National HBPA

Edited Press Release Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry will be the keynote speaker at the National HBPA's annual conference Mar. 6-10 at the Hotel Monteleone in New Orleans' historic French Quarter, the horsemen's organization announced. The conference, being hosted by the Louisiana HPBA, takes place in conjunction with the Association of Racing Commissioners International (ARCI) Annual Meeting and Racing Integrity Conference. Landry's keynote address is to be delivered Mar. 7. He has been at the forefront of states challenging the constitutionality of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) and...

by Charles Scheeler, HISA Board of Directors The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority, or HISA, was created by Congress in 2020 to implement, for the first time, uniform nationwide safety and integrity rules to govern Thoroughbred racing in America. It represents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reform a sport that in recent years has seen criminal conduct at its highest levels and welfare concerns about horse and rider safety that have raised questions about its viability. Some horsemen have recently expressed a desire to scrap the substantial progress made over the...

Over the last few months, I have read and heard numerous concerns about HISA's involvement in the thoroughbred industry. Purported issues range from, "we don't need the government in our business" to, "these new rules are too burdensome," to "they should have asked horsemen to be involved in the rulemaking." I believe most of those complaints come from a place of misunderstanding about what HISA is trying to accomplish and also how imperative it is to our livelihood that we have a centralized set of rules. As someone fortunate enough...

In an order Monday, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act's (HISA) anti-doping and medication control (ADMC) program would not go into effect as scheduled Jan. 1 due to swirling legal uncertainty. "The bedrock principle of the Act is the need for uniformity," wrote the FTC in the order, adding that "the Commission's approval of the Anti-Doping and Medication Control proposed rule would not result in uniformity because the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act has been held unconstitutional by a panel of the United...

The latest tumultuous turn in the unfolding saga of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) was delivered in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit Friday, when the court ruled the law unconstitutional because it cedes too much governmental authority to a private entity, and too little rule-making input to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which is charged with ultimately signing off on the law's rules. In the immediate aftermath of the decision, three legal experts weighed in for the TDN on the legal avenues open...

The National HBPA and its affiliates got their wish Friday. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled that the Horse Racing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) is unconstitutional. As a result, HISA is on life support and very well could be finished. Within hours of the decision being announced, the National HBPA was taking a victory lap, declaring that this was a win for horsemen across the country. "Today's ruling shows the HISA regulations are not in the best interest of thoroughbred racing's participants and, as...

After reading both the Bennet and Parkin article published in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association entitled "Fifteen risk factors associated with sudden death in Thoroughbred racehorses in North America (2009-2021)" followed by the TDN analysis of that article, I have become increasingly aggravated over the last three weeks from the implied message portrayed by each. The dramatic click-bait headline "Horses on Lasix at Increased Risk of Sudden Death" is unwarranted by the facts. When compared to the end of the article, one becomes more frustrated with the...

Officials at the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association announced the 37th annual TOBA National Awards Dinner will be held Saturday, Sept. 10 at Keeneland in Lexington, two days prior to the start of the September sale. The National Awards Dinner honors owners and breeders from 21 states and Canada. Also recognized are the National Owner of the Year and National Owner Finalists, National Breeder of the Year, National Breeder of the Year Finalists, Small Breeder of the Year, Broodmare of the Year, Cot Campbell Racing Partnership of the Year, TOBA...

A federal judge on Thursday threw out a constitutionality lawsuit initiated one year ago by the National Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association (NHBPA) that was designed to keep the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) from going into effect on July 1, 2022. "The Court recognizes that HISA's regulatory model pushes the boundaries of public/private Collaboration," wrote United States District Court Judge James Wesley Hendrix in his Mar. 31 Northern District of Texas order. "The Court also acknowledges the dramatic change that HISA imposes nationwide on the Thoroughbred horseracing industry....

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) approved the rules and accreditation standards that comprise the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority's (HISA) Racetrack Safety Program on Friday. The National HBPA issued the following statement on Saturday: "The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on Thursday, March 3, 2022, issued an order approving without exception all the racetrack safety regulations propounded by the Horseracing Integrity & Safety Authority (HISA). The rubber-stamp order accepted without issue all of the proposed rules as well as acceptance of the Authority's responses to the comments submitted by industry participants....

HOT SPRINGS, Ark.--The National HBPA's National Conference at Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort kicked off Wednesday morning with a panel on the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act entitled "HISA: Where are we now?" It was a question largely answered with more questions, as has been the case with much of the dialogue about HISA since the legislation was passed and signed into law by former President Donald Trump in late 2020 as part of the massive COVID relief bill. The legislation requires the law to go into effect July 1. "I...

Raymond Joseph "Randy" Funkhouser, II, a longtime member of the Charles Town Horsemen's Benevolent Protective Association (HBPA), passed away Feb. 4. He was 70. Born and raised in Charles Town, West Virginia, Funkhouser returned to Jefferson County after graduating from Stanford University to partner with his mother Ruth and mentor Frank Gall in running O'Sullivan Farms. He was actively involved in the West Virginia Thoroughbred industry and farmland preservation, working tirelessly for decades with legislators and community leaders to protect and enhance the industry in the state. Funkhouser served as...