Longtime racehorse trainer fights unconstitutional process and punishment for speculative doping allegations

Philip Serpe, a veteran horse trainer, is on the verge of losing his career because of false accusations from an unregulated, private entity. He grew up in New Jersey and worked his way up to train with some of the top breeders in New York. Almost 50 years ago, Phil started as a horse groomer and hot walker, spending his evenings during high school volunteering at the Meadowlands Sports Complex and walking horses without pay. Philip loves horses, and he did whatever it took, even volunteering for free, to be a part of the horse-training world. He has trained three Grade 1 horses, winning his first Grade 1 race when he was 28—and he has raced horses at some of the top competitions in the country.

But at the Saratoga Race Course in August 2024, one of Philip’s horses, Fast Kimmie, tested positive for clenbuterol, a nasal decongestant and a banned substance in horseracing. The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority Anti-Doping and Medication Control Rules make horse trainers liable for any amount of a detected banned substance, with limited exceptions, even if it does not impact the horse’s performance.

Because trace amounts of clenbuterol were detected in Fast Kimmie’s urine, Phil was charged with violating HISA’s banned-substance rule and faced a hefty fine and a two-year suspension from his training career. Phil has been working in the industry for more than 40 years and has had a nearly flawless record as a trainer. Soon after he was notified of the alleged doping violation, he was rushed through an unconstitutional adjudication process in which he was forced to defend himself before the very entity that charged him with breaking the rules—a process that is still ongoing.

In 2020, Congress passed the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act, establishing the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) and tasking it with setting uniform racetrack safety, medication, and anti-doping rules. The Authority is a private, nonprofit corporation run by private individuals who can issue binding rules, impose civil sanctions (up to $100,000), prosecute actions in federal court, seek permanent injunctions, establish racetrack safety standards, impose strict anti-doping rules, and ban anyone from the industry for life.

The regulatory regime represents a stark change for horseracing. For more than 125 years, states have primarily regulated the industry. Now, HISA’s rules preempt all state laws and regulate every nook and cranny of a longstanding tradition with little guidance from Congress and only nominal oversight from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

In Phil’s case, the Authority hired another private entity—the Horseracing Integrity & Welfare Unit (HIWU)—to conduct searches and impose penalties, leaving Phil with only one recourse: appeal to the Federal Trade Commission. Before Phil can even reach an Article III court, he must go through two private entities—HISA and HIWU—and the FTC. The entire process violates the Constitution’s guarantee that an independent judge hears Phil’s case in a federal court—and it denies Phil his Seventh Amendment right to a trial before a jury of his peers.

The process itself is often the punishment in these cases. Here, in addition to the unconstitutional process, the private HISA suspended Serpe from his training career for two years, which could effectively end Phil’s career. Even while his legal appeals are under consideration, he is already serving his punishment.

Phil decided to fight back. He has exercised his right to appeal the sanctions against him to the FTC. He also sued in federal court to vindicate his right to an independent judge and jury, and to be free from the coercive power of a private organization that was unconstitutionally exercising the government’s power. With free representation by Pacific Legal Foundation, his legal fight will continue for himself and for all others trapped in this unfair system.