Business environments change often and the California equine business is no different. From the disappearance of one of the major racetracks to stiffer regulations across the horse world, those that dabble in equestrian businesses are scrambling to find a good horse lawyer in California to make sense of it all.
Say Goodbye to Hollywood Park
One of the most storied tracks in all of American Horseracing, Hollywood Park was a place where history was no stranger. During the golden years of the sport of kings, historical geldings like Seabiscuit cut their teeth on the track, as the future Triple Crown Winner took home the win for the track’s inaugural Gold Cup. Now, the place that used to be a hangout for Hollywood’s biggest stars is now closed, and in its place: commerce.
Yes, retail stores have replaced Hollywood Park, as the popularity of horse racing has waned in the more recent generations. With gambling in forms other than horse racing growing in popularity in the state, Hollywood Park (like many other tracks in California) have found a hard time keeping up. Hollywood Park ran its last race on December 22 of 2013, but the history that the track had cannot be covered up.
The CHRB Will Now Test For Cobalt in Racehorses
Ask any high school student what they might know about the element cobalt and they may tell you that it’s a transitional metal with an atomic number of 27. Ask someone in the horseracing business, and they may tell you a darker side of the element. Long a rumored performance-enhancer in the sport, horses will now have their urine and blood tested to see if they have any evidence of cobalt.
While there will be no ramifications or penalties if a horse tests positives, that can change over time. The idea is that if you give a high enough concentration of cobalt to a horse, it can intensify the production of oxygen-carrying red blood cells, which can be an advantage to the horse. Cobalt salts can be dissolved into water, making its application to a horse quite simple.
While there are efforts to establish certain bans and to clarify what is an illegal dose, the Racing Medication and Testing Consortium has recently made an effort to establish a threshold for cobalt.
California Beefs Up Breeder Laws
In the Wild West, if you wanted a new horse, you could probably walk out of any saloon and steal the nearest one. These days, you’re probably going to want to find a good horse lawyer in California because the legality of the transaction can make any layman’s head spin. California has recently put measures forth to beef up the laws that concern the breeding side of the equine business world. While the measures are being put into place to help owners and horses alike, breeders that only familiarize themselves with the old ways may be running afoul of the new, acceptable protocol.
Rolling with new laws and regulations is a part of being in any business. As far as the horse world in California goes, although regulations have changed, there’s still money to be had there.
