A U.S. District Court judge in Texas has indicated that he expects to rule by the end of Friday on a filing from the National Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association seeking an injunction that would prevent the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority from enforcing its new medication rules, according to legal filings. Judge James Wesley Hendrix, who last year dismissed a lawsuit from the National HBPA seeking a decision invalidating HISA’s enabling legislation, ordered HISA to reply to the request by noon yesterday, and he further ordered the National HBPA to reply to that response by noon today. The tight schedule indicates that Hendrix will issue a decision on the emergency preliminary injunction by the close of business on Friday. The National HBPA, 12 of its affiliates, and the state of Texas filed the request for preliminary injunction on Monday, the same day that the Federal Trade Commission announced its approval of rules governing HISA’s Anti-Doping and Medication Control program. HISA began enforcing the new rules the same day. In its request, the National HBPA alleged that HISA violated a provision of the Administrative Procedures Act that “normally” requires 30 days of lead time prior to the implementation of new rules. The plaintiffs asked Judge Hendrix to expedite the hearing because of the scheduling of a number of major races this weekend. :: Bet the races on DRF Bets! Sign up with code WINNING to get a $250 Deposit Match, $10 Free Bet, and FREE DRF Formulator.  HISA’s attorneys said in their response to the request that the judge is under no obligation to approve the injunction because the plaintiffs have no chance of succeeding on the merits of their case, citing an amendment that was approved by Congress late last year to HISA’s enabling legislation. The attorneys claimed that the amendment addressed concerns raised by the U.S. Fifth Circuit last year, which ruled that HISA’s enabling legislation was “facially unconstitutional.” The attorneys also cited a decision by the U.S. Sixth Circuit earlier this year that upheld the constitutionality of the enabling legislation, which was passed late in 2020. The filing also said that the plaintiffs “have demonstrated no irreparable harm,” and it claimed that “any injunction would greatly injure the public interest by upending a successful regulatory regime.” The National HBPA countered in its own reply filed on Thursday that the 2022 amendment had not addressed the issues raised by the Fifth Circuit, and that the FTC’s decision to approve the ADMC rules on Monday amounted to “rubber-stamping” HISA’s rules. The 2022 amendment specifically gave the FTC the power to “abrogate, add to, and modify the rules” of HISA, but the National HBPA said that the FTC used none of those powers when reviewing and approving the ADMC rules. “The defendants [HISA and the FTC] ask this court to look past the program as currently operating and theorize that some FTC someday might attempt to modify a rule written by the authority, while in the meantime the horsemen and the rest of their industry are to be governed by the rule the Authority pushes through . . . without any federal power to prevent abuses in the meantime,” the response from the National HBPA said. The ADMC is the second prong of HISA’s regulatory jurisdiction, encompassing drug sampling, testing, investigations, and adjudication of violations. A set of HISA regulations dealing with racetrack safety was implemented last year on July 1.  :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.