BALTIMORE — One year ago, Medina Spirit entered the Preakness with a dark cloud over him — the Kentucky Derby champion whose defining victory was in peril because of a medication violation and whose famous trainer, Bob Baffert, was facing suspensions in multiple jurisdictions.
On top of that, he would run in front of a crowd capped at 10,000, with no infield party at the center of Pimlico Race Course, as Maryland began its tentative path back from the worst days of the coronavirus pandemic. Nothing felt normal about an event that is typically one of Baltimore’s defining spring traditions.
The same cannot be said in 2022. There are no drug controversies around the nine horses that will run in Saturday’s Preakness. The crowd will be back, as will the big-ticket musical acts playing on the infield stage.
“It’s certainly like old times,” said trainer Kenny McPeek, who won the 2020 Preakness with Swiss Skydiver at an empty Pimlico.
This return to the familiar belies the unsettled state of an industry that’s still grappling with uneven drug enforcement, scrutiny on fatal racehorse breakdowns and the tarnishing — in the eyes of some — of its most enduring star, the suspended Baffert.
In Maryland, horsemen are waiting for tangible progress on redevelopment plans at Pimlico and Laurel Park as they recover from a year that saw racing and training halted at Laurel several times because of difficulties with a multimillion-dollar resurfacing project. Eight horses suffered fatal fractures in October and November while racing or training there.
“It’s been very rough,” said 86-year-old trainer D. Wayne Lukas, who has witnessed many peaks and valleys in his five decades around the sport. “I can’t think of a real good story all year.”
Despite the gloomy headlines, stakeholders from multiple segments of the industry and activists who’ve been critical of horse racing expressed hope that needed reforms are on the way.
“I think things are headed in a much better direction,” said Marty Irby, executive director of Animal Wellness Action, a nonprofit that has lobbied for racing reforms. “The absence of Bob Baffert at these Triple Crown races, the ban on [anti-bleeding drug] Lasix at Churchill Downs and other tracks, and a number of other things have certainly been tremendous improvements in the industry.”
The Horse Racing Integrity and Safety Act, a federal oversight program that was signed into law in 2020, will take effect July 1, with its national drug-testing protocol to follow at the beginning of next year. Reform-minded racing officials have long said uniform rules and enforcement are essential to improve public perception of the sport, and they see this federal program as the vehicle.
Tom Rooney, president and CEO of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, which lobbies on behalf of the industry, recently spoke with a Hall of Fame trainer who he said told him, “I just want it to be fair.”
“It’s been a tough year to explain to people on the outside that we’re doing everything we can,” said Rooney, a former congressman from Florida. “But with [the federal law] coming online, with people speaking more openly about who we expect ourselves to be … I think that’s the best thing we can do right now, to say it’s a level playing field wherever you go. If we can do that and there are still bad actors out there, and there’s consequences for those bad actors — look, there’s been a lot of consequences for Bob Baffert that we haven’t seen [in a long time.] We’ve seen the problem and we’re fixing it.”
Lisa Lazarus was named CEO of the new Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA), created under the act, in January.
“If you were to ask me: What is the one thing HISA brings that’s more important than anything else? I would say uniformity,” Lazarus said. “I think it’s confusing to the public, and it’s confusing sometimes even to racing participants to recognize that you’ve got different rules in different jurisdictions. I think that’s what’s holding racing back as much as anything, the need for strict, clear rules that are uniform across all states.”
HISA’s ramp-up was bumpy in its own right; negotiations to use the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency as a drug testing and enforcement partner broke down late last year. Earlier this month, HISA’s board of directors announced Drug Free Sport International, which works with the NFL, NBA and other leagues, would step in to create the testing program under a five-year agreement.
The choice received mixed reviews.
“We said USADA was the bedrock and foundation of this legislation, the one thing we all agreed on from Day 1,” Irby said. “So it was just a kick in the gut. … It didn’t sit well with me or really any of the animal advocates, because when we were working on this, I can’t tell you how many times I heard, ‘Be careful working with the horse racing industry.’ And now I’m getting a bunch of ‘I told you so.’”
Irby said HISA is “absolutely better than the current situation and the status quo, but it’s not as good as it could be and would have been with USADA.”
Rooney, meanwhile, praised Lazarus for finding a testing agency that will do the job but “doesn’t break the bank for racing.”
“She figured out a solution,” he said.
Horsemen in Maryland and states around the country have their own concerns regarding the impending federal regulations.
“There’s a very deep-rooted sense of anxiety around HISA right now, for a few reasons,” said Alan Foreman, longtime general counsel for the Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association. “No. 1 is the cost. No. 2, in what ways, if any, will it change the way horsemen are doing business?
“Are we going to be suffocating in regulations to the point that it chases owners out of the business? I think HISA’s going to have some rough patches getting started because it’s such a massive transformation of the way we’ve regulated the sport.”
Regardless of such fears, officials on all sides agreed that uniform oversight is welcome after a year dominated by the controversies around Baffert (a seven-time Preakness winner) and Medina Spirit.
In February, the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission stripped the 2021 Derby champion of his title because he tested positive for the anti-inflammatory drug betamethasone after the race. The commission suspended Baffert for 90 days, on top of a two-year suspension announced by Churchill Downs (home of the Derby) and another recommended by a hearing officer for the New York Racing Association.
When Baffert failed to win an injunction to halt his suspension in Kentucky, he was barred from this year’s Triple Crown series. The story had already taken on a tragic tinge, because Medina Spirit died suddenly in December, with a necropsy offering no conclusive explanation for his demise.
“I think it cast a pall over the industry,” Foreman said.
Though the drug testing aspect of HISA has received the most attention, supporters said the safety component — establishing uniform standards for veterinary oversight, track maintenance and jockey health — is just as important. Foreman noted that the MidAtlantic region is ahead of the game on such regulations and has seen the benefit with fewer fatal breakdowns.
In Maryland, he said the $375 million plan to refurbish Pimlico and Laurel should be another source of hope, though logistical and pandemic-related complexities have delayed the timeline. Site work at Pimlico is expected to begin after next year’s Preakness, with a murkier outlook for Laurel, the day-to-day center of the state’s thoroughbred racing industry.
More immediately, The Stronach Group, which owns the two tracks, must come to a new operating agreement with the state’s horsemen and breeders. The previous 10-year agreement, which is about to expire, brought calm after years of contentious relations between the track operator and the state’s horsemen.
“While I know the horsemen here are happy that they’re racing year-round, the purses are good, we’re doing a lot of good things here, there is the nervous anticipation of what’s coming,” Foreman said. “They need that certainty.”
