ARCI

The Association of Racing Commissioners International (ARCI), a service provider and membership organization, has added to its board Dr. John Chancey and Connie Winn, the group said in a press release on Thursday. Both Chancey and Winn were appointed to fill vacant seats by the group's chair, Commissioner Doug Moore of the Washington Racing Commission. Dr. Chancey has been Executive Director of the Oklahoma Racing Commission since early 2023 and he currently serves as the Chair of the Drug Testing Standards and Practices Committee of ARCI. Winn, the Executive Director...

Stan Bowker, a longtime management executive who also served as a steward at several racetracks, passed away Sept. 10 in Clearwater, Florida after a long illness. After 17 1/2 years at Ak-Sar-Ben in Omaha, Nebraska where he rose to become the director of racing, Bowker made stops at Canterbury Downs and Will Rogers Downs. He was also a senior steward at Colonial Downs and spent 11 years as a judge at Oaklawn Park, Indiana Grand, and as recently as 2021, at Canterbury Park. Bowker established a consulting company to assist...

Though officials within the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) Authority have already made huge strides forward in terms of across-the-board equine safety standards, one ongoing concern among stakeholders is that when it comes to the enforcement arm of the national program, an inflexibility in the way some cases are handled and sanctions meted out means the penalties don't always fit the crime. To discuss these concerns, the TDN recently spoke with Alan Foreman, chief executive officer of the Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association and national ombudsman on behalf of HISA and...

Since the launch of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act's (HISA) drug testing program over a year ago, metformin has sucked up an awful lot of oxygen. Under HISA, there have been seven resolved cases and four pending cases involving metformin—perhaps not an especially large number on its own, until framed against the number of metformin cases adjudicated before the program went into effect. An Association of Racing Commissioners International's (ARCI) review of their database "going back decades" found five metformin cases for Thoroughbreds. All were from 2017 onwards. The...

The day after the Louisiana Racing Commission held an emergency meeting in which it voted to restore the Association of Racing Commissioners International (ARCI) guidelines that were governing Clenbuterol and Depo-Medrol in the state, the President of the ARCI, Ed Martin, reacted to the news in a press release. The statement is printed in its entirety. "The ARCI Model Rules process has served the horse racing industry and fans well for decades and has been a vehicle to achieve a substantially common approach to anti-doping regulation in a sport not...

Just days after announcing that a set of emergency rules were about to be enacted on June 8 that would loosen drug regulations in the state when it came to numerous medications, the Louisiana Racing Commission held an emergency meeting Tuesday in which it voted to restore the rules that had been governing Clenbuterol and Depo-Medrol. The Louisiana Racing Commission kept in place the new rules that had been enacted that covered dozens of other less controversial medications. Of the numerous drugs over which regulations were changed that, for the...

The Louisiana Racing Commission has passed a set of emergency rules set to go into effect on June 8 that will create what are arguably the most lenient set of medication regulations in the sport. The withdrawal times for several medications have been reduced, and the list includes the controversial bronchodilator Clenbuterol. It can now be given to a horse within 72 hours of its racing. Louisiana, a state that does not fall under control of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) currently follows guidelines established by the Association...

Commissioner Doug Moore, the new Chair of the Association of Racing Commissioners International, made inaugural remarks Monday. Per a release from the ARCI, Moore called for unity amongst the racing industry along with reforms to HISA. Speaking about how penalties are assessed, Moore noted: "Previously, these fines varied from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, creating an illusion of inconsistent application of the rules. But the fact of the matter is that uniform fines are anything but uniform. Fines were and need to be assessed based on the financial structure of individual tracks....

Edited Press Release The Annual Meeting of the Association of Racing Commissioners International (ARCI) convened Wednesday in Columbus, Ohio, in the midst of an evolving regulatory structure for Thoroughbred racing and great uncertainty for what the future may hold. Outgoing Chair Tom Sage, the retiring Executive Director of the Nebraska Racing and Gaming Commission, gaveled the meeting to order saying, "One thing is certain, change is inevitable.   Whether the change is good or not so good, we shall see.  Regardless, the agencies that regulate this sport will adapt and continue...

Tom Sage, the executive director of the Nebraska Racing and Gaming Commission, will retire Mar. 12, the organization said in a statement which was first reported on Friday by the Lincoln Journal Star. As the executive director of the Nebraska Racing Commission since 2008, Sage added oversight of casino gambling after voters approved a petition to allow casinos at the state's horse racing tracks in November 2020. He oversaw a staff that began with a single member to now having over two dozen employees. Sage's career in horse racing began...

The Animal Welfare and Horseracing Integrity Conference of the Association of Racing Commissioners International Inc. (ARCI), which brings together all the senior regulatory personnel in North America and the Caribbean, has opened registration for the annual event to be held in Columbus, Ohio Mar. 6-8, the organization said in a release Wednesday. The 2024 Conference is being held immediately prior to the annual meeting of the United States Trotting Association (USTA) and offers a unique opportunity to interact with the leaders of US Standardbred Racing on the final day where...

Brett Bonin, the chief prosecutor for the Louisiana Racing Commission and Assistant Attorney, has been named the new Chair of the Association of Racing Commissioners International (ARCI) Regulatory Attorneys Committee. Bonin was previously an attorney with the Louisiana Office of Alcohol and Tobacco Control. "Bonin is known as a tough and unyielding advocate in court and previously served in private practice before becoming an Assistant Attorney General in Louisiana," said ARCI Chair Tom Sage of Nebraska. Sage also said that Bonin has never lost a doping prosecution and is "extremely...