LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission has begun the process to examine the suitability of a regulation that prohibits its stewards, staff, and members from issuing statements on licensees who have been accused of rule violations, the commission’s executive director said during a regularly scheduled meeting on Tuesday. The chairman, Jonathan Rabinowitz, said during the meeting that commission staff believed it was “of  the utmost importance to get this [regulation] changed.” The rule prohibiting any comment has become a touchy subject among commissioners due to a case involving the trainer Bob Baffert, whose horse Medina Spirit tested positive for the regulated anti-inflammatory drug betamethasone after winning last year’s Kentucky Derby. Although Baffert had a hearing before the stewards on Monday – more than nine months after last year’s Derby – the commission has been hamstrung on discussing any aspects of the case due to the regulation, including simply confirming whether a hearing is scheduled. Social-media commentators and some members of the media have generally voiced opinions critical of the commission for its unwillingness to violate the regulation in the Baffert case, even though substantial delays in holding hearings are commonplace in cases in which licensees indicate to stewards that they intend to hire counsel and gather evidence to support a challenge of the violation. Bill Landes, a commission member, voiced his support for Rabinowitz’s statement, saying that the commission has been viewed in a negative light by its inability to issue comments, noting that the commission should be viewed as a “transparent” regulatory agency. “That is not how we are perceived today,” Landes said. “So this is a breath of fresh air.” The restrictions are common in racing jurisdictions, and they have generally been put in place in order to protect licensees from any prejudicial statements prior to being afforded a hearing or while the adjudication of the case proceeds. In the Medina Spirit case, Baffert himself had acknowledged that the colt tested positive, during a press conference he held eight days after the Derby, complicating the commission’s ability to confirm or refute information released from other sources. Rabinowitz did not offer any details on the changes being contemplated by the commission but called them “significant.” In other actions at the meeting, the commission approved a handful of rule changes that had been recommended by its rules committee, including several amendments regarding workouts for horses returning off a layoff and multiple changes to its rules on coupling horses. The workout changes will require any horse returning off a 90-day layoff to have two published workouts prior to being entered in a race, including one workout within 20 days of the entry date. Any horse returning off a 180-day layoff will be required to post three published workouts prior to being entered, with the same requirement of one workout within 20 days of entry. The amendments to the rules regarding coupling of horses will give racing secretaries and stewards the discretion to uncouple horses with shared training and ownership interests in any race, according to commission staff. The current rule allows uncoupling in stakes races, and the expansion of the rule would apply to nearly any race held at a Kentucky track. At the urging of racetracks facing short fields, restrictions on coupling are being loosened at racetracks across the U.S. Generally, the more horses in a race, the larger the betting. Coupling of entries is seen as a safeguard against incentivizing owners and trainers to use one horse in a race to benefit another, either by acting as a pacemaker or running interference. Supporters of looser restrictions contend that stewards have the ability to disqualify horses in the case of one horse running interference for another. The commission also approved new rules that will prohibit an owner from claiming a horse at a Kentucky racetrack unless the owner has run a horse at a state track within the previous 30 days. A related rule will prevent an owner or trainer from running a claimed horse outside the state until 30 days have passed since the end of the meet in which the horse was claimed. Prior to the claiming rules coming up for a vote, Greg Harbut, a commission member, asked what impact the new rules might have on encouraging new owners to claim horses. Mark Simendinger, the commission member who chairs the rules committee, said that the rules allow stewards to issue a “claiming license” that would allow new owners to submit a single claim, at which time, if the claim is successful, the new owner would then be subject to the new regulations.