By T. D. Thornton
Christine Tuma, who formerly worked as an association veterinarian jointly employed by Hawthorne Race Course and the Illinois Racing Board (IRB), on Thursday filed a federal lawsuit against those two entities claiming her efforts to scratch over 80 lame or injured Thoroughbreds during the 2022 and 2023 race meets were met with an alleged conspiracy to overturn her actions so the unsound horses could be entered in races.
The lawsuit further contended that when Tuma reported this alleged conspiracy to state and federal government regulators, she was fired “in retaliation for blowing the whistle on the illegal activities.”
That termination came just 48 hours before a scheduled visit to the track by Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) Authority regulators, the suit alleged.
Hawthorne management and the IRB both denied the allegations when TDN requested comment Sept. 12.
An emailed statement from Hawthorne said, in part, “Tuma's lawsuit is false and misguided and Hawthorne will vigorously contest it in court….Tuma is using the legal system to settle professional disagreements with other, more experienced and accomplished veterinarians at the track and the IRB.”
Domenic DiCera, the IRB's executive director, wrote that, “When we were made aware of some of these allegations in March 2023, we immediately looked into the matter and alerted federal horse racing authorities. We found no credible evidence to support any allegations of wrongdoing at the time, nor have federal authorities made us aware of any substantiated allegations.”
WBEZ in Chicago, which first broke the story of the lawsuit, reported that Tuma has been licensed in Illinois since 2007 with no records of disciplinary action against her.
Tuma's lawsuit in United States District Court (Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division) is using the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) as a tool to try and collect damages.
RICO is a sweeping 1970 federal statute initially designed to combat the Mafia. But in a legal sense, it has long since lost its “organized crime” stigma, and RICO has evolved as a civil litigation component often asserted by purported victims of white-collar crimes, such as mail and wire fraud.
Also named in the suit as defendants are Hawthorne employees Jim Miller, the director of racing; John Walsh, the assistant general manager, and Dave White, the racing secretary. Beth Beuchler, a vet employed by Hawthorne; Dawn Folker-Calderon, the IRB's chief state vet, and two state stewards, Thomas Kelley and John Eddy, are also defendants.
“The entry of these horses into regulated Illinois races was not only a means for the RICO Defendants to induce wagers on horses that were not legally qualified to run, but in numerous instances, the certification of an additional horse in a race allowed the Enterprise to run races that did not meet the legally mandated minimum number of entries required to run a wagered race under Illinois law,” the suit stated.
“It was during the fall meeting in 2022 that Dr. Tuma uncovered the full extent of the illegal running of sick and lame horses,” the suit stated. “On or around the same time, Dr. Tuma uncovered and began investigating alterations of the medical records of these horses.
“Dr. Tuma recorded her assessments in the Track Manager software, which transmitted the medical assessments of horses running in Illinois to the IRB and HISA,” the suit stated. “Dr. Tuma discovered that on multiple occasions, her assessments of horses as 'scratch lame' had been tampered with by Calderon and Beuchler and changed to 'racing sound,' the indication to state regulators that the horse was fit to run, or 'scratch sick.'
“Dr. Tuma first noticed that when Beuchler assessed a horse as lame, requiring a minimum two-week layoff under federal law, Beuchler would surreptitiously ask the horses' trainer while in the barn during the pre-race exam if the trainer would prefer to scratch the horse themselves as 'sick' via the submission of a falsified trainer initiated scratch request,” the suit stated.
When Tuma expressed her concerns about the scratch process to Calderon, she was allegedly told, “This is how it's always done.”
Tuma's lawsuit stated that owners and trainers began to complain about her high number of scratch assessments, including one horseman who “caused a horse to lurch menacingly at her, threatening grave bodily harm.”
Another time, the suit alleged, a groom “physically battered her.”
The suit stated that when Tuma reported these incidents of abuse to track officials and the stewards, “only a nominal fine was levied against the perpetrators.”
When Tuma began making a series of complaints to the stewards about the “misclassification of horses as sick from lame,” she was informed by Calderon “that she had been stripped of her authority to scratch horses,” and that a new protocol requiring Beuchler to check her assessments would be in place, the suit stated.
“Finally, on March 20, 2023, Dr. Tuma delivered a comprehensive whistleblower letter to the IRB and HISA,” the suit stated.
The suit continued: “On or around the date Dr. Tuma submitted her comprehensive complaint to the IRB, Miller, who had theretofore never called Dr. Tuma directly on her cell phone, called her a minimum of six times to intimidate her about her lame scratches and to ensure that the maximum number of horses were run.”
Some 3 1/2 months later, the suit stated, just two days before HISA personnel were scheduled to visit Hawthorne for an inspection, “Dr. Tuma met with Walsh via Zoom on July 11, 2023, and was informed that she had been terminated based on the pretext that her termination was a cost-cutting measure.
“Dr. Tuma was terminated in retaliation for her protected activated of disclosing the activities of the Enterprise and to ensure that Dr. Tuma could not make any further disclosures regarding the scheme to the federal regulators,” the suit stated.
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