Former Hawthorne vet files lawsuit over pre-race exams

A former regulatory veterinarian at Hawthorne Race Course in Cicero, Illinois, has filed a federal lawsuit alleging that personnel at the track and Illinois Racing Board conspired to overrule her determinations that some horses were unfit to race, according to a copy of the lawsuit.

Christine Tuma, who conducted pre-race examinations at Hawthorne for the 2022 and 2023 meets, made the allegations in a lawsuit filed Thursday in U.S District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. In the suit, she contends that she was fired by the track in July 2023 after she collected evidence to support her claims and filed a complaint with the Illinois Racing Board, a defendant in the suit, and the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority.

The lawsuit, which alleges a conspiracy among the racetrack and IRB personnel under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, is seeking damages for Tuma’s termination.

“The RICO defendants are liable for the damages caused to Dr. Tuma . . . due to their illegal termination of Dr. Tuma for attempting to stop the criminal activity ofthe [defendants], by reporting it to the regulators at the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority and the IRB,” the lawsuit states.

In a statement, Hawthorne called the lawsuit “false and misguided,” and the track said that it would “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 Illinois Racing Board,” the statement said. “These professionals have dedicated their careers at Hawthorne and the racing board to performing with the highest degree of professionalism.”

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Similarly, the IRB rejected the claims and said that the board had conducted an investigation into Tuma’s claims in the spring of 2023.

“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,” said Dominic DiCera, executive director of the IRB. “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.”

DiCera also said “we vociferously reject any allegation of unethical conduct and will make our case in court.”

The lawsuit contends that Hawthrone and IRB personnel overruled Tuma’s veterinary diagnoses in order to boost field size at the track, and, in some cases, allow a race to be run as a wagering event under Illinois’s minimum field-size regulations. Higher field sizes typically translate into increased wagering on races.

In the lawsuit, Tuma says that she submitted diagnoses on more than 30 horses during the 2022 Hawthorne meet and “at least 50 horses” during the 2023 meet claiming that the horses were unfit to race. The suit alleges that a second examining veterinarian submitted contradictory diagnoses, and that those diagnoses were in nearly all cases accepted by the state veterinarian, allowing the horses to run.

The suit also alleges that records of her recommendations to scratch horses “on multiple occasions” were changed by state and racetrack vets to indicate that the horse had been scratched by the trainer. Because of the alteration, the suit alleges, the scratched horse would not be required to be placed on the vet’s list.

The suit states that Tuma expressed her concerns to HISA personnel in 2022, when HISA’s jurisdiction over most racetracks in the United States began. It does not describe any response from HISA. Tuma then field a “comprehensive whistleblower letter” to the IRB and HISA on March 20, 2023.

Tuma was fired by Hawthorne roughly three months after she filed the reports, on July 11, according to the lawsuit. The suit says that she was told she was being fired as “a cost-cutting measure.”

The suit itself quotes a text message sent by Hawthorne’s director of racing, Jim Miller, to other track personnel, obtained during the discovery process leading to the suit.

“I was informed this evening that due to the shorter fields and lack of horses on the backside that it didn’t make financial sense to have two pre-race vets for live racing days,” the text message said, according to the suit.

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