The Louisiana Racing Commission on Friday wholly rescinded a bloc of new medication regulations set to go into effect on Saturday in an acknowledgement that the blowback to the rules would have dramatically weakened the state’s racing product and isolated the state’s Thoroughbreds. The commission voted swiftly on Friday to rescind the new rules through an emergency meeting conducted via video-streaming service that lasted six minutes. The vote was unanimous, including from three veterinarians on the commission who were the prime consultants for the new rules. Prior to calling for a motion for the vote, the commission’s executive director, Steve Landry, cited the criticism the rules had received nationally and the measures some organizations were considering that would have severely limited shipping in and out of the state.  :: Bet the races with a $200 First Deposit Match + FREE All Access PPs! Join DRF Bets. “The commission does not wish to create any undue hardship to Louisiana racing participants,” Landry said. After the vote, Landry said that the Louisiana commission would continue to “study” amendments to the existing rules with the ARCI. The new rules dealt with so-called “controlled medications,” which are therapeutic medications that are legal to administer to horses but only under regulations designed to keep the drugs from enhancing or interfering with their performances, soundness, or presentation during veterinary examinations. Those drugs include mild painkillers known as non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs, the more powerful anti-inflammatory corticosteroids, some muscle relaxers and sedatives, and health treatments, such as anti-ulcer medications, among others. The amended rules that were rescinded on Friday would have allowed most of those medications to be delivered closer to post time than the previous rules, which were largely based on regulations recommended by the Association of Racing Commissioners International, an umbrella group for racing commissions. Many of the drugs would also be allowed to be administered in larger doses, and several of the amendments dealt with raising the threshold levels in post-race blood or urine tests. The decision on Friday capped a whirlwind ten days for the commission, starting with the publicizing of the new rules by trade outlets last week in advance of the date on which they were supposed to go into effect, June 8. News of the new rules immediately encountered stiff resistance from racing-industry groups, including Churchill Downs Inc., the owner of Fair Grounds in New Orleans, and the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority, which has no jurisdiction in Louisiana but enforces stricter medication rules in most major racing states in the U.S. In addition, more than 50 state legislators also signed a letter urging the commission to table the new rules until the amendments could be studied further. :: Bet with the Best! Get FREE All-Access PPs and Weekly Cashback when you wager on DRF Bets. The Friday meeting was the second time this week the commission had called an emergency meeting to consider walking back the rules. On Tuesday, the commission voted unanimously to rescind new regulations governing the administration of clenbuterol, a bronchial dilator that can build muscle mass when used frequently, and methylprednisolone, a potent anti-inflammatory drug that is injected into sore joints. The following day, HISA announced a new policy that would require horses shipping out of Louisiana to be placed on the vets’ list in the jurisdictions covered by the authority, starting on Sunday. Churchill Downs then sent a letter to the commission casting doubt on whether it could hold a viable meet at Fair Grounds, the most high-profile track in Louisiana, with the new regulations and HISA policy in place. Horses placed on the vets’ list must perform a workout under the supervision of a regulatory veterinarian and test clear of any medications before being allowed to enter a race. It can take a month or more for a typical horse to clear the vets’ list, a prospect that would have kept many horses in their home states instead of shipping into Louisiana for a race, or vice versa.  After the vote was conducted on Friday, HISA announced that it had withdrawn the policy. “HISA appreciates the commission’s willingness to reconsider this important matter,” the authority said in a statement.   Louisiana commission officials had said that the new rules would have allowed for better veterinary treatment of horses, but those goals rang hollow in an era in which racing is struggling to maintain its social license in a society where the use of animals in entertainment endeavors has become far more problematic. For the most part, racing states have tightened rules on medication use over the past ten years, in some cases dramatically, and the advent of HISA has put even more pressure on the industry to further reduce its reliance on drugs. Just prior to the vote being conducted on Friday, a commissioner, Mike McHalffey, expressed regret for the commission’s decision in April to approve the new rules. “In my opinion we should have never considered these emergency drug rules in the first place,” McHalffey said. “And I would really like to apologize to all the horsemen in Louisiana and around the U.S for all the trouble this has caused.” HISA has no jurisdiction in Louisiana because a U.S. District Court judge in the state blocked the authority’s rules from going into effect in mid-2022, after a coalition of horsemen and state officials challenged HISA’s constitutionality and won an injunction. The suit was joined by Louisiana’s attorney general, Jeff Landry, a far-right conservative who is now the state’s governor. The issues at the center of the suit are currently being considered by the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? 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