Letters to the Editor: Welcomed Proposals

Welcomed Proposals

Thanks to the hard work and support of horsemen and horsewomen, the National Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association is making significant strides in its effort to bring common sense and fairness to horse racing regulations. The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority's proposed rule changes to receiving barn facilities and protocols acknowledge what the National HBPA has vocally pushed for years: in today's world of super-sensitive testing, environmental contamination and inadvertent transfer of foreign substances to racehorses is a fact of life. This acknowledgement represents a complete reversal for HISA's enforcement arm, the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit.

For the last several years, we have preached that American horse racing must set common-sense screening levels below which findings of certain substances aren't called because they have no impact on performance. Human testing does this, even for commercial airline pilots. But any progress that we were making with racing commissions on this front was wiped out with the creation of the private HISA corporation and HIWU. Time and again, HISA and HIWU leaders were science-deniers, seemingly intent on snaring innocent trainers so they could claim they were cleaning up racing, thereby justifying their existence.

Then in July, National HBPA filed a Petition for Rulemaking urging the Federal Trade Commission to issue no-effect thresholds for substances tested by HIWU. Such a prudent approach recognizes that foreign substances found throughout the environment can make their way—through no fault of the trainer—into a horse at levels that have no effect on the horse's performance or health. The FTC can rectify HIWU's problem of unfair findings and restore due process and common sense by adopting this important rule change. 

Thankfully, more than 1,000 racing participants joined the National HBPA in contributing comments in support of our FTC petition. Their message to HIWU was clear: Stop punishing blameless trainers based on analytical findings that are of irrelevant concentrations. 

It seems that message is finally being heard. HISA is proposing rule changes to avoid the FTC changing the rules for them. We are making positive changes for all horsemen.

Open letter from Eric Hamelback

CEO of National HBPA