HISA chooses company to run drug-testing program

The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority has tabbed Drug Free Sport International, a private company based in Kansas City, Mo., to run a national drug-testing and enforcement program for horse racing that is expected to be implemented early next year, the authority announced on Tuesday.

The selection of Drug Free Sport, which currently conducts drug-testing services for the National Football League, International Tennis Federation, and Major League Baseball, fulfills a mandate for HISA contained in its enabling legislation, which was passed late in 2020. The legislation required HISA to select a third-party administrator for a national drug-testing program that will largely replace the individual state-run programs currently in place.

On a conference call conducted on Tuesday morning with reporters, Liza Lazarus, the chief executive officer of HISA, said the selection of DFS followed a “long and rigorous process.” She said she was confident that DFS could fulfill the role that HISA envisions for drug-testing and investigations.

“We’re delighted to have [DFS] as a partner,” Lazarus said.

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Under the agreement, DFS will establish a Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit within the authority that will be governed by a five-member advisory council. The unit will draft and approve regulations governing drug-testing in horse racing, relying on a proposed set of rules that were previously drafted by HISA in close collaboration with the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.

Negotiations with USADA to act as the drug-testing and enforcement administrator for HISA were called off late last year when the two sides could not agree on a variety of issues, including cost, according to officials close to the process. USADA had been the first choice of a variety of supporters of the legislation establishing HISA.

Chris Guinty, the chief executive officer of DFS, said on the conference call that the company “customizes” its drug-testing and enforcement programs for its various clients in order to provide “maximum efficiency and effectiveness.” He said that DFS oversaw the testing of approximately 130,000 samples for its clients in 2019, prior to the disruption caused by the pandemic.

HISA is structured as a national rule-making and enforcement agency for horse racing. It has a start date of July 1, but the breakdown in negotiations with USADA and other growing pains have pushed back the start of its drug-testing program until at least early 2023. National rules pertaining to safety procedures, including use of the whip in a race, are scheduled to go into force on the July 1 date, as scheduled.

Drug-testing programs are currently conducted by individual state racing commissions, which bear the costs and responsibilities for sampling, testing, and enforcement. The enabling legislation requires HISA to collect the funding to run its programs from either racing commissions or racetracks, and several racing commissions have balked at collecting and remitting the funds. Others, however, including racing commissions in California, Kentucky, and Minnesota, have agreed to collect and remit the funds, Lazarus said.

Officials for HISA said on the conference call that the “investigative function” for drug violations would be supported by 5 Stones, a private investigative agency that was hired by The Jockey Club and Jeff Gural, the owner of several racetracks in New Jersey and New York, to look into potential drug violations in racing in the mid-2010s. The agency eventually passed on its findings to prosecutors in New York who released indictments in 2020 charging 27 individuals with charges related to the misbranding and adulteration of drugs in racing.

Adolpho Birch, the chair of HISA’s Anti-Doping and Medication Committee, said that HISA’s drug-enforcement program will rely on a variety of measures to deter and catch cheaters, including more “intelligence-based testing.” State racing commissions in the U.S. currently draw samples from horses in every race conducted in the U.S., but most other sports instead rely on targeted sampling and testing to reduce costs and streamline logistics.

Birch, who is the senior vice president of business affairs and chief legal officer for the Tennessee Titans, said that DFS will “anchor the integrity unit” but will receive support from other collaborators with HISA’s efforts.

“There is no one element of a [drug-enforcement] program that is more important to the effectiveness of the overall program,” Birch said, on the conference call. “Testing is key. Investigation is key. Education is key. All of the things that we are building into what this program will ultimately look like are equally important. So I would caution folks to think about programs from a comprehensive viewpoint and not focus on any particular aspect of it. They really are all critical. You have to have them all to have an effective and robust program.”

HISA released rules pertaining to drug-testing and the adjudication process for violations in 2021, but those regulations were put on the backburner after negotiations with USADA broke down. The release said that HISA would release updated draft rules “in the coming weeks” for public comment.

Under its enabling legislation, HISA’s rules must be approved by the Federal Trade Commission. The release said that HISA maintains a “goal of implementing the FTC-approved program on January 1, 2023.”

The five-member advisory council will be chaired by Jonathan Taylor, a partner in the sports group of the international law firm Bird & Bird, which is based in London. Taylor previously chaired the Compliance Review Committee of the World Anti-Doping Agency, which has extensive experience in drug-testing and enforcement programs for the Olympics. Taylor is also the outside legal counsel to the International Equestrian Federation and the British Horseracing Authority.

Other members of the council include Dr. Larry Bowers, who was formerly the chief scientific officer at USADA; Dr. Larry Bramlage, the renowned equine orthopedic surgeon; Sonja Keating, the general counsel for the United States Equestrian Federation; and Gunter Younger, the director of intelligence and investigations for the World Anti-Doping Agency, who was described on the conference call as having extensive experience in the area of doping investigations.