Shetler vs Indiana Racing Commission: not a pretty story

Harness racing trainer-driver Andy Shetler has been involved in the sport for 30 years.

During his 30 years in the business, Shetler, 50, has had one horse positive infraction, and that was 23 years ago.

But why has he had to sit on the sidelines for the entire 2023 race season and now is expected to be out of racing until January 2025?

It all started on June 13, 2022, when the Indiana Harness Racing Commission (IHRC) suspended Shetler for 90 days as he was discovered on video injecting horses with hypodermic needles multiple times on association grounds. Later that day, Shetler’s truck was searched by officials at Harrah’s Hoosier Park, and he was found in possession of hypodermic needles, syringes and/or injectable and/or other drugs according to the IHRC.

Then the situation grew even worse as Shetler was informed on December 5, 2023,  that based on the unanimous adoption of the Administrative Law Judge’s Proposed Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law, and Non-Final Order by the members of the Indiana Horse Racing Commission at its November 30, 2023, meeting, Shetler is suspended for a period of eighteen (18) months (credited 149 days for time previously served under suspension) beginning on December 4, 2023, through January 6, 2025, and fined a total of $3,000.

Shetler’s world was falling apart.

“This has been a railroad job,” Shelter said. “I think they are trying to make a statement with the cameras they put in the barns. There’re not working. They hadn’t caught anyone with them.

“I never injected my horses,” Shelter explained. “All they found in their search was two empty bottles that had plunger ends on them that you could stick a needle in them, but they were not horse related. They found them in my cooler in the back of my truck and they had been there for six to eight months. I had forgotten about them when I used them in Florida during the winter.”

Then how could all of these days of suspension and fines be tacked on to him? Did they let Shetler, and his attorney see these videos?

“Yes, they did, and you see nothing on them,” Shetler said. “I was dose syringing horses with electrolytes in the bath stall and I had one that needed Robaxin and Robaxin will test positive. So, I didn’t want him spitting it all over the walls in his stall and licking it, so I took him to the bath stall. I always gave my horses their meds in the bath stall so they could not contaminate their regular stall and end up getting me a positive test.

“Now they say I was giving him a needle injection.” Shetler added. “And it was all speculation on their behalf. It was all that they thought they were seeing.”

So, what is the next step for Shetler to try and get his license back?

“I am appealing this most recent decision,” Shetler explained. “You can see what the judge ruled. The bottles they (IHRC) claimed had EPO (All-natural blood builder to supercharge speed, strength and endurance) in them, which they didn’t. And I beat them on that. Then they went to something else, then something else again because they don’t know what to say because they don’t know.

“So, then an Administrative Law Judge ruled that there were no needle injections.” Shetler explained. “The vials didn’t test for anything, they were inconclusive. The only thing they could get me for was the was two vials. There were no needles, no syringes, no nothing and nothing on the videos.”

It should be noted that in many jurisdictions, once an outside judge makes a ruling, that the racing commission does not have to abide by the ruling.

“Now they (IHRC) are running with this thing and trying to make me look bad,” Shetler said. “That’s because they can’t stand that they got beat in court. Then the judge had ruled that I do the 18 months in a row, from Aug. 5 to Feb. 5 of 2024 and they went behind his back and came up with another year and one month more suspension. This is what we are appealing.”

Shetler has been unable to race throughout all of 2023, yet the IHRC said they were giving him credit for 149 days served before the new suspension and fines begin. But what happened to the remaining 200 plus days this year he was not allowed to race? None of this seems to add up.

“Other people in the backstretch at Hoosier have been caught with needles and syringes and everything else and they get 60 days and a $1,000 fine,” Shetler said. “How am I getting 400 days and a $3,000 fine?”

Shelter said he has already spent more than $100,000 in attorney fees to clear his name and he is not done yet.

Since he was first suspended, what has Andy Shetler been doing to keep busy since he had not been allowed to race his horses?

“Currently I have been helping Dan O’Mara in Ohio,” Sheltler said. “He had an accident and got paralyzed from the waist down, so I have over there helping him out. Now the IHRC has called the Ohio Racing Commission and they told Dan that if he kept me working on horses that were racing in Ohio that they would scratch his horses and suspend him.

“I was working for Joey Putnam before that,” Shelter explained. “And they run me off of his farm. It’s crazy.

“Now the IHRC told me if I wanted to continue working with racehorses that I would have to apply for a new license,” Shetler said. “They are just going to deny me. But that’s what they want to do. They think I am going to fall into their trap so they can suspend me for something else.

“They have also called my owners and are trying to get them for false ownership,” Shetler said. “And that is on some horses we had two years ago. They just won’t quit.

“My attorney said that they won’t quit because they got beat in court,” Shelter added. They (IHRC) even sent over a representative to Ohio to Dan O’Mara’s stable to say that I have horses racing out of his stable. They chip read each of the horses and found nothing out of order.

“They suspended me and then tried to prove why,” Shetler added. “I have been sidelined for 18 months now. This should all be over with and now they want to tack on 400 more days and a $3,000 fine. And I have no idea how they picked December 4, 2023, to start all of this over again.

“They even tried to pin me for giving a race day injection to a horse at Hoosier Park that they said they had video of me doing,” Shetler laughed. “That same night I had seven drives at Pompano Park in Florida. It took them a week before they figured that one out. They love to throw stuff up on the wall and see if it will stick.

“You know that I never even had a judge’s hearing on these fines and suspensions,” Shelter said. “I never knew a thing until the track judge Dave MaGee called me at home and told me my horses were scratched that night.”

It remains to be seen what the future will hold for Andy Shetler.

by Steve Wolf, for Harnesslink