Keeping Pace: A Welcome Clapback In Massachusetts
June 10, 2025
Paulick Report
Types : In the News
Last week, I wrote about the failure of the state’s horse racing community to publicly respond to allegations made in a house editorial published by The Boston Globe on May 27 that was critical of racing and the so-called “subsidies” it receives from the state’s legislature. I was astonished that no one in racing wanted to offer the public the other side of the story (and there is another side to the story). After my Keeping Pace column was published, I did hear from some horsemen and I better understand the political dynamic in play here. I still believe they made a mistake in not initially responding to the Globe but I think they’ve begun to make up for it here.
Defending a new scope of licensing investigations
Take the time to read this summary of new USTA regulations from Carson Morris, a lawyer who is guiding the USTA’s new Standardbred Racing Investigative Fund. Morris’ summary is fair and thoughtful and explains the ways in which the USTA is tightening its licensing rules to undertake industry enforcement in ways in which state racing commissions have not. The fact that the USTA is trying to fill the regulatory vacuum in this fashion is perhaps the most persuasive proof yet that harness racing needs to embrace the stringent integrity provisions contained in the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act, the new federal law that has made Thoroughbred racing safer and less hospitable to trainers and veterinarians and owners inclined to cheat the sport.
But I digress. The USTA doesn’t want to promote integrity by embracing stricter doping and medication rules. It wants to more easily punish people who it believes deserve sanctions for conduct unbecoming the industry. “The goal is not just to catch and punish wrongdoers but to reform the cultural norms and expectations in Standardbred racing so that misconduct does not occur in the first place,” Morris writes. “Cultural change requires that the USTA educate its membership on, among other things, the misconduct it is targeting, the types of investigations it is pursuing, how they are undertaken, how the rules are being interpreted and enforced, and what standards of conduct are expected of association members.”