SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The principals seeking to implement the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority expect to submit draft rules and regulations to the Federal Trade Commission by the end of this year after several months of deliberation among industry constituencies, the chairman of the authority said Sunday in prerecorded comments broadcast as part of The Jockey Table Round Table Conference on Matters Pertaining to Racing. Charles Scheeler, the former legal counsel to former Sen. George Mitchell (D-Maine) who was appointed chair of HISA in May, said that a draft of the rules should be ready to be distributed and discussed among racing constituencies in “the fall,” in advance of the year-end submission to the FTC. HISA is committing to that timetable to ensure that the rules can meet the public-comment requirements necessary to obtain formal approval by the effective start date of the authority, July 1, 2022. Scheeler’s comments on the timetable were part of a broad presentation on the goals of the authority, which was established by a federal bill passed late in 2020. The bill was supported by a wide coalition of industry groups, including The Jockey Club, as a way to replace the current system of state-by-state regulation in racing with a national structure. Work on the draft rules and regulations has already begun, Scheeler said, but he cautioned that the effort “isn’t easy” as he called on industry groups to throw their support behind the cause. “It’s going to be a heavy lift,” Scheeler said. “But we can do it if the entire industry unites behind this effort.” The cautionary comments were an allusion to a lawsuit supported by a number of racetracks, racing commissions, national and state horsemen’s organizations, and associations representing Quarter Horse and Standardbred interests that is seeking to invalidate the federal legislation. The suit contends that the structure and powers of HISA violate several constitutional doctrines regarding delegation of powers, among other objections. Scheeler also said that HISA is preparing to deliver the estimated costs of its programs to individual state racing commissions by “late fall and winter.” Under HISA, states will be required to raise the funds necessary to implement HISA’s regulatory and drug-testing programs, and the authority has been guarded so far about the amount of those costs. During his presentation, Scheeler warned that states should be prepared to raise “more money than the industry has traditionally allocated” to regulatory efforts. “These program costs should not be looked at as expenses,” Scheeler said. “They should be looked at as investments in strengthening the industry and ensuring its future. … It costs money to ensure that the rules are fairly and evenly and effectively applied.” Scheeler closed by urging doubters in the industry to embrace HISA. “The program that we are planning will yield a stronger sport, but this will only work if the industry is prepared to invest in its future,” he said. “I submit to you that the upside is staggering and worth the lift. … The big winners in all of this will be all of you who love the sport.” Prior to Scheeler’s presentation, Tessa Muir, who was hired as the head of equine sciences at the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency in April, said that she looked forward to working with the racing industry on the new anti-doping and medication-control programs that USADA is expected to enforce on behalf of HISA. Muir is the first equine expert to be put on the payroll of USADA, which currently conducts the anti-doping programs for the U.S. Olympic Team and the Ultimate Fighting Championship league. “I think we are all fairly open to the fact that there certainly are plenty of challenges ahead and changes to be embraced as we move forward, but it represents an amazing sliding-doors moment with an opportunity for a cleaner, fairer future for the industry, and, most importantly, also a safer one for our beloved equine athletes,” said Muir, the former head of the British Horseracing Board’s anti-doping program. Muir also said that USADA expects to go through some growing pains as it implements its enforcement protocols, given the “enormity of the task.” “While we are working absolutely tirelessly to ensure that the program is being done right, it will likely take time after the program’s start date to implement the gold standard that USADA expects and is known for and that the industry needs,” she said. Stuart Janney, the chairman of The Jockey Club, closed the two-hour Round Table program with comments that were critical of the organizations and companies behind the lawsuit while promising that HISA would give the industry a “new tool kit” to clean up the sport and deter cheaters in the future. “We simply don’t have them right now,” Janney said, in a critique of the current state-by-state system. “We are a year away from getting them, but we will have them.” Janney also announced that the organization had awarded its Jockey Club Medal to Dr. Nancy Cox, the dean of the College of Agriculture at the University of Kentucky, and Leonard Coleman, the former president of Major League Baseball’s National League, who served as co-chairs of the HISA nominating committee. *** In addition to HISA, the second half of the livestreamed conference featured a presentation from David O’Rourke, the chief executive of the New York Racing Association. O’Rourke outlined the steps that NYRA is taking to upgrade its three facilities, which increasingly represent the most important circuit in North America. O’Rourke also highlighted the rapid escalation in the amount of national broadcast television time for NYRA’s racing product, through an agreement with Fox Sports that has led to 700 hours of coverage each year for a live-racing show produced by NYRA’s team. O’Rourke said that racing needs to capitalize on this expansion of coverage by partnering with the operators of sports-betting applications, and he contended that those partnerships would bear fruit by leveraging the aggressive marketing efforts of the companies as they seek to acquire new customers. NYRA is already aligned with Fox Sports Bet. “Sports book operators are in growth and acquisition mode and signing up millions of customers with marketing budgets we should all envy,” O’Rourke said. “Fortunately, here lies our opportunity. The situation has the potential of a perfect storm.” O’Rourke also said NYRA was looking forward to making its signal available for fixed-odds betting in New Jersey once regulations on the practice are approved, calling the state a “perfect test market” for fixed-odds betting and a development that could “break [the racing industry] out of this sideways pattern of handle growth.” :: Get Daily Racing Form Past Performances – the exclusive home of Beyer Speed Figures Monmouth Park and its fixed-odds partner, BetMakers, plan to launch fixed-odds betting later this year, though the plans have been delayed several times. Under the plan, BetMakers will offer fixed-odds betting to New Jersey bettors on any racetrack that agrees to the terms. O’Rourke, like other supporters of the bet type, said that the offering of fixed odds alongside parimutuel bets could lead to the types of growth in overall handle seen recently in Australia, where fixed-odds betting was legalized about a decade ago. “We are moving forward to do everything we can to seize that opportunity,” O’Rourke said. “The returns to the industry could be enormous.” *** The first half of the conference included a panel on the topic of aftercare of retired racehorses and was moderated by Kristin Werner, the senior counsel of The Jockey Club. Over the past decade, aftercare has become one of the most important issues facing racing worldwide, due to ever-evolving opinions among the general public on the proper use of animals in money-making enterprises. That point was stressed in a separate Round Table presentation by Emily Lyman, the chief executive and co-founder of a company that conducts analytics on social-media posts, who said that aftercare issues had become front and center among casual racing fans and the general public. “Listen to the values of your audience,” Lyman said. The aftercare panelists stressed that the most important issue facing aftercare is, not surprisingly, money. But the panelists also detailed efforts to educate owners about how “aftercare should not be an afterthought,” in the words of Erin Crady, the executive director of Thoroughbred Charities of America. “If you have prepared a business plan for your racing operation, include a section on aftercare,” Crady said. “Have that plan in place, and know where your horse is going to go when he or she is ready to retire.” Brian Sanfratello, the executive secretary of the Pennsylvania Horse Breeders Association, said that his organization recently adopted a code of ethics that will result in sanctions for members “if you do anything at all to move a horse or go through someone else to move a horse to slaughter.” Sanfratello also said that the organization has begun to lobby for a bill that is highly similar to legislation passed in New York this year that will make it a misdemeanor to sell a horse into the slaughterhouse pipeline. Beverly Strauss, the co-founder and executive director of Mid-Atantic Horse Rescue, used a portion of her comments to warn owners about “scam” operations that have arisen over the past 20 years in which sellers of Thoroughbreds warn on social media that a horse is headed to a “kill pen” – industry slang for an auction house in which horses are eventually sent over U.S. borders to slaughterhouses – in order to raise money through social media channels. “They are getting two to three times what they would get from a slaughter plant,” Strauss said. “Unfortunately, Thoroughbreds, because they are so easily identified, are the target of this online marketplace. … If you are contacted because one of your former horses is [allegedly] in a kill pen, do some research. Don’t just throw money at it.”