Dan Ross

Last week, industry organizations announced the launch of the California Horse Power Coalition, a collaborative endeavor sold as something of a unified foghorn to extol the good word of the sport's economic and cultural impacts. The list of Coalition members reads like a who's who of California racing industry mainstays, including Del Mar, Santa Anita, the Thoroughbred Owners of California (TOC), the California Retirement Management Account (CARMA), the California Thoroughbred Breeders' Association (CTBA) and others. To discuss this new venture--along with a suite of other timely industry talking points--the TDN spoke with newly minted...

Every week, the TDN publishes a roundup of key official rulings from the primary tracks within the four major racing jurisdictions of California, New York, Florida and Kentucky. Here's a primer on how each of these jurisdictions adjudicates different offenses, what they make public (or not) and where. With the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) having gone into effect on July 1, the TDN will also post a roundup of the relevant HISA-related rulings from the same week. California Track: Del Mar Date: 09/02/2022 Licensee: Keron Thomas, owner Penalty:...

For nearly three years, a frayed cardboard box has hidden in the corner of a small apartment in the Westside of Los Angeles, buried from view by wooly blankets, a tennis racket with broken strings, worn clothes long earmarked for the thrift store and an old jacket with a broken zipper and patched leather sleeves. The box is filled mostly with creaky photo albums stuffed full of old newspaper clippings pasted onto faded paper, laminated win pictures--the plastic as brittle as sheet-ice--and handwritten letters. There are magazines and an old...

Like fast-falling dominoes, the 2018 Supreme Court decision flinging open the legal doors to sports betting has already led to 30 states allowing some form of this gambling, and now it's California's turn to potentially join the party, with two such initiatives on the state ballot this November. The first is Proposition 26, an initiative called the Tribal Sports Wagering Act spearheaded by American Tribes which, in short, would allow sports wagering at Tribal casinos and at approved racetracks in California. Most crucially, it still prohibits mobile or on-line wagering...

Every week, the TDN publishes a roundup of key official rulings from the primary tracks within the four major racing jurisdictions of California, New York, Florida and Kentucky. Here's a primer on how each of these jurisdictions adjudicates different offenses, what they make public (or not) and where. California Track: Santa Anita Date: 04/20/2022 Licensee: Ed Moger, trainer Penalty: $500 fine Violation: Out of competition medication violation Explainer: Trainer Ed Moger, who worked the horse Squalotoro for removal from the Veterinarian's List on March 10, 2022, at Santa Anita Park,...

For all the satchels of research dollars and reams of ink devoted to exercise-induced pulmonary hemorrhage (EIPH), it remains a topic Swiss cheese riddled with unknowns. Which means that, as the sport continues to move away from Lasix as a crutch to manage the problem--especially when the federal Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) outlines a timeframe for a total race-day Lasix ban--various lines of inquiry beg pursuit. Given the sometimes rundown, poorly ventilated state of racetrack barns around the country, perhaps the most urgent one is this: How much...

Dan Ross's article from Sunday, February 20 highlighting the many unanswered questions regarding provisions of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) should concern anyone who cares about American racing. For an entity which many are expecting to be vitally important to the future of the sport, it has left much to be desired in the way of its public communications. Just shy of four months from launch, the lack of answers to a major industry publication should concern anyone involved in, or subject to, the new organization. Transparency is...

The veterinary license of California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) equine medical director, Jeff Blea, remains suspended pending a full administrative hearing, according to a ruling by administrative law judge Nana Chin. In a 15-page document dated Friday, Jan. 28 but posted to the Veterinary Medical Board's website Wednesday, Chin wrote that despite Blea not currently practicing veterinary medicine, this still "does not ensure" public safety. "As long as Respondent's license to practice is active, he is free to return to the practice of veterinary medicine at any time. Permitting Respondent...

In the formal hearing Friday morning of the Veterinary Medical Board's petition for an interim suspension of California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) equine medical director Jeff Blea's medical license, both sides laid out their arguments. In short, the deputy attorney general Elaine Yan representing the veterinary board took a procedural defense of the petition, arguing that the allegations against Blea amount to violations of standards of practice within the veterinary community as codified in the veterinary medicine practice act. "These guidelines emphasize the importance of examinations and diagnosis," said Yan,...

Starting next week, the TDN will begin a weekly roundup of key official rulings from the primary tracks within the four major racing jurisdictions of California, New York, Florida and Kentucky. The task, however, of collecting these rulings has wrenched the curtain back on the fractured way in which the industry polices its own and then makes those rulings public--or not, as is often the case. The California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) provides something of a gold standard, thanks to a centralized, easy-to-use database containing all stewards rulings from across...

Seeking a full stop to the spate of high-profile fatalities in the race that stops Australia, Racing Victoria this year tightened the veterinary screws. The practical rollout of these efforts can hardly be described as an unadulterated success, however. One of these new measures was a precautionary CT scan of all runners in the days leading up to the G1 Melbourne Cup--a target that hit the skids when Racing Victoria's new $1.27-million CT unit suffered a malfunction with the Cup field only half scanned, leaving the rest to be X-rayed...

Draft rules for the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) were unveiled Thursday morning, auguring fundamental shifts to the way the industry is policed, including a markedly more stringent approach to medication violation penalties. Far from concrete, these draft rules are subject to the red pen. Nevertheless, as currently written, they raise notable differences to the working status quo. Broadly, the draft rules take a binary approach to drug testing, breaking medications down into primary and secondary categories. A primary substance is one that is always prohibited, while a secondary...