Due to adverse track and weather conditions Mahoning Valley Race Course has cancelled live racing for both Monday and Tuesday February 17th and 18th.
The cancellations are the 7th and 8th full cards lost in 2025 at the track. Both days will be made up prior to the end of 2025.
The Ohio HBPA filed suit against HISA regarding the HISA assessment fees on February 4th, 2025 in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio Eastern Division.\
The suit alleges, amongst other claims, that the assessment fees HISA is charging Ohio’s horsemen are arbitrary and do not comply with the language of the Horse Racing Integrity and Safety Act of 2020.
The Ohio HBPA board has never agreed to pay any assessment fees to HISA since its inception, instead maintaining that HISA is an unconstitutional delegation of Government powers to a non-government entity.
In September 2023 the Ohio HBPA and HISA entered into an escrow agreement whereby the Ohio HBPA agreed to place the assessment fees that HISA alleged were owed into an escrow account which wouldn’t be disbursed to either party until the Federal Court system determined the constitutionality of HISA. Last year that agreement was extended until October 2024. The escrow account balance is currently in excess of $3,500,000.
With the expiration of that agreement HISA informed the Ohio HBPA that they no longer had a desire to extend the escrow agreement and instead on January 22, 2025 sent an email to Penn Entertainment Vice President of Racing Chris McErlean stating that HISA was imposing a per start fee of $177.97 at Mahoning Valley Race Course beginning February 3, 2025.
This is what led to the Ohio HBPA’s court filings which include a motion for Preliminary Injunction against HISA. The case has been assigned to Judge Edmund Sargus Jr. and is numbered 2:25-cv-00098.
Live racing has been cancelled at Mahoning Valley Race Course on Wednesday, January 22nd due to extremely cold temperatures and adverse track conditions.
Live racing is expected to resume Thursday at Mahoning Valley and Wednesday’s program will have a make-up to be determined later.
Due to adverse track conditions training has been cancelled at Mahoning Valley Race Course for Saturday, January 18th.
Mahoning Valley Race Course has cancelled live racing next Monday and Tuesday,
January 20th and 21st due to predicted extremely cold temperatures and wind
chills.
Monday’s card will be made up as originally drawn next Friday, January 24th and
Tuesday’s card will be made up as drawn next Saturday, January 25th.
There will not be training next Monday, January 20th. A decision will be made
later on training on Tuesday. We may be able to open the track for a few hours
Tuesday afternoon.
Mahoning Valley will run live cards on Saturday, February 8th; Friday, February 28th; and Sunday, March 30th to make up for the three days cancelled thus far in 2025.
There will also be regular training hours this Friday, January 17th as a make up for Tuesday’s cancelled training day.
The Ohio HBPA thanks Mahoning Valley Director of Racing Hugh Drexler for working together with us on these issues.
Mahoning Valley Race Course management has cancelled live racing today January
14th due to adverse tracks conditions.
This is the third cancelled day so far this meet. By contract all of the days
will be made up with the first makeup day scheduled for Saturday. February 8th.
Management at Mahoning Valley Race Course has cancelled live racing for Wednesday, January 1st and Thursday, January 2nd, 2025 due to adverse track conditions.
By contract between the Ohio HBPA and Mahoning Valley these days will be made up on dates to be determined later.
HISA has introduced a new online feature that requires all Responsible Persons (Trainers/Owners) to submit their Post Layoff Reports (For any horse which hasn’t raced for 150 or more days and is returning to the races) through the HISA Portal.
This will be required beginning January 1st, 2025 in Ohio and should be completed 10 to 14 days prior to entering the Post Layoff horse to race. The current 150-day layoff paper form being used by Mahoning Valley Race Course will no longer be required as of January 1st, 2025.
Below is a link to a video showing how to fill out the Post Layoff Reports in the HISA Portal.
https://hisa-resources-public.hisausapps.org/video/6744c3a96f321388b3db6cef
The quarantine of barn 4 at Mahoning Valley has been lifted as of 4pm this afternoon December 13th following all 66 of the horse remaining in the barn reporting a negative PCR test for Strangles this afternoon.
Normal training hours will resume at the track beginning tomorrow.
