ARCI Announces Penalty Review

Ed Martin

The Association of Racing Commissioners International will conduct an overall review of its recommended penalty guidelines for medication and doping violations, the organization announced in a press release Monday.
“Some have argued that the recommended penalties may not be tough enough for the most egregious violations or that isolated minor offenses are treated too harshly,” ARCI President Ed Martin said in the release. “This has not been examined in depth for many years and the board believes this review is overdue.”
RCI Chair Jeff Colliton, the chairman of the Washington Racing Commission, assigned the review to the Drug Testing Standards and Practices Committee. Committee chair Duncan Patterson, the chair of the Delaware Thoroughbred Racing Commission, will coordinate, in consultation with committee members and industry representatives.
The ARCI has also updated its Model Rules of Racing to allow stewards greater flexibility in deciding whether to deny the purse and disqualify a horse for lessor violations of racing's medication rules. Version 8.1 of the model, which can be viewed at www.arci.com, permits the consideration of mitigating factors in deciding whether to deny a purse for some violations involving substances requiring a “Class C” penalty. Consideration of mitigating circumstances has long been permitted for Class B penalty violations and this change extends current policy to lessor offenses.

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