The New York Racing Association has scheduled a hearing for March 6 to consider whether the trainer Kevin Bond should be barred from its racetracks based on allegations of anti-semitic social media posts and physical and verbal abuse of other backstretch workers, according to a statement of charges released by NYRA on Friday afternoon. The statement of charges alleges that Bond made several social media posts, including one appearing on Facebook on Dec. 16, using hateful speech in reaction to a sympathetic post about the murder of the director Rob Reiner and his wife, that expressed prejudice against Jews and members of the LGBTQ community. The statement of charges also references three alleged altercations on the backstretch in which Bond either verbally abused or physically abused NYRA officials or backstretch workers. A message left for Bond was not immediately returned. Bond has claimed that his Facebook account was hacked and has denied writing the post in reaction to the Reiner murders. Bond’s attorney, Clark Brewster, provided a statement when asked to comment on NYRA’s decision to pursue a case against his client. “The action against Kevin is truly unprecedented,” Brewster said. “I have suggested to NYRA’s counsel that their new mission to police content on social media is an ambitious one. They will likely find offensive posts from horsemen and those in the race industry daily.” Racetracks and other businesses generally have broad powers to exclude individuals, provided the exclusion is not based on protected characteristics, such as age, sex, or gender. In its statement of charges, NYRA also references several provisions of its stall application that purports to give NYRA the right to exclude if a “trainer or its employees engages in unlawful, discriminatory, or harassing practices.” The Facebook post on Dec. 16 was immediately condemned by NYRA’s chief executive, David O’Rourke, and it sent off an investigation that led to the charges. In a public statement, O’Rourke said on Dec. 17 that “NYRA condemns in the strongest possible terms the vile, anti-semitic comments” allegedly posted by Bond. The statement of charges includes numerous emails exchanged between NYRA officials and Bond in December and early January in which the trainer continues to deny writing the post but says that he cannot provide NYRA investigators with certain forms of evidence that would prove the account was hacked because he disabled his Facebook account. Bond eventually hired Brewster, an Oklahoma-based attorney and horse owner, in early January, according to the statement of charge. In an email to Joi Garner, NYRA’s general counsel, Brewster said that Bond would be willing to meet with NYRA officials and a “qualified data security expert” to address the claims. Bond then met with a NYRA steward and reiterated his claim that the account was hacked, the statement of charges said. Following that exchange, according to the statement of charges, NYRA reviewed other social media accounts allegedly controlled by Bond and found several other examples of hate speech, including several directed at Jews. The statement of charges also references an incident in June 2024, when Bond allegedly “engaged in abusive and physically threatening behavior” toward the gate crew that led to security guards removing Bond from the location. In addition, it alleges that a hot walker told NYRA security that Bond punched him in the face on July 8, 2024, and, the following day, that Bond “verbally abused a NYRA outrider and subsequently sent vulgar text messages.” NYRA used a statement of charges in 2021 to pursue a ban of the trainer Bob Baffert after his horse Medina Spirit tested positive for a regulated medication after winning that year’s Kentucky Derby. Baffert’s lawyers challenged the process, but a ruling in a federal court eventually held that NYRA could issue bans provided it complied with certain protocols designed to protect due process. Bond, the son of trainer James Bond and Tina Bond, the president of the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association, has won nine races from 75 starts in his two years of training. He won the first race at Aqueduct on Dec. 28. At that time, he had eight horses stabled at Belmont Park. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.