Eric Hamelback

Edited Press Release The 2023 National HBPA Annual Conference closed with a lively discussion with three prominent horsemen who questioned the need, validity and overreach of federal legislation pitched as the so-called savior of racing while the industry heads into a challenging economic and logistical future. Bret Calhoun, Ron Faucheux and Jason Barkley participated in the Trainer's Talk panel moderated by multiple Eclipse Award-winning journalist and media specialist Jennie Rees and talked about everything from the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority, challenges facing small to mid-sized stables, finding and keeping...

Edited Press Release Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry and Daniel Suhr, managing attorney for the Liberty Justice Center, told an assembly of racehorse owners, trainers and racing regulators Tuesday that they expect the Horseracing Integrity & Safety Act (HISA) to wind up before the U.S. Supreme Court-- and they also believe America's highest court will strike down the legislation as unconstitutional. While the room at the Hotel Monteleone was populated with folks concerned how HISA will impact their industry, Landry and Suhr said the four legal challenges before the Fifth...

by Sue Finley and T. D. Thornton This story has been updated. The Fifth Circuit United States Court of Appeals on Tuesday denied a motion by the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) Authority for that court to vacate its recent opinion that HISA is unconstitutional. Back on Jan. 3, the HISA Authority had asked for the Fifth Circuit's Nov. 18, 2022, anti-constitutionality order to be vacated based on a federal rewrite of the HISA law in December. Also on Tuesday, separate motions for a rehearing of the case made...

Edited press release Five U.S. Senators joined five Congressmen on Wednesday to strongly urge the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to disapprove the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) proposed Anti-Doping and Medication Control Program Rule that the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (Authority) recently resubmitted, according to a press release from the National HBPA. A group of lawmakers said that the disapproval from the FTC was necessary to "avoid continued industry-wide confusion and potential inequitable enforcement." The FTC already had disapproved the medication control rule on December 12, 2022, until...

Edited Press Release Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry will be the keynote speaker at the National HBPA's annual conference Mar. 6-10 at the Hotel Monteleone in New Orleans' historic French Quarter, the horsemen's organization announced. The conference, being hosted by the Louisiana HPBA, takes place in conjunction with the Association of Racing Commissioners International (ARCI) Annual Meeting and Racing Integrity Conference. Landry's keynote address is to be delivered Mar. 7. He has been at the forefront of states challenging the constitutionality of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) and...

After a week of political uncertainty, the Senate has passed a version of the full year-end omnibus spending bill with language affording the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) more rule-making authority in the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA), according to a source close to the process. The language is designed to address a ruling in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals from November, which found the law as written doesn't afford the FTC enough latitude in the rule-making process. The Senate voted in favor of the bill 68-29, but it...

Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) has jointly filed an amendment with Senator Manchin (D-WV) that would strip references to the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) from the 4,000-page omnibus spending bill being considered this week in Congress, according to a press release Wednesday morning from the Iowa HBPA. Tuesday, it was revealed that draft language has been inserted into the full-year omnibus spending bill designed to fix what the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals called a constitutional problem with the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA), finding in November that...

Draft language has been inserted into the full-year omnibus spending bill designed to fix a constitutional problem with the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) identified by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which found in November that the law as written doesn't afford the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) enough authority in the rule-making process. In short, the draft omnibus spending bill cedes the FTC--the governmental agency which ultimately signs off on any new HISA rule--new autonomy to remove, add to and tweak language in the rules constructed by the...

In an order Monday, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act's (HISA) anti-doping and medication control (ADMC) program would not go into effect as scheduled Jan. 1 due to swirling legal uncertainty. "The bedrock principle of the Act is the need for uniformity," wrote the FTC in the order, adding that "the Commission's approval of the Anti-Doping and Medication Control proposed rule would not result in uniformity because the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act has been held unconstitutional by a panel of the United...

The conservative bent of two of the three judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit scheduled to hear another case about the constitutionality of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) "does not bode well" for the near-term future of the act, said appellate law expert Lucinda Finley. Oral arguments are set for Dec. 7 in the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals for an appeal of an earlier ruling in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky. That district court found that HISA was indeed constitutional,...

The National HBPA and its affiliates got their wish Friday. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled that the Horse Racing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) is unconstitutional. As a result, HISA is on life support and very well could be finished. Within hours of the decision being announced, the National HBPA was taking a victory lap, declaring that this was a win for horsemen across the country. "Today's ruling shows the HISA regulations are not in the best interest of thoroughbred racing's participants and, as...

Miles Ahead (g, 5, Competitive Edge--Jennie R., by Awesome Again), winner of last term's GIII Smile Sprint Invitational S. and the Claiming Crown Rapid Transit, has been named the 2021 Claiming Crown Horse of the Year. The honor is voted on by the National HBPA's Industry Awards Committee, chaired by Todd Mostoller from the Pennsylvania HBPA. Miles Ahead will be recognized at the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association (TOBA) annual awards dinner on Sept. 10. The Claiming Crown--designed to give the blue-collar workhorses their own championship day--is sponsored by the...