Global Symposium on Racing: HISA chairman Scheeler updates gathering on amended rules timeline
State racing commissions will continue to collect race-day samples and adjudicate post-race positives throughout 2022 under an amended timeline for the implementation of new national racing rules outlined by the chairman of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority on Tuesday at the Global Symposium on Racing in Tucson, Ariz.
Charles Scheeler, the chairman of HISA, delivered the outline during a 30-minute update on the status of the authority, which was created by legislation passed late in 2020 and which has a formal start date of July 1, 2022. Scheeler said that the condensed timeline to put in place the authority’s drug-control program and the “budget cycles” of state racing commissions necessitated the decision to allow state racing commissions to continue to operate their race-day testing programs throughout next year.
Officials at HISA have spent the last six months formulating the new rules that will govern racetrack safety and medication and anti-doping control programs in all 34 U.S. racing jurisdictions, and in the past three weeks, two large tranches of those rules have been posted on the HISA website for public comment. The set of rules dealing with racetrack safety were submitted to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on Monday, for a formal approval process that is expected to last four months.
Scheeler, a former congressional lead counsel who led an investigation into doping in Major League Baseball on behalf of former Sen. George Mitchell, told the audience that the timeline to formulate the rules and go through the approval process was not ideal.
“We’ve been trying to get as much feedback as we can,” Scheeler said. “I’ll be honest, I wish we had more time to socialize all this with you. . . . But Congress wrote a law and we’re doing our darnedest to follow it.”
Under HISA, the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), a private company, is expected to administer all aspects of the medication and anti-doping control program, which will include a vastly expanded out-of-competition testing program and new investigative powers. Scheeler said that USADA is expected to initiate the out-of-competition testing program on the July 1, 2022, start date, but it will not oversee race-day testing and adjudications until the start of “the first quarter” of 2023.
Scheeler also said that HISA still does not have a contract signed with USADA to administer the programs, but he indicated that he believed an agreement would be forthcoming soon. On Friday, HISA received a waiver on a deadline to submit its rules for the medication control program from the FTC because of the lack of the agreement.
The tranche of rules posted for public comment have presented industry constituencies with a vast amount of work in order to digest the number of changes the industry will face as of the middle of next year. Scheeler attempted to reassure the industry during his speech that the rules should not be considered “written in stone,” and that HISA will continue to take industry feedback throughout its existence.
“We understand they are not perfect,” Scheeler said. “We can amend the rules from time to time, and we will. . . . We’ve made many, many changes to these sets of documents based on the feedback you provided, and it continues to this day.”
HISA hopes to have the brunt of the rules approved by the FTC by the beginning of March, Scheeler said, in order to comply with FTC regulations that require a four-month waiting period before new regulations go into effect. At that point, Scheeler said, HISA will undertake a massive project for “educating those in touch with HISA and what they must do.”
That will include new rules that will require all “covered persons” to register with HISA and provide the whereabouts of all horses under their care. Scheeler said that HISA is working on a database that would aggregate a large amount of data that also includes veterinary records and injury reports.
“This is the opportunity to have a single database where everyone has to contribute critical information,” Scheeler said.
At a separate panel later on Monday morning, Jeff Cook, the general counsel of USADA, said that “covered persons” – a reference to licensees that will be subject to HISA regulations – will be required to complete an “educational module” prior to completing their registrations with HISA. The module will be available in both English and Spanish, Cook said.