Parx Trainers Denied Stalls in Dark About Reason, Feel Let Down by Horsemen's Group

Last month, trainer Mary Pattershall picked up her stall allocation from Parx Racing, where she said she's been stabled for decades, and got a nasty surprise. She was given zero stalls and was told she must have her “horses and property off Parx grounds” by the end of the day Thursday April 23.

What's more, the letter-signed by David Osojnak, Parx director of racing-gave no explanation as to why she would have to leave. Nor, Pattershall said, has she been given any such explanation since, although she suspects it might be due to critical comments she has made of Parx's management of the track and barn area during a recent cold snap this winter via her role on a horseman's advisory group.

“I honestly don't understand what's going on, I really don't,” said Pattershall, this past Friday, who maintains a small stable of around seven horses. Among her various roles, she gives much of her time over to the rehoming of Off-Track Thoroughbreds.

Pattershall said she could move her horses to Delaware Park, but that would mean she would have to abandon the vanning business she has built up over the years around Parx.

“I'm terrified,” said Pattershall, 65. “I'm not qualified to do anything else. What am I going to do, be a Walmart greeter?”

While the initial eviction date was April 23, that deadline was pushed back to this past Saturday May 16, she said. Pattershall still remains stabled at the track because she says she has nowhere else viable to take her horses. In doing so, she said she fears that track won't take her entries when it opens Tuesday.

When asked if Pattershall would be allowed to enter her horses on Tuesday, Joe Stathius, Parx Racing's assistant general counsel, said in a telephone interview, “if she hasn't left her stalls, why would we take her horses?”

Pattershall is one of nine trainers denied stalls at the track, many of whom say they've never been given a concrete reason for the decision, although some of them, like Pattershall, have been vocally critical of track management in recent months.

The other eight trainers include Brenda Wilson, Michael Catalano Jr., Josue Arce, Patrick Ashton, Herold Whylie, and Daniel Velazquez.

Catalano and Velazquez have already moved their stables to Delaware. Pattershall said that she and at least four other trainers have remained at the track.

This story also raises question marks over the role of the Pennsylvania Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association (PTHA), the organization tasked with defending the state's industry stakeholders in matters like this, but which some trainers say has done too little to defend their rights.

In the background of this issue is a horsemen's association riven by internal strife, due to allegations of financial mismanagement among certain members of the board over recent years. The PTHA board ordered an audit of this alleged financial impropriety. That audit is complete but it has not yet been made public.

When pressed for reasons why Parx is denying stalls to the nine trainers, Stathius said, “I'm not going to get into that.”

Stathius added if the trainers “want to pursue some mechanism by which they can challenge this, and I'm not sure there is such a mechanism, but if they're able to do so, they're welcome to try and when they do, we will discuss if there were any individual reasons for why stalls were denied. But in the meantime, Parx is exercising sole discretion in the determination not to award them.”

Stathius subsequently texted a statement: “Each of the trainers in question agreed to and signed a Stall Application giving Parx Racing 'sole discretion' in awarding stalls. Parx has chosen to exercise its discretion here. We have no further comment regarding the individual trainers' circumstances except to say that none of the trainers at issue are being ejected from Parx.”

According to Alan Pincus, an attorney representing seven of the nine trainers, “this is an existential event. They're saying, 'I don't have to give any of you stalls, and if any of you anger me in any way, I can throw you out.'”

Pincus added, “now remember, horsemen get pensions when they're stabled on the grounds. They get health insurance when they're stabled on the grounds.”

Pincus and Bob Hutt, an owner-breeder who sits on the PTHA board of directors, outlined a sequence of events that essentially leave the nine trainers in legal limbo.

According to Hutt, Velazquez, a PTHA board member, and PTHA president Kate DeMasi initially met with Joe Wilson, Parx COO, for a brief meeting that yielded no meaningful resolution.

Hutt said Jan Budman, the recently hired legal counsel for the PTHA, more recently spoke with Stathius, when Budman raised the idea of a formal merits hearing as outlined in the live racing agreement with Parx.

That agreement states how “no person who does business with the PTHA and/or its members or who holds a license from the Pennsylvania State Horse Racing Commission shall be ejected or excluded from the grounds of Philadelphia Park [Parx] by the Associations except in strict conformity with the following procedures.”

Such a meeting “shall be held by the PTHA designee and Vice President of Operations or Vice President of Racing; (ii) If no resolution within 72 hours, the matter shall be taken up by the PTHA designee and the Chief Executive Officer or Chief Operating Officer of the Associations,” according to the agreement.

According to Hutt, Budman reported that Parx counsel disagreed with that position, stating that the trainers were not ejected nor excluded from Parx premises, and that their state licenses would still permit them access to the Parx backstretch to tend to their horses.

Hutt said that Budman then recommended instead that the trainers petition for an arbitration hearing under section 15 of the PTHA's stall application.

This section of the stall application outlines an arbitration process that requires the trainers to file separately rather than as a group.

As per section 15 of the stall agreement, the licensee in question “agrees that in the event any such claim or dispute subject to this arbitration provision, Applicant will not join with any other arbitration claimant, nor will Applicant participate in any class action, collective action or multi-claimant proceeding in arbitration.”

According to Pincus, he petitioned Parx for an arbitration hearing under the stall agreement, which he describes as being “completely and utterly one-sided” in favor of the track.

Track management, Pincus said, denied this request.

Earlier this week during a PTHA board meeting, Hutt then made a motion for the PTHA to challenge Parx to enforce the live race agreement (in other words, to allow the trainers a full merits hearing), he said.

“If we don't defend these nine, they can come out next week with 10 more, 20 more the week after that, and then we'd be out of business,” Hutt said. “I'm doing it for the welfare of all the trainers.”

The PTHA board voted that motion down, on advice from the PTHA counsel saying that such a legal move might jeopardize their tax-exempt status, said Hutt.

“This board is hiding behind violating the PTHA's 'tax exempt status' as an excuse not to help,” said Hutt. “I feel like the board is violating the mission of the PTHA which is to help our horsemen, for which we were duly elected.”

According to Pincus, he has petitioned Parx once again “for any due process available to us.”

Reached by phone, DeMasi said, “we've been here to assist the horsemen in this process, and we have counsel advising us.”

When pressed about the advice of counsel about the tax-status of the organization if it supported the trainers during their legal efforts, DeMasi said “there's just concern over that. But, we have actually had counsel communicate with Parx and everything. So, we've been here for the horsemen, and we've been advised and we have supported our horsemen throughout this process.”

When asked via text for a copy of the audit into alleged financial mismanagement by the board, DeMasi wrote back that the report is confidential.

“This is a situation that calls for sharp action by a horsemen's group-a horsemen's group that handles millions of dollars of these horsemen's purse money. They give $4.2 million of it a year away to the track,” said Pincus, about the situation facing the nine trainers.

“But they roll over like Lassie on every issue that comes before them. Would I think they're going to act here? It would be a change,” Pincus added. “They're the most pusillanimous horsemen's group in history.”

All of which leaves Pattershall facing difficult decisions about her future and fast, with very little understanding as to why she has to make them in the first place.

“I have built my life around my passion, Parx,” said Pattershall. “As the saying goes, 'You'll never work a day in your life if you love what you do.' This is me. I've gotten great joy from helping my fellow trainers, grooms, hot walkers and all backside workers. I believe it has given me my purpose in life. It brings me to tears to even think for one second that I couldn't continue to be a trainer on this track.”