The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority has proposed a new rule that would eliminate the consideration of purses when determining assessments on racetracks and their horsemen and instead base the assessments solely on the number of starts. The draft rule, which would go into effect on Jan. 1, 2026, would equalize the per-start fee at every racetrack in the U.S., a change that would most dramatically impact low-purse and high-purse racetracks. Under the current rule, high-profile racetracks like Saratoga in upstate New York and Keeneland in Lexington, Ky., are assessed much higher fees than tracks that form the bottom tier of purse distribution in the U.S., such as Turf Paradise in Arizona or Belterra Park in Ohio. The change is likely to generate intense discussion among racing interests due to its significant impact on the total amount of money some tracks would owe to fund HISA’s operations, which include the enforcement of HISA’s safety regulations and the operation of a massive drug-testing program launched in the summer of 2023. HISA said that it was in the process of collecting feedback on the proposed change and would accept comments until Sept. 30. HISA would then assess the feedback before deciding whether to submit the rule to the Federal Trade Commission, which has its own public-comment requirements before it can consider whether to amend, approve, or reject a proposed rule. :: Bet the races with a $200 First Deposit Match + FREE All Access PPs! Join DRF Bets. The release of the proposed rule comes in the wake of legal challenges by several horsemen’s groups contesting the constitutionality of the current assessment formula due to its inclusion of purse levels in the calculation. Somewhat ironically, many of the horsemen’s groups that have challenged the formula represent trainers and owners at tracks that pay far less on a per-start basis than tracks in major racing jurisdictions. The argument that regulatory assessments should be based solely on starts has been raised recently by horsemen in Southern California, under the contention that it costs just as much to regulate a race card at a small track as it does a large track. In California, racing constituencies are required to fund the California Horse Racing Board’s budget. A sizable portion of that budget is forwarded to HISA for the state’s assessment. Earlier this year, the CHRB eventually approved an assessment fee that raised the contributions from tracks on the fair circuit and from Los Alamitos, while lowering the assessment on Santa Anita. Del Mar was assessed a slightly higher fee, but a portion of that assessment was based on the regulatory costs associated with the Breeders’ Cup, which will be held at the track this November. HISA also posted new draft regulations on its website on Thursday regarding the operations of receiving barns, the number of bathrooms on the backside, and required disclosures of medications, all of which are designed to reduce the potential for environmental or inadvertent contamination of blood and urine samples. Like the proposed assessment rule, HISA said it would collect public comment on the draft rules until Sept. 30. Even prior to the advent of HISA, horsemen have contended that positives for many controlled and banned substances are the result of contamination. The draft rules posed on Thursday cover three areas frequently cited by horsemen as being ripe for contaminating sources. Under the draft rules, receiving barns will be restricted to horses shipping in to race at a track. Stalls in the barns will be required to be “thoroughly disinfected after each occupancy,” the rules state, and racetracks will be required to install high-resolution security cameras covering all areas of the barn. The rules also prohibit the use of wood as a surface material in all new or “renovated” receiving barns. The draft rules will also require an “adequate number” of bathrooms on the backside and require the bathrooms to be “conveniently located” in the stable area. Under a section of those same rules, covered persons will face penalties if they urinate in a horse’s stall or any other location on the backstretch. However, the rules also state that a failure by a racetrack or covered person to comply with those rules “shall not be considered evidence of ‘contamination.' ” Another draft rule will require all covered persons “whose work duties regularly involve physical contact with a covered horse or regularly requires the covered person’s presence in an environment where a covered horse eats or drinks” to disclose any human medications they are taking that are prohibited substances under HISA’s rules. Most recently, horsemen who have had positives for metformin, a human diabetes drug, and methamphetamine, a drug frequently abused by humans that is also a known performance enhancer in horses, have contended that the positives were due to human contamination.  :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.