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HISA & HIWU / Zoom & NYRA

Just so family and friends are not pushed to any levels of
concern, I am all right, and I am not being held captive. There is even the chance
that I am mostly sober.

Yes, it really is I who writes in praise of both HISA and
NYRA. Hey, YOLO.

What both have done recently to try and fix significant things
that are wrong with racing should be lauded. And really now, in our divided
society, when was the last time we stood together to laud?

The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority went after a
bad guy this week. At least that is how it painted the portrait of Dr. Scott
Stanley, the disgraced director of the University of Kentucky laboratory with a
long and now bad name and enough tenure to make it a chore for him to be fired.

It is true that we really have heard only one side of this
story that is at best a testament to sloppy, lazy work and at worst a case of
purposeful deceit. HISA told us Tuesday that 91 test samples from racehorses were
fraudulently graded or not graded by the UK lab. Whether these were errors of slipshod
omission or duplicitous aggression remains to be revealed. The fact that federal
criminal prosecution specifically has not been ruled out suggests this smells
more like the latter.

The timing of HISA’s announcement seven months after the UK
lab was decertified, put on double-secret probation and on the doorstep of a
still-open investigation was curious. It could have happened a week or more ago.
It could have waited until the leaves fell.

“We promised you transparency in delivering the results, and
today we’re making good on that promise,” HISA boss Lisa Lazarus said. Ah, the
T word. The bureaucratic equivalent of a politician saying, “You have my pledge.”

We were told there were no fewer than two false positives
and two false negatives confirmed from the dozens of mishandled samples. That
we still have not been told the names of the horses and horsemen involved fogs
up that window of transparency, all the more reason that word should not be
thrown around so loosely.

Nevertheless, it looks and sounds and feels like there was
some good detective work going on here. Whether HISA was the catalyst for
digging up details or merely riding the coattails of university police and the
FBI does not matter. That it pulled back the curtain on this case of a rogue
laboratory was a good thing.

Plenty of questions remain to be answered, but that is
nothing new. The fact that Stanley has not been heard from yet makes this like one
of those presidential debates during primary season where the front-runner does
not show up. At some point soon, we should expect him to surface from wherever
he is holed up, even if he shows up in tow with a high-priced lawyer. It is
only fair that his side be heard.

This case has not absolved HISA of being an expensive,
guilty-until-proven-innocent operation. Too many cases have come and gone that irreparably
damaged horsemen who did not deserve such treatment. For proponents who say government
oversight of racing is better than nothing, I still say no justice is better
than injustice.

Dr. Stanley may yet claim he is no different than those
victimized horsemen. But my spidey sense in this case says HISA done good. I
hope the ensuing chapters of this case prove me right.

About 600 miles away, the New York Racing Association took a
quiet but important step toward making racing stewards more accountable. So
quiet that it went largely unnoticed last month when it showed up on YouTube. By
Friday morning it had 973 views. I finally woke up to it after reading Bob Ehalt’s
story this week at BloodHorse.

A 10-minute video posted Aug. 26 featured NYRA steward
Víctor Escobar explaining decisions that had been made the preceding week.
Using video replays, he took host Laffit Pincay III through the review process
for several races, explaining what he and his colleagues saw in making their decisions
on objections and inquiries.

No, it is not what we ultimately need, which is the live
streaming of stewards hearings as they happen right after races. I have been
banging on that this is something that happens routinely in Australia and Dubai
but remains somehow out of reach for the anachronistic practices of U.S. racing.

NYRA’s presentation of Stewards Review was not trumpeted
with a news release or any fusillade of promotion. It was floated onto YouTube
like it was a pilot for a new TV show. In a sense, it was just that. Sort of
like when ESPN brought back The Sports Reporters for a first episode this month
but has yet to follow it with a second.

What NYRA and HISA have done with the trial balloons of Stewards
Review and the takedown of the University of Kentucky laboratory is show us what
they are capable of doing when they set their minds to a worthwhile goal.

Maybe these are not accomplishments that can happen every
day any more than Shohei Ohtani will hit three home runs, drive in 10 runs,
steal two bases and go 6-for-6 every day.

On the other hand, these praise-worthy examples need not be like
the white board. You know. The boss rolls it in with a bunch of multicolored
markers and a plan to have everyone constantly put their ideas and to-do lists
on it. It works for maybe a week, but after that, it stands there unattended, a
place to hang a hat or coat in the winter. Pretty soon, it is a relic that
still says, “Update Hollywood Park entries.”

Here is hoping HISA and NYRA are closer to being the
National League MVP than a bunch of felt-tipped pens.

Ron Flatter’s column appears Friday mornings at Horse
Racing Nation. Comments below and at RonFlatterRacingPod@gmail.com
are welcomed, encouraged and may be used in the feedback segment of the Ron
Flatter Racing Pod, which also is posted every Friday.