HISA regulations take effect

The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority takes its place Friday at the head of a limited new national regulatory scheme for horse racing in the United States, but it’s still in danger of being cut off at the legs.

Resolutely opposed by several horsemen’s groups and in several racing states where “federal government” has become a political and cultural term of derision, HISA will launch Friday with a mandate to unify racing rules in jurisdictions across the United States while still in the process of attempting to fulfill the mandates contained in its enabling legislation, which was passed late in 2020.

HISA officials have said in recent days that they are “laser-focused” on the particulars surrounding the July 1 launch. Over the past several weeks, the officials have consistently dodged questions that relate to anything other than the imminent start date, including questions regarding a letter sent Monday by four senators questioning HISA’s fulfillment of statutory deadlines set in the legislation. The letter, which was signed by senators in Iowa, West Virginia, and Louisiana, explicitly asked if HISA wanted Congress to modify the deadlines in the legislation, citing what the letter called a “chaotic implementation process.”

Current controversies aside, hundreds of rules promulgated by the authority and approved by the Federal Trade Commission are scheduled to go into effect Friday as part of the authority’s “racetrack safety program” – at least in those jurisdictions that have agreed to accept the authority’s federal mandate. Those rules are expected to be applied universally in all the participating jurisdictions, representing a limited victory for those racing constituencies who have spent the past two decades unsuccessfully trying to herd racing’s cats into a common pen.

Most notably, a rule limiting crop use that is similar to the one already in place in California will apply to all jockeys in HISA jurisdictions on Friday, unifying the disparate patchwork of rules that had previously governed use of the whip. In addition, rules requiring the submission of records for veterinary treatments to a common database go into effect, as well as a voided claim rule that is similar to those in many jurisdictions that already allow owners or trainers to void claims in the event of post-race lameness or other complications.

Crucially, as of the close of business Friday, any horse that has not been registered with HISA will not be allowed to run in a race under HISA’s jurisdiction, and the connections of those horses – most specifically its owners and trainer – also will have to be registered.

As of Monday night, HISA said that 18,400 “covered persons” had completed the registration process. Asked to provide an estimate for the number of “covered persons” who exist in the industry, HISA said that it wasn’t going “to venture a guess.”

“Since such a registration process has never existed at the national level before, it’s unclear how many people are or will be participating in racing,” HISA said in prepared answers to questions sent to the authority.

As of Wednesday, HISA said that approximately 23,000 “covered horses” had been registered, or approximately half of the number of individual horses who have made individual starts at U.S. racetracks in each of the past two years, according to data from The Jockey Club. Because a horse does not need to be registered until it starts in a race, HISA officials believe there is a lag effect on registrations, and the authority also noted that the number of covered horses and covered persons “is limited to the 24 states conducting covered horse races under HISA’s authority.”

To ensure that owners and trainers register their horses with HISA, the authority has set up an alert system in which any unregistered horse entered in a race will generate an email or text message to the horse’s owner or trainer pointing them to the registration site. As long as the horse is registered by scratch time, it will be allowed to start.

Aside from those requirements, uncertainty abounds.

Although judges in Texas and Kentucky have dismissed federal lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of HISA’s enabling legislation (both decisions have been appealed), the letter from the senators this week opens up a new avenue for those opposed to the authority’s mandate or the way it has conducted its business so far. The letter contends that HISA has already failed to meet several deadlines set in the legislation and questions whether the authority’s federal overseer, the FTC, had the power to issue waivers to those deadlines. The letter asked HISA and the FTC to respond to its questions by July 11.

Then there is Texas. Regulators in the state have taken the unusual legal position that state law requires the racing commission to be the sole regulator of racing at state racetracks – federal laws be damned. As a result, the commission denied a simulcasting application for Lone Star Park in order to exempt the track’s races from the “covered races” clause of HISA’s jurisdictional authority. So, as of July 1, the racetrack will be open for in-state wagers only, its signal nowhere to be found at out-of-state betting locations or on account-wagering platforms.

Lone Star Park has 14 live racing dates remaining before its Thoroughbred meet closes on July 24. No major track in the state is scheduled to host Thoroughbred racing after that date until 2023.

“We hold out hope that we will still find a way to work together and chart a positive path forward for racing in Texas,” HISA said in its responses.