Keeping Pace: Where The Past Isn't Even Past In Horse Racing

I learn something new every time I read one of Paulick Report editor-in-chief Natalie Voss’ pieces and her latest one, centered around a doomed harness horse named Mitch Maguire N, taught me a great deal about how some state racing commissions operate these days. Take the time to read Voss’ latest work. It’s the story that illustrates many of the failures of a system based on state racing fiefdoms and serves as a timely reminder of why a federal racing regime, with uniform standards and more accountability and transparency, makes so much more sense for an industry trying to better protect horses and punish rulebreakers.

The main source of the story is Tom Linkmeyer, who was assistant executive director of the Indiana Horse Racing Commission before he was apparently let go earlier this year. He says that the commission failed or refused to act on alleged evidence of wrongdoing by a trainer named Britney Dillon. Her husband, Dean Eckley, is also a part of the story Linkmeyer has shared (a story backed up by racing records and other documents, Voss reports). There is a lot of griping in horse racing but it’s rare to hear from a former state racing executive who has so quickly decided to become a whistleblower. More state regulators should pipe up!

I interviewed Linkmeyer a few weeks ago for the Harness Racing Alumni Show and got several responses to the interview from people I know and respect within the harness racing community. Let me characterize it this way: There are quite a few people in Indiana racing who are not fans of Linkmeyer’s work. They don’t find him particularly credible. That’s natural, I suppose. The regulated rarely are fond of their regulators, right? But there are also serious people in racing there who acknowledge that Linkmeyer helped the horsemen during the slowdown caused by the coronavirus. Whatever you think of him, he’s not the story here.

The story is about a state racing commission that chose not to act and then refused to explain itself, even internally. The story is about the need for proper documentation of veterinary work and trainer records, the standards of which seem to differ from state to state. It’s a story about shady ownership records. And it is a story, still familiar in Thoroughbred racing, of trainers in trouble alighting to another jurisdiction to ply their trade. None of it is a recipe for racing integrity. All of it will continue so long as different states apply different rules and standards. Much of it is addressed by the new federal racing regulators.

Meanwhile, how would you like to be a Standardbred trainer in Pennsylvania racing against Eckley these days? He’s racing there after he failed to get a license in Ohio. I have reached out to racing regulators in Pennsylvania and asked them to let me know if they discussed the denial of Eckley’s license in Ohio, or the 2010 case against him in New York, before they granted or renewed his license. I have not received a response. If I do, I will include it in the next column. In the world of HISA, where there are uniform rules, and trainers can’t jump from state to state, this tiresome game of whack-a-mole be over for good.

More on the United States Trotting Association’s embrace of a doomed federal racing law

Last month, I offered a short rebuttal to USTA President Russell Williams’ ardent defense of the Racehorse Health and Safety Act, the doomed federal legislation he wants you to believe is a better alternative to the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act. The RHSA is not a better alternative, for the reasons set forth above and below, but even if it were, the bill stands no chance of passing Congress anytime soon. Last September, the USTA’s public relations folks (the ones we USTA members must be paying for) previously described some of the aspects of the proposed new law. Here are some details (and my reactions).

From the USTA: “The bill establishes the Racehorse Health and Safety Organization (RHSO), with a Board of Directors appointed by the state racing commissions. Five board members will be appointed by the racing commissions in the states with the most racing days, and four members will be appointed by racing commissions in the remaining states.”

Let’s stop here. Under this proposed law, the same state racing commissions that have typically made a mess of the current regulatory system, the political cronies who don’t agree with one another on drug standards and suspensions, are going to pick nine more cronies to form a board of directors to run horse racing in the U.S. Why should racing commissions have the power to appoint this board of directors? Do we want the people who handled the Mitch Maguire N case to be appointing people to wield national power? Do we think that state racing commissioners are going to pick reformers within the sport or those wedded to the status quo?

Back to the USTA: “The RHSO Board will establish three Scientific Medication Control Committees, one for each racing breed: Thoroughbreds, Standardbreds, and Quarter Horses. Committee members will be selected by industry associations and the Board. The RHSO Board will also establish one Racetrack Safety Committee comprised of board appointed members and industry appointed members that will recommend breed specific rules to the board.”

The sentence that jumps out here is: “Committee members will be selected by industry associations and the board.” So the nine new racing commission cronies who are chosen by current state racing commission cronies are going to select these members of these “medication control committees who will establish drug standards. “Industry associations,” presumably including the USTA, will also choose the people to serve on these committees. Don’t forget: Some of these folks believe the answer to horse racing’s integrity problems is to put more drugs in more horses even closer to race day. That’s a recipe for disaster.

From The USTA: “The Board will have the final say on all rules adopted, but it must justify its decisions with scientific evidence. Further, the RHSO will be granted the power to investigate rule violations, but the state racing commission of each participating state will retain enforcement power unless it requests the RHSO to assist with enforcement.”

Under the proposed new law, state racing commissioners, as they do now, will retain enforcement power to investigate rule violations. How’s that working out? Are you satisfied with the way state racing commissions handle contamination positives? Do you think state commissions effectively root out cheaters? Are you convinced that state regulators are adequately tracking “beard” or “paper training” cases? Do you think that state regulators are quick and transparent in their work and accountable for it? And who gets to define what “scientific evidence” is? If you think the current model is working, the RHSA is the law for you.

From the USTA: “Finally, the RHSO will be funded through annual fees from the participating state racing commissions, which will be specific to each breed.”

The point here is to try to distinguish this proposed law to HISA and to argue, as the USTA and others do, that the federal racing law is terribly more expensive than is the current system. So far, that is simply not true. And, even if it were true, states like Florida have promised to pay the costs of federal enforcement. Other states are likely to follow. You get what you pay for in life, in horse racing, and in racing integrity laws. Is there anything in the RHSA that would prevent states from underfunding their racing regulatory regimes? I don’t know. Again, if you think state racing commissions are adequately funded and staffed now the RHSA is the law for you.

Lord knows, HISA is not a perfect law. But it’s better than this junk. HISA is a serious attempt to boldly change the industry’s regulatory regime so there are tough national standards that better protect horses and limit cheating. By contrast, the Racehorse Health and Safety Act is a delaying tactic, a ruse, that embraces almost all of the problems with current racing commissions without providing any obvious benefits. The truth is, the person who drives you into a ditch is usually not the right person to get you out of the ditch. Racing isn’t going to prepare itself for a challenging future by recasting structures that have proven disastrous.

NOTES

Such a smart approach to a pair of methamphetamine positives. Thoroughbred trainer Phil Schoenthal got a 15-day suspension after two of his horses who had raced at Laurel Park tested positive for meth. He was able to show HIWU officials that a groom and exercise rider in his barn both tested positive for the drug but it was the proactive approach he took toward the problem that convinced regulators to soften the punishment. Schoenthal told the Thoroughbred Daily News: “I think the takeaway from my case, if it can serve to help others, is that you can't stop bad things from happening one hundred percent around your horses.

“The onus is on us to be able to prove to HISA and HIWU that we did all that we could do to prevent this from happening and if you can prove that you did, I believe they're going to be fair with you,” Schoenthal said. “The HIWU team was really impressed with” the workplace program Schoenthal put into place to prevent environmental contamination, said HISA chief Lisa Lazarus. He didn’t wait around for a contamination positive. He took steps to avoid one. “What we've said was that if you made efforts to reduce your risk, that would mitigate your sanctions. That was essentially the rationale,” Lazarus added.

Schoenthal told TDN he’s come up with a manual of sorts: “I sat down that weekend, and typed up a whole manual for my employees. Don't take your prescription medications at the barn, and if you have to, wash your hands. Don't pee in the stalls. Don't allow friends, families, and strangers to touch the horses. We bought some pizzas, and went through all of these things in English and Spanish, and had everyone sign the paper that they understood. We also put up signs that said don't pee in the stalls and tried to take a very proactive approach to the things that were in our control to mitigate the risk.”

Schoenthal should copyright that manual and then sell or share it to any other trainer who wants to make the barn safer for horses and less likely to generate costly contamination positives. And it is so refreshing to actually hear from a trainer who isn’t whining about a positive or trying to come up with reasons not to cooperate with new federal racing regulators. It’s also important for HISA and HIWU officials to demonstrate to the industry that “covered persons” who take active steps to literally clean up the sport will be given the benefit of every doubt. Maybe that’s what Thoroughbred owner Jeff Boschwitz means when he writes about leveling the playing field.

Books! Do yourself a favor and buy a copy of Stephen Panus’ new book, “Walk On,” in which he explores the pain when a parent loses a child. It’s not really about horses – but it is about horses. It’s also about life and death and the meaning to be found in both. “The book not only shares how the Panus family has navigated these last four years, but also what Jake himself imparted to others and the messages that this father has shared with his sons, messages of hope interwoven with the inevitable reckoning that comes with relearning who we are after losing someone close to us,” writes Jennifer Kelly

An important clarification. I didn’t get the relationship between HISA and HIWU right in the last Keeping Pace column. From a HIWU spokesperson: “HISA did not build HIWU/the HIWU team, and HIWU was not created as a direct result of the passage of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act. HIWU is a division of Drug Free Sport International (DFSI), an entirely separate organization that HISA hired to administer the ADMC Program. DFSI established HIWU as a new division of the company to focus on horse racing. HIWU is composed of a mix of individuals who worked for Drug Free Sport International before HIWU existed…” My apologies to HIWU. 

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