New York vet Galvin charged for not filing treatment records

Michael Galvin, a longtime racetrack veterinarian on the New York Racing Association circuit, has been charged by the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority with failing to provide the organization with treatment records for hundreds of horses, according to a notice posted on HISA’s website.

Galvin, who has been cited for improper record-keeping by regulators and racetracks in the past, allegedly failed to submit 3,951 treatment records for 497 horses he treated between the dates of Jan. 1, 2023, and March 7, 2024, according to the notice. The notice stated twice that HISA’s rules require the charges to be “publicly disclosed.”

Galvin is the first veterinarian that HISA has charged with violations related to its record-keeping requirements since the authority safety rules went into effect in the summer of 2022. Under the rules, all veterinary treatments administered to racehorses under HISA’s jurisdiction must be submitted to the authority.

Last year, HISA produced three reports examining fatalities at racetracks, including a spate of deaths at NYRA’s Saratoga Race Course, in which the authority acknowledged that veterinarians were not in full compliance with the record-keeping rules. The reports, which included references to veterinary treatments to some but not all of the deceased horses, said that HISA intended to seek full compliance in the coming months.

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Kim Bonstrom, an attorney whose name and email address appears on the notice, said on Tuesday that neither himself nor Galvin had received the notice of charges and had only learned about the existence of the document earlier in the day by reading a news report. An email for Galvin also appears in the report, which says that the notice was sent to the two individuals on Aug. 23.

The notice says that Galvin has until Aug. 30 to provide a written response to alleged violations. The response could include “a statement admitting the violation or explaining the reasons why you believe that a violation has not occurred” or a “detailed explanation of a remedial plan you propose to undertake to cure the violation,” the notice says.

After the Aug. 30 date, HISA will schedule a hearing to consider the violations, the notice said.

The violations could carry a number of different penalties, according to the notice, including “denial or suspension” of Galvin’s HISA registration or other sanctions that would preclude Galvin from working as a racetrack practitioner at facilities under HISA’s jurisdiction.

In 1998, Galvin was banned by NYRA after the association accused the veterinarian of using a nasal-gastric tube on a filly on the day she was entered to race. The decision was overturned by a federal court on appeal. Galvin then sued NYRA for $30 million, but the two parties reached a $500,000 settlement shortly after a trial opened.

New York’s racing regulatory commission eventually suspended Galvin for 45 days for “improper record-keeping” based on his use of the tube, but that penalty was reduced to a $250 fine on appeal.

In 2021, NYRA again banned Galvin, citing “operational and administrative issues” of his practice. The ban lasted less than one week, with NYRA restoring his credential to operate after the veterinarian “took action to address these issues,” according to a NYRA spokesman at the time.

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