Federal Trade Commission

On the eve that Churchill Downs, Inc. (CDI) and the New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA) were scheduled to appear at separate enforcement hearings in front of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority board to address disputes over their non-payment of assessment fees that are based partially on purses, those two prominent Thoroughbred track operators teamed up to sue the Authority and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in federal court, alleging that both the fee impositions and the attempted enforcement actions for non-payment are "illegal." According to the civil complaint...

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on Nov. 6 issued an order approving the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority's $80-million budget for 2025. The Authority's proposed 2025 budget garnered only three public comments after it was first submitted to the FTC on July 31 and subsequently published in the Federal Register. The public commentary period closed Sept. 12. According to the FTC's order, "Two of the comments were brief and did not address the Decisional criteria that the Commission must apply in determining whether to approve a proposed budget. A third,...

A legal filing made Tuesday by horsemen who lost a decision last month in a federal appeals court means there are now three separate cases involving the constitutionality of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) vying for the attention of the Supreme Court of the United States. A group of plaintiffs led by Bill Walmsley, the president of the Arkansas Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association (HBPA), and Jon Moss, the executive director of the Iowa HBPA, on Oct. 15 filed a writ of certiorari asking the Supreme Court to...

The United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit on Friday affirmed a ruling out of a lower federal court in Arkansas that had denied a preliminary injunction sought by horsemen in Arkansas and Iowa to halt the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) and its Anti-Doping and Medication Control (ADMC) program. Chief Judge Steven Colloton took the lead in authoring the opinion for the three-judge panel, writing that the plaintiffs/appellants have "not established a fair chance of success on the merits, so the district court did not abuse...

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...

A federal judge on Aug. 1 refused to grant an "emergency" request for a temporary restraining order that eight licensed racetrackers in Oklahoma requested on July 29 to keep the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) from being enforced in that state before the Remington Park meet begins there Aug. 16. Chief Judge Timothy DeGiusti of United States District Court of Oklahoma (Western District) wrote in an order issued Thursday that, "Upon review, the Court finds the Application is facially insufficient to satisfy the requirements of Rule 65(b)(1) for issuance...

Eight individual owners, trainers and other Thoroughbred industry licensees in Oklahoma on July 24 filed what is now the sixth federal lawsuit in three years to try and get the Horseracing and Safety Integrity Act (HISA) declared unconstitutional. As in previous lawsuits that have similarly targeted the HISA Authority and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) as defendants, the Oklahoma horsemen want declaratory judgments, injunctions, and restraining orders imposed that would invalidate HISA rules and prohibit the HISA Authority, the FTC, and the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit (HIWU) from enforcing the...

The July 5 opinion out of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit that declared that part of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) is unconstitutional is generating legal filings from both sides in a related case awaiting a decision in the Eighth Circuit. Both the plaintiffs/appellants in the Eighth Circuit case (led by Bill Walmsley, the president of the Arkansas HBPA, and Jon Moss, the executive director of the Iowa HBPA) and the defendants/appellees (executives with the HISA Authority and the Federal Trade Commission [FTC]),...

A judgment Friday by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit declared that part of the Horseracing and Safety Integrity Act (HISA) is unconstitutional. Even though the three-judge panel agreed with "nearly all" of a lower court's ruling that other contested aspects of HISA's constitutionality were fixed by a Congressional amendment to the law in 2022, the panel's one unconstitutional finding has to do with the HISA Authority's broad powers to investigate and operate. The gravity of that unconstitutionality opinion could be enough to send the case...

Both the jockey and the owner/breeder of the second-place finisher in the Feb. 18 GIII Sunland Derby have filed a notice of appeal with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in an attempt to reverse a more-than-six-strikes whipping disqualification under Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) rules that cost them the placing in that stakes and $85,360 in purse winnings. At issue is the contention by jockey Oscar Ceballos and Eleanor Martin, the owner/breeder of Alotaluck (Sir Prancealot {Ire}), that some of the 11 strikes of the whip that Ceballos administered...

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has affirmed an earlier Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) arbitration panel ruling against trainer Jonathan Wong, suspending him for two years and fining him $25,000 for a 2023 post-race metformin positive. Metformin is a type 2 diabetes drug that HISA has classified as a banned substance. The next step in the appeals process would be a request for review by the FTC of the FTC administrative law judge's decision, according to a Horseracing Integrity and Safety Unit (HIWU) spokesperson. Wong will instead take the...