Remarks from Stuart S. Janney III
Stuart S. Janney III
Stuart S. Janney III, Chairman, The Jockey Club

Stuart S. Janney III: Thank you very much, Ian and Jim, for providing those insights on our sport. Before intermission, I'd like to make a few points. The topic is public perception. While the perception of our sport may have improved slightly, as you heard, we can do more.

Specifically, I want to talk about The Jockey Club's strong, unwavering commitment to the legislation before Congress that, when enacted, will establish a comprehensive medication control program operated by the United States Anti-Doping Agency and the racing industry.

The Horse Racing Integrity Act has 127 co-sponsors in the House of Representatives, and a Senate companion bill is expected to be introduced in this Congress.

As many of you know, there was a hearing on this bill in June. I was struck then by the strong statements from our opponents that everything is fine. There is no problem with the rules and regulations in place across 30-plus states. One even said we have the best system in the world of sport, and expressed indignation that Congress would question that all was not perfect.

Well, we have a lot to be proud of in our sport, but we also have some fundamental things to fix, and our customers are telling us that.

Jim Gagliano took you through many polls and other statistics. I could take you through more. They all tell the same story. None suggest we live in a perfect world. We and many other organizations and individuals in this industry believe that the current state-based system of medication control must change. We lack uniformity in rules, drug testing, and penalties.

We believe it is entirely appropriate for the federal government to police racing. First, because ours is an interstate business, and, second, because the states have clearly demonstrated their inability to do it.

Passing federal legislation is never an easy task, but we are determined to make that happen. Nothing else we do will matter if we don't have a foundation that's built on integrity.

We remain firmly convinced that this legislation, when enacted, will improve conditions for every stakeholder in our sport, and we hope you will join us in supporting it. Thank you. We'll resume in ten minutes.


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