Letter To The Editor: Setting The Record Straight

by Jennie Rees, Jon Moss, Peter Ecabert

“Eric Hamelback is only carrying out the democratically elected National HBPA board's wishes But no one is more passionate, tireless or bleeds and agonizes more about working for real solutions to our industry's complex problems than Eric.“

The following was written by Jennie Rees, Jon Moss and Peter Ecabert. The opinions expressed are their own.

The National HBPA, of which Eric Hamelback is the CEO and which represents state HBPA affiliates, is virtually the one Thoroughbred entity that has stood up to challenge the gaping problems with the enabling legislation that created the private corporation HISA.

And for being CEO, Hamelback gets unfairly pilloried.

While Eric is the face of the National HBPA and is an extremely knowledgeable and articulate spokesman on many issues, he is not the power. The National HBPA is a trade association, and the CEO does not set policy but rather executes the wishes of the executive committee and board, who are democratically elected by the affiliates' members.

The National HBPA is an organization that gets its power, and is built from, the bottom up–not from the top down as are some other high-profile industry organizations and corporations.

Certainly the National HBPA board gets wise counsel from Eric. We are convinced that few people understand HISA, its rules and legislation better than Hamelback.

Long before HISA, Eric as CEO and HBPA affiliates were fighting relentlessly to get uniform medication and testing policies–with the critical stipulation that they must be based on peer-reviewed science. Uniformity of bad rules–as we're seeing some unfortunate examples of now–does not improve our industry. Before HIWU's policies were unfairly ensnaring trainers for minuscule overages, the National HBPA and affiliates through Eric were advocating for no-effect screening levels such as are used in human testing. Had the industry's power-brokers listened to Eric, we would not have the self-inflicted PR wounds that make the public believe horse racing is running amok with cheating.

The parade of honest horsemen today who are made to look like criminals and cheaters because of traces detected at no-impact levels of a substance easily transferred in the environment? The difficulty and expense those trainers face clearing their name?

Starting with the earliest iterations of the federal legislation that became HISA, Eric was publicly cautioning that could happen, saying that every medication infraction, no matter how minor or unfair, would literally become a federal case.

Eric warned about the open checkbook HISA would have–and now has, with very little accountability–and that it could threaten small racetracks. Sadly, that is playing out now when states such as Nebraska opt not to simulcast rather than pay HISA's steep assessments.

The National HBPA represents trainers and owners from the one-horse operation to the largest stables in America. There are countless horsemen in non-HBPA states who call Hamelback for his counsel, for which he gets no credit, or to vent. Eric has an open ear for all. Many big-time trainers have Eric in their cell phones and are extremely supportive of the National HBPA and his leadership. They just don't want to make that support public for fear of alienating an owner or a partner or a breeding farm with a stallion to whom they want to breed. They let Eric fight the battle, take the slings, the arrows, the ill-informed cheap shots.

(If someone wants to debate the merits of a HISA issue, have at it–our money is on Eric.)

Virtually no one is more passionate, tireless or bleeds and agonizes more about working for real solutions to our industry's complex problems than Eric, who is a lifelong horseman himself.

Horsemen have never been in charge and are not the regulators. Had the National HBPA–with Eric as their representative–been brought into the legislative and rule-making process, we're convinced the industry would be in a much better, much more unified place.

However, being in charge and being a leader are not one and the same. Eric is a born leader who would benefit any leadership with his well-informed opinions and ideas. Eric Hamelback has guts, brains, compassion and only the good of the industry in mind. But he needs more horsemen to speak up, to publicly have his back.

–Jennie Rees is a long-time turf journalist turned communications specialist, including contract work for the National HBPA. Jon Moss is a fourth-generation horseman and Executive Director of the Iowa HBPA. Peter Ecabert is the National HBPA's General Counsel. The views expressed are their own and were not written in any official capacity.