Letter: Never notified on USTA – HISA voting

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, 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 fairer 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 kinds of arrogant tactics is really sad to see.

Andrew Cohen