Tom Chuckas

The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) Authority's Anti-Doping and Medication Control (ADMC) program, which was expected to go into effect May 1 after twice having its start delayed this year, is reportedly now not going to be implemented for an additional three weeks, until May 22, according to comments made by Tom Chuckas at Tuesday's Pennsylvania Horse Racing Commission meeting. TDN is attempting to confirm that news with the HISA Authority after hearing the new ADMC start date discussed at the meeting. Chuckas, the director of Thoroughbred horse racing...

Over the past few months there have been stories about various State Racing Commissions doing or not doing things for the good of the sport. The Triple Crown season always brings more of a spotlight on the sport and, most times, how there is no progress being made. Quietly, however, one State Racing Commission has been making positive strides in improving the safety, welfare, and integrity of the sport and industry. That state is Pennsylvania. There perhaps has not been a more public vocal critic of the Racing Commission than...

Jockey Mychel Sanchez, who has been suspended 60 days by the Pennsylvania Racing Commission for betting on horses other than the ones he rode, is not a cheat or a race-fixer, his attorney told the TDN Friday. Rather, said lawyer Alan Pincus, Sanchez was dealing with a serious case of depression and took to gambling as an outlet. Pincus said that in all instances Sanchez tried his best to win the races in question, whether he had bet against his own horse or not. "It was clear he was giving...

One month after initially stating at a Pennsylvania Horse Racing Commission (PHRC) meeting that May backstretch raids at Parx yielded a "significant amount of contraband" and "items that have no business on the backside," Tom Chuckas, the director of Thoroughbred horse racing for the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, gave a Tuesday update that now describes the yield from those searches in markedly less sensationalistic terms. "In the last months, enforcement action was taken both at Penn National and at Parx," Chuckas told commissioners at the June 29 PHRC meeting during...

According to a ruling posted on the Pennsylvania Horse Racing Commission's website, trainer Ricardo (Richie) Vega had been "summarily suspended" by the stewards at Parx Racetrack. The story was first reported by the website www.theracingbiz.com. The decision comes after the racing commission staged a backstretch raid at Parx over the weekend of May 22-23. Investigators searched cars, barns and grooms' quarters. Tom Chuckas, who heads the Pennsylvania Racing Commission, reported to his fellow regulators during a Zoom call that "a significant amount of contraband" had been uncovered and that the...

Recent backstretch raids staged by the Pennsylvania Racing Commission at Parx have uncovered what Director of Thoroughbred Horse Racing at Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture Tom Chuckas described as a "significant amount of contraband" and "items that have no business on the backside." Chuckas made the revelations during a regularly scheduled meeting Tuesday of the Pennsylvania Racing Commission. The meeting was held over Zoom and a one-minute-and-twenty second segment was captured and posted on Twitter by veterinarian Kathryn Papp. Pennsylvania Racing Commissioner Russell Jones took part in the meeting and confirmed...