HISA town hall discusses sales, medication rules, horsemen's input

A Monday-afternoon town hall meeting with Lisa Lazarus from the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority and trainers Dale Romans and Ron Moquett discussed a broad range of topics including the scope of medication rules and the ways in which horsemen's insight can inform HISA's priorities and reshape rules.

Lazarus came to the meeting with a list of questions that were submitted before the meeting. She mentioned at the end of the meeting that she was not able to address every question she got before the meeting, but that she would reach out to people with responses afterward. Lazarus also mentioned the possibility of future town halls.

A significant portion of the meeting focused on medication rules and enforcement, including as it relates to sales. "The way that the act was written, we only have authority over horses once they have their first published work," Lazarus said. At this point, a published work is their first work posted on Equibase, though Lazarus did not leave out the possibility that it could later be interpreted as a work published through a sale's breeze listings.

Romans, who joined the town hall meeting from Ocala, Fla., where he had traveled to attend the OBS March sale, supports considering sale breezes as a first breeze. "If we're going to test hair follicles that can hold medication for months and months," Romans said, "I don't understand why these sales companies aren't held at the same standards as we are."

Moquett referred to sales oversight as a "Pandora's box," noting that trainers and riders of horses at sales are not licensed the same way they are at tracks. Moquett noted that many of his best horses went through 2-year-old sales, but he would like to know that sale horses were going through medication and safety protocols as they do at tracks, sometimes as soon as a month later.

All of the presenters at the town hall highlighted the role horsemen have played influencing policy choices and changes, even before the point that proposed rules have gone before the Federal Trade Commission. Moquett mentioned a meeting at Saratoga in 2023 where trainers including Todd Pletcher, Bill Mott, Steve Asmussen and Mark Casse came to discuss a proposed rule against shin scraping. Moquett described that meeting as a highlight of his involvement with the horsemen's advisory committee, and an example of horsemen presenting HISA with data. Lazarus mentioned that after the level of response against that proposed ban, the racetrack safety committee revisited the rule and removed that section from its proposal.

Lazarus did highlight that, in the case of changes to rules in place as opposed to proposed rules, that the change cannot happen overnight. Since HISA is overseen by the FTC, rule changes must go through periods of review and public comment before being put into place. However, Lazarus did highlight the organization's authority over enforcement, even as rulemaking changes. "What we try to do is, if there's a rule in place that doesn't make sense, if it causes horsemen punitive measures that we don't think are right or appropriate, we're going to hold off on that sanction until we hear back from the FTC," Lazarus said. She noted that they have done that while the changes to enforcement on substances that humans abuse were pending.

The town hall also touched on how horsemen could more effectively voice opinions and suggestions to HISA to inform future rulemaking. Lazarus mentioned that the role of ombudsman Alan Foreman includes working with horsemen to help them navigate HISA procedures, including helping them find out how to present mitigating circumstances when they face a positive test. Lazarus also highlighted the pro bono counsel program, and said that every horseman who has requested assistance under that program has been granted it. Later in the meeting, Romans suggested that this could be strengthened if Foreman visited with local horsemen's groups to address their questions on how to handle interactions with HISA, such as when facing positive tests.

Moquett also asked Lazarus whether HISA was working on a universal owner-trainer license. Lazarus responded that it was "absolutely something on our radar," acknowledging Moquett's concerns about the difficulty of getting horsemen's licenses in multiple states, though she did not provide a timeline for that change.