As Parx Takes Entries, Trainers Told To Move Horses To Other Barns

The fallout from Parx Racing's decision to deny nine trainers stalls at the track for no apparent reason continued to play out in confusing fashion Tuesday when the track's racing office accepted entries for next Monday.

Trainer Mary Pattershall, one of the trainers told last month they would be denied stalls at the Pennsylvania track, said she made an entry Tuesday morning for Kevin's Strike, a four-year-old gelding whose last seven starts have been for the trainer.

“They said, 'if anything changes, we'll call you immediately,'” Pattershall recalls, of the racing office's initial response to the entry.

According to Pattershall, the racing office subsequently alerted her that she would be unable to run the horse under her name as the trainer. The horse, instead, has been transferred to the stable of trainer Ronald Dandy, and is entered in Race six next Monday at Parx.

“He's agreed to take on the training duties of these horses,” Pattershall said of Dandy, for five horses in total.

The TDN texted and called David Osojnak, Parx director of racing, Tuesday. He did not respond before deadline.

Pattershall, 65, is one of nine trainers denied stalls at the track. They've never been given a reason for the decision, although some of them have been vocally critical of track management in recent months.

Pattershall suspects her situation 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.

The other eight trainers denied stalls at 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. But Pattershall and at least three other trainers have remained at the track.

In Pattershall's case, she 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.

The TDN spoke Tuesday morning with Whylie, Ashton and one other trainer involved, all of whom described being told by track management to transfer their horses to other trainers, leaving them in a strange limbo–they're permitted access to the track, but not permitted to enter horses under their name as trainers.

According to Whylie, 70, he has been stabled at Parx since 1988 and has long maintained a sizeable string until more recently, when he downsized.

Whylie said that earlier this year, he temporarily lost coverage under his prior workers' compensation plan, but after a period of a few weeks found alternate coverage under a new plan. He paid for a year's coverage up front, he said.

“I was back training. I ran a horse and won, okay? But a week later I was told I would get no stalls,” said Whylie. “The racing office told me I could put the horses in somebody [else's] name, and [they would] downgrade my license to an assistant trainer's license.”

Whylie said that he transferred the four horses he also owns to trainer Pedro Mercedes. Tuesday morning, he added, the Parx racing office contacted him multiple times, asking him to enter one of his horses in an “extra” on next week's card.

“They called me from the racing office at least four times, trying to get me to help them fill a race,” said Whylie.

According to multiple sources, Parx has as many as 200 empty stalls across its backstretch.

Ashton, 71, said that he applied for five stalls before being denied them, and that he planned on purchasing several more this year from the ongoing Timonium sale and from his contacts in Florida.

“This has crippled us,” said Ashton, who explained how he and some of his fellow targeted trainers have lost access to a health insurance plan available to trainers who maintain a certain number of starts a year at the track. “It's emotional stress.”

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.

Alan Pincus, an attorney representing seven of the trainers, and Bob Hutt, an owner-breeder who sits on the PTHA board of directors, recently outlined a sequence of events that put the trainers in a tight legal bind.

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 Joe Stathius, Parx Racing's assistant general counsel, when Budman raised the idea of a formal merits hearing as outlined in the live racing agreement with Parx.

According to Hutt, Budman reported that Parx counsel disagreed with that position under the live race agreement, 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.

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.

Last 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.

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, over the weekend. “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 over the weekend, DeMasi pushed back on the argument her organization has failed to fully support its members during this situation.

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.