoroughbred industry.”

“The Jockey Club wholeheartedly supports the Equine Tax Fairness Act, introduced by Congressman Andy Barr,” Jockey Club President & CEO Jim Gagliano said in a statement. “This bill will put horse ownership on par with other investment assets. The bill addresses two key deficiencies of the tax code. First, the bill will decrease the depreciation schedule eligible to racehorses from seven years to three, permanently rescheduling racehorses that are put into service before the age of two into the three-year depreciation asset class. The three-year depreciation schedule accurately reflects the typical career of a racehorse since nearly three-quarters of foals that race have a career of four years or less. This change has been enacted by Congress on a temporary, year-to-year basis since 2008, and needs to be permanent law.

“Second, the Equine Tax Fairness Act will reduce the holding period required for equine assets to be considered long-term capital assets from 24 months to 12 months, putting them in line with other investments, such as homes, stocks and bonds.”

Along with Congressman Paul Tonko, Barr was the original sponsor in the House of Representatives of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act.

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