“We must repeal HISA and replace it with the Racehorse Health and Safety Act” – National HBPA’s General Counsel

From Eric Hamelback, CEO of the National Horsemen’s Benevolent & Protective Association:

On Monday, the Louisville Courier Journal published an op-ed written by Peter Ecabert, General Counsel for the National HBPA. I want to encourage you to take a few minutes to read it and then share it with your fellow horsemen by text, email, or social media. Ecabert’s piece levels a blistering criticism of the Horseracing Safety and Integrity Act (HISA). He lays out all the failures of the Authority corporation: from implementing medication control rules a year late, to last year’s horseshoe shortage, to overregulating the shaft of the riding crop, to the recent failures at Churchill Downs racetrack.

He wrote, “The HISA track record is abysmal. Sadly, this was predictable. When you turn the reins of regulation of an industry over to a private corporation run by those with no concept of how the industry works, mistakes will be made, and horses will suffer.”

He corrected the record because initially “The Authority corporation and its supporters blamed the deaths on the lack of medication control rules, which went into effect May 22.” “But then two more horses died, and racing was forced to move to Ellis Park.” Both the Authority corporation’s racetrack safety rules and medication control rules failed to solve the problem.

He concluded, “At the National HBPA, we have not been sitting idly by as HISA has sewn confusion, chaos, and numerous false starts and failures throughout the industry. We are working with Congress to introduce the Racehorse Health and Safety Act, which will bring to the industry … national standards … with a law that is rooted in science, cost effective, collaborative, transparent and of course, constitutional.” “Join us in support of the RHSA to bring real safety and wellbeing to horses and horsemen nationwide.”