from Racing Commissioners International

Lexington, KY — The just departed RCI Executive Vice President and past Executive Director of the North Dakota Racing Commission Paul Bowlinger, Indiana Racing Commission Chair Sarah McNaught, and Texas Racing Commission Executive Director Charla Ann King took top honors at the annual awards dinner of Racing Commissioners International, the trade association of racing regulators in North America and the Caribbean.

Bowlinger, a resident of Bismarck, North Dakota, received the association’s highest award, The William May Award, in recognition of his successful work on wagering security initiatives, merging the former National Association of Pari-Mutuel Racing Regulators back into RCI, and his unrelenting work to ensure racing integrity at every level of the sport.

RCI Chair Dan Hartman described Bowlinger as someone who did not come from the industry, a government agency, or law enforcement: “Paul was a 20-year player who put his own money through the window everyday as the lifeblood of the industry we regulate,” Hartman said. “Paul entered regulation, not because he needed a job or had an axe to grind, but he wanted to pay back a sport he loved and to ensure integrity for all his friends and colleagues who were the patrons.”

Bowlinger was the executive director of the North American Pari-Mutuel Regulators Association and also held the position of Director of Racing for the State of North Dakota. Bowlinger served on the board of both the Racing Medication and Testing Consortium and the Winners Federation and as co-chair of a committee of the Grayson Jockey Club’s Welfare and Safety of the Racehorse Summit.

The Joan Pew Award, named after the first woman to serve as Chair of RCI, was presented to Sarah McNaught, the Chair of the Indiana Racing Commission.

The Pew Award is awarded each year to a sitting regulator in recognition of “courage, dedication, vision, and vitality.”

“Sarah McNaught has brought strong and principled leadership to the Indiana Racing Commission, helping to make her state a forerunner in the implementation of progressive racing regulation,” RCI President Ed Martin said. “Under her leadership Indiana was the first state to pass the Model rule regulating anabolic steroids, one of the first to adopt out of competition testing, equine safety rules restricting the size of toe grabs, and safety regulations governing helmets. In addition, Indiana was a leading state to enforce meaningful restrictions on horses being transferred from suspended trainers to others who would continue to operate as their surrogate.”

Under McNaught’s leadership, the Indiana Commission has received considerable praise from leading racing writers like Bill Finley, Stan Bergstein, Dean Hoffman, and Ray Paulick.

Charla Ann King, the Executive Director of the Texas Racing Commission, in recognition of her effective and tireless commitment to ensuring racing integrity, was selected by her fellow Executive Directors to receive the Len Foote Award.

“The Texas Racing Commission is run effectively and efficiently and in these challenging times Charla Ann has been an inspiration to us all and has been an effective leader not only in Texas but nationally by helping to focus RCI on issues that are important to the industry and regulators alike,” said Lisa Underwood, Executive Director of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, in presenting the award.

The Len Foote Award is the highest award presented to an Executive Director. To receive this award you must be nominated and selected by a secret ballot of one’s colleagues.

King has been Executive Director of the Texas Racing Commission since 2005 and has been an active member of the RCI Model Rules, Wagering Security Systems, Finance and Audit, Greyhound Racing, Quarter Horse Racing, and Executive Committees. King is the RCI Secretary/Treasurer and has worked to improve cross jurisdictional communication between regulators in the South and Southwest regions of the United States.