Keeneland joins push for USADA oversight of racing

The Keeneland Association, the racing and sales company, has joined a group that is pushing for federal legislation that would grant a private, nonprofit company the authority to set the medication rules and drug-testing policies for all U.S. racing states, the track announced on Thursday.

Keeneland’s small board of trustees unanimously approved the decision to join the Coalition for Horse Racing Integrity in a vote on Tuesday, according to Keeneland’s chief executive, Bill Thomason. The decision was made after discussions between Keeneland management, consignors who participate in the company’s auctions, and the organization’s larger board of directors, which shares members with other organizations that have joined the coalition.

“This is something we have been talking about for a long time,” Thomason said. “It was time for us to join and support the coalition and further its goals” of uniform medication policies in U.S. states.

The coalition was officially launched in May after The Jockey Club had begun a campaign to gather support for the bill. The bill would appoint the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency as the overseer of U.S. racing medication policies and drug-testing programs. Support for the bill has been strong in some quarters of the industry, particularly among breeders and their representatives, but rank-and-file horsemen, racetracks, and state racing commissions are generally lined up in opposition.

Keeneland – which answers to two distinctly different constituencies as both a sales company and a racetrack – is the most prominent track to join the coalition, following a handful of harness tracks and two minor Thoroughbred tracks.

Most racetracks quietly oppose the bill because of its use of the Interstate Horseracing Act as an enforcement mechanism. Under the bill, tracks in states that are not in compliance with the USADA policies would lose the protections of the act, which grants interstate simulcasting rights to racetracks.

Thomason said discussions about the bill at Keeneland did not touch on the potential impact of the use of the IHA, but he also said that supporters of the bill are open to modifying the legislation.

“All of us anticipate that as it moves along, there will be changes,” Thomason said.

Lobbyists in Washington who are familiar with the effort to pass the bill said on Thursday that the legislation is considered an extreme longshot to pass this session.

Keeneland’s support was announced the same day that the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities also joined the coalition. The IFHA is an umbrella group for racing regulatory bodies worldwide and has been a longtime ally of The Jockey Club.