LEXINGTON, KY–During a Speaker Series focusing on HISA, one question opened the door to an in-depth discussion. How do we catch the bad actors in horse racing without placing a financial burden on the good guys?
Trainer Dale Romans, the President of the Kentucky HBPA and a member of HISA's Horsemen's Advisory Group, was the first to take a stab at the answer, acknowledging that it was the million-dollar question.
“That's a lot of what HISA has been struggling with because it's just as important to make sure that someone is innocent and not convict them of anything–that it was just a mistake or contamination–as it is to catch someone,” he said. “But I don't think you'll ever catch somebody in the test barn. I think the test barn is a deterrent. We know it's there, but you're not going to catch a true bad actor.”
“I think it's going to be through surveillance, through whistle blowers and through the FBI guys they have working that know where things come from and where they go,” he continued. “I think that's the only way we're going to catch these people because the crime always stays in front of the police.”
Well over a hundred trainers, bloodstock agents and other industry members gathered at the Thoroughbred Club of America just across from Keeneland for Wednesday's discussion. Moderated by Scott Hazelton, the panel also featured HISA CEO Lisa Lazarus, Keeneland's Vice President of Equine Safety Dr. Stuart Brown, WinStar's Elliott Walden and trainers Cherie DeVaux and Mark Casse.
Other panelists were in agreement with Romans when answering the aforementioned question, citing improved surveillance and data tracking as other methods of catching cheaters.
Lazarus said that some of these strategies have helped initiate many of the HISA investigations currently underway, including cases where multiple tips were submitted about the same individual on HISA's anonymous call and text tip line and when the HISA team detected irregularities in either the timeliness of submission or the consistency of substances listed on a trainer's veterinary records.
Still, Lazarus said that the test barn is essential to their work.
“I do believe that a lot of the value of HISA comes through [the illicit activities] that people aren't trying or aren't doing that they might have felt comfortable trying before because they didn't think anyone was looking over their shoulder,” she said. “The rules were relaxed in certain jurisdictions. So I do think the deterrent piece is really important.”
In addition, Lazarus said that the test barn protects horses from receiving substances that “are not doing anything for the horse.”
“We're also protecting horses from substances that aren't even working or doing a job, but they still shouldn't be in the horse's system for the horse's health. You'd be amazed at the things we've caught people trying that actually don't do anything, but still it's not good for the horse. There is no legitimate reason for that substance to be in the horse's system, even if it ultimately ends up being useless in terms of getting better results.”
The topic of environmental contamination leading to trainer suspensions and fines has been a major criticism of HISA in its early years and concerns surrounding that issue were prevalent during the panel and later on during the 30-minute 'Q and A' portion of the evening.
“Personally I feel like that's one of the biggest holes in our program,” Romans said, but he also acknowledged how HISA has adjusted its level of drug testing to reflect the concerns of horsemen. “People were coming up with a lot of methamphetamine positives early on because we were testing at such a low level of picograms and that has kind of leveled off.”
Lazarus explained that the initially high number of methamphetamine overages when HISA first went into effect was due to the threshold being set at the same level as that of the RMTC (Racing Medication and Testing Consortium). However, she said trainers were not getting notified of overages prior to HISA. After HISA later revised its sanctions for methamphetamine and launched educational efforts on the backside to implement contamination-prevention measures, she said the number of positive tests declined.
Lazarus also noted that the threshold for metformin, another medication that has accounted for a number of suspensions, is currently being examined in a study at UC Davis.
“A picogram of one substance could have zero effect whereas with another, it could have a very significant effect,” she said. “The pharmacologists and veterinarians work together to make those decisions. This is something our labs work on all the time. For the substances we see repeatedly, they are constantly discussing what those levels should be and whether or not a change is warranted.”
“I will say that the number of calls I get about environmental contamination has really decreased over the past six months,” Lazarus continued. “I feel like we've gotten to a place where there is a lot better understanding on the horsemen's side and HISA has looked at our rules and made some modifications that I think we're in a pretty decent place now.”
During the 'Q and A' session, trainer Rusty Arnold brought up a different side of the environmental contamination issue when he asked about how the fine money from overages goes toward funding HISA. He proposed that the money should instead go to aftercare, stating that because the money goes to HISA he feels that trainers are “paying to fight ourselves.”
Lazarus responded in saying that HISA's budget is approved by the Federal Trade Commission and from there, states and racetracks are charged based on their portion of the overall budget. When fines are received by HISA, they are put toward reducing the cost of HISA for racetracks and horsemen. In regards to Arnold's proposal, Lazarus said that the law does not allow for putting the money toward aftercare and in doing that, it would be hurting the overall community of racetracks and trainers.
“The fines for overages are very low,” she said. “If you're talking about a fine for a doping violation, it's going to be a lot more serious. Why shouldn't the person that is cheating or breaking the rules pay for more of the program than someone who is not breaking the rules? The folks that are taxing our system, that are requiring us to use resources, should pay more than the people that are following the rules. That is why the fines go toward reducing your bill, Churchill Downs's bill and everyone that is paying for HISA.”
One issue brought up by trainer Cherie DeVaux that received enthusiastic support from the audience was the issue of having a horse placed on a vet's list and the difficulty involved in later getting that horse entered into a busy race meet. DeVaux proposed that a horse listed on a vet's list could be tagged as red, orange or yellow, depending on the severity of the issue, so that there is a different protocol in place for each and would allow for a quicker return to the starting gate once the horse has been cleared from the vet's list.
“Here in Kentucky, we're coming back from New Orleans where there are a lot of horses affected,” she said. “They don't have dates. We don't have availability for a state vet to come get them off a vet's list and then we have to wait for the bloodwork to come back. So if you have to wait two or three weeks, then you don't have a preference date until that comes in. Something that's minimal, like if the vet didn't like how the horse walked out of the stall for example, could put you out of competition for eight or ten weeks. Especially at a meet like Keeneland or Churchill where if you don't have that preference date, you're affected for quite some time.”
Discussion followed on if individual racetracks could help improve this issue by allowing trainers to get a preference date while their horse is still on the vet's list.
On the subject of trainers and veterinarians working together in partnership, Dr. Start Brown said, “We recognize the variation that exists between horses. I want people to be willing to ask us to come look at those horses and categorize what is going on so that on race day, regulatory veterinarians come in with a better idea of what they're looking at in that 10 or 15 minute exam. Giving the opportunity to advocate for those horses gives vets a better understanding about that individual horse.”
One of the most positive takeaways of the evening was the impact that technology has had on improving equine safety. The increasingly widespread use of tools like PET scans and StrideSAFE, a sensor that analyzes gates of horses to detect injuries or abnormalities, has been critical in identifying issues before they become a potentially catastrophic problem.
Trainer Mark Casse spoke on his positive experience with Sleip, an app that measures the horse's movements from an iPhone video and uses artificial intelligence motion analysis to detect asymmetries in the horse's movement.
“It will tell us where the horse is off and how significant it is,” Casse said. “If he's off in more than one spot it tells us if he's compensating, so if it's showing up left front and right hind, it may say the hind lameness is from the left front. We do this on every horse. Before any horse is allowed to leave our training center, it gets done. You wouldn't believe how many van trips you save.”
Other subjects of discussion included HISA's regulation of horses coming into the country to race from Canada and Europe and the need for improved testing for EPOs. Trainers also expressed concern over how 2-year-olds may receive a controlled substance like clenbuterol before they come into their care and asked what they can do to protect themselves. Lazarus said that there is a plan in development for clearance testing of clenbuterol.
HISA is now in its third year of operation since launching its Racetrack Safety Program in 2022. The Anti-Doping and Medication Program began in 2023. Reflecting on their efforts, Lazarus said one of the most positive outcomes has been the improved fatality rate for tracks under HISA jurisdiction. In 2024, the rate was 0.90 per 1,000 starts, a 35% decrease from 2021. In the first quarter of 2025, the rate was .85 per 1,000 starts.
“We started at zero,” said Casse, who joined HISA's Horsemen's Advisory Group in 2022. “There were so many moving parts and were there mistakes along the way? Of course, but Lisa changed them as we went. The new generation, going forward they're going to understand it better. It's going to be easier. I always say that with all assets, there are liabilities. Nothing worth doing ever comes easy. Has it been easy? No. But is it worth it? Of course.”
The post “It Won’t Happen in the Test Barn,” Catching Bad Actors a Subject of TCA Speaker Series Discussion appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.
