Report: Federal medication rules may be on hold until May 22

Already delayed four months by court fights and bureaucratic red tape, federal medication rules that were due to be launched Monday by the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority may have been pushed back another three weeks, according to what was said Tuesday at a Pennsylvania government meeting.

Tom Chuckas, the director of Thoroughbred racing for the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, said the anti-doping and medication control program would not take effect until May 22. He made that statement Tuesday at a meeting of the Pennsylvania Horse Racing Commission, according to a Thoroughbred Daily News report.

Flashback: Judge orders pause for federal medication rules.

Spokespersons for HISA and for the Horseracing Integrity & Welfare Unit, which is supposed to enforce the new rules, had not yet responded to Horse Racing Nation requests Wednesday morning for confirmation.

“I was contacted (Friday) by HIWU to be advised that, based on the Triple Crown, based on multiple tracks opening, that (Monday) would not be the launch date. It would be May 22,” Chuckas was quoted by TDN as telling Pennsylvania racing commissioners.

The new regulations already had been pushed back a month after a federal judge in Texas ruled March 31 that the Federal Trade Commission and HISA did not provide the proper 30 days’ notice before trying to put them into effect. The rules originally were supposed to start Jan. 1, but that was before the FTC blamed legal questions for begging off on its required approval until last month.

If the delay is true, then the HISA medication rules would not be in effect for either the Kentucky Derby on May 6 or the Preakness Stakes on May 20. Both races would be under the aegis of their state’s existing drug rules. The Belmont Stakes on June 10 presumably would fall under HISA regulations.