Monthly news & updates
August, 2021
Florida HBPA Park and Gulfstream Park Sponsor Backpack Giveaway
The children of the backstretch workers at Gulfstream Park and Palm Meadows will start off the school year with new supplies, thanks to a program sponsored by the Florida HBPA and Gulfstream Park. More than 200 students received backpacks filled with notebooks, writing implements, and other necessities. Except for a pandemic-forced hiatus, the program has been in place for more than 15 years.

“The Florida HBPA and Gulfstream Park chip in to buy the school supplies,” said Pastor Tom LaPointe, who not only ministers to the backstretch community, but also oversees the Florida HBPA backstretch benevolence programs. “My assistant, Guillermo Fernandez, does all the shopping. We bring everything to my church and we have about 20 volunteers who help out stuffing the backpacks. Guillermo takes half up to Palm Meadows, and we distribute half here at Gulfstream.”

All agree on the importance of making sure the kids have what they need to succeed in school.

“I remember going back to school, it always felt good to start the year with everything new,” said Herb Oster, the Florida HBPA’s Special Projects Coordinator. “We want to make sure all kids have that, and they begin the school year the right way.”

The backpacks are customized for the different age groups, from pre-school to high school.

“The younger kids, the ones in kindergarten, they might get a Spiderman backpack, something like that,” Pastor Tom said. “For the high school kids, we include a calculator. We put hand sanitizer and snacks in there – each backpack is stocked with whatever they need.”

He added, “The families love it – it is one less thing they have to worry about.”
Spotlight On: FHBPA Board Member Ron Spatz
When Ron Spatz found his first job at the racetrack, he was not in search of a career. Spatz was a typical 20-year-old on break from college, looking to make a little money and enjoy the Jersey Shore. Growing up in Union City, he’d always liked animals. “I’d bring home every pet I could find – dogs, cats, turtles, frogs,” he said. But he never expected the highlight of that summer vacation to be working with the horses.

“Something happened that summer,” he recalled. “Being around the horses, they just drew me in. I went back to school for a few months, but I knew that was not where I wanted to be. The racetrack, that was it for me. I’d found my niche.”

He left Monmouth College and an unfinished degree in business administration behind, and never looked back.

Spatz celebrates five decades in racing this year, the last four as a trainer in South Florida. He has spent the last five years dedicating his time and energy to the industry as a Board member of the Florida HBPA.

“I didn’t have a lot of interest in running for the Board, to be honest,” Spatz said. “I had friends who were on the Board, and there was a lot of dissension, a lot of conflict. But [then-Board member] Bill Kaplan came to me and said, ‘you’ve been in racing a long time, don’t you want to give something back?’ I thought about it, and I realized he had a point. I had more free time, so I talked myself into it.”
Spatz takes his role seriously.
The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act:
What We Know, and What We Don’t
The 2021 Racing and Gaming Conference at Saratoga, held Aug. 16-17 at Saratoga Race Course in New York, kicked off with two panels on the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act. At the end of the first morning, there had been more questions raised than answered.

What led to the implementation of federal regulation for Thoroughbred horse racing? Currently, the 33 jurisdictions that host Thoroughbred racing are governed by rules adopted by each state. There has been significant progress in crafting nationwide standards for medication and safety. The National Uniform Medication Program, which was launched in 2014, created a Controlled Therapeutic Substance List and Guidelines, required accreditation by the Racing Medication and Testing Consortium for all testing labs, mandated third-party administration for Lasix, and established a penalty system for multiple medication violations. The 2019 Mid-Atlantic Plan to Reduce Equine Fatalities has produced regulations, protocols and best practices designed to protect the horses, the jockeys and the integrity of the sport.

Unfortunately, participation in these programs is not mandatory. While many states are fully on board, there has not been unanimous support and implementation.

Alan Foreman, the Chairman and CEO of the Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association, was one of three members of the first panel at the Racing and Gaming Conference, along with Patrick Cummings, the executive director of Thoroughbred Idea Foundation, and Pete Sacopulos, partner at the law firm of Sacopulos, Johnson and Sacopulos.

Foreman has been at the forefront of the national initiatives and was long an opponent of federal regulation, but he has changed course.

“We have not moved as society has moved,” Foreman said. “The public doesn’t accept that we’re doing right by our horses. We never really recovered from the breakdowns at Santa Anita, and then we had the Servis and Navarro indictments and the positive in the Derby. The hits just kept coming. Now we have a once in a lifetime opportunity to fix this for the next generation. It’s a monstrous undertaking, and we can’t accomplish it independently and voluntarily.”

Cummings added, “We’re playing with different rules in different states. You can say that bettors need to be attentive, but you’re not doing your customers a service with the state by state approach.”

Foreman concluded, “HISA is not perfect, but you can't let the perfect get in the way of the good.”