“You Pay For This But They Give You That” Joe Walsh, The Eagles
Props to Louis Masry and his Westlake Stable for taking to X to spotlight the glaring red flags in HISA’s latest budget. He asked the industry to weigh in, and I intend to do exactly that. Let me be clear: I have always been a vocal supporter of the HISA mission. Theoretically, I still am—but enough is enough. With an $80 million budget and access to 21st-century technology, we should at least be in the game with the real cheaters. We aren’t. Not even close. With phantom millions flowing to a private house in Canada and zero accountability for “Mickey Mouse” enforcement, someone needs to slam on the brakes and take a look. The industry doesn’t just want answers; we deserve them, and they are long overdue.
I remember days looking for a loan shark with a bad memory, today I’d prefer a loan from the Breeders’ Cup or The Jockey Club.
In my recent analysis, I argued that HISA and HIWU “stumbled out of the gate” and were still desperately looking for the wire. Now, with the 2026 budget sitting before the FTC, it’s clear they aren’t just looking for the wire—they’re looking for the industry’s wallet to pay for a regulatory engine that is high on overhead and low on impact.
The “Low-Hanging Fruit” Strategy
The most damning indictment of the current regime isn’t just the $1,024 per test price tag; it’s what those tests are actually finding. We are spending tens of millions to catch “cheaters” who turn out to be trainers with a stray nanogram of a therapeutic overage.
This is the “Mickey Mouse” era of enforcement. While the industry is being bled dry to fund $7.5 million in HIWU salaries, the “real cheaters”—the ones using sophisticated PEDs and blood doping—remain largely untouched. Where are the Navarro-sized takedowns? Where is the “intelligence-based” testing we were promised?
The Reverse Cheating Blind Spot
The current testing model is fundamentally flawed because it ignores how the game is actually manipulated. HIWU focuses almost exclusively on the winner’s circle. This creates a massive loophole for “Reverse Cheating.” If three horses in a race are tranquilized to ensure they finish “up the track,” the integrity of that race is destroyed. Yet, because those horses didn’t win, they often go untested. The winner might be “clean,” but they beat a field of non-competitors. For $80 million a year, why is HISA still using a 1970s “test the winner” mentality while the world of doping has moved into the 21st century? It is probably a good thing financially they have blinkers on here, imagine the budget if they actively pursued this.
Bloat by the Numbers
When you look at the 2026 budget, the disparity between “administration” and “action” is staggering:
- The Bureaucracy Tax: We are paying nearly $8 million for “Professional Services” and “Consulting.” This includes a $3 million legal fund to fight the very stakeholders paying the bills.
- The Lab Gap: Actual lab testing costs are only $19.4M—less than a quarter of the total budget. The rest is eaten up by management fees, administrative salaries, and “technology” that has yet to produce a substantive lead on a major doping ring.
- The Debt Illusion: Despite millions in startup loans, the 2026 budget allocates $0 for repayment. This isn’t fiscal discipline; it’s a shell game.
The Call for Real Uniformity
Uniformity without equal and intelligent enforcement is just a more expensive version of the status quo. The industry doesn’t want to see more small-time trainers suspended over therapeutic technicalities. We want to see:
- Randomized Deep-Field Testing: Eliminate the “winner-only” bias to catch the tranquilizers and the “reverse” manipulators.
- Prioritizing PEDs over Therapeutics: Realign the budget to focus on high-level doping, not “gotcha” chemistry.
- Fiscal Transparency: No more first-class travel and no more massive foreign vendor contracts while the tracks are struggling to keep the lights on.
“The defenders of the status quo will tell you that we shouldn’t look at the ‘Proposed’ budget because HISA always over-asks. They actually use their own inability to budget accurately as a defense! They admit to over-assessing the industry by as much as 40%—money that is sucked out of the pockets of owners and trainers who are already hanging on by a thread.
Even if you use their ‘Actual’ numbers, the math remains grim. If it costs $56 million (their 2024 actual) to catch a few trainers for nanograms of Bute, we are still paying a ‘Bureaucracy Tax’ that has nothing to do with the horse and everything to do with the office. We aren’t paying for science; we’re paying for a private club in Canada and a legal war chest to keep the critics quiet. We don’t want a ‘touch lower’ lab fee; we want an organization that knows how to catch a real cheater without bankrupting the sport.”
The industry is shrinking, owners are exiting, and the regulatory budget is approaching $80 million. It’s time for HISA to stop chasing nanograms and start chasing the real threats to our sport. If they can’t find the “real cheaters” with $80 million, maybe it’s not only the horses that need a change in leadership. If we want to remain honest and not pull punches, this is not an example of leadership, it is embarrassing.
Definitely:
