California Horse Racing Board enters voluntary agreement with HISA for drug testing and enforcement

The California Horse Racing Board has become the first state racing commission to sign a voluntary agreement with the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority for its sweeping anti-doping and medication enforcement program, the board said Friday.

The voluntary agreement will allow CHRB staff to perform duties on behalf of HISA when the authority implements its Anti-Doping and Medication Control Program. HISA has said that it anticipates launching the program by the end of March in multiple racing jurisdictions, including California.

Under the voluntary agreement, CHRB staff will collect blood and urine samples and cooperate with HISA staff on investigating “adverse analytical findings” from those samples. The CHRB also will continue to administer drug tests through the University of California, Davis lab. By performing those services, the CHRB will pay a reduced fee to HISA for its annual assessment.

The CHRB and most of the state’s racing constituents, including tracks and a powerful owners’ group, have been supportive of HISA since the organization was created late in 2020 by federal legislation, and last year, the CHRB was one of the few states to sign a voluntary agreement with HISA on its safety regulations.

Earlier this week, HISA officials said that no state had formalized a voluntary agreement with the authority over the ADMC program. However, the officials said that negotiations were ongoing in all states where racing would be taking place at the end of March, and that HISA’s work could go ahead in those states without the agreements in place.

California, along with Kentucky, is one of the few states where the racing commission has openly supported the mission of HISA and worked diligently with the authority to put its programs into place. The state has benefited from the adoption in recent years of strict rules regarding equine safety, which has generally aligned the state’s regulations with those put in place by HISA.

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