Indiana racing commission fires executive director Gorajec

The Indiana Horse Racing Commission voted unanimously on Saturday to dismiss longtime executive director Joe Gorajec, following months of pressure applied by horse-racing interests in the state.

The commission voted 4-0 to dismiss Gorajec during an unusual executive session scheduled for a Saturday morning, according to officials with knowledge of the vote. Deena Pittman, the assistant executive director, was made interim executive director.

Although commission officials could not immediately be reached Saturday, commission chairman Thomas Weatherwax told an Indiana newspaper on Friday that the commission would dismiss Gorajec because he has been “too focused on enforcing regulations and not focused enough on marketing and promoting horse racing within the state.”

Gorajec, who had been the executive director at the IHRC since it was launched in 1990, has been a polarizing figure in the horse-racing community, both in Indiana and in other states. In an interview Saturday after the commission reached the decision, Gorajec said he believed he was fired because of his role in enforcing the state’s regulations and the impact it had on people’s willingness to race in the state.

“Despite their protestations to the contrary, the commission would much rather prefer that Indiana have a normal regulatory environment,” Gorajec said. “By that I mean an environment that welcomes all, which means filling races and keeping people happy rather than having a strong regulatory presence.”

Supporters have contended that Gorajec’s efforts over the past decade to crack down on illegal backstretch practices have driven the worst elements out of the game and put other bad actors on notice. Many of Gorajec’s most enthusiastic supporters, however, do not race in Indiana.

Critics have said that Gorajec’s aggressive tactics have stepped over the line in many cases, leading to a culture of mistrust and fear. They also have accused Gorajec of playing favorites, discarding due-process protections for those under investigation, and interpreting cases inconsistently.

(For an in-depth look at a case pursued by Gorajec, see “Indiana vet case draws scrutiny, debate.”)

According to horse-racing representatives in Indiana, the Standardbred racing industry has been especially aggressive in applying pressure to have Gorajec fired, though he also has ruffled feathers among Thoroughbred interests.

Breeders in both industries have consistently lodged complaints that Gorajec has neglected the state’s breeding program, which derives the vast majority of its funding from casinos in the state, including those at Indiana’s two racetracks. Those complaints had trickled up to Centaur Gaming, the owner of both Hoosier Park and Indiana Grand, which also has voiced its displeasure with Gorajec’s tenure, according to Indiana horse-racing representatives.

Those complaints about the breeding program, however, are thought by many supporters of Gorajec to be a smokescreen for horsemen’s irritation with the heavy hand that Gorajec has used to investigate and punish alleged wrongdoings on the backstretch. Over the past five years, Gorajec has been especially aggressive in enforcing medication standards, and Indiana has often been among the leaders in adopting new, stricter rules on both therapeutic and illegal medications.

Gorajec has also drawn the ire of several high-profile owners, such as Maggi Moss, who pulled all of her horses from Indiana last year out of dissatisfaction with how Gorajec conducted investigations and pursued alleged violations. One of Moss’s trainers, Tom Amoss, is serving a 45-day suspension for an overage for the therapeutic medication methocarbamol in one of his horses who raced in Indiana in 2011. The adjudication of the case took four years.

When asked if he had any regrets, Gorajec replied: “Absolutely not.”

“I think there can always be improvements in anything you do, but any improvements I would have made would have been further in the direction of pro-integrity and not backpedaling on that at all,” he said. Gorajec also denied sidestepping due-process protections.

Weatherwax said in the Indiana newspaper report that commissioners felt that Indiana’s tracks and breeding program needed more help from the commission.

“We’re at a crossroads,” said Weatherwax, who served in Indiana’s senate for 24 years before retiring in 2008. “It just takes a little different attitude to take it to the next level. We’re going to be doing more to promote and market our business and get more people involved. Everything I’m telling you is economic development.”

Gorajec said he was given the option by the commission to resign on Wednesday. He refused and told the commission that it would have to fire him.

“Absolutely, there was a principle to stand on,” Gorajec said. “I had done absolutely nothing wrong. I’d done nothing but regulate the industry to the best of my abilities.”