The following is an editorial written by Louisville attorney, horse owner and breeder Ron Hillerich (photo courtesy Ron Hillerich):

I am a practicing attorney in Louisville, KY., and have been involved in the racing and breeding of thoroughbred horses since 1992. Over the years my partner and I have been blessed to operate a very small stable and currently have four horses in training and six 2-year-olds on the way. We also have five broodmares and a stallion who stands in Indiana. When I first became involved in the business, I was told racing was “the Sport of Kings” but through luck and dedicated effort we have been able to buck that perception and survive and profit in a most economically challenging industry. Our small stable has generated income for the Breeders’ Cup through fees associated with nominating our foals for participation as well as providing a source of income for numerous workers in the horse industry.

We have raced horses in Kentucky, Ohio, New York, Illinois, Minnesota, Florida and Maryland, all with not one iota of a problem preparing our horses to race and abide by the rules and regulations in these various jurisdictions. I understand the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) is attempting to bring unity to all of the various racing jurisdictions under the guise of making it a safer sport for the equine and human athletes and to promote confidence in our industry for the general public. Recently, the Fifth Circuit has held HISA unconstitutional and our Sixth Circuit has held that HISA is constitutional. Perhaps the United States Supreme Court will entertain this division in circuits, settling the issue once and for all and find, as I believe, that HISA is unconstitutional and, furthermore, completely unnecessary and too costly.

I am a firm believer in the old adage “less government makes better government.” In my opinion, HISA is an unnecessary extension of government control and redundant since the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, the racetracks, and the courts have done an excellent job of policing our industry and protecting our horses. A quick glimpse at the punishments handed down by not only the various racing commissions but by the tracks themselves over the last several years provides strong proof of the effort made to protect the integrity of our sport and there is simply no need to create additional “red tape” and expense.

HISA, under the pretext of protecting the equine athlete and bringing uniformity to the industry, wants to further regulate and burden trainers and owners with additional, unnecessary rules and record keeping. Just one simple example: Trainers now have to, on a daily basis, record every medication/procedure administered by the trainer and/or his staff, a diagnosis/reason for the treatment and the name of the contact for the information of the person who administered the treatment. Does this mean that a groom who soaks a horse’s foot in Epsom salt or administers a chiropractic massage or any other number of common procedures will have to record these minor treatment modalities to have on hand if requested by HISA?

A smaller stable like ours simply does not have, nor can it afford, the record keeping and reporting that HISA is mandating. It is my belief that a smaller stable would need to employ a separate person just to oversee the record keeping for “big brother” and, of course, this additional cost will be passed on from the trainer to an owner like myself. Another example is the additional testing and vet exams now mandated and required by HISA, which cause more costs being passed along to the owner. The long and short of all of this is that HISA, through its zealousness to regulate, will negatively impact smaller stables, forcing them out of business. While thus returning horse racing to the “Sport of Kings,” a vital segment that provides very necessary economic support to the industry will be sacrificed.

HISA might argue it is not burdensome and/or costly, but not being fully transparent with their own budget makes their argument fall on deaf ears. Everyone is painfully aware that more control, regulation and red tape will create more cost and expense.

It is my belief that state racing commissions such as the KHRC, a state’s court system and the race tracks themselves can continue to implement and enforce the already existing rules and regulations regarding the proper care and treatment of our horses. The National HBPA, through the strong efforts of CEO Eric Hamelback, and the Kentucky HBPA, through the strong leadership of President Rick Hiles, have always been for national uniformity of fair and scientifically based policies that advance industry safety.

Additional regulation by HISA is simply redundant, unnecessary and will not change the horse industry for the better but will deprive smaller owners and stables, such as myself, the opportunity to participate in the future and result in economic loss to the industry, including the Breeders’ Cup.

Ron Hillerich, President Hillerich Racing, Inc.

325 W. Main Street, Suite 1810 Louisville, KY 40202

(Rick Hiles with Sugar Cube/Jennie Rees photo)

Statement from Kentucky HBPA President Rick Hiles on the Kentucky General Assembly unanimously passing a resolution (SR 243 and HR 98) raising concerns about the Horseracing Integrity & Safety Act:

We applaud the Kentucky Senate, led by sponsors Majority Floor Leader Damon Thayer and John Schickel, and the Kentucky House of Representatives, with Reps. Matt Koch and Al Gentry the sponsors, for their resolution that raises many of the concerns we have about the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act and the private Authority corporation it created and granted broad powers.

No matter the inflammatory rhetoric slung at the National HBPA, the resolution — which passed unanimously in both the Senate and House on Thursday — shows that reasonable persons understand that HISA was rushed into existence with a flawed process. They understand our stated concerns about unintended consequences that could devastate portions of our industry across the country, including Kentucky.

It’s gratifying to have leadership that understands that the HISA challenge by the National HBPA, many of its affiliates including Kentucky, the United States Trotting Association, several state racing commissions and attorneys generals and others is because we all want our industry to be strong and to do better and better. All these parties are in complete support of measures that promote integrity, uniformity and fair racing but this must be accomplished only through lawful, accountable and transparent means.

Prominent in the resolution is the very real threat that the financial structure set up by this unfunded mandate will jeopardize small and medium-sized tracks and smaller stables. That in turn will have a huge impact on Kentucky’s breeding and racing industries, as well as the agribusiness that is fueled by horse racing.

Kentucky is blessed to have legislative leadership such as Senators Thayer and Schickel and Representatives Koch and Gentry, among others, who understand our industry, its complexities and appreciate that racing in Kentucky and elsewhere has many levels that contribute to the entire ecosystem. To destabilize parts of it, we believe, will have unintended consequences to all involved in the industry from top to bottom.

Rick Hiles is the longtime president of the Kentucky HBPA and the First Vice President of the National HBPA.

(Trainers Talk (from left): Jason Barkley, Ron Faucheux, Bret Calhoun and National HBPA CEO Eric Hamelback. Photos by Denis Blake/National HBPA)

Story by Tom Law

NEW ORLEANS, La. — The 2023 National HBPA Annual Conference closed with a lively discussion with three prominent horsemen who questioned the need, validity and overreach of federal legislation pitched as the so-called savior of racing while the industry heads into a challenging economic and logistical future.

Bret Calhoun, Ron Faucheux and Jason Barkley participated in the Trainer’s Talk panel moderated by multiple Eclipse Award-winning journalist and media specialist Jennie Rees and talked about everything from the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority, challenges facing small to mid-sized stables, finding and keeping help and what gives them motivation in spite of all of racing’s uncertainties.

HISA dominated the discussion – as it did much of the conference this week at The Hotel Monteleone in New Orleans – and the trio pulled no punches when it came to the controversial entity.

“The whole thing is a façade. It’s been all smoke and mirrors,” said Calhoun, a member of the Louisiana HBPA board who also maintains strings in Kentucky and Texas. “They sold this thing as the safety of the horse. It’s absolutely not about safety of horse. It’s a few people, with self-interest and they have their own personal agenda.

“If it was all about the horse we’d be spending a lot more time on racing surfaces. We could probably cure about 50 to 75 percent of the injuries if we had somebody overseeing surfaces on a daily, weekly basis. Not somebody taking soil samples before the meet and at the end of the meet and calling it good.

“They’ve been taking away certain medications, therapy machines, things that are truly beneficial. They’re having the opposite effect of what they’re saying … safety of the horse and rider. They’re doing absolutely the opposite. Like I said, it’s all a façade.”

Faucheux, also a member of the Louisiana HBPA board and just two back of the leader on the Fair Grounds’ leading trainer’s list that he topped for the 2021-2022 meeting, conditions a stable of about 60 horses and hasn’t left his native state since HISA rules went into effect last summer.

“I haven’t signed up and I won’t sign up. I’ll get out of training if I have to sign up,” Faucheux said. “A stable like mine, 55-, 60-horse stable, I couldn’t afford the cost of having to hire somebody to do the paperwork for me. The added expenses of it all, it wouldn’t work financially for me. It’s a struggle to get by the last couple years. Feed costs have gone up 50 percent, hay, shavings, it doesn’t make financial sense for a trainer in Louisiana year-round to sign up and have to take on all those added fees because right now we’re barely making it as it is.”

Barkley maintains a stable of about 30 horses based at Fair Grounds and Oaklawn Park in the winter and in Kentucky the majority of the year. A member of the Kentucky HBPA board and a third-generation horseman, Barkley said he feels the impact of the regulations already and only sees them as potential obstacles for trainers hoping to grow their stables.

“A lot of my smaller clients they don’t want to pay the added cost of a per-start fee, the extra vet checks, and all the added fees they want to put on us,” Barkley said. “There’s added costs and the time to do all the work. Between me and my main assistant, who is my wife, Shelbi, we do the extra paperwork, keeping track of everything. We already kept track of what every horse got every day but to then have to put it into files, that doubles the workload. That is time taken away from actually working with your horses, which is what you should really be focused on.”

Rees steered the discussion away from HISA at several points but the new laws found a way back, much like many of the prior panels during the week-long conference in the French Quarter.

“What is HISA’s ultimate goal? I’m sure there is one,” Faucheux said. “To me it looks like about half the racetracks to close down and about half the people to get out of it. And I think that’s what will eventually happen if it’s implemented across the country, over the span of several years.”

“These are people sitting in offices and coming up with these rules and regulations that really aren’t for the benefit of the horse, the riders, the owner, the industry as a whole,” Calhoun said. “It’s not good for the industry. … To get this bill, to attach it to a Covid bill, an emergency bill, that’s something that should be stopped with every instance. No emergency bill should ever have anything attached to it. That’s how they got this going. … That’s how Congress works, unfortunately.”

The trainers also agreed on that another major challenge they face – finding and keeping good help. That situation was difficult well before the pandemic and exacerbated since.

“I’ve got a family of like 15 that work for me,” Barkley said, joking that his 2-year-old daughter was back at the barn mixing feed while he attended the panel. “A lot of it’s you get good people that know good people, and hopefully keep pulling them in that way.”

Calhoun called it an “impossible task” he and his colleagues face nationwide.

“Since Covid, there’s now a reduced number of employees that you can find,” Calhoun said. “That’s part of issue. Then you add HISA costs to this and our labor costs are through the roof. It’s the highest bidder and eventually you’re losing significant money to stay in business.”

The trainers still possess great passion for racing – and the horse – despite all the challenges lumped on them from the boardrooms and from lingering economic issues stemming from the pandemic.

“When I realized quite early that I wasn’t going to be the quarterback for the New Orleans Saints I said I want to do this,” Faucheux said. “This is probably second to that. But all jokes aside, I love it. I love being a trainer. I love my horses, the staff and I love the lifestyle. … There’s a lot that goes along with it that can sour you up. Recently, with HISA brought about, and the price increases of everything, it makes it hard to go on and do it the way you want to do it.”

Calhoun acknowledged that winning 20 percent of the time – which very likely might get a trainer consideration for the Hall of Fame over a long career – still meant losing bunches of races along the way. But it’s the winning that makes it worth it, he said.

“That’s what drives me,” Calhoun said. “And the horse is what makes you want to get up every morning and do it.”

Barkley agreed, and echoed sentiments of one of his colleagues with a large stable spread out in multiple states.

“I just love the action. It’s all fun to me,” Barkley said. “I heard Mike Maker say, ‘they’ll run out of stalls before I run out of horses,’ and that’s kind of how I think. Bring them on, we’ll fight the fight as well as we can for as long as we can. … It’s all fun for me.”

“Today’s unanimous ruling clearly states the entity constructed under HISA is an unconstitutional body and should not hold governing power over our industry, a position we have long supported. On behalf of the NHBPA, I can assure you that we will be following this development closely and support the power reverting back into the hands of the State Racing Commissions. I will keep our members updated as we continue exploring the ruling further as more details come to the surface. We are very appreciative of the 5^th Circuit Court of Appeals for the thorough analysis and opinion. We also thank the many industry stakeholders who supported us in our effort to ensure that horsemen are not subject to an unconstitutional law.”

Media contact:

Eric Hamelback,

CEO, National HBPA

859.259.0451

ehamelback@hbpa.org