Confusion has reigned ever since an appellate court ruled last week that the Horse Racing and Integrity Act (HISA) is unconstitutional. So what does that mean for the state racing commissions and what should they do going forward? The TDN Writers' Room presented by Keeneland called upon Ed Martin, the chairman and CEO of the Association of Racing Commissioners International to help clear up the situation. Martin was this week's Green Group Guest of the Week.
Martin believes that considering the situation HISA should drop the Jan. 1 date and put off taking over drug testing until after the situation has been fully resolved in the courts.
“HISA could fix this themselves by going back to the FTC and saying we're going to put off enforcement of our drug rules,” Martin said. “And they could put it off six months and hopefully we'll get a final court answer by then. But it doesn't look like we're going to get a final determination of their constitutionality any time soon. So this is going to go into a great gray area.”
Martin said he feared that if HISA were to sanction someone after taking over drug testing and enforcement from the state racing commissions that the ruling could be thrown out because the court has said that HISA is unconstitutional.
“We're in a situation where we have a sport where the HISA rules will apply on January 1st and people will get sanctioned for a drug violation or a doping violation under the HISA Rule,” Martin said. “Then if HISA is ultimately declared unconstitutional and invalid, then that violation goes away. It doesn't exist. The penalty goes away. And you've redistributed purses. So this has the potential to be an enormous, chaotic situation.
“There's also been a number of jockeys across the country who have been sanctioned for HISA crap rule violations. Well, if there aren't constitutional, those violations really don't exist. So expect litigation.”
Martin said he is hearing that should HISA go through some tracks will elect not to take part. That would mean they cannot send out their simulcast signal, a price some may be willing to pay.
“There are tracks that, and I'm not at liberty to say who they are, that are considering not simulcasting their signal to come out from under HISA,” Martin said. “And there are states where the tracks in that state, some of them will simulcast and some of them won't. It depends on their economic viability. This was supposed to bring uniformity to the sport. Right now, it's kind of going in the other way. It's off the rails right now. ”
Elsewhere on the podcast, which is also sponsored by Coolmore, Lane's End, the Kentucky Thoroughbred Association, XBTV and https://www.threechimneys.com/ West Point Thoroughbreds, Bill Finley, Zoe Cadman and Randy Moss gave their own take on the HISA mess. They also looked at Frankie Dettori's decision to join the Santa Anita riding colony starting on Dec. 26 and hue and cry over overly aggressive riding in New York and the feeling that the NYRA stewards are not doing enough to discipline jockeys who go over the line.
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