Howard Taylor at odds with Hambletonian Society and Gural

“Fire Sale”

Those were the immediate thoughts of North American harness racing owner, Howard Taylor, following the aftermath of a Hambletonian Society meeting eight days ago which upheld its decision to exclude him from most Hambletonian Society-administered stakes held at The Meadowlands.

Harnesslink understands that the group led by President, John Campbell, met recently to discuss a possible overture of a decision that led to Taylor’s horses being prohibited from entering any races at the Jeff Gural-operated tracks except the Hambletonian, Hambletonian Oaks and Hambletonian Maturity.

Taylor was hopeful “common sense” would prevail with rumblings from members of the Hambletonian Society being most unpleased with the blanket ban stemming from a decision of a track owner.

“My understanding is that there were a couple of people on that Board that were very upset and wanted guarantees from the hosts of future races under their umbrella that they won’t be dictated to with provisions like the exclusions we have with the Gural-owned tracks.

“That hasn’t eventuated and it’s too early to say exactly what course of action I will take going forward,” he said.

Having paid hundreds of thousands in staking payments in the last two years for horses who are now unable to compete under his ownership, Taylor now finds his commitment to the industry at a crossroads.

“When I first learned of the Hambletonian Society exclusions, I called John Campbell and he confirmed it all,” said Taylor.

“I was arguing with him about the exclusions from their races and he threatened to take the Hambletonian away from me also. I said to him that they conduct the races and they are not owned by The Meadowlands, and furthermore when I made an exuberant amount of stakes payments to the Hambletonian Society, there was no fine print or disclaimer stating that your subject to exclusion from these races at the whim of the owner of the host track. And that is what ended up happening,” he said.

“It’s immaterial,” Campbell told DRF Harness’s Derick Giwner when asked if there had been a change in policy at the outset of the decision to exclude those on the Meadowlands exclusion list. “Outside of the Hambletonian races, it has always been up to Jeff (Gural). At the end of the conditions, it says that we race under the rules of the USTA, Commissions and Tracks, so if the track rules change, we have to race under them regardless of which host track we are racing at.“

“I wrote a letter to the Hambletonian Society because most of them are breeders who will be affected if my partners and I decide not to buy any yearlings. They might decide to continue purchasing from the sales, but if they aren’t buying them with me, they will invariably be buying less,” said Taylor.

“I am partners with some of the most prominent owners in the business to some degree and while I don’t want to be seen or portrayed to be throwing the proverbial toys out of the cot, what would you do in this situation?

“What I can do and what we’re contemplating is taking some action against the Hambletonian Society for agreeing to this and putting me into this situation. They chose The Meadowlands; they chose the terms, and they should have told me there was a chance I would be excluded at the whim of the racetrack owner.

“I’m 64 and before me, my father started purchasing horses when I was around 12 years of age. He loved to buy yearlings so we would go to Harrisburg every year because it was closest to us. So, for the last 50 years, I have either gone and bought a horse with either my father or on my own accord except for this last year. I didn’t go, and I didn’t purchase one either. It was the first time ever.

“If Gural had made that announcement three weeks earlier before the Lexington sale I can honestly say I wouldn’t have bought a yearling whatsoever. He has sapped the fun out of it and I am seriously contemplating for the first time in my life just getting out,” he said.

Taylor has informed Harnesslink that two of his partners have decided to remove themselves from ownership interests with Taylor due to the exclusions, something that has been a considerable strain on Taylor who with upwards of 150 horses in ownership, most with partners, is caught somewhat between a rock and a hard place.

With little hope for reaching a resolution, Taylor’s ownership interests in horses including last year’s Breeders Crown 2YO Fillies Champion, My Girl EJ (Sweet Lou), will have to either be sold, or be left with the possibility of missing massive stake opportunities.

“The Misletoe Shalee is just around the corner and it’s really going to test some of the relationships I have forged not just with My Girl EJ, but other partners who I have a bunch of two-year-old’s coming through that are about to be tested and tried,” he said.

“I might not be the smartest person in the world, but I’m far from the dumbest. If there was a zillionth of a chance that by filing a suit, I could be bringing something against myself and my partners, I wouldn’t have done it. I have nothing to hide,” he said.

The filed suit Taylor speaks of is the lawsuit against Gural with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, alleging “assault, libel and slander” as a result of claims made by Gural following the Meadowlands release where Taylor’s was singled out as knowingly purchased illegal synthetic drugs.

“Gural said that the real shame was that Howard Taylor is an owner, not a trainer, with 150 horses in work in barns all over the country and he had to have been giving it to his trainers and making him use it on his horses and not one of the trainers picked up the phone to tell us what was going on.

“It’s preposterous. I’ve never ordered a product for an animal in my life. I have never received anything for horse use in my life. The claims amount to libel and slander and I have a lawsuit against Gural as a result of the article that was published and a conference call he was a part of where he claimed he knew that I was purchasing illegal substances and was telling trainers to use it, and if they ever got caught, I would be able to get them off,” he said.

The defamation proceedings will naturally provide Gural with an opportunity to substantiate the claims he made against Taylor which if proven true would undoubtedly be damning.

However, one would have to seriously question why Taylor, a man well versed in the court of law, would file such proceedings if he felt the claims were anything other than baseless and a personal attack.

Harnesslink understands that Gural has filed for a motion to dismiss the suit against him and Taylor’s representatives have filed to answer the motion with a decision expected soon as to whether the case will go ahead. Taylor fully expects that to be the case and would be “shocked’ if the case was thrown out, with the real fun to begin in a few months with discoveries and depositions.

“It’s still private property at the end of the day, so he can do whatever he wants,” said Taylor.

“But these defamation cases can be very damaging, and the ball is in his court to provide evidence beyond my name appearing on a list to support his claims. Putting Gural aside, there is not one person who has ever said I have ever done anything wrong, there is nobody that is accusing me of doing anything wrong, and I’m not being charged with doing anything wrong.

“I am not a trainer and out of literally 1000-line items, there were three that had the product BB3 associated as being purchased from Fishman and Equestology. I didn’t order any of the items myself, and I trust my trainers and have talked to pretty much every trainer that I have and none of them know what it is.

“I’ve had some sleepless nights, I can tell you that,” he said.

Gural responded to Harnesslink’s request for comments on the basis that not everybody on the exclusion list had been provided with the same opportunity to clear their name and provided some context to his reasoning as well as an update to when stakeholders can expect a conclusion to his own internal investigations into the Fishman documents.

“I believe several people have contacted us about why they are on the exclusion list, and I spoke to one individual who called me directly,” said Gural who late last year had claimed nobody on the original list had sought an explanation to their exclusion.

“As far as Jen Bongiorno is concerned, she was not accused of buying drugs from Fishman or Gianelli. She had horses that tested positive from samples taken by the FBI and sent to the Hong Kong Jockey Club,” Gural added.  “I accepted her explanation and agreed to allow her to resume racing at the Meadowlands on April 1.

“I expect in the next few weeks to have all the information from both the Gianelli trial and Fishman trial and that will enable us to set up meetings with those who have already been excluded and those who may be excluded once we have the information from the Fishman trial.

“We expect to have all the information from the Fishman trial by April 8, as it was not easy to get all the exhibits released by the court.  I always try to be fair, and one thing people should be aware of is that under the law if you buy any medication from a veterinarian, it is illegal for you to use that medication unless the veterinarian has examined your horse.

“Fishman testified under oath that he had never examined horses so anyone who purchased medication from him and used it on horses were acting illegally,” Gural said.

by Brad Reid, for Harnesslink