Howard Taylor goes after Hanover and the USTA

As reported by Andrew Cohen, The Surick investigation was supposed to be a coming-out party for the United States Trotting Association’s investigative arm. It was. It has also left bad blood between major Standardbred industry stakeholders and many lingering questions for the rest of us.

Howard Taylor is at the center of a lot of things in harness racing. For our purposes today, he’s the attorney for Diamond Creek*, one of the sport’s largest breeding and racing operations. Taylor was involved in the recently-completed investigation by the USTA’s Standardbred Racing Investigative Fund which resulted in sanctions against Diamond Creek executives and others for what the USTA has called improper contacts with Nick Surick, the disgraced former Standardbred owner and trainer who also raced some Thoroughbreds. Taylor represents other clients who were investigated by the SRIF, including some who were initially going to be sanctioned but were not.

“I believe the charges to be irrelevant to the issue, which is selective enforcement, and secrecy even from those charged,” Taylor told me last week. “That and the failure to offer an opportunity to appear before the Board to tell rebut.” I have written about Taylor before. This is not the only fight in which he is currently engaged within the Standardbred community. It’s fair to say, I think, that neither one of us is ever going to invite the other over for a bourbon. But that doesn’t mean that Taylor’s criticism of the USTA’s handling of the Surick investigation isn’t worth sharing. Here’s my lightly-edited interview with Taylor. The USTA’s response follows.

To read the full interview and the USTA’s response click here.

by Andrew Cohen for The Paulick Report, reprinted with permission from The Paulick Report