A special committee of racing regulatory attorneys has been formed by Racing Commissioners International, the trade association of the government regulators of racing and wagering in North America, Mexico, and parts of
the Caribbean.
RCI Chairman Dan Hartman of Colorado announced the appointment of Susan Speckert of Lexington, KY as the Committee’s first Chair. Speckert, a former Assistant Commonweath of Kentucky Attorney and graduate of Loyola University School of Law, is currently General Council to the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission.
“This committee will provide a forum where racing regulatory legal issues can be discussed among the various attorneys who support the work of the commissions,” Hartman said. “In the coming months we anticipate this committee will assist in creating a library of racing regulatory case decisions which would be available to commission legal staff.”
RCI President Ed Martin noted that one of the first tasks the committee will tackle will be to review efforts RCI is currently engaged in with the Racing Medication and Testing Consortium (RMTC) to develop a uniform way in which treatment overages and drug violations are issued and ultimately communicated to the public.
“There is a tremendous amount of misunderstanding that exists when a medication rule infraction is issued. Many accidental treatment overages are perceived by the public as deliberate attempts to cheat. It’s time we look at how these matters are handled to see if we can help the fans better understand that there is a major difference between a deliberate attempt to drug a horse for fraudulent gain and an accidental treatment overage of a substance prescribed by a veterinarian for no other reason than to protect a horses health."
RCI Chair Hartman indicated that it was his hope that the RCI Racing Regulatory Attorney’s Committee would work to forge a relationship with a law school interested in jointly sponsoring a racing regulatory attorney’s conference where racing and wagering issues would be the focus and attendees could earn continuing education credits.
The creation of this committee is consistent with RCI’s efforts in recent years to involve and organize cooperative efforts of professional racing commission staff. Currently the Pari-mutuel Auditors and Regulatory Veterinarians meet as formal committees and racing investigators interact through the Organization of Racing Investigators (ORI) with RCI.
For more information on Association of Racing Commissioners International, including a list of all RCI jurisdictions, please visit the RCI website at www.arci.com.
(RCI)