HISA proposes new rules that include softening provisional suspensions of suspected violators
The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority on Tuesday released a tranche of proposed new rules for public comment and review, including a major modification of rules it suspended late last year requiring immediate suspensions of trainers facing violations for banned drugs.
The proposed new rules contain several major changes to HISA’s regulatory powers, among a host of minor changes and tweaks of existing rules regulating the administration, testing, and adjudication of controlled and banned substances, under a class of rules known as the Anti-Doping and Medication Control Program.
In a release, HISA said that it would accept comments on the new rules until Jan. 6, at which time HISA’s Anti-Doping and Medication Control Committee will “review and consider all relevant comments before recommending proposed modification to the HISA board.” The rules would then be submitted to HISA’s overseer, the Federal Trade Commission, for review and approval.
Among the most significant changes is the formal withdrawal of rules that required horsemen or veterinarians to be immediately suspended after a finding of a potential violation of HISA’s rules concerning banned drugs, which are those substances that have no known therapeutic benefit to a horse and a high potential to impact its performance.
HISA withdrew the requirement for provisional suspensions in November of last year, allowing six suspended licensees to return to racing while the association conducted a review of the rule’s impacts. The imposition of automatic suspensions had drawn significant fire from individual trainers and horsemen’s organizations, and HISA announced that the decision to withdraw the requirement was made in consultation with horsemen advising its board.
The new rule would require the imposition of provisional suspensions for drug violations only in limited circumstances, including a finding of more than one banned substance in a horse’s initial sample, or when a trainer has more than one horse test positive for a banned substance within a six-month period. HISA would also have the discretion to impose a provisional suspension if the organization concludes that it “is in the best interest of racing or necessary to protect horse welfare.”
HISA further modified the rules regarding provisional suspensions to clarify that all horses entered by a trainer at the time a provisional suspension is imposed must be scratched. Previously, the rule was unclear about whether a scratch was required for horses that had already passed the entry box, and HISA had often allowed stewards to determine whether to allow those horses to race.
HISA has also added a condition to its adjudication process called “case circumstances” that can be used to determine whether to eliminate or reduce a suspension for violations of both banned-drug and controlled-medication rules, including possession violations. With substance violations, the case circumstances can include the consideration of “the seriousness” of the violation, the need for deterrence, and the level of cooperation from the licensee in the investigation and adjudication proceedings.
In addition, HISA added language to its rules that will allow for more discretion in reducing suspensions for drugs in the category of “human substances of abuse.” Whereas licensees faced a strict burden of proof to argue for contamination in those cases, the language now says that HISA’s drug-enforcement agency, the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit, can consider reducing penalties if it “has a reasonable basis to conclude that the [positive] was likely the result of unintentional transfer or contamination.”
HISA also added “minimum reporting levels” for 26 different substances, including several drugs of human abuse and other potential contaminants, such as capsaicin, the biological substance contained in chile peppers that is also a common ingredient in over-the-counter substances purporting to act as pain relievers. A minimum reporting level is a threshold for a concentration of a substance before it is considered a potential violation.
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