Dear Members,

On Tuesday, May 19, the NYSGC conducted a meeting and there were topics of interest to our industry.

As summarized here:

The following rules were adopted with all commissioners in favor:

• ALLOW CLAIMANT TO VOID CLAIM OF LAME HORSE

• PERMIT THOROUGHBRED HORSES WITH DIGITAL TATTOOS TO RACE IN NEW YORK

• JOINT INJECTIONS IN THOROUGHBRED RACING

Please be advised, the new rules will become effective upon publication in the State Register on June 3, 2020.

There was a motion to carry the following proposed rules with all commissioners in favor:

• NSAID ADMINISTRATION IN THOROUGHBRED RACING

• FUROSEMIDE USE AND PRACTICE

Please Note: These proposed rules still need to be adopted. This could happen at the next Commission Meeting or a future Commission Meeting, and we are tracking them with the NYSGC.

To further elaborate on a few of the rules:

ALLOW CLAIMANT TO VOID CLAIM OF LAME HORSE

This rule-making seeks to enhance the safety and welfare of horses and to protect claimants by making the owner more responsible for the condition of a horse that is entered in a claiming race. This is done by allowing a claimant to void a claim of a thoroughbred horse that is discovered to have become lame or experienced epistaxis due to exercise induced pulmonary hemorrhage (“EIPH”) in a claiming race.

The full rule is available HERE.  Please be advised the underlined text is new text added to the rule. Text within [ ] is deleted from the new rule.

JOINT INJECTIONS

This rule-making amends the restricted time period for the intra-articular injection of any substance to a thoroughbred horse to be 14 days, including by amending the restricted time period for corticosteroid joint injections (“CJI”) to 14 days from the prior restriction of seven days before a thoroughbred horse’s next race. This rule-making also amends the requirement that thoroughbred trainers submit a record of every CJI to the Commission within 48 hours of the treatment to require that all substances that are injected into a horse’s joint be similarly reported.

Please be mindful of the effective date of June 3 and the return of live racing at Belmont.

NSAID ADMINISTRATION IN THOROUGHBRED RACING

A proposal to restrict the administration of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID) such that only one clinical dose may be administered during the week before the horse races.

We will provide clarity on the next stage of this proposed rule in the near future.

FUROSEMIDE USE AND PRACTICE

All 2-year-old races at NYRA tracks will be run Lasix-free this year. This proposed rule would allow a horse eligible for furosemide (“Lasix”) administrations to be removed from the furosemide list for the limited purpose of running in a race whose conditions forbid the administration of furosemide on race day.

We will also provide clarity on the next stage of this proposed rule in the near future.

Regards,

Will

P.S. If you are interested, the NYSGC Tweets live updates during Commission Meetings and can be found at:  @NYSGamingComm