HISA

  To coincide with the release of its anti-doping guidelines for the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency's CEO Travis Tygart and Equine Program Director Tessa Muir joined the TDN Writers' Room presented by Keeneland Wednesday evening. Sitting down for an expansive, near hour-long interview as the Green Group Guests of the Week, Tygart and Muir broke down all facets of the potential uniform medication policies and regulations, talked about the varying  working relationships they've developed with state racing commissions, elucidated how testing and doping investigations would work under HISA...

Draft rules for the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) were unveiled Thursday morning, auguring fundamental shifts to the way the industry is policed, including a markedly more stringent approach to medication violation penalties. Far from concrete, these draft rules are subject to the red pen. Nevertheless, as currently written, they raise notable differences to the working status quo. Broadly, the draft rules take a binary approach to drug testing, breaking medications down into primary and secondary categories. A primary substance is one that is always prohibited, while a secondary...

Draft rules for the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) were unveiled Thursday morning, broad details of which can be read here. As expected, these draft rules aren't full and comprehensive, and are subject to revision. Nevertheless, as currently written, they signify a fundamental revision to the way the industry is policed, including a markedly more stringent approach to medication violations. To discuss these rules, the TDN sat down Wednesday afternoon with United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart and Dr. Tessa Muir, head of the agency's equine program....

To coincide with the release of its anti-doping guidelines for the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency's CEO Travis Tygart and Equine Program Director Tessa Muir joined the TDN Writers' Room

The biggest story when it comes to the ban of Lasix in the Breeders' Cup is that there was no story. It was, simply, a non-factor. A total of 148 horses competed in this year's Breeders' Cup, all of them running Lasix-free. There were no reports of any horses being in distress or bleeding from the nostrils. I did not hear of one trainer blaming a defeat on the ban of the diuretic. Nor did I hear of or read about any trainers saying they were passing the Breeders' Cup...

Expeditiously I be on my Grizzly Feds try to creep me somehow always miss me --Mr. Fantastik, from the MF DOOM song "Anti-Matter" on the King Geedorah album "Take Me To Your Leader" If you're not hip to the slang in the lyrics above, Mr. Fantastik is essentially saying that the Feds are after him while he's on his grind, but they can't quite get him. There's an implication in there that the Feds are incompetent, but that's more evident from Mr. Fantastik's delivery. Trainer Murray Rojas can probably relate...

Revolutionary handicapper and racing writer Steve Crist has been out of a public eye after retiring five years ago, but still has as much passion and enthusiasm for racing as he's ever had, and Wednesday morning, he joined the TDN Writers' Room presented by Keeneland for an expansive discussion on a variety of industry issues. Calling in via Zoom as the Green Group Guest of the Week, Crist discussed his increasing involvement in the game from an ownership standpoint, racing's progress on detecting and punishing cheaters, the Bob Baffert saga...

Assuming that you, too, have by this stage marvelled at the tenacity, balance and athleticism of Alex Cruz in winning a race despite losing both irons leaving the gate, at Emerald Downs last weekend, then perhaps you might also have been prompted to reassess our prejudices against the seat of the 18th Century guardsman. To the modern eye, the long-shanked equitation of those days appears ludicrous: awkward, stilted and, above all, inimical to the freedom of the horse's movement. We think of the elevation of the modern jockey, as popularized...

The attorneys general from six new states have sided with existing plaintiffs in Oklahoma, West Virginia and Louisiana by filing a Sept. 21 "friend of the court" brief in one of two currently active federal lawsuits aiming to get the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) voided for alleged constitutional violations before HISA even goes into effect. Curiously, two of those six states--Alaska and Mississippi--have no current forms of legal pari-mutuel horse racing. The other states expressing support for the alleged unconstitutionality of HISA are Arkansas, Idaho, Nebraska and Ohio....

I, like everyone else who has seen it, was utterly disgusted with not only the video depicting the actions of trainer Amber Cobb against one of the horses but also the almost complete ignorance of the Delaware Racing Commission in reducing her suspension for those actions. How this industry continues to manage to shoot itself in the foot repeatedly is just mind boggling to me. Actions that are as heinous as those displayed by Ms. Cobb require only one action, and that is immediate revocation of her license to train...

Last month, the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) announced that in Dr. Tessa Muir, it had plucked from foreign shores a new hire to head its equine program at a time when the agency plays an integral role in implementing the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA), overhauling the industry's governing status quo. Before Muir joined the USADA staff roster, she had hopscotched her way up the industry ladder, from exercise rider to private veterinarian to head of the British Horseracing Authority (BHA)'s anti-doping program between 2013 and 2019. Her...

Defendants in one of two currently active federal lawsuits aiming to get the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) and its regulatory Authority voided for alleged constitutional violations fired back Aug. 16 with a two-pronged motion to dismiss the case. This is the suit brought Apr. 26 by state governments and private entities. Oklahoma and its racing commission are joined as plaintiffs by West Virginia and its racing commission, plus the state of Louisiana. Three Oklahoma tracks--Remington Park, Will Rogers Downs and Fair Meadows are also among the plaintiffs. The...