PTHA Claims “Extensive” Support For Trainers, Board Member Calls It “Misrepresentation Of Truth”

In the latest salvo amid an oftentimes confusing chain of events that have played out across Pennsylvania's racing industry the last couple of months, the Pennsylvania Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association (PTHA) issued a statement Thursday denying allegations the organization had failed to provide adequate support for the nine trainers at Parx Racing who were told last month by track management they would be denied stalls at the track, but were given no reasons as to why.

“The information that is being provided is one-sided and fails to reflect the immediate and extensive work that the PTHA did to assist these individuals as soon as it learned of the denials,” according to the organization's statement.

“Any suggestion that the PTHA has let down these individual members who have recently been denied stall allocations by Parx is inaccurate and misleading. Given the time and effort that the PTHA spent attempting to help the affected horsemen through this situation, the criticism is particularly unwarranted and seems to merely reflect an agenda inconsistent with moving the PTHA forward,” the PTHA statement adds.

According to Bob Hutt, the former PTHA president and a current board member, however, the press release was issued without the board's approval and is a “misrepresentation of the truth.”

“I want to know who drafted it and who gave it to Pete Peterson. It does not represent the board,” said Hutt, pointing to the vice president of a Pennsylvania PR firm, Bellevue Communications, which distributed the statement.

“This board has done very little, almost nothing, to help these people,” Hutt said.

The PTHA statement supports some of the timeline of events already detailed by the TDN as to the way in which this process has played out.

For example, it details how the PTHA president Kate DeMasi and one of the affected trainers met with Parx management to discuss the stall denial and attempt to reach a resolution. “Unfortunately, those efforts were unsuccessful,” the statement reads.

The PTHA statement also mirrors the TDN's reporting that the organization's new legal counsel Jan Budman had recommended the affected horsemen first request an immediate hearing as outlined in the Parx stall application.

If that hearing was denied, Budman next recommended the affected horsemen seek an arbitration hearing, “which requires filing an arbitration demand” with the American Arbitration Association in Philadelphia, according to the statement.

According to the PTHA, none of the trainers nor their legal counsel have pursued the specific legal route outlined in the stall application agreement.

“Several affected members spoke with an experienced horsemen's attorney who has handled many horsemen's cases over the years. Despite being shown the clear path to challenge Parx's decisions, not one of the affected members or their counsel (at least to the PTHA's knowledge to date) has attempted to follow the specific dispute resolution process expressly set forth in the Stall Application,” the statement reads.

“Contrary to what has been reported, these individuals appear to have voluntarily decided not to follow the process to challenge the stall allocation denial decisions. Had the PTHA learned that Parx was somehow denying the affected horsemen their ability to challenge these decisions as expressly set forth in the Stall Application, which is simply not the case, the PTHA Board was (and still is) prepared to step in to vigorously protect the membership.”

According to Alan Pincus, the attorney representing seven of the nine affected trainers, there are several reasons he has not pursued an arbitration hearing on behalf of the trainers. One is that the stall agreement (agreed upon by the PTHA) is “completely one-sided” in favor of the track, he said.

“It's a dead-end,” said Pincus of any legal process under that agreement. He added how many of the impacted trainers also don't have the financial resources for such a legal fight.

“So, why do you have a horsemen's group? They get millions of dollars to run their organization that comes out of the purse fund, and they all make great salaries.  They're doing fine,” said Pincus. “But they've done nothing. And I don't remember any instance in the last twenty years where the PTHA fought for anything.”

Earlier this month, Hutt told the TDN that the board voted down a motion for the PTHA to legally challenge Parx (to allow the trainers a full merits hearing) on advice from Budman that such a legal move might jeopardize their tax-exempt status.

The PTHA's statement appears to allude to that detail.

It reads that the organization “advised the affected members that the PTHA was not in a position to pay for any individual member's legal fees or other costs associated with their disputes given the limitations on non-profit trade associations from using funds to benefit individual members. This is the same reason that the PTHA is unable to provide legal counsel to individual members who may have a positive drug test violation.”

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 been made public.

“The PTHA's Board, and leadership team have inherited some challenges, but this group is committed to strengthening the PTHA moving forward. It intends to do so systematically and reasonably with the best interests of all of the association's collective membership in mind,” the PTHA's Thursday statement adds.

Elsewhere in the state's horse racing industry this week, Tom Chuckas, Tony Salerno and Jason Klouser lost their jobs with the state Department of Agriculture, according to a brief email from an agency spokesperson Wednesday.

When asked about the reasons for the terminations, the spokesperson wrote that “we do not comment on personnel matters.”

Chuckas was the department's director of Thoroughbred Horse Racing. Tony Salerno was the director of Harness Racing. Jason Klouser was the director of enforcement for the Bureau of Thoroughbred Horse Racing.

According to a ruling posted on the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit's (HIWU) website last week and reported in the TDN Wednesday, charges against Parx trainer Felissa Dunn (brought when Pennsylvania State Horse Racing Commission investigators claimed to have found syringes in her barn} have been dropped after an internal investigation revealed that one or more of the investigators made material misstatements of fact.