Page 23 - July 2016

Rather than solely penalizing the owner and/or trainer, the new rule’s strength lies in its focus on the horse.
. . . everyone needs to remember that it is the horse that suffers due to unsuccessful drug policies.
stewards, the trainer could then file an appeal. The entire process was lengthy and often delayed the institution of penalties by months or even years.
“We’ve got cases out there right now on a Class 1 [violation] that have been in appeals for four to five years while the horse that was involved in that continued to run. And that’s not right,” Willis said.
Trainers can still file appeals under the new rule, but the horse still will be restricted from competing for at least 60 days, no matter if an appeal has been filed or not. Bourguet brought up the additional problem of “program train- ers” facilitated by the old rules. When a trainer was reprimanded under the previous penalty system, another person would simply step in as the trainer of record in the program.
“It was creating another problem for us, which was program trainers,” Bourguet said. “Even though the trainers were being penal- ized, someone else would come in and train those horses. So, the horses were still running and they were being abused.”
Program trainers also threaten the integrity of racing as it relates to the betting public,
and protecting the betting public is one of the things the State of New Mexico has charged the NMRC with doing. The NMRC exists to “provide regulation in an equitable manner to New Mexico’s pari-mutuel horseracing industry to protect the interest of wagering patrons and the State of New Mexico in a manner which promotes a climate of economic prosperity for horsemen, horse owners and racetrack manage- ment.” The new rule, said Trejo, does just that.
“We feel that this is a maneuver that not only protects the horse, but also protects the wagering public by keeping these horses that have these illegal substances in their system from participating. A handicapper would be
Ray Willis
handicapping what he sees on paper, [but] he doesn’t know what’s in that horse,” Trejo said. “The stewards are at the racetrack to enforce the rules of racing and to provide an equal opportunity for people to race their horses, and they are the perfect people to enforce this rule.”
“Those that wager on horse racing must be confident that the form of the horse is based on its true athletic ability and not based on the use of performance-enhancing substances,” Waterman continued. “The placement of the horse on the stewards list will remove the horse from the racing population for a period of time necessary to ensure the effect of the drug is no longer present by the time the horse is allowed to race again, thereby protecting the betting public and other participants in the race.”
“We felt that we needed to protect the horse,” Willis said. “We don’t know how long some of those drugs stay in a horse’s system. Scot Waterman tells us that there are some steroids that will stay in the horse’s system as long as 50-60 days. That not only could create a problem for the jockey riding that horse and create a problem for the horse, but also the other trainers that have to compete against that horse and the betting public that doesn’t have knowledge of whether that horse had drugs in it or not. So, we felt we had to protect every- body involved and the horse will take a 60-day vacation. We had very good input on it from our medication committee, which is made up of owners, trainers, horsemen, veterinarian, just people across the board, and our rule commit- tee felt that it was something that needed to be done also. Our medication committee passed it, the rule committee passed it, we put it into an emergency situation, and the plans are to vote on it for a permanent part of our rules.
Under NMRC rules, the procedures to institute a permanent rule change had to start
Beverly Bourguet
within 30 days of the enactment of the emer- gency rule, and Willis said procedures have already started to do so. Trejo proudly related that the decision to enact the emergency rule change was a unanimous one.
“In the rules committee, which is made up of racetrack management, the breeders and the horsemen’s associations, and the jockeys’ guild, there was a united front in moving forward with this rule,” Trejo said. “People were very happy and pleased to push forward to implement this rule, and you don’t get that very often.”
Bourguet believes the timing was right for industry representatives to come together to protect the horse and the New Mexico racing industry.
“If this new rule would have been brought to light and mentioned years ago, to basically set the horse down for 60 days, this would
not have flown with the owners, the trainers, the horsemen’s associations, all the entities,” Bourguet said. “We were grateful that we had unanimous support from the commissioners and the entire industry in New Mexico. I think everybody really felt at this time that this is the best way to stop this.
“I feel confident that the other commis- sioners will go along with my thoughts on it, and we’ll enact it as a rule under the normal procedures. We felt that we had to do some- thing in the emergency sector to get it into effect because we had gotten bad tests on the out-of-competition testing and use of those drugs needs to be stopped. We felt that this was the best way to do it at this time -- get it into effect. We have a lot of good horses and good races coming up in New Mexico, and feel this is something that was needed.”
The permanent rule change is scheduled to be voted on at the next NMRC meeting on Thursday, July 21, 2016, at 10:30 a.m. at Ruidoso Downs.
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