The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario has provided an update on the AGCO industry working groups that were established this past spring.

Two of the AGCO’s industry working groups* held their first meetings in May. Thoughtful, engaged and energetic, both groups brought significant insights to the table during the sessions.

An AGCO working group pictured during a meeting (Image courtesy AGCO)

AGCO staff presented to both groups, an overview of the Education Training and Awareness (ETA) strategy, which focuses on providing the industry with education and training opportunities to ensure compliance is met, and explained how the Order of Monetary Penalty Fund is being used to support these initiatives. They also explained how the AGCO is planning to move the horse racing industry towards a more flexible form of regulation, using a standards-based rules approach similar to its other lines of business.

OFFICIATING WORKING GROUP

The objective of this group is to provide advice to the AGCO regarding: enhancing transparency of officiating through improved communication between AGCO Race Officials, racing participants and the betting public; enhancing consistency as it relates to infraction reviews, where possible and necessary, for in-race violations; the AGCO’s ongoing consistency and transparency-enhancing projects such as the repurposing of the Central Adjudication Room (CAR), officiating recruitment and training, Drone and further Video Review pilots, and the Race Report and Twitter pilot initiative.

The working group met in May and June and plans to meet twice more in July and August.

EQUINE DRUG PROGRAM WORKING GROUP

Mandated to protect the betting public, equine testing by the CPMA increases confidence that horses are not racing under the influence of performance-altering drugs. In keeping with this objective, the working group will be discussing the 90-day suspension of the horse rule, the appointed decision-maker in the positive test process, education, training, and awareness initiatives pertaining to equine drug use, ways in which positive tests and cases of potential contamination are dealt with and, suspensions and monetary penalties. Their role is to see if improvements could be made to existing regulatory practices to ensure that horses are not being entered into races with masked injuries, that there is a level playing field for all participants and that positive tests are managed in a fair, modern, and meaningful manner.

The working group met in May and June and plans to meet two to three more times over the next few months.

(* - A list of Working Group members may be found in Information Bulletin No. 42 - AGCO-Stakeholder Working Groups Membership List, available on the AGCO website at agco.ca.)

WHAT’S NEXT?

• Both Working Groups will continue to meet over the summer. The Health and Safety Working Group is expected to start meetings in late summer, with membership being announced prior to the first meeting.

• Given the substantial agenda at present for both the AGCO and the industry, the establishment of the Rules Review Advisory Committee and call for members has been tabled until spring/summer 2018.

(AGCO)