Eric Hamelback

The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) on Monday granted a stay that will prevent the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit from issuing a mandate stemming from a recent Fifth Circuit opinion that the Horseracing and Safety Integrity Act (HISA)'s enforcement mechanism is unconstitutional. The stay is to be in effect pending a decision by the Supreme Court as to whether it will take up the larger issue of whether those enforcement provisions are unconstitutional under the private nondelegation doctrine, which is a basic principle of...

A contentious, years-long legal battle over the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) appears headed for a showdown in the highest court in the land. At the opposite ends of any future court ruling is one that could essentially impact just the future of horse racing, or one that could take a wrecking ball to various core pillars of modern life. Industry players' stance on HISA can probably be boiled down into three main camps: those who are in ideological lock-step with the new federal body of governance; those who...

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 Supreme Court of the United States Monday officially intervened in the 3 1/2-year legal odyssey in which the National Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association (NHBPA) and 12 of its affiliates are trying to wipe out the Horseracing and Safety Integrity Act (HISA) as an allegedly unconstitutional law. That intervention took the form of a Sept. 23 Supreme Court order signed by Justice Samuel Alito, Jr. directing the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit not to issue its pending mandate stemming from a recent Fifth Circuit opinion that...

The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit required fewer than 24 hours to shoot down a request made Monday by the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) to delay the issuance of that court's mandate that the Horseracing and Safety Integrity Act is unconstitutional. The Authority had asked the appeals court to hold off on making the mandate official while the Authority petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to step in and decide the current HISA constitutionality conflict that exists because of clashing opinions out of two separate...

The Horseracing and Safety Integrity Authority (HISA) made it clear on Monday that by Oct. 16, it intends to ask the United States Supreme Court to step in and decide the current HISA constitutionality conflict that exists because of clashing opinions out of two separate federal appeals courts. The move potentially sets up a final say, perhaps as early as 2025, on a legal showdown that has split factions of the Thoroughbred industry since HISA's initial passage in 2020. One week after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth...

Forty-five days after the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit declared that the Horseracing and Safety Integrity Act (HISA) is unconstitutional because its enforcement provisions violate the private non-delegation doctrine, both the HISA Authority and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) petitioned for a rarely granted "en banc" procedure that asks for a rehearing before all 17 of that court's judges instead of just the panel of three that issued the July 5 opinion. The HISA Authority's Aug. 19 filing asked for the rehearing based on three main...

At the National HBPA Conference held at Prairie Meadows, Dr. Doug Daniels, a horse owner and equine veterinarian in Virginia, was re-elected by unanimous acclamation for a second three-year term as the president and chairman of the board, the organization said in a press release on Saturday. "There was a lot more to do these last three years than I ever dreamt," Daniels said. "I hope now, in the next three years, it will be a lot less contentious and a lot more meaningful from the standpoint of our horsemen...

On Friday--the final day of the National HBPA Conference at Prairie Meadows--a panel entitled "Establishing No-Effect Thresholds and the Importance for the Industry" was led by practicing equine veterinarian and researcher Dr. Clara Fenger. She cited the Horseracing Integrity & Safety Authority's enabling legislation that HISA-covered horses "should compete only when they are free from the influence of medications ..." (her emphasis added). Fenger's point: Testing many substances to limit of detection--if the lab can find it, it's a violation, no matter how tiny the amount and whether it impacts...

Horse owner Brent Malmstrom told Wednesday's opening session of the annual National HBPA Conference that he has spent more than $620,000 "with no end in sight" on fighting the two-year suspension handed trainer Jonathon Wong after one of Wong's horses became the first to test positive in a post-race sample for the widely prescribed diabetes medication Metformin under the HISA era. The comments came during the opening session of the four-day National HBPA Conference at Prairie Meadows. While Malmstrom doesn't own the horse at the center of the case, he...

The National Horsemen's Benevolent & Protective Association (HBPA) filed a Petition for Rulemaking under the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) on Monday, requesting the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to create no-effect thresholds. A no-effect threshold, also known as a no-effect screening limit or no-effect cutoff, is a laboratory testing detection level below which no owner or trainer will be punished for innocent and pharmacologically irrelevant concentrations of foreign substances that have no effect on a horse, according to the HBPA. Under the petition, the no-effect thresholds would be required...

Iowa Lieutenant Governor Adam Gregg will deliver the keynote address at the 2024 National HBPA Conference set for July 23-26 at Iowa's Prairie Meadows Casino, Racetrack and Hotel, the association said in a release early Friday morning. Lt. Gov. Gregg will make his remarks on Wednesday, July 24, the conference's first of three days of panel discussions and presentations. Coinciding with the conference will be a starter-allowance race carrying a $50,000 purse. The top three finishers receive automatic entry into the 1 1/16-mile Kent Stirling Memorial Iron Horse, part of...