Like virtually everyone else in harness racing, like I suspect almost every other member of the USTA, I learned only on Thursday morning that the Executive Committee of the USTA has just voted 12-2 to spend another $500,000 of the USTA’s money (our money, you might say) on lawyers fighting a loser’s fight against the new federal horse racing integrity law, what everyone calls HISA.

I do not know how many USTA directors knew that this vote would be taken. I do not know how many of those directors still support the organization’s opposition to HISA (Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority), especially now that two conservative federal trial judges in Kentucky and Texas have endorsed the federal law and rejected the arguments the USTA’s expensive lawyers have been making against it.

Here’s what I do know. My USTA director never notified me that the USTA was contemplating another major financial commitment to litigation that hundreds of prominent members of the harness racing community do not support. In fact, my director has never once asked me, one of his constituents, what I think about the new federal law or the USTA’s role in opposing it. What a farce.

Has your USTA director ever asked you what you think of HISA or whether you want to spend USTA money on lawyers fighting a law designed to make the sport more honest and fair for everyone? I didn’t think so. Can you think of better ways for the USTA to spend its money, our money, than on corporate lawyers with a bad case? I thought so. What a farce.

This Executive Committee action, done secretly without prior notice to USTA members, tells us a few things. It tells us the USTA’s leadership didn’t want a robust, open debate within the harness racing community over its continuing opposition to HISA. It tells us that the organization’s rules and bylaws must be broken to allow such a momentous action with no input from the membership. The USTA’s descent into these kind of arrogant tactics is really sad to see.

Andrew Cohen / Englewood, CO

Banks: Where is the USTA leadership?

(Editor’s note: The author originally posted this letter on his Facebook page. He contacted HRU and asked us to publish it)

Short fields…

A complete lack of regulatory uniformity…

Obvious beards and horse dopers at every track…

Stagnant foal numbers…

A divided, frustrated industry…

Not one profitable racetrack from stand-alone racing…

Florida decoupling and new state efforts to decouple in numerous other states…

An increasingly boring, repetitive product…

Negative public perceptions of racing and racing’s integrity…

A lack of concern for equine health…

Failure to ensure after-racing homes for all our racehorses… An invisible USTA CEO, COO, president at all major industry events…

No open, public debates or question/answer sessions regarding our industry’s problems…

No industry think-tanks or USTA leadership in addressing ANY of the above industry problems.

The sole focus of USTA leadership is on destroying HISA (Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority), which is not yet in effect respecting harness, and in no way is responsible for ANY of the above problems!

Does anybody wonder why our sport is in a death spiral?

Fixing what is broken today might be a lot wiser than focusing on what might cause harm in the future!

Leadership …where is it?

Gordon Banks / Coral Gables, FL