The presentation was by Dr. Mary Scollay and Ben Mosier of the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit (HIWU). Scollay is HIWU’s Chief of Science, and Mosier is its executive director. The Unit was set up by Drug Free Sport International to administer the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority’s anti-doping and medication control program.

If all goes according to plan – and Scollay and Mosier both indicated that they expect it to – HIWU will take over medication control duties for most of the racing nation March 27. That’s when they expect the Federal Trade Commission, under whose auspices HIWU operates, to sign off on the regulations that have been proposed for the program.

Of course, that date’s not yet certain. The FTC already has delayed implementation of the program once, citing ongoing legal uncertainty; those uncertainties remain, and HISA is currently considered unconstitutional in several states, the result of a ruling by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

Still, if Scollay and Mosier are right, then come March 27, it will be a brave new world for the racing industry.

Of course, the biggest change will be in uniformity. Assuming the constitutional questions are resolved in HISA’s favor, HIWU’s rules will apply nationwide.

“This program is going to smooth out the differences between states,” Scollay told the audience. “You can have confidence that a horse coming in from out-of-state has been subject to the same rules as horses in your state.”

Another change will involve furosemide, the diuretic commonly known as Lasix and used on raceday to prevent exercise-induced pulmonary hemorrhage (EIPH), or bleeding, in horses. Once HISA’s rules kick in, Lasix will no longer be permitted to be used on raceday for two-year-olds or in stakes races. Currently, state rules are a mixed bag, with, say, a two-year-old able to race on Lasix in Delaware but not in Maryland.

During the following three years, the legislation that created HISA directs that the organization study Lasix and its effect on horses, but it also all but guarantees that at the conclusion of that period, the drug’s use will be prohibited nationwide. The only way that raceday Lasix will not be banned is if the HISA board unanimously votes to permit it – an extraordinarily unlikely scenario.

Beyond Lasix, all other raceday medications will be prohibited. The Racing Medication and Testing Consortium is working on creating withdrawal guidance to aid trainers but is in a race against the clock.

“That project is well underway, and we anticipate it will be ready” for the launch of HIWU’s efforts, said Alan Foreman, an attorney who, among a variety of industry roles, is co-vice chair of the board of directors for the RMTC.

But, he added, “We are concerned about what may happen on March 27.”

In Maryland, for example, rules or even laboratory changes have occasionally led to unusual spikes in positives, as an industry norm suddenly is found to produce overages.

Another difference will be in the breadth of the testing program. Horses racing, horses working, and even those out-of-competition will be subject to testing. That’s a broader spectrum of test activity than many states currently conduct.

“We’re kind of in a range of around 150,000 samples is what the plan is for year one,” Mosier said in an interview following the session. That would entail, he said, testing approximately two horses per race, along with additional out-of-competition testing and testing of morning workers.

“We’re taking a really hard look at specifically out-of-competition testing,” he added. “A lot of states have told us that they do very little or none.”

For racers, of course, an important focus is preventing horses from gaining an unfair advantage, so testing will examine a wide array of medications. For workers and out-of-competition horses, the focus of testing will be squarely on equine health and safety; those tests will focus on ensuring horses not carry prohibited substances that could, for example, mask pain.

Of course, there is neither the funding nor the wherewithal to test every horse that works or every runner in every race. Mosier said that in addition to random testing, HIWU will gather and use intelligence to drive testing. That could include, he said, data such as form reversals, unusually high win percentages, or tips.

“A lot of it’s going to be driven by intelligence information that we’ve gathered from a nationwide level,” he explained. “We’re partnering with racing Commissions in various capacities to ensure that the information they’re receiving on a daily basis with their own investigators feeds up through us and continues to feed what we’re trying to do from an investigative standpoint. We’ll have an anonymous whistleblower platform that will be open right after we launch, so we can get that kind of intelligence that at a competition point.”

The goals, Mosier and Scollay both said, are to promote greater uniformity and root out those who do cheat without penalizing those who simply make mistakes.

It’s a big challenge, of course, with many potential pitfalls.

“Our goal is to punish intentional cheaters and not punish those that make mistakes,” Mosier said. “I think it’s so important to educate and continue to educate, and to understand education doesn’t stop on the 27^th.”

Note: An earlier version of this story indicated mentioned “HIWU’s rules.” In fact, they are HISA’s rules, which are enforced by HIWU. We regret the error.