Trainer: Vet’s List Rule Could ‘Destroy’ Fair Grounds

New restrictions put on racehorses shipped out of Louisiana to tracks operating under Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority rules could decimate the quality of racing during the Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots‘ winter meet and perhaps endanger the New Orleans track’s position as a key feeder on the Road to the Kentucky Derby, according to horsemen and track executives.

HISA announced June 5 a new policy, effective immediately, that all horses shipped from Louisiana to tracks in its jurisdiction would be placed on the veterinarian’s list as “medically compromised and unfit to race.”

The shipping restriction was in response to the Louisiana Racing Commission making withdrawal times and testing limits less restrictive on multiple medications. Initially, the commission took action to significantly ease restrictions on clenbuterol and methylprednisolone acetate (also known by its trade name Depo-Medrol), but severe pushback regarding these often abused medications caused commissioners to restore the withdrawal times on these drugs during an emergency meeting June 4. The commission left in place, however, changes to the testing thresholds for several medications that are more lenient than what is endorsed by the Association of Racing Commissioners International.

“Some of the changes contemplated in the emergency rule contradict the weight of scientific evidence and long-established industry standards for medication controls,” stated HISA in its announcement of the Louisiana shipping rule.

Trainer Keith Desormeaux, a Louisiana native and Fair Grounds stalwart, said the new shipping rule will destroy the Fair Grounds’ winter meet because none of the major racing stables can afford to send horses there.

“The rule effectively bans horses from going to Louisiana,” Desormeaux said.

Once a horse is on the veterinarian’s list, it cannot race until it satisfactorily has performed a workout in front of a regulatory veterinarian, been jogged afterward to show it is sound, and gotten clean blood test results. Desormeaux said just getting everything scheduled can take a couple of weeks and then up to a month can pass before the monitored work and blood test are done—provided everything goes smoothly.  

“State vets are under a lot of pressure to scrutinize these horses and sometimes a sound horse is returned to the vet’s list and you have to start all over again,” he said. “No trainer is going to send a horse to Louisiana and put their horse and their owner in that situation. 

“This decision effectively ends quality racing at the Fair Grounds. What you will have are the current horses stabled at the Fair Grounds, which are not Derby-caliber horses.”

Desormeaux said he is concerned Churchill Downs Inc., which owns Fair Grounds, will greatly reduce purses and eliminate Kentucky Derby (G1) prep races.

“How much does that affect the investment by Louisiana owners in Louisiana if their horses can’t race there?” Desormeaux said. “They will destroy the racing economy in New Orleans.”

Veterinarian’s list requirements for Louisiana shippers could add to the workload of regulatory veterinarians, who are already performing regular checks in the interests of equine safety.

Desormeaux is foremost upset with the LRC for picking this fight by changing its medication rules through emergency procedures. But he also feels HISA has gone too far.

“As with the ignorant, too-quick-to-move decision by the Louisiana Racing Commission that obviously was wrong and walked back quickly, HISA has done the same thing. They have made an over-reaching decision that affects thousands of horses’ lives and horsemen’s lives,” he said. “I have to wonder if this is some kind of vindication for the lawsuit.”

Lisa Lazarus, HISA’s CEO, said the new shipping rule has nothing to do with the legal challenge regarding HISA’s constitutional standing, which is awaiting a decision in the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, and everything to do with the state commission gambling with the welfare of Louisiana racehorses.

“The federal lawsuit was filed over three years ago. This rule is a response to the detrimental effect on horse welfare caused by the LRC’s emergency rule recently passed, which has been roundly criticized by the horse racing community and even the Louisiana state legislature,” she said. 

While Desormeaux believes the pre-race examinations in place now are more than adequate to protect horses without forcing them onto a veterinarian’s list, Lazarus disagrees.

“Our veterinary team disagrees, as the Louisiana rules depart meaningfully from ARCI rules and are not consistent with the rules of Thoroughbred racing anywhere in the world. It believes that these rules place Louisiana horses in a medically compromised position,” she said.

For the veterinarian’s list requirement to be lifted, Lazarus said the Louisiana commission would need to restore all thresholds to the ARCI standards they were before the emergency rule was passed.

The commission has called its second emergency meeting in a week, to be held June 7 at 2 p.m. CT.

Executives with CDI also seem focused on seeing Louisiana commissioners restore the status quo.

“While I understand this is a walk-back on two of these problematic medications, Churchill Downs wants to be on the record to state this entire emergency rulemaking process that put us in this position is probably not the right way to go,” said Oz Shariff, counsel for CDI, during the Louisiana commission’s June 4 emergency hearing. “I think the best way and the best approach for the commission is to reexamine this process through normal rulemaking so there is adequate time for public input, comment, review—all the industry stakeholders, which many are on this call—deserve to weigh in on this very important issue, particularly as Louisiana starts to deviate from well-recognized, and well-understood national standards. We are appreciative of the baby steps on these two medications but there is a much broader issue at play here that we want to be on the record as being opposed to.”

During the June 4 meeting Dr. Will Farmer, CDI equine medical director, attempted to address some issues with the other therapeutic medication threshold changes but was told by LRC executive director Steve Landry to limit his comments to clenbuterol and Depo-Medrol.

“What we sought to express in that meeting is that CDI views the LRC’s actions in passing the remaining emergency rules as a credible risk to the reputation, safety, and integrity of Louisiana racing that will result in damages to the economics of the Louisiana racing ecosystem. Indeed with the announcement made Wednesday by the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority…our initial concerns are no longer hypothetical,” wrote CDI CEO Bill Carstanjen in a June 6 letter to Landry.

Carstanjen wrote that with the shipping restriction in place he expects the Fair Grounds meet to be shorter and that its Kentucky Derby prep races may not be run at all.

“It is our belief that the substantial impediment of automatic placement of horses on the vet’s list will cause many owners and trainers to elect not to send horses into Louisiana for the meet at Fair Grounds Race Course. Our goal at Fair Grounds is to showcase Louisiana racing on a national stage by delivering a racing product similar in quality to that which is offered in Kentucky, Arkansas, and New York,” he wrote. “Under current circumstances, we are unlikely to have sufficient horses to conduct the full number of race dates for our traditional meet and will be forced to run fewer days. Under this uncertainty, there is a strong likelihood that we will not hold the Risen Star, Lecomte, or the Louisiana Derby at Fair Grounds, to name but a few key races.”

Carstanjen added that CDI would be reviewing the provisions in state law that address unforeseeable circumstances that might prevent a racing entity from being able to fulfill its contractual obligations.

Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen, who owns multiple leading trainer titles at Fair Grounds and is the leading North American trainer by wins, sees blame on both sides of the shipping restriction.

“I believe that (Louisiana) did it because they don’t want outsiders to come in and race against them. And then I think with what HISA has done has given them exactly what they wanted,” he said. “One bully met another bully. The participants who have nothing to do with those dumb decisions are the ones who serve (the penalty).”

Winter stabling at Fair Grounds has typically been a key component of Asmussen’s operation. He believes training and racing horses there on a safe surface leaves them well-prepared for heading north in the spring.

“We’re trying to put them in the best circumstances possible, and if HISA thinks that eliminating horses legging up on the Fair Grounds surface so that they can go to the alternatives of that, it shows how much they are missing the point on horse safety,” he said.

Asmussen said there are other more effective options than forcing horses onto the veterinarian’s list.

“We’re required to have a negative Coggins on every horse. How about to race anywhere you’re required to have a negative hair follicle? Who wouldn’t pay for that?” he said, referencing a test to identify any previous medication use. “Why avoid the obvious—why don’t we do all this testing before they run? How about a negative hair follicle on every horse before they’re allowed on the grounds of any racetrack.

“But instead they want to play ‘gotcha.'”

Desormeaux said the impact on Fair Grounds is the tip of an iceberg that could do substantial damage to Louisiana’s racing and breeding industries. He also cited problems that will surface with trainers qualifying for worker’s comp through the Louisiana Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association and damage to the market value of Louisiana-breds if they are restricted from racing in high-profiles stakes out of state.

“I’ve only just started to think about all the issues,” he said. “I can tell you I’m scheduled to go to OBS next week to buy a couple of horses for a couple of guys in New Orleans. I’m waiting for them to call me and say, ‘I don’t want these horses if I can’t run them in Louisiana.'”

Even though stall applications for Fair Grounds’ next meet are not due until Nov. 1, Desormeaux said he has to start working out his options for the winter now.

“I’m thinking I need to sell my house in Louisiana and send my horse to Santa Anita for the winter,” he said. “The trainers are not going (to Fair Grounds) under these rules. It is a no-brainer, and Louisiana started this all. They opened the door and allowed HISA to punish them. HISA can destroy Louisiana with their power, and they will.”

Dallas Stewart, who regularly races in stakes throughout the country off of races at Fair Grounds, said he is hoping for a quick resolution.

“Hopefully cooler heads will prevail, and they’ll sit down and work this out,” he said.

—Byron King and Frank Angst contributed to this story.