Page 27 - December 2008 The Game

uCanada’s Thoroughbred Racing Newspaper The Game, December 2008 27
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HBPAOntario
www.hbpa.on.ca
HBPA Ontario Administration Office:: 135 Queen’s Plate Drive, Suite 370 Toronto, Ontario, M9W 6V1 • 416-747-5252
Every Effort For Fort Erie
HBPA President Sue Leslie
We respectfully have the following requests of the Ontario Racing Commission (ORC); 1. That you use the arm of the ORC to make sure the
Request for Rule Changes
The HBPA has submitted to the Ontario Racing Commission a request that the following rule changes be implemented for the 2009 racing season:
1. Absolute Responsibility
We object to the new rule implemented in January of 2008 on Trainer responsibility. The new thoroughbred rule 26.01.03 considers positive offenses as absolute liability offenses.
We strongly urge the Commission to revert back to strict liability offenses. Why is it so important to pin blame? Under the strict liability rule, if a trainer was able to demonstrate that they took all reasonable care of the horse, then the nding would serve justice. Currently, a trainer can do everything in their power to protect a horse, yet could be found guilty for an error made by someone else. This does not make any sense in our environment.
2. Owners Responsibility
We object to the new rule implemented in January 2008 on Owner Responsibility. The new thoroughbred rule, which mirrors the new standardbred rule, penalizes a horse who has tested positive by making them ineligible to race for a period of 90 days from the date of the identi cation of the positive.
Notwithstanding our concern that now an Owner is being penalized for an alleged positive, you are now on a rst offense taking the horse out
of racing. Surely this cannot serve any bene t to the industry on a rst offense violation. We could entertain some type of tiered penalty for repeat offenders. The class of drug should play a part in the penalty.
3. Horse Health Passport
We object to the new rule implemented in January 2008 with regard to
the Horse Health Passport. This new rule requires that when a change of ownership occurs, the former owner must make the medical history of
that horse available upon request to the new owner within 72 hours of the request. Although the rule is initially targeted to provide the medical history with regard to vaccinations and dewormings, the language of the rule clearly implies that all medical records must be provided. We do not accept the concept of disclosing such information for many reasons.
4. Mandated Safety Reins
The de nition provided under Chapter 2 with regard to safety reins is
The HBPA would like to reassure all horsemen that we are doing everything we can to maintain racing at Fort Erie Race Track in the future.
Province understands this is it, the track is closing if financial help for both the track and the horsemen isn’t imminent. 2. That you secure the trust of horsemen dollars which are held in trust by Nordic, by way of transfer in trust to the ORC until this gets settled.
We have had countless meetings, and phone calls as well as writing numerous letters to the Province in an effort to push a solution forward for a positive outcome.
That you support out position with the Province that the slot machine operation must shut down effective December 31, 2008. Again the purpose of the slot at racetrack program was to enhance live racing. If there is no live racing, the slots must cease to operate. It could be argued differently if this was a short term or temporary situation, but as you can see from Nordic’s application, that in all probability this is permanent.
The Province has been slow to come to the table and now with the current worldwide economic crisis, it is even more dif cult to push them forward on our issue.
That you put pressure on all parties involved, including the Province, to bring this two year long uncertainty to some resolution so people can move on with their lives.
Our most recent attempt to gain results was in a letter dated November 5 which was sent to the Ontario Racing Commission’s Executive Director and CEO, John Blakney. The following are our requests to the Commission:
The HBPA will continue to work tirelessly until we reach a resolution on the future of racing at Fort Erie Race Track.
not clear to our membership. The use of the term “designed to prevent failure” does not give us a standard that would be required under this rule. Furthermore, this whole issue of mandating a speci c safety rein south of the border is now being re-evaluated in several other jurisdictions.
5. Unlicensed Vets
The new rule implemented in January 2008 (29.13) requiring the use of a licensed commission veterinarian to treat racehorses is not practical when a horse is not stabled at the racetrack. There are several farms located in areas whereby there are no ORC licensed veterinarians to treat a horse.
6. Stable Use - Barn Medication
The current requirement of “multiple day to day therapeutic barn medication” in which each horse has their own designated medication container is not practical for distribution and nancial perspective. For example, therapeutic medications such as bute, must be purchased for every horse in the barn who will use this medication. If a trainer has 45 horses, and 30 horses will be treated with bute at some time, then the trainer must have 30 different containers of bute. A horse may only need to use 25%
of the container of bute during the course of the medication’s validity date. In such a case, the remaining 75% of the container is wasted. If a trainer was allowed to have “stable-use barn medication”, this problem would be eliminated since horses in the barn could share the medication. Every time a horse is treated with medication, it is recorded so therefore there is no loss in the tracking of records. It only makes sense that a less congested medicine area is more practical, easier to supervise, and more cost effective.
We do however agree that we must designate the therapeutic medications which would be allowed to be stored in this manner.
7. Autopsies Transportation
We are requesting that rules 15.32.01, 15.32.02 and 15.32.05 would delete the section of the rules which state “at the trainer’s or owner’s expense” to the “expense of the commission”.
8. Scratches after entries are made
We would like to submit the following wording for a new rule. “Scratches will be permitted without penalty when conditions for racing are altered after entries have been made.”
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