To: Members, Assembly GO Committee

From: California Thoroughbred Breeders Association (CTBA)
Pacific Coast Quarter Horse Racing Association (PCQHRA)

Subject: AB 1016, Plescia Support

The California Thoroughbred Breeders Association (CTBA), representing approximately 1600 individuals in the Thoroughbred race horse industry and the Pacific Quarter Horse Racing Association (PCQHRA) representing 2058 individuals in the running Quarter Horse industry are joint sponsors of AB 1016.

Both this State’s Quarter Horse and Thoroughbred race horse service providers lack an effective remedy to deal with horses where the owner has become severely delinquent in the payment for services provided to their horses or that are abandoned by their owners while in the service provider’s stables (whether at the racetrack, training center or farm). Horse Racing Law only empowers the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) (through its regulations) to suspend the license of an owner who fails to discharge his or her financial obligations. The CHRB Stewards at the race track cannot order the sale of the horse to help the service provider defray a delinquent bill.

A horse in race training costs the owner between $1,500 - 3,000 per month and at the farm the cost is between $450 - 500 per month. If the owner fails to pay for his horse’s care, under present law, the service provider must either obtain the owner’s written consent, a court order, or judgment before the horse can be sold to defray the board bill. While in his possession (whether in training or not) the service provider is required by law to continue to care for the animal, provide prompt and necessary veterinary and farrier care and to treat the animal kindly.

In many cases, the owner will not respond to requests by the service provider that he consents in writing to the horse’s sale. Therefore, if the service provider is to comply with the law in selling the horse, he must retain the services of an attorney, commence a civil lawsuit in the Superior court, serve the owner with process, allow the time for response to elapse (at least 30 days), calendar a hearing, obtain an order, serve the order, publish a Notice of Sale and conduct a sale before he or she is relieved of their obligations to care for the horse.

As this process can take months, the horse, which may have been fit and marketable when the owner went into default, has generally been taken out of training and is sitting idle pending the service provider obtaining the right under present law to sell the horse. In the meantime a horse can potentially suffer from innumerable (and potentially very expensive) maladies, accidents or other events which will render the animal unable to be sold or valueless by the time the sale can be conducted. All of these factors potentially adversely impact the amount of money that the service provider will recoup when he is allowed to sell the horse under present law.

It should also be pointed out that while the service provider is awaiting authorization to sell the horse he may not be able to utilize a corral or pen or stall which would otherwise be occupied by a paying customer. In other words the horse owned by a delinquent client cannot be placed in storage. It will have to occupy a space that is generally of value to the service provider for a paying customer.

AB 1016 seeks to address the inequities created by the service provider’s present lack of effective remedies to deal with owners who have become severely delinquent or who abandon their horses while in another’s care. The proposed remedies are based on two very significant premises: (1) the changes in the procedure will not in any way promote or enable the sale of horses for slaughter (which is already illegal in this State) and (2) the lower end horses are those which are generally abandoned by their owners and recourse through the courts seldom results in the service provider being made whole. Therefore the bill’s language specifically refers to the statutory ban on the sale of horses for slaughter and limits the use of its recourse to animals which have a value of $4,000 or less.

The proposed legislation will give the service provider a timely and cost effective means to obtain the right to sell the animal before it has suffered a decline in value, while protecting the due process rights of the owner. The service provider commences the lien foreclosure procedure by the Certified mail or personal delivery of a Notice of Sale (containing certain mandated disclosures) to the owner. This initiates a 31-41 day waiting period in which the owner (at no expense) can object to the sale. If the owner objects the service provider will have no alternative but to seek recourse through the courts. If the owner does not object the service provider will be entitled to conduct the sale having lost a minimum of time and expense.

Therefore it is respectfully submitted that AB 1016 is an expedient and cost effective means to allow the service provider to foreclose on a lien while protecting the owner’s due process rights. Further the bill will in no way promote the sale of horses to slaughter which is already illegal in this State. On behalf of the CTBA and PCQHRA we urge the committee to support the bill.

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Frank E. (Scoop) Vessels
President CTBA

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Bud Alessio
President PCQHRA