Global Symposium on Racing: Currently in limbo, HISA to address gathering twice

TUCSON, Ariz. – The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority, an organization that currently sits in constitutional limbo, will both open and close this year’s Global Symposium on Racing, held annually in Tucson, Arizona, beginning on Tuesday.

Lisa Lazarus, the chief executive officer of HISA, has been granted one of two keynote spots to open the conference on Tuesday morning at Loews Ventana Canyon Resort, while a panel comprised of some of HISA’s highest-ranking officers will close the conference on Wednesday afternoon.

In between those presentations, HISA and its future is sure to be one of the main talking points at the annual enclave, which is expected to return to full attendance this year for the first time since 2019, prior to the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.

Just 2 1/2 weeks ago, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that HISA’s enabling legislation was unconstitutional. The decision has cast doubt on HISA’s ability to fully implement its wide-ranging programs to take over enforcement of the regulation of Thoroughbred racing in most U.S. jurisdictions, including drug testing, at the start of the year.

HISA officials are not expected to comment on their legal strategies in formal talks while at the symposium, according to officials. Instead, HISA officials in attendance are expected to continue to meet with industry constituents to gain support for both its funding needs and the immense amount of cooperation that will be necessary to launch its Anti-Doping and Mediation Control program on Jan. 1. HISA is also making officials with its anti-doping unit available for one-on-one meetings with any racing representative who wants to sit down.

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The staff of the University of Arizona Race Track Industry Program, which organizes the symposium, scheduled this year’s agenda well before the Sixth Circuit ruling, so the two HISA panels do not even reference the authority’s legal complications. The keynote address from Lazarus is described on the agenda as “HISA’s 2023 Outlook.”

The final Symposium panel, which will include five HISA officials, is described as an “update” on HISA’s preparations for the anti-doping program’s launch in which panelists will also “share what industry stakeholders need to know ahead of the rollout.”

Other familiar topics appear on this year’s agenda:

* Horse welfare and aftercare gets treated with a panel on "Retirement and Second Careers” and another on “Advancing Equine Safety and Technology."

* The technology panel includes discussion of several devices that are being used to collect real-time data on stride length and stride changes in major racing jurisdictions worldwide. Those devices are beginning to deliver on promises of providing early warning systems to horses at elevated risk of suffering injury, supporters say.

* The changing dynamics of the betting landscape will be the focus of panels discussing the future of horse race betting as it increasingly begins to co-exists alongside sports betting applications; the need for U.S. racing operators to develop a “global brand” to compete effectively in the international marketplace; and a “round table discussion” on the needs of racing’s core customers that, curiously, as of Monday, had only two panelists.

* Illegal sports wagering will get a lengthy look – and likely a spirited discussion – as one of the more intriguing panels on Wednesday afternoon. The panel is scheduled to be held in the wake of the release of a report by the Asian Racing Federation earlier this year calling attention to billions of dollars of illegal wagering across international borders that have been reinvigorated this year borders now that several large betting exchanges have reopened in Asia.

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The panel is being moderated by J. Curtis Linnell, the head of the Thoroughbred Racing Association’s Wagering Integrity Unit, which monitors betting at most U.S. tracks. It includes Patrick Cummings, the head of the Thoroughbred Idea Foundation, who has drawn attention over the past several years to several notable examples of pool manipulation and deficiencies in racing’s bet-processing networks.

Other panels will focus on the importance of organizations maintaining effective social-media presences and the strategies racing organizations and companies can adopt to attract, hire, and retain more diverse workforces.

In addition, two Hall of Fame racetrack announcers, Dave Johnson and Tom Durkin, will appear on a “storytelling” panel for an informal discussion of their long careers.

Also, Mike Mulvihill, the head of strategy and analytics at FOX Sports, will precede Lazarus as the first of the two keynote speaker spots on Tuesday morning. Mulvihill, a racing fan, will discuss Fox’s rationale for investing heavily in live racing broadcasts over the last several years, especially through its partnership with NYRA.

During the Wednesday morning welcome-and-keynote slot, Tom Rooney, the former Florida congressman who was named late last year as the new chief executive of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, will give a speech on the NTRA’s lobbying efforts and priorities for 2023.

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