Sometime last week, a group of signs were printed out and taped to doors at the racing office and onto the claim box at Turf Paradise.
“CLAIMS CANNOT AND WILL NOT BE VOIDED,” several read.
One reprinted the state statute language regarding claims, leaving no doubt at all about the policy.
“A claimed horse shall race for the account of the horse's original owner but title to the horse shall transfer to the claimant when the horse becomes a starting horse. After title to the horse transfers to the claimant, the claimant becomes the owner of the horse regardless of whether it is alive or dead, sound or unsound, or injured before, during, or after the claiming race.”
The signs were posted by Racing Division staff, though a spokesman for the Arizona Department of Gaming did not provide an explanation of what prompted them to reiterate the rule at this particular moment.
The void claim rule has been a point of discussion in Arizona for many years now. Most recently it's been brought up in context of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority. Part of the Authority's racetrack safety regulations is a void claim rule, nationalizing something that many states have been doing for years. The national void claim rule voids the claim of a horse who dies or is euthanized on track, is vanned off, is determined within one hour of the race to be lame or to have bled, or has a positive test for a prohibited substance. (Most states didn't previously void claims for bleeding or post-race medication positives, but did if a horse dies, is vanned off, or is put on a veterinarian's list for unsoundness immediately after the race.)
This isn't a controversial concept for most people in the racing industry. The goal is to reduce the incentive for bad actors to drop horses they know are lame into cheap races where an unsuspecting colleague may claim them, thinking they're getting a bargain. It's also a pretty basic attempt at improving safety for jockeys; if a trainer can no longer get a sore poor performer off his books by running it in a race, then a jockey won't be on a compromised horse at elevated risk of breakdown. A void claim rule can help improve trainers' confidence when dropping a claim, which should reduce a barrier to commerce. It should also improve horseplayers' confidence, because if a trainer has a reduced incentive to enter a sore loser, it's less likely a bettor will unknowingly put money on one.
Do I need to point out that anything that reduces on-track injury in this, the year 2022, is a good thing for horse racing in general?
Apparently I do, because this is Arizona, and from where I'm sitting 1,800 miles away, no one in a position of power gives a damn about protecting claiming horses there.
I'll tell you what they do give a damn about, though. Asserting their independence against the new Authority.
Arizona is, to my knowledge, the only state that has so far been cited by the Authority for unvoiding a voided claim under the national rules. On July 23, a horse named Ag Minister cooled out lame in the test barn, so the Authority steward on duty at Arizona Downs began the process of voiding the claim. He was notified by chief state steward Jason Hart that the claim would not be voided, under orders of his supervisors at the commission.
As of Dec. 14, Ag Minister has neither raced nor recorded a workout since being claimed by Justin Evans from that July 23 race.
Read more about the unvoided void here.
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If you appreciate our work, you can support us by subscribing to our Patreon stream. Learn more.Arizona is one of a number of states whose HBPA affiliate has gone to court to contest the constitutionality of the Authority. I don't pretend to have an opinion on the Authority's constitutionality, and I also don't pretend that I have zero concerns about the complexities of trying to create a central authority from scratch. But let's be honest – constitutionality isn't really what upsets racing participants in Arizona, is it?
I saw a Facebook post from an Arizona racing participant praising the legal blow dealt to the Authority by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which found the law creating HISA unconstitutional. Lots of people on social media celebrated the setback for a lot of different reasons, some of which I understand. But this one, coming from this state, killed me.
“Awesome! We don't need anyone else telling us how to run racing in Arizona!” was the gist.
Ask Creative Plan how he feels about the job Arizona has been doing on its own.
The 5-year-old gelding by Creative Cause died in February this year, weeks after his last race at Turf Paradise, where he exited a claiming race unsound. Veterinarians who examined him afterwards uncovered multiple serious chronic issues, and the trainer who claimed the gelding (and of course was stuck with him) said the horse was entered in his last race in some condition of soreness, according to his communication with the previous conditioner. After weeks of walking on two front legs with serious damage, he was euthanized with swollen, misshapen fetlocks whose suspensory ligaments had given way, dropping his ankles toward the dirt. Every step he took would have brought extreme pain.
It's hard to know, but a void claim rule may have disincentivized Creative Plan's last trainer from entering him, knowing that not only had the horse not been competitive since August 2021, but he also had no chance at getting paid to empty out the stall.
Oh, but take heart – the commission tells me that they have, as of Dec. 1, 2022, submitted a noticed of proposed rulemaking to the Arizona Secretary of State, the first in a multi-step process to possibly get a void claim rule of some kind on the books…eventually.
(I asked for a copy of the draft rule language and was told it would be available on the commission's website “soon.”)
A former commissioner told me that he first began formally calling for a void claim rule in the state in 2019 and was repeatedly told that it wasn't possible to do any new rulemaking through the governor's office. In Arizona, the state legislature could, however, have passed a rule change if the commission or another interest group had brought them one. No one did.
Back in 2019, Turf Paradise, to its credit, created a house rule to void claims. But when trainer Robert Lucas tried to invoke the rule after claiming a lame horse, state stewards told him the track's rule conflicted with the state statute and as such was unenforceable. Turf Paradise dropped the rule, realizing it had no teeth, and everything continued as it always had.
Void claim rules first went into effect in California (just west of Arizona but really a whole other world) more than a decade ago. Data from the Equine Injury Database supports the assertion that void claim rules make racing safer and has done so since 2019. It's hard to imagine that after so many years of stuffing its fingers in its ears, the commission is honestly going to make this change on its own, but heaven forbid a national law drag it into the modern era.
Of course, it looks like that won't happen now. The Authority is fighting challenges on all sides, thanks in part to groups like the horsemen of Arizona. It sounds like they couldn't be more thrilled.
So keep your independence, folks. And god help your horses.
The post Voss: Arizona Officials Don’t Give A Damn About Protecting Claiming Horses appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
