Letter to NHBPA Members from President Doug Daniels DVM
NTRA’s Rooney is wrong when he says majority supports HISA
Recently we have seen a host of letters and op-eds hit our industry media. Certainly, I agree everyone is entitled to their opinion, but I also believe those opinions should be based on facts and not manufactured by pseudo horsemen’s groups or groups with executives who don’t speak for the majority they represent.
There is no question there is some support for the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA). However, the misleading rhetoric from the recent media attention making the assertion HISA has “overwhelming support from the Thoroughbred breeding and racing industry” — as was written by Tom Rooney, the former congressman who now sits as the CEO of the NTRA — is ridiculous and hypocritical. I would like to reiterate that we believe the vast majority of participants in thoroughbred racing do not presently agree with HISA or the regulations being implemented by the corporation being described as the “Authority.” For those who continue to claim that the vast majority of participants are supportive of HISA, we would like to see the proof. Show us who they are, and how they possibly outnumber the horsemen and horsewomen expressing opposition. I believe the number of racing participants opposing HISA surely dwarfs the number of participants making up the special interests advocating for it.
Even Mr. Rooney’s letter has proven disingenuous. Arkansas Racing Commission Chairman Alex Lieblong publicly stated that his signature was not intended for Mr. Rooney’s letter and he emphatically does not support HISA. Mr. Lieblong additionally demanded the NTRA remove his name from the letter. Who else did the NTRA add to the signature line who did not actually support the message?
Most believe the Act, as is, will cause irreparable damage to our industry and we believe the Act is unconstitutional. This position is strongly supported by the vast majority of the owners and trainers we represent. I’ve had multiple calls, texts and on-track conversations with a tremendous number of tracks and horsemen who are not National HBPA affiliates. They are angry and fed up with their organizations not fighting HISA in court, as the HBPA has, and they want to know why.
National HBPA CEO Eric Hamelback’s phone rings constantly with calls — even from horsemen in New York, California, Delaware and Maryland who believe supporting HISA is not in their best interest — and he gets praise for leading the charge for change. Rest assured he and I, along with our affiliates, will continue to fight for uniformity in the industry that is in the best interest of horsemen and driven by input from horsemen. We will also continue to fight for a delay in further implementation in order to initiate substantive changes to rules that are currently proving to be overly burdensome and unfair to our members. We don’t pretend to believe we will always be correct, and we will likely make some mistakes along the way. But you can be sure we will not sell out our members by pretending there is overwhelming support for HISA or the corporation making the regulations.
