HIWU

These are busy times for Alan Foreman, who is the general counsel to the Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association, a member of Maryland's Thoroughbred Racetrack Operating Authority (MTROA) and serves as an ombudsman for the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) and the Horseracing Integrity & Welfare Unit (HIWU). He took time out of his schedule to join the TDN Writers' Room Podcast, sponsored by The Green Group. It is his work with the MTROA that has received the most attention of late as the Authority recently issued a plan that...

   Every week, the TDN posts a roundup of the relevant Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) related rulings from around the country.   NEW HISA/HIWU STEWARDS RULINGS The following rulings were reported on HISA's "rulings" portal and through the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit's (HIWU) "pending" and "resolved" cases portals.   Resolved ADMC Violations   Date: 11/25/2023 Licensee: Jesus Romero, trainer Penalty: Disqualification of Covered Horse's Race results, including forfeiture of all purses and other compensation, prizes, trophies, points, and rankings and repayment or surrender (as applicable); a fine...

In Friday's TDN, Bill Finley wrote about trainer Jimmy Corrigan's suspension after one of his horses tested positive for methamphetamine Oct. 7 at Belterra. In the story, HISA CEO Lisa Lazarus said that Corrigan hadn't reached out to HISA for help or to let them know he felt the positive test was caused by contamination. Corrigan sent a statement to the TDN Saturday morning contradicting that assertion. "I would like to make a response to Lisa Lazarus's claim I never reached out to anybody in regards to my case. I...

When Jimmy Corrigan was informed after an Oct. 7 race at Belterra Park that his horse Stay Lost (Bernardini) had tested positive for the banned substance methamphetamine he was shocked. The native of Ireland had been training in the U.S. since 1992 and had never had a drug positive of any kind. He said he is careful who he hires and that he's sure that no one in his barn had ever touched the drug. But, at least initially, these things don't matter under the rules of the Horseracing Integrity...

Every week, the TDN posts a roundup of the relevant Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) related rulings from around the country. Among the key rulings from the last seven days, trainer Jimmy Corrigan has been provisionally suspended as a result of his trainee, Stay Lost--who won at Belterra Park on Oct. 7 last year--testing positive for Methamphetamine. HISA currently lists Methamphetamine--a common human recreation drug--as a banned substance, which comes with a possible two-year suspension. With banned substances under HISA, responsible parties are subject to a provisional suspension, prior...

I just wanted to express my frustration and disappointment that we, as an industry, seem incapable of presenting a meaningful response to the negativity we are currently facing in the mainstream media. For example, when the 60 Minutes documentary aired several weeks ago, it elicited a wave of legitimate outrage. But the industry's side of the story was nowhere to be seen outside the trade press. We have a collective tendency, at times like this, to wring our hands and shuffle our feet, figuratively speaking. Surely the Thoroughbred Racing Industry,...

From an altitude of 10,000 feet, the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA)'s mandated goal is a simple two-pronged affair. Uniformity in welfare and safety. Uniformity in drug testing. Over the past few months, the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit (HIWU)--HISA's enforcement arm--has made several announcements that have peeled the curtain back on just how difficult the second part of that equation will be to accomplish. Internal reviews of the six HIWU-contracted laboratories uncovered different limits of detection in blood for diabetes drug Metformin and for benzoylecgonine (BZE), a metabolite...

Just one week after the Horseracing Welfare and Integrity Unit (HIWU) issued a public disclosure on its website that top Mid-Atlantic trainer Anthony Farrior had a horse test positive for the banned substance Metformin, Farrior's attorney Drew Mollica said that he has been informed by HIWU that the charges have been dropped. "The system worked and we are happy to clear his good name and his reputation," Mollica said. Mollica said HIWU's decision came about after a review of the split sample, which was requested by Mollica and Farrior. Mollica...

Every week, the TDN posts a roundup of the relevant Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA)-related rulings from around the country. Among the key rulings from the last seven days, trainer Philip Aristone has been suspended for a combined 105 days and fined a total $7,500 after two of his horses tested positive post-race for Lamotrigine, a Class A controlled medication under HISA. According to the National Institutes of Health, Lamotrigine is an anti-seizure, anti-epilepsy drug that is also used off-label to treat other human health issues like acute bipolar...

Reed Saldana, a Los Alamitos Race Course-based trainer who has been licensed since 2017, has been penalized with a two-year suspension and a $25,000 fine after a Dec. 6 Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit (HIWU) arbitration judgment found him to be in violation of a banned substance rule. This resulted from a positive test for diisopropylamine in one of his trainees, Ice Queen (Cairo Prince), who finished third in a Santa Anita Park starter-allowance on June 16. Saldana is also on the hook for $12,000 toward HIWU's share of the...

Trainer Anthony Farrior is facing a possible suspension after a horse he trained allegedly tested positive for the banned substance Metformin, according to a posting Friday on the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit website. His status is listed as "Pending: Provisional Suspension--Postponed." Alexa Ravit, the director of communications & outreach for HIWU explained that the wording means, "that B Sample analysis has been requested following a positive A Sample result, so the implementation of the Provisional Suspension is postponed unless/until the B Sample comes back positive." Farrior will be allowed...

Following the Federal Trade Commission's approval to add iron dextran to the Banned Substances list under the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority's (HISA) Anti-Doping and Medication Control (ADMC) Program rules, the Horseracing Integrity & Welfare Unit (HIWU) announced Tuesday that it will use the next 30 days as an educational period to give Covered Persons time to adapt to the new rule. Enforcement of the iron dextran rule will begin December 27, 2023. As a reminder, the use/attempted use, administration/attempted administration, possession, or trafficking of a Banned Substance constitutes an...