HIWU

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...

The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) said that despite not being subject to the Freedom of Information Act, they will release certain data beginning in the first quarter of 2024. The news of their formal data disclosure policy, which includes the routine public release of data collected through its Racetrack Safety (RS) and Anti-Doping and Medication Control (ADMC) Programs, as well as a process through which individuals may request additional records from HISA, was announced in a press release Monday morning. The release reads: "The Horseracing Integrity and Safety...

All post-race test samples taken from contenders in the 2023 Breeders' Cup World Championships at Santa Anita Park earlier this month have been cleared by the Horseracing Integrity & Welfare Unit (HIWU). 2023 marked the first year the Breeders' Cup World Championships were run under the full jurisdiction of the Horseracing Integrity & Safety Authority (HISA), including the Anti-Doping and Medication Control (ADMC) Program, which took effect in May of this year and is implemented and enforced by HIWU. As was the case under Breeders' Cup's anti-doping and medication control...

Natalia Lynch, a Belmont Park-based trainer who has been licensed since 2020, has been penalized with a four-year suspension and a $50,000 fine after a Nov. 9 Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit (HIWU) arbitration judgment found her to be in violation of two separate anti-doping rules, one for the presence of a banned substance (Altrenogest) in a horse, and another for possession of a different prohibited drug (Thyro-L). Lynch's attorney, John Mac Hayes, told TDN Monday that the trainer plans to appeal the arbitration result to a Federal Trade Commission...

Standing in the first stall on the left in the Clark family's cozy barn at their farm in Springfield, Ky., ears pricked and head on a constant swivel in search of the next treat, Golovkin appears right at home. One would never guess that the 5-year-old gelded son of Mshawish had just shipped from Monmouth Park, nor that he was the center of Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit (HIWU) findings against his racing owner/trainer John Pimental. The story was first shared by the TDN's T. D. Thornton on Oct. 20,...