NYSGC

Alleging "hypocrisy" and "backdoor" tactics on the part of defendant New York Racing Association (NYRA) to "vindictively target" Bob Baffert, attorneys for the seven-time GI Kentucky Derby winning trainer supplied a federal judge with a 434-page "memo" Wednesday in support of trying to get the court to overturn a NYRA-imposed ban on Baffert. NYRA's exclusion of Baffert from Saratoga Race Course, Belmont Park and Aqueduct Racetrack was mandated May 17 by the association because of the Hall of Fame trainer's repeated equine medication violations in other jurisdictions. The voluminous electronic...

The New York State Gaming Commission (NYSGC) unanimously advanced a rule proposal Tuesday that seeks to end the resource-draining practice of jockeys appealing riding infractions during big-money race meets like at Saratoga, then withdrawing those protests once the meet is over for the sole purpose of delaying a suspension until it is more convenient for the penalized rider to serve the days. The proposed rule, which first must be published in the state lawmaking register and then be subject to a public commentary period before coming up again for a...

The New York State Gaming Commission voted Monday to amend its rules for the use of clenbuterol in New York State to follow the model proposed by the Racing Medication and Testing Consortium (RMTC) and these rules will go into effect state-wide, including at all three New York Racing Association tracks as of June 2, NYRA announced Wednesday. The full text of the rules for the NYSGC's amendment for the use of clenbuterol in Thoroughbred racing [Rule 4043.12(b)(6)], which includes a requirement for approval from the Commission for any clenbuterol...

The New York State Gaming Commission (NYSGC) Jan. 26 once again elected not to propose or vote upon any changes to whip use that would be more humane to Thoroughbreds, making it now more than a year since that agency first began discussing how it might address one of the sport's hot-button equine welfare issues the way regulators in other racing states have long since done. "We have a report that just arrived to us in the last 24 hours on the use of the crop. And staff will be...

The New York clenbuterol clampdown that was foreshadowed earlier this month by New York State Gaming Commission (NYSGC) equine medical director Scott Palmer, VMD, has been codified into a series of proposed rule amendments that advanced Nov. 30 by a unanimous 5-0 commission vote. The new clenbuterol regulations follow a model rule of the Racing Medication and Testing Consortium (RMTC) that was approved last August. After publication in the New York State Register and a public commentary period, the commission will have to vote again to formally adopt the changes....

The New York State Gaming Commission (NYSGC) on Sept. 21 suspended Standardbred trainer Michael Temming for 20 years after two of his horses tested positive for a blood doping agent in a pair of December 2019 races at Yonkers Raceway. The Paulick Report first reported the story, describing the drug involved as IOX-2, a stabilizer of hypoxia-inducible factor, which is known as a blood and gene doping agent. TDN reported back in January that when the New York Equine Drug Testing Program announced the detection of this drug in Temming's...

The New York State Gaming Commission (NYSGC) teleconference meeting Tuesday resulted in the adoption of four new Thoroughbred-related rules and the proposal of two others. Even though it was the NYSGC's first meeting since the COVID-19 crisis halted the state's racing industry in March, the five commissioners who participated did not discuss the pandemic or any aspect of return-to-racing plans for New York tracks. The only time the coronavirus got an oblique mention was during the reading into the record of a proposed emergency rule regarding changing qualifying race requirements...