Betting on Change: Horseracing long plagued with scandals and equine fatalities
The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act takes effect in July. It's designed to improve the wellbeing of racehorses with a robust drug-testing program and a focus on equine fatalities at the tracks. Penny Chenery, the owner of Secretariat, was calling for an end to performance-altering drugs in the sport in 1982. Staci Hancock, who owns Stone Farm in Paris, Kentucky, has tried to follow in Chenry's footsteps.
InvestigTV analyzed records from racing regulators in 29 of the 38 states with live racing. The new law will make one set of rules for drug testing and penalties that applies in all states. It will also oversee racetrack safety in an attempt to prevent equine fatalities. Races themselves will still be regulated by the states, however.
The new law covers some racehorses, but not all. The U.S. Trotting Association has opposed the law as a Constitutional overreach. Steve Stewart, who breeds standardbred horses, is lobbying the trotters to change their position. In recent years, horseracing has been besieged by scandals. There was a spike in fatalities among thoroughbreds at the Santa Anita track in California in 2017. A massive doping scheme involving both thorough and harness racing was uncovered in 2020. In December, a horse collapsed and died after training in the California.
Trainer Adrian Huitron was sanctioned for a second drug-related violation in less than 10 days. He's been sanctioned at least a dozen times for drug violations since then. There were 4,477 drug sanctions issued in 29 of the 38 states with live racing. States fined violators on average of $1,700 and/or suspended them for an average 64 days, state records show. The most commonly detected drugs that led to sanctions were: clenbuteral, albutral and bronchodilators. The association says those drugs have little or no therapeutic benefit to horses and have a high potential to affect performance.
Medina Spirit lost his Kentucky Derby crown last year after testing positive for betamethasone. The anti-inflammatory drug phenylbutazone is banned in horseracing in every country except the U.S., which imposes dosing limits. Critics say the use of medication in horses on race day masks their injuries or illnesses. 27 people in the horsing industry were indicted on conspiracy charges related to performance-enhancing drugs. The law called for the USADA to take over drug testing. Some states do not make public the names of trainers punished for violating medication rules.
Karl Broberg was banned from entering races at Churchill Downs after one of his horses was injured. Brober's horses died in the previous four years. Todd Pletcher has lost 22 horses in five years and has been suspended once in New York after his horse tested positive for a banned drug. Since 2017, at least 4,064 racehorses have died across the U.S. Mrs. Hancock said that number is not acceptable. She also said horse racing is dangerous sport. The deaths are animal abuse in her book. Baffert has run more than 13,000 races.
Horse racing is plagued with scandals and equine fatalities. 55 of the 4,064 horse fatalities reviewed by InvestigateTV had failed drug tests at some point in their racing careers. The new law will be better for everybody, says standardbred breeder Steve Stewart. He repurchased his first Kentucky Derby winner, Gato Del Sol, from a breeding operation in Germany. He and his wife Cindy are passionate about the welfare of their horses. They have 97 foals born on their farm this year. It is their passion that they reputedly bought their first winner from Germany, which was sold for slaughter.
