01-017-7 Me. Code R. § 30
Unless otherwise specified in the conditions, the declaration time shall close at 9:00 a.m. The declaration box and the U.S.T.A. entry system shall be in the charge of the Race Secretary. The declaration box shall be opened by the Race Secretary or his or her designee at the advertised time and the Race Secretary or designee will be responsible to see that at least one horseman or an official representative of the horsemen is present. No owner or trainer for a horse with a declaration in the declaration box shall be denied the privilege of being present. Under the supervision of the Race Secretary, all declarations shall be listed, the eligibility verified, preference ascertained, and starters selected. If it is necessary to reopen any race, public announcement by text message alert shall be made at least once and the declaration box reopened at a definite time and remain open for a specified time. Post positions shall be drawn by the Judges. Any race that has more than one division will be split by the Judges. When a class is split and there are multiple owners and trainers, the Judges will split the owners, then trainers randomly and the remaining entries will be split randomly. The draw may also be done by the USTA random draw system. In events with more than one dash or heat, post positions for both heats or dashes will be drawn at the same time.
Drawings shall be final unless there is conclusive proof that a horse, properly declared on time, was omitted through error of the Association. If the error is discovered before scratch time, the race may be re-drawn.
When an Association requires a horse to be declared by a stated time, failure to declare by that time shall be considered a withdrawal from the event.
After declaration to start has been made, no horse shall be scratched except by permission of the Judges. A suspension may be imposed for scratching a horse without permission, the penalty to apply to both the horse and the licensee who violates the regulation.
01-017 C.M.R. ch. 7, § 30