NJRC Judy Nason: Charlatan or cheat? Where is Jeff Gural?

Let’s start this article by saying Harnesslink truly believes harness racing would be much poorer were it not for Jeff Gural.

His unwavering commitment to the industry across many facets is something only a chosen few can lay claim to. Not everything he decides is popular, but that is what true leadership resembles. Having the courage to pursue a vision, leading by example, and expecting honesty and accountability in return.

They say the best disinfectant is sunlight, and Gural has been relentless in his desire to clean up the sport of harness racing and expects those who participate and compete at his tracks to do so with the utmost integrity.

Integrity is the very thing that underpins the social license and future sustainability of the sport. Without it, we have little chance of deriving an income from the bettors (and most participants) who demand a level playing field, and the general public, to whom the perception around animal welfare is perhaps the single greatest threat to racing’s survival.

Gural understands that better than almost anyone.

While there are those who will criticize his unabated and at times harsh decisions to penalize those who fall afoul of the standards he employs, it is quite simple. Mess around, and you might find out for yourself.

It is this continued commitment to transparency and professional integrity that has us confused as to how a man like Gural can be sitting on the sidelines watching on as several horseman who have proven themselves over a number of decades to be worthy adversaries get hung out to dry by the New Jersey Racing Commission.

Surely the expectation of integrity and the application of it is a two-way street.

Given the very concept of integrity is based on consistency of actions, values, methods, measures and principles, but also expectations and outcomes, the hypocrisy from the New Jersey Racing Commission in the very state Gural operates in has to be concerning.

To date, the silence has been deafening.

Where are you, Jeff? Or as the popular children’s TV Group ‘The Wiggles’ would say, “wake up Jeff!”

This issue stretches well beyond that of the livelihoods of the license holders, it implicates owners who through no fault of their own (nor their trainers and vets) are required to return purse money earned almost four years ago.

How can you look them in the eye and demand integrity when the New Jersey Racing Commission by which you operate has adopted a stance of no integrity?

Letter to NJ Gov. Murphy from trainer Kelvin Harrison

Dear Governor Phil Murphy,

On January 11^th, 2024, I will begin a 30-day suspension for two Bute positives in which I am alleged to have broken the 48-hour withholding rule in the state of New Jersey. These positives will also incur a monetary fine of $1,500.

As I reflect on my 55-plus years in the horse business which has brought me immense joy along with over 2,500 career training victories, I find it hard to believe what the industry is becoming.

Fellow horsemen Nifty Norman and I, Brett Pelling, Jeff Cullipher, Marcus Melander, Richard Johnson and Kevin McDermott have been railroaded by the decisions of the New Jersey Racing Commission, particularly those of the Executive Director, Judy Nason.

This group of horsemen have worked extremely hard at their craft and together won in the tens of thousands of races over our careers. These wins include almost every major race in North America, and we are passionate about what we do, just as we are about upholding the integrity which is tantamount to the future success of the industry.

The majority of the affected horsemen are a lot younger than me, and it is fair to say they are reluctant to make a lot of noise about the positives and penalties imposed for fear of retribution.

But as I am 73 and in the twilight of my career, I feel a little differently and don’t have a lot to lose by standing up for what is fair and right. It saddens me the future direction this sport seems to be heading and I can’t see how the penalties and the way they have unjustly been imposed is doing anything to attract new business, participants or young people looking at harness racing as a possible career pathway.

When I was first called for the positives, we were being penalized for, I recorded on my phone the current ruling as it stated on the New Jersey Racing Commission website which at the time was showing to be 24 hours instead of the 48-hour rule we had allegedly broken.

When I showed this to the judges presiding over the New Jersey Racing Commission and their findings, I asked them to let their conscience be their guide given the fact the communication around any changing of the rule was non-existent, and according to their own published records, had in fact not been changed at all.

I was extremely disappointed they still chose to deliver a guilty verdict.

I know the Judges very well having dealt with them on various matters throughout the course of my career. They were clearly uncomfortable with the decision, so I was left without any doubt that the ruling had in fact come from a higher power who we also know to be an ABSOLUTE abuse of their power.

I am of the belief their needs to be an independent inquiry into the New Jersey Racing Commission, especially its Director, Judy Nason.

We can prove with certainty that the rule change was never presented to anyone in the Harness Racing Community. No management, veterinarians or license holders for that matter. How are licensed medical professionals such as Vets supposed to do their job and uphold the ethics associated with administering therapeutic products if there is no clear communication on such a fundamental rule change.

None of the trainers charged have ever incurred a Bute positive in states where the ruling is a 48-hour withholding period. The rule in New Jersey has been 24 hours for the majority of my career, and it’s rather ironic that some weeks on from being charged for the breach of the rule, the New Jersey Racing Commission continues to promote on its own website that the withholding period for Bute is 24 hours!

What I am finding very hard to understand is why somebody would try to abuse their position of power and admit no wrongdoing of their own. It is impossible to follow the rules if we aren’t informed of them changing, just as it is impossible to follow the rules if the party responsible for governing the sport continue to communicate to the industry and wider public a rule different to the one we are being charged with!

There isn’t another Racing Commission in the United States of America that would pull this sort of stunt and be so stubborn when it is clear they are at fault, and not those being charged.

Finally, anyone making an application for a New Jersey license for the new racing season in 2024 is asked on the form: “Have you read the rules of racing in New Jersey?”

The rules in question, N.J.A.C. 13:71-23.8(f)1 and 2, prescribe a 24-hour period in the online version of the document, which is listed as up-to-date as of Jan. 9, 2024. No amendments to the section are registered since 2014. It reads;

“Phenylbutazone and Flunixin are not to be administered within the 24 hours before post time for the race in which the horse is entered.”

Regardless of your age or experience, if the New Jersey Racing Commission is continuing to communicate rules which are antiquated and wrong, how can anyone be expected to adhere to the rules of racing?

Are we meant to guess?

And it begs the question, what other rules have changed that we are not aware of?

People’s livelihoods are at stake, and we are expected to be mind readers.

The New York Giants and Jets play regularly just a few hundred meters from The Meadowlands racetrack. Can you imagine the NFL referees moving the goal posts shortly after the kicker has lined up and made contact with his field goal attempt?

The affected horseman have put on the show in the state New Jersey and further afield for decades, and we are being hung out to dry with many of those who have benefited from our horses racing still missing in action.

I would love somebody smarter than me to make sense of this ludicrous and farcical affair.

Sincerely,

Kelvin Harrison

Above is the current 2024 racing license application. It asks trainers if they have read and are familiar with the rules of racing in New Jersey? Yet, the NJRC rules for Standardbred racing still states going on four years that the 24-hour Bute ruling is still in effect.

This all brings to question was the 48-hour Bute rule ever presented to the Standardbred Breeders and Owners Association of NJ, the veterinarians and harness racing trainers that race in New Jersey as NJ Racing Commission Executive Director Judith Nason says it was?

Or did this group of horsemen, Brett Pelling, Kelvin Harrison, Kevin McDermott, Marcus Melander, Richard Johnson, Nifty Norman and others, along with veterinarians Dr. Robert H. Bende and Dr. Stephen Dey, III, all just have brain freeze?

Even SBOANJ President Mark Ford has stated that their organization has never received notification of this rule change until the positive tests were just announced.

Here are other related articles:

Leading trainers railroaded by Judy Nason (NJRC) with Bute positives – Harnesslink

“Bute” positive NJRC reports are updated – Harnesslink

Thoroughbred trainer fighting suspension he claims due to contamination – Harnesslink

Jim Slendorn refused entries at The Meadowlands – Harnesslink

by Harnesslink Media, with letter from Kelvin Harrison