(Copied and edited by Van Hassel Conditioners)
By July 1, 2022 all licensed racetrack personnel are being required to register with HISA.
Owners and trainers also have to register our horses with the “Authority” (as they refer to themselves in their rules).
Once we register ourselves, with our physical address being one of the requirements, we are authorizing the ‘Authority’ free access ( yes, “free access” are the EXACT words used in the rules) to our homes/farms if we ever have a “Covered Horse” on layup at home. No, I am not exaggerating. It is specifically spelled out in their Rule 8400 Investigatory Powers section a) subsection 1). This rule also allows them to seize ” medication, drugs, paraphernalia, or substance in violation or suspected violation of the ‘Authority,” along with all your books and files. In every state it’s against the rules for any person not a vet to have injectables, needles, and syringes on the track, but under this rule, if you’re in a rural area (which most farms, by definition, ARE) and have such perfectly legal medications on your property to treat your horses in an emergency when a vet may be hours away from you, you would be in violation of the “Authority’s” rules and subject to seizure, fines, and suspension of racing privileges.
Under the “Authority ‘s” revised rules (not yet submitted to the FTC) weekends and holidays are no longer “working days” and won’t be considered “counted” days. So, if you run suffer a foul oand receive a 5 day suspension starting Tuesday, you cannot return to work on Sunday, because it’s not a “working day,” and by waiting until Monday, will have served 6 days.
That the “Authority” does not consider weekends “working days,” when they are often the busiest days in racing, is a glaring example of how uninterested, uneducated, and ignorant of the industry they are supposed to be taking charge of the “Authority” folks are.
Lastly, there are currently 2 lawsuits against HISA pending in Federal courts, 1 awaiting hearing in KY filed by several states and the HBPA, et al lawsuit awaiting hearing in the 5th circuit court of appeals.
It has been strongly suspected from the outset that PETA has folks in the inner workings of the HISA group. If HISA as it stands fails to pass muster in federal court, but we’ve all already signed up, these PETA folks will have all our home/farm addresses at their disposal. Personally, I am Not comfortable with folks whose slogan is “Better Dead Than Bred” having MY address where my mares and foals grow and thrive.
It might be time to rally together and just say “No” until the courts have spoken. There is strength in numbers, it may be time to wield that strength.