ARCI conference: Racing prosecutions lead to cultural change

April 14, 2026
Daily Racing Form

Types : In the News

Officials involved in racing investigations for all three major horse racing breeds stressed on Thursday morning during panels at the Association of Racing Commissioners International conference that the most important benefit of successful prosecutions is driving “cultural change” in the sport.

While the majority of the panelists were involved in Quarter Horse and Standardbred racing, representatives of all three breeds said that expanded investigative efforts have led to significant changes on backstretches where trainers are now more reluctant to act outside of the rulebook and more willing to provide information to investigators on potential rule violators.

Carson Morris, a partner in a law firm that has been under contract with the United States Trotting Association to conduct investigations on rule violators since 2020, said that the initial efforts to go after rule violators started with “low-hanging fruit,” targeting people “who no one wanted in the sport, but who kept in it because tolerating these types of people had almost become routine.”

Now, after several adjudications that resulted in participants losing their membership in the USTA, Morris said that opinions of the investigative unit have started to brighten.

“The kind of cultural change we were looking for is beginning to happen,” Morris said. “People, I hope, are starting to learn that it’s not worth it to associate with people who are not in good standing.”