Texas stakeholders are caught in commission-HISA imbroglio

The Texas Racing Commission is prepared to end the import and export of simulcast signals if the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) assumes regulation of racing in the Lone Star state.

The consequences – outlined by commission executive director Amy Cook in a June 13 letter to “all occupational and business licensees of the Texas Racing Commission” RE: “Approval of pari-mutuel simulcast wagering import and expert requests policy statement” (see below for full letter) – sent the state’s stakeholders reeling.

The letter came five days after a special meeting of the commission that HISA chief executive Lisa Lazarus attended. At that meeting, chairman Robert Pate, a Corpus Christi-based attorney and certified public accountant, laid bare what Cook’s letter addressed.

“HISA will kill pari-mutuel onsite wagering and result in a prohibition of simulcast export wagering,” Pate said. “Wagering on horse racing is a unique regulatory responsibility we have under the Texas Racing Act and Rules of Racing. If the commission is not involved in every aspect of a horse meet and its races, pari-mutuel wagering and simulcast wagering is against the explicit terms of the Texas Racing Act.”

Officials with neither Sam Houston Race nor Lone Star Parks commented as both sought more information regarding what this would mean for their operations.

Penn National Gaming Inc. owns Sam Houston in Houston as well as Retama near San Antonio. Both facilities import simulcast signals year-round while Sam Houston conducts Quarter Horse racing through June 18. Retama’s live meeting is June 30-Aug. 20.

Lone Star’s current Thoroughbred meeting concludes July 24, and Quarter Horse racing is Sept. 16- Dec. 17. There is also mixed-breed racing at the Gillespie County Fair July 2-Aug. 28 in Fredericksburg.

Steve Asmussen currently has about 60 horses training in Texas, and his family has a vast training operation in Laredo. The Hall of Fame conditioner, who ranks No. 1 all time by races won in North America, said Tuesday while traveling between Ellis Park and Churchill Downs that the situation has him “worried like hell.”

“Everyone’s blaming everyone else,” Asmussen said. “What I don’t understand is how can you roll (HISA) out and there’s no clear funding for it? You think the tracks are going to pay for it? This is an irresponsible implementation.”

Asmussen said his operation, which currently has horses stabled in five states, hired additional office staff to help humans and equines become HISA compliant, but there have been hurdles.

HISA "talks about how easy it is, but my employees tell me that it’s not easy to do,” Asmussen said of the registration process. “For one, you can’t register an unnamed horse, and there are a lot of unnamed horses this time of year. Two, there’s very little wi-fi in the stable areas. Are we all supposed to do this on our phones? It’s nerve-wracking, to say the least.

“We don’t all have offices downtown. We’re horse trainers.”

Adding to the confusion is that the commission regulates Quarter Horse, Paint, and Arabian racing as well. Other states with Standardbred racing also have expressed confusion about how HISA applies.

“Who is regulating our mixed meets?” Cook asked on “At the Races” with Steve Byk. “You have regulatory chaos. Unfortunately, the law as designed (is) not effective, and the unintended consequences are what will happen."

Some commission members as well as Asmussen took exception to HISA’s quest for uniformity among regulations state to state.

“I don’t understand why everyone wants uniformity; who wants uniformity?” Asmussen said. “People in Louisiana don’t understand New York, and they don’t understand Texas, and they don’t understand California.

“The same goes with owning and training horses. We’re in a competitive sport but no one wants to compete. Everyone’s always questioning. Why’d you do it this way or why’d you go to that race? If we all did things the same, there’d be no sport.”

Pate said at a special meeting of the commission on May 18 that it is “the statute itself and its implementation” that the Commission takes umbrage with and not HISA as an idea.

“The goals of HISA are not contrary to the goals of Texas,” Pate said. “To the extent that we can learn from the standards that HISA suggests and as outlined in some of their rules … they need to be incorporated.”

“I think it comes down to Texas doesn’t want the federal government telling it what to do,” Asmussen said.

Texas Racing Commission notice by Carolyn Greer on Scribd