In his regular column, Charles Hayward says a deal between the racing industry and USADA is crucial to the sport's future – and he is by no means alone in that viewpoint
Primarily through the effort of the Jockey Club, the Thoroughbred racing industry has developed a strong relationship with the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA).
It goes back many years as a series of USADA executives have made presentations at the annual Jockey Club Round Table conferences held every year during Saratoga.
USADA chief executive Travis Tygart was keynote speaker at the 60th edition in 2012, where he addressed delegates on the topic of ‘Preserving Your Rights and the Integrity of Competition’ with special reference to his experience of Olympic competition.
Win-at-all-cost culture
Here is a brief comment from Tygart's presentation that resonated with me: “I think when athletes make that determination to cheat, it’s because they feel like they have to do it to win, that the culture has overtaken the rules. So they’re not going to be victims, [it’s] the win-at-all-cost culture.
“You have to have effective testing. We have out-of-competition testing. We literally have the information, cell phones, home addresses, training venues for our athletes – about 3,000 of them 365 days a year, seven days a week, 24 hours a day. We show up at their houses, we show up at their training centers. We take blood, we take urine.”
Tygart is, of course, aware of the legislative initiative that the Thoroughbred racing and breeding industry has undertaken since the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) was first proposed in 2015.
As a result, he became familiar with the importance of this federal legislation and the organisation’s potentially important role now that the legislation has passed the House and the Senate and signed by the president.
A regular Round Table topic
Three years after Tygart at the 2015 Round Table, USADA chairman Edwin C. Moses, dual Olympic gold medal winner, spoke on the topic of ‘The Anti-Doping Matrix of Effectiveness’.
At the 2016 Round Table, Jeff Novitzky (vice president, Athletic Health and Performance for the UFC, the Ultimate Fighting Championship) made a presentation on the new contract between UFC and USADA.
“In January of 2015 last year, the owners of the UFC, seeing the ineffectiveness of these varying rules and protocols, determined they needed their own set of anti-doping rules and contracted with USADA to provide a permanent Anti-Doping Program.
USADA conducts the year-round, independent anti-doping program for all UFC athletes. In an effort to aid UFC athletes, as well as their support team members, in understanding the rules applicable to them, USADA provides comprehensive instruction on the UFC Anti-Doping Program website regarding the testing process and prohibited substances, how to obtain permission to use a necessary medication, and the risks and dangers of taking supplements, as well as performance-enhancing and recreational drugs.”
These important features would presumably be provided to horseracing clients as well. It is important to note that Jeff Novitzky is an independent member of the board of directors.
At the 2017 Round Table, Shawn Smealie, executive director of the Coalition for Horse Racing Integrity, and Stonestreet Farm owner Barbara Banke both spoke on the importance of the Horseracing Integrity Act.
‘Not just recovery, but prosperity’
At the 2019 Round Table, Jockey Club vice chairman William Lear again made the case for the Horseracing Integrity Act. “We have to do more to get the cheaters and the abusers out of our sport and there is a path forward,” he said. “The HISA represents that path. It can put us on the road to not just recovery, but prosperity, if we will all join in.”
It is important to note that after the HISA legislation was passed in December 2020, Charles Scheeler [chairman of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority board of directors], and Dr. Tessa Muir [USADA director of equine science, assigned to HISA], made impressive presentations at the 2021 Round Table.
Let’s be frank here. I do not believe that any horse racing jurisdiction or professional sports team would dispute the fact that USADA has the most sophisticated and successful anti-doping protocol in all of sport.
USADA was founded in 2000 and for two decades they have been the Anti-Doping Agency for all US Olympic and Paralympic sports. Not only did Congress pass the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) in December 2021, but USADA was listed in the legislation as the preferred Anti-Doping vendor/agency subject to the execution of a contract.
Any such development would be a transformational event for the future of Thoroughbred racing in the US.
Why was this such an important event? Well, each state has its own horse racing commission and political commissioners with its own set of rules for each individual drug and disparate penalties and no national standards for the performance and the economics of lab tests.
The result is there are no standard rules from state-to-state, resulting in wide variances when it comes to testing – not least owing to cost.
The hammer blow for racing’s hopes
The hammer blow came at the end of last year on December 23 – one year after the HISA legislation was passed by Congress and signed by President Trump – when USADA and the HISA board announced that they had been unable to reach terms on a contract and they suspended discussions.
It is now over two months later and there are no indications that any progress has been made on reaching an agreement – and HISA is scheduled to take over most aspects of Thoroughbred racing on July 1. That is now only four months hence.
Let me repeat. As I said in this space a few weeks ago, USADA have proved themselves time and again; there’s not a better option for racing.
But if you are fed up with listening to me on this subject, then here are some other respected voices with deep knowledge of the sport, starting with Rick Abbott, a former member of the Pennsylvania State Horse Racing Commission.
Abbott does not mince his words, saying: “Without USADA’s involvement the Horseracing Safety and Integrity Act is a worthless and ridiculous waste of time and racing is no better off.
“State racing commissions still lack the power to investigate and the courage to enforce their rules. Cheating and favoritism will proliferate like never before and racing will wither and die. If you think that won’t happen, I have two seats to sell you on the finish line for the 2022 Arlington Million.”
Then there are these comments on the Water Hay Oats Alliance website following an advisory notice from the organisation published in the Paulick Report for Feb 9 under the headline ‘Broken Systems and Cronyism: WHOA Advisory Board Says Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority will flounder without USADA’.
WHOA says there is no other entity “that is nationally recognised as being a medication regulation agency equal in qualification to the USADA. We challenge HISA to find another agency that meets USADA’s program criteria. THERE IS NONE.”
USADA is the best answer: Strawbridge, Motion, Cauthen, Hancock
And here’s what some well-known racing figures had to say on the subject:
“In late December, negotiations between HISA and USADA stalled. The legislative compromise that WHOA supported – to put USADA in their rightful place with a five-year contract – has been aborted. HISA is looking for other options and interviewing other entities to fill USADA’s place. What a shame. What a travesty. What are the insurmountable issues that would preclude a five-year contract between USADA and HISA?” George Strawbridge
“I was so disappointed to see the breakdown of talks between HISA and USADA. There is no other agency that will handle testing as thoroughly as USADA, we need to get them back to the table so they can clean up our sport.” Graham Motion
“We need USADA now. Time is of the essence to put an end to doping in racing.” Steve Cauthen
“I don’t think the horse industry realises the plight it is in, and it desperately needs the integrity of USADA to help shore up its sad reputation. Cheaters are still cheating, horses are still dying, and public perception is still worsening.” Arthur Hancock
Our final commentator is Marty Irby, executive director at Animal Wellness Action. In a piece for the Lexington Herald Leader, he says: “When the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (Act) was signed into law in December of 2020, after six years of hard lobbying, I honestly thought that American horse racing was finally on the right track in protecting the horses and stamping out doping for good.
“We knew enforcement would be essential to good outcomes for horses, but recent developments on that front have made me skeptical. We’d been through dozens of draft versions of the bill and at least a half a dozen different bills introduced in the House and Senate over the past decade.
“Some covered certain breeds, some banned Lasix and some didn’t, and typically the Senate bills differed from the House measures even when the bills’ leaders were on the same page. There was only one constant in every bill: having the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) oversee the execution and enforcement of the law and conduct all of the drug testing in the sport.
“In nearly a thousand Congressional meetings we conveyed that essential point, and at every turn USADA’s involvement was critical – in fact, USADA is the very bedrock and foundation of the new law.”
Indeed, I agree that USADA is the very bedrock and foundation of the new law and this foundation cannot be replaced nor replicated.
The US Thoroughbred racing and breeding industries are in a very precarious position that is not going to fix itself. ‘Go along to get along and on the way, take an edge when you can,’ seems all too often to be a popular modus operandi.
There is a culture of cheating in American racing. Collectively we change the culture or the racing industry goes the way of the circus and dog racing.
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Charles Hayward: If we don’t clean up our act, we won’t have a sport