By T. D. Thornton
A federal judge in California on Monday terminated a nearly two-year-old lawsuit initiated against the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) by Thoroughbred owner Jerry Jamgotchian that alleged Jamgotchian's constitutional and civil rights were violated when the stewards at Los Alamitos Race Course denied entry to one of his horses in 2022 over a naming and registration controversy.
Although the Aug. 12 ruling out of United States District Court (Central District, Southern Division) quashed the lawsuit itself, the litigation has never stopped the now 5-year-old Malpractice Meuser (GB) (Helmet {Aus}) from being named as Jamgotchian pleased or from racing at tracks outside of California.
In fact, the 1-for-10 horse–still owned by Jamgotchian–is entered to race Aug. 13 at Mountaineer Park, where Malpractice Meuser is the 5-2 morning-line favorite in the evening's first race, a $4,000 claiming grass route.
Even though the North American version of The Jockey Club wasn't a party to the lawsuit, its decision in 2021 not to issue a domestic foal certificate to the British-born Thoroughbred was a key component of Jamgotchian's litigation.
According to court documents, the official registrar for this continent's Thoroughbreds believed the name was allegedly “designed to harass, humiliate, or disparage a specific individual” (in this case, a Kentucky attorney with that surname who specializes in equine law), so it denied the foal certificate.
But, as Jamgotchian had pointed out in his complaint, Malpractice Meuser had the proper Jockey Club certification from Great Britain, where the horse had been foaled.
Jamgotchian's lawsuit also took umbrage with The Jockey Club of North America's rule allowing it to bar purportedly disparaging horse names, which was termed in the complaint as “viewpoint discrimination because it only prohibits negative viewpoints while allowing positive viewpoints.”
As examples of the North American Jockey Club's alleged “unconstitutional discrimination” and “arbitrary and capricious decision-making,” Jamgotchian's complaint pointed out that the registrar had previously approved similar names, such as Malpractice M.D. (2004), Malpractice Mike (2016), Meuser (2011) and Barrythejuryhanger (2019).
“Yet, it refuses Malpractice Meuser,” Jamgotchian's complaint asserted.
Prior to the filing of the litigation, officials at Mountaineer Park and Horseshoe Indianapolis had accepted the British Jockey Club's form of registration for the horse's first two starts in 2021.
Jamgotchian also registered Malpractice Meuser as a “covered horse” once the new federal Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) requirements became active in 2022.
But when Jamgotchian attempted to ship Malpractice Meuser to California to race at Los Alamitos, the stewards there denied the June 15, 2022, entry because the horse did not have a foal certificate approved by the North American version of The Jockey Club, which is a requirement under California law.
On July 4, 2022, Jamgotchian appealed the stewards' decision to the CHRB. After a hearing by the commission backed up the actions of the stewards, Jamgotchian (and Theta Holding I, Inc., a holding company that is the horse's breeder and co-plaintiff) took the CHRB to federal court.
In a lawsuit dated Oct. 17, 2022, the plaintiffs sought monetary damages in excess of $250,000 and injunctive relief ordering the CHRB to allow Malpractice Meuser to enter and race in California.
The defendants subsequently argued that the court should dismiss the complaint because the CHRB and the stewards were entitled to immunity in this instance.
As the lawsuit wound its way through the federal court system, Malpractice Meuser didn't race anywhere for a period of nearly two years before resurfacing at Mountaineer in September 2023.
He eventually broke his maiden in career start number five in a maiden special weight race there Nov. 5, 2023.
Malpractice Meuser has been winless in five starts since then, all at the West Virginia track.
On Monday, U.S. District Judge Fred Slaughter agreed with the defendants, dismissing the case “without leave to amend,” which means the complaint can't be tweaked and resubmitted.
“In summary,” Slaughter wrote, “the court determines that the Board of Stewards and the CHRB were 'functionally comparable to judges, and that' the actions Plaintiffs challenge were quasi-judicial acts for which they are absolutely immune from liability. Thus, the court concludes quasi-judicial immunity bars Plaintiff's claims against Defendants for both monetary and injunctive relief…
“The court finds that Defendants are entitled to qualified immunity because the [complaint's] facts and exhibits reflect that Defendants acted with objective reasonableness,” the ruling continued.
“Defendants were presented with an application for a horse that was not registered with the [North American] Jockey Club to race in California. In rendering a decision on that application or the appeal of that decision, Defendants correctly applied a California law that said that all Thoroughbreds racing in California must be registered with the Jockey Club.
“In this case, all Plaintiffs assert that Defendants did wrong is apply that law,” the judge wrote.
“Nothing in the record suggests that Plaintiffs could allege new facts sufficient to plausibly state a claim against Defendants,” the judge wrote.
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