lawsuit

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...

As a Government Lawyer in Residence at Albany Law School and an adjunct professor of law, attorney and educator, Bennett Liebman has long had his finger on the pulse when it come to racing's rules, regulations and laws. He has written extensively on the subjects of due process and whether or not racetracks have the right to exclude licensees, two key elements of Bob Baffert's lawsuit against NYRA in which he sought injunctive relief to have his suspension temporally overturned. For three years, the New Yorker was Deputy Secretary to...

A federal judge at 5 p.m. Wednesday granted trainer Bob Baffert a preliminary injunction in his lawsuit against the New York Racing Association (NYRA) that will allow him to race at New York's three major tracks pending the resolution of the case. In a civil complaint filed by Baffert June 14, the seven-time GI Kentucky Derby-winning trainer had alleged that NYRA's banishment of him since May 17 over the issue of his repeated equine drug violations violates his constitutional right to due process. That same day he moved for an...

The New York Racing Association (NYRA) on Tuesday gave notice to a federal judge that it intends to file a formal motion to dismiss trainer Bob Baffert's civil complaint, which seeks to overturn NYRA's ban against him. On May 17, NYRA informed the Hall of Fame trainer with the highly-publicized string of recent equine drug positives that he was temporarily not welcome to stable or race at the association's three tracks, Saratoga Race Course, Belmont Park and Aqueduct Racetrack. That ban, NYRA said at the time, would be re-evaluated once...

The Jockey Club (TJC) now wants to get involved in trainer Bob Baffert's federal lawsuit against the New York Racing Association (NYRA), which seeks to overturn his banishment from stabling and racing horses at Belmont Park, Saratoga Race Course, and Aqueduct Racetrack. In a June 22 letter to United States District Court (Eastern District of New York), Susan Phillips Read, an attorney for TJC, asked permission to file an "amicus" brief that she believes will "provide the Court with a unique perspective and information to assist in deciding the pending...

Edited Press Release The New Mexico Horsemen's Association has taken additional legal action against the New Mexico Racing Commission after the regulatory body ordered the defunding of the organization that represents about 4,000 Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse owners and trainers in the state. On May 20, the racing commission ordered tracks to withhold the 1% of purse money that goes to the horsemen's association for administrative costs, about $400,000 a year. Additionally, the commission ordered a halt to the $5 per-starter fee NMHA member owners pay toward medical expenses for...

Led by Michael Beychok, the winner of the 2012 NTRA National Horseplayers Championship, four gamblers have filed a Class Action Lawsuit against trainer Bob Baffert and owner Amr Zedan, alleging fraud. Each maintains that they made bets that would have won had GI Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit (Protonico) not been "doped." The plaintiffs allege that Baffert and Zedan are in violation of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), the California Control of Profits of Organized Crime Act (CCPOCA) and for committing state common law and equitable fraud....

Federal attorneys want the National Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association (HBPA)'s anti-constitutionality lawsuit thrown out of court, arguing that the HBPA's allegations of injury regarding the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) "are entirely threadbare" because no rules, regulations or fees have been established by the not-yet-in-effect regulatory body. "Plaintiffs jumped the gun bringing this constitutional challenge," the federal government stated in an Apr. 30 motion to dismiss filed in United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas. "Their complaint questions the validity of a law that currently...

Organizations representing some Thoroughbred horse owners and trainers have filed a federal lawsuit to stop the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA), signed into law in the U.S. Congress's December omnibus spending bill. The National Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association (National HBPA) and state affiliates in Arizona, Arkansas, Indiana, Illinois, Louisiana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Washington and West Virginia are suing HISA's newly-created "Authority" to regulate the sport and the Federal Trade Commissioners. In addition, they are suing the Nominating Committee and asking the court to immediately stop them from...

After alleging last month that a disagreement over advance-deposit wagering (ADW) hub rate fees was so egregious that it amounted to a "shakedown" that needed to be fought in federal court, a subsidiary of the gaming corporation Churchill Downs, Inc., dropped its lawsuit against Thoroughbred Owners of California (TOC) Mar. 8. According to a "notice of voluntary dismissal" filed Monday in United States District Court (Central District, California, Western Division) by Churchill Downs Technology Initiatives Company (CDTIC), an agreement between the parties was reached Mar. 5 that apparently settles the...

The Ohio Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association (OHBPA) filed a federal lawsuit against Belterra Park's present and former owners Dec. 18 seeking more than $2.7 in gaming revenues that the OHBPA is claiming the track wrongfully withheld between 2014 and 2018. "This action arises from Defendants' failure to pay the OHBPA its share of net-win video lottery terminal [VLT] commission from Belterra Park," states the complaint filed Friday morning in United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio (Eastern Division). "The OHBPA has been deprived of these funds,...

Legal challenges filed last autumn by the Village of Floral Park to try and halt construction of a $1.3-billion hockey arena, hotel, and retail project adjacent to Belmont Park have been tossed out by a New York State Supreme Court judge. The two state agencies that green-lighted the project--the Empire State Urban Development Corporation and the New York State Franchise Oversight Board--were defendants in the lawsuit. The initial lawsuit cited an allegedly flawed bidding process and "secret master plan" for the arena's development that was allegedly floated by the New...