Thistledown Track Super Claims He Was Fired for Reporting Safety Concerns to Stewards and HISA

[Wandering Eyes]

Thistledown Racino in Ohio fired its track superintendent on Monday, and management at the Cleveland-area track has brought in outside racing surface consultants and is working with the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) in the aftermath of four lost days of racing and training this week because of escalating safety concerns with the dirt surface.

But Sean Wright, who was only on the superintendent's job four months before his abrupt termination July 21, told TDN in a Wednesday phone interview that Thistledown's troubles on its one-mile dirt oval extend beyond the graphic images that have circulated on social media this week showing fist-sized rocks that were allegedly picked up from the track by jockeys and horsemen on Monday and Tuesday.

Wright said that there have been eight catastrophic injuries at Thistledown since the meet began Apr. 21–five in races and three during training–and that when he became concerned enough on Monday morning to discuss the issue with the track's stewards and then to contact HISA, he was terminated within just a few hours by track management.

“Monday, when I told the stewards and when I told the HISA official that's on the grounds that I do not feel comfortable guaranteeing the safety of that racetrack because I don't want to break any more horses down, that's when I was called upstairs and subsequently let go,” Wright said.

“I believe I was let go because of [being] a whistleblower,” Wright said. “They even mentioned during our meeting that it was not my place to go to the stewards or HISA. Well you know what? It was damn sure my place to go to the stewards or HISA.”

Wright continued: “When I reported what I saw on that racetrack, that's my professional obligation. And it's not only my professional obligation, I take a lot of pride. I've been in this business for 45 years. My family's been in this business for over 100 years. I rode. I trained. These guys mean something to me. These horses mean something to me. That's what I'm here for.”

TDN left messages for three Thistledown racing executives on Wednesday, seeking management's side of the story about the state of the track surface and Wright's firing.

But none of the racino's execs–general manager Chris Volle, director of racing Patrick Ellsworth, and racing secretary Patrick Mackey–called back prior to deadline for this story.

Herbie Rivera, Jr., the Jockey's Guild representative whose region includes Thistledown, told TDN that track management has brought back the racino's retired track operations director, David Ellsworth, who is Patrick's father, to oversee the track's maintenance.

“I was a jockey there for years, in the 1980s and 90s, Rivera said. “That was my home track, and that track was the best, always in great shape. But this year they lost their track man [John Banno] who had been there for 25 years, who went to Laurel.”

Rivera explained that even before the superintendent transition this past spring from Banno to Wright (who came to Ohio after working as the track superintendent at Ruidoso Downs in New Mexico), the Thistledown surface had been devolving.

“I was talking to one of my top riders recently and I asked him how long has it been this way,” Rivera said. “And he told me the last couple of years it's been up and down, very wavy, for whatever reason.”

Rivera said those sorts of complaints seemed to come and go, but that he started getting reports on July 21 that Thistledown's surface was way out of whack.

“Whatever it was, it was a disaster Monday morning,” Rivera said. “They went out to gallop, then [about an hour before the scheduled renovation break] they closed [the track] and started working on it hoping to run [the Monday afternoon races]. The jockeys picked up a bunch of rocks and they brought them to the stewards.

“Then came Tuesday morning. I was in touch with my jocks, and they said the track looked good, really good. But by 10 o'clock [the surface] was wavy [when the harrows were going over the surface], and they didn't like what they saw. So I think the management and jockeys, everybody together, decided 'Let's work on this' to try to get it to the satisfaction of everybody.”

Horses break from the gate at Thistledown | JJ Zamaiko

Wright has his own theories about the track's problems, which he said largely come down to two issues: The recent lack of rain, compounded by repeated difficulties in getting his crew of employees to follow maintenance orders.

“When I first started to work here, we went 34 consecutive race days without a single incident,” Wright said. “When it was raining, we were great, because I would level that racetrack every day. I would make sure that it was conditioned and harrowed every day.”

Wright said the problems with the track surface began to pick up once the rain ceased to fall earlier this summer. The top got too loose while the bottom got too hard. He said he tried to underscore to his crew the importance of adding water, but that they would not consistently comply with his requests.

“I don't mean to throw my guys under the bus, but a spade's a spade here,” Wright said.

According to Wright's version of events, when some employees responded to his orders by swearing at him and refusing to do the work, he began putting his track maintenance orders in writing, via text messages, so he would have a written record to document the work he wanted done.

“My separation notice says that I had threatened one of my employees. I did not threaten one of my employees,” Wright said. “Any time that I had asked one of my employees to do something, I got called a [expletive] and they walked off and ignored it. They're all Teamsters. You can tell by my accent I'm from Texas, and I'm not used to dealing with unions.”

Wright told TDN that he reported this alleged insubordination to Thistledown's management and human resources department. Although he maintains that he did not threaten any specific employee, he did admit to TDN that he told his bosses he was almost at the point of punching someone if the verbal attacks kept up, which was another reason he wanted his exchanges with workers documented via text messages.

“I didn't know what to do, but I know I damn sure didn't deserve to be called a [expletive] every time I asked somebody to do their job,” Wright said.

Wright said that once the catastrophic injuries reached a total of eight this month, he, track management, and a HISA on-site representative all concurred that the Racing Surfaces Testing Laboratory needed to be asked to come in and do another inspection to see what had changed since the pre-meet track analysis in March.

The testing was done on Saturday, July 19, Wright said. Although the complete analysis has not been finalized, Wright said he rode along with the testing crew as they circled the track taking readings that looked for inconsistencies under the surface, and that he was told that the preliminary results looked good or “probably even better” than March's readings.

“I went around there with them for the measurements. You can tell when the raw data's coming back what it kind of looks like,” Wright said.

On Sunday there was no racing at Thistledown, but training occurred without incident, Wright said.

“Monday I got there about 12:30 in the morning. I went out there and I leveled the racetrack like I usually do, and then I brought out the conditioner to cut the racetrack, because that's what I use as a cut harrow. I called for water and the night crew started watering.”

At 6:00 a.m. the track opened for training, with Wright back in his office to attend to paperwork.

But Wright said within 15 minutes his phone was “ringing off the hook” with complaints about how bad the track looked.

Wright said he stepped out to look at it, and it appeared evident to him that the crew hadn't done the necessary follow-up watering or harrowing. Wright said he cut short training and personally oversaw the work to try and get the track ready for that afternoon's racing.

After that is when he went to the stewards and HISA with his concerns.

Wright was called in for an afternoon conference with his bosses and then told later that evening that he was fired.

Wright told TDN on Wednesday he has been in contact with a lawyer about possibly challenging the firing in court because he believes he was wrongfully terminated for speaking up about safety concerns.

He also said that he now has personal concerns about ever getting another track superintendent job in the industry with a termination that is “not justifiable” on his résumé.

“Some days I got there right after midnight, other days I didn't get there until three o'clock in the morning, but I usually didn't leave until after six o'clock in the afternoon, every day. I took off less than 10 days since I first started working there Mar. 18,” Wright said.

“I'd go into the jocks' room every day to try and get feedback from the riders. When we did start having accidents, I requested that I be able to go up to the stewards' box and watch the replays, and we watched them together, in slow motion, to try and figure out what went wrong. That's how much attention I've tried to pay to that racetrack,” Wright said.

Thistledown eventually ended up cancelling all of its racing this week (Monday through Thursday) to try and get the track back in order. Training is expected to resume Saturday, July 26, with racing to follow on Monday, July 28.

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