Eric Mitchell, editorial director and editor-in-chief of The Blood-Horse, shares his thoughts on the path towards racehorse medication uniformity.

Not unexpectedly, The Jockey Club announced Aug. 10 a call to action for federal legislation to support uniform medication testing and enforcement.

The Jockey Club does not advocate having a federal agency actually responsible for enforcement and testing in Thoroughbred racing, however. Instead, the call to action would involve the pursuit of federal authority for the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency—known as USADA—to assume this responsibility on behalf of the 38 racing states. The USADA is a nongovernmental, nonprofit agency created by the U.S. Olympic Committee in 2000 to improve its anti-doping initiatives. The agency does get a big chunk of its funding through federal grants.

This push for federal involvement will not be welcomed by many trainers and owners in the racing industry