from the USTA Communications Department

Columbus, OH — It has been erroneously reported by the industry website, www.harnesslink.com, that the U.S. Trotting Association has been involved in the rejection of the winning name, Only God Knows Why, in the “Name Pinky’s Foal Contest.”

In fact, the USTA has no jurisdiction in the decision on the registration or name of the horse since owner Sydney Weaver resides in Canada and is required to register the horse with Standardbred Canada as mandated by USTA rules.

The USTA’s role in this matter — and specifically Rules 26.02 and 26.27 — was explained to writer Steve Wolf in two phone conversations and a follow-up e-mail message on Tuesday (May 10), prior to the publication of the Harnesslink story. For whatever reason, Mr. Wolf chose not to include this material in his article, a decision that is both irresponsible and misleading.

USTA Rule 26.27 Reciprocal Registration with Standardbred Canada states, “Other provisions of these rules notwithstanding reciprocity of registration between the USTA and Standardbred Canada shall require registration of the horse with the registry in the country in which the owner resides.”

Further, by rule, until the horse is registered in the owner’s country of residence, Canada, the USTA cannot even consider re-registration.

USTA Rule 26.02 (g) Standardbred allows re-registration by the USTA of horses registered by numerous foreign registries including Standardbred Canada, several European registries as well as with Argentina, Australia and New Zealand once registration is approved in one of those countries first.

The rule states, “Horses registered Standardbred with Standardbred Canada, the New Zealand Trotting Conference, the Australian Stud Book, the Stud Books of Norway, Finland, Sweden, France, Italy, Belgium, Denmark, Holland, Germany and Argentina, or the Stud books of other selected European countries may be re-registered Standardbreds with the USTA provided their records and/or qualifications meet the standards of the USTA and are approved by the President, Executive Vice-President or Registration Committee.”

In addition, in Harnesslink’s contest rules, without prior notification to or authorization from the USTA, they incorrectly identified the USTA as the proper registry for the horse in stating to contestants that “It is important that you must follow the rules of the USTA in naming the foal,” and advising them to check the USTA’s Pathway system to make sure that submissions were not names already used.

The foal is required to be registered by Standardbred Canada.

Finally, while misguided, the contest was negligent in not following their own rules that stated, “All submissions must be in accordance with the USTA’s Rule 26 Section 8 (Names) and will be checked with the USTA to make sure they are eligible names that will be accepted,” by announcing the name of the winning submission without checking first.