‘They’re Going To Take Down All Of Racing’: Here’s Why Legitimate Tracks Should Be Concerned About The Bush Circuit

On the morning of Aug. 5, 2022, the eyes of the American Thoroughbred racing world turned to Saratoga Springs, N.Y., where the sport's luminaries streamed into the Fasig-Tipton sales pavilion wearing their best dresses and freshly-pressed suits. It was induction day for the year's class of new Hall of Famers, a day that's often filled with pomp and nostalgia for those gathered, and a lead-in to another dreamy weekend of summertime stakes for racing fans elsewhere.

It's hard to say how many of them had the time to read a story published that morning by the Washington Post titled “A horse track with no rules,” the broadest and most pointed indictment of the bush racing circuit's lack of care for horses and riders in mainstream media thus far. The story acknowledged that author Gus Garcia-Roberts, a sports-focused investigative reporter for the Post, received some information about the abuses at bush tracks from animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) but also that Post reporters independently confirmed many of the group's claims. Blatant injections of horses on the track with syringes later revealed to contain methamphetamine and methylphenidate (Ritalin) and open carrying of electrical shock devices by jockeys were noted by Post reporters on scene. Videos and photos readily available on social media show gruesome fatal breakdowns of horses on poorly-cultivated track surfaces where no official veterinarians are present.

For many people who live in the world of state-regulated Thoroughbred racing, the problem of bush racing probably seems like an abstract one. If they've heard of bush racing at all, they probably think of it as small potatoes — two horses running in someone's hay field from time to time with a few neighbors gathered around. They may know that bush racing is also mostly limited to Quarter Horses (though cases of unsanctioned harness tracks have also been known). It's easy for licensed Thoroughbred participants to look at it and say, 'This is a whole different world. It doesn't impact me.'

But regulators who have spent years studying the challenges of bush tracks say those distinctions may not be important. They say that what matters most as the bush tracks grow is, how is the sanctioned racing world going to respond to them?

What the bush circuit looks like

Once upon a time, before the advent of state racing commissions, all racing was a sort of bush racing. The sport evolved from the tendency of one owner to make a proposition to another that their horse could run faster than their neighbor's. Horses and riders raced over open country in the days before formal tracks, and until actual drug testing evolved in the 1930s, integrity was nothing more than a gentlemen's agreement. State racing commissions came about from a recognized need to maintain safety standards for horse and rider and confidence for the people betting on the events.

The “bush racing” that was a point of concentration for the Washington Post, for PETA, and for state racing regulators these days, is not the rustic, casual pastime of bygone days with a few dozen friends in attendance, whooping and hollering. As social media has become a greater presence in modern culture, bush racing has grown like a brush fire.

It's still legal for two horses to race each other in someone's backyard to satisfy pride or curiosity. It's not legal for organizers to accept wagering on the activity outside the purview of the state, which collects taxes from the proceeds and uses part of them to fund purses and to ensure participants are sticking to the rule book.

“This is not a couple of guys who get together and match race in their back pasture,” said Dr. Angela Pelzel-McCluskey, equine epidemiologist for USDA/APHIS. “This has now morphed into a very sophisticated, highly-marketed league of things happening across the country.”

Pelzel-McCluskey has become something of an unintentional expert on bush racing. Her job as an equine epidemiologist requires her to do contact tracing on horses that test positive for communicable diseases. Her work tracing equine infectious anemia and piroplasmosis cases has led her to make contact with many horses and horsemen who race on the bush circuit.

In the course of disease tracing, Pelzel-McCluskey has documented the existence of 111 bush tracks in 28 states. Some are no longer active, but were running at some point in the last few years. She has kept notes on facility addresses and other information she finds about their events online in case she needs that data for the next disease outbreak. Those 111 facilities are just the ones she's happened across in the course of her tracing work – they're not a representation of a concentrated effort to locate all the tracks in the country.

She's confident there are more she just hasn't found yet.

The reason Pelzel-McCluskey (and PETA) have been able to gather so much information about illegal racetracks is that they routinely post promotions for upcoming events as well as photos and videos of races on their Facebook pages and on YouTube. Spectators often openly share race videos on Instagram, TikTok, and elsewhere.

To the average person scrolling through Facebook, it may not be immediately obvious that the content they're seeing is not coming from a legal racing facility. Many bush tracks have mechanized starting gates and some form of fencing or railing along the sides of the track surface, which is always a dusty straightaway since races are short. Typically, there are not water trucks or harrows visible near the track, and most racing strips appear to be tilled farmland with minimal cushion. Horses are piloted by riders who are sometimes wearing silks, and may also carry saddle towels or customized bridles colored to match the ownership's branding.

Sometimes, those riders are professional jockeys who show up wearing their trademark white pants emblazoned with logos familiar to watchers of sanctioned Quarter Horse races, including the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund, Track Magazine, or Speedhorse magazine.

“If you will look closely at the Track logo on some of those pants that some of the riders at those unsanctioned tracks you will find that the pants are counterfeit,” said Ben Hudson, owner/publisher/editor of Track Magazine. “That logo is very hard to reproduce and we do not give the pants to riders that are not participating in Grade 1 races at major tracks.

“Track magazine has been in business since 1975. We deplore match racing and the way they treat horses and riders. We do not go to match tracks.”

“We do not sponsor any riders,” said John Bachelor II, president of Speedhorse. “Our pants are available to jockeys who want to wear them for advertising purposes at no cost. It is grievous to see them show up at the unsanctioned tracks. We have no control over this.”

Nancy LaSala, president of the PDJF, said their logo on rider gear has been a public awareness boon for the organization at sanctioned facilities. She suspects as many riders become successful, they pass their racing gear down to younger up-and-comers, and this may be one avenue through which the charity's logo is appearing on the bush circuit.

Horses are paraded in front of the crowd – which is nearly always hundreds, if not thousands, of people – similar to a post parade, save for the fact that pony riders often don't wear helmets and may be carrying needles. One thing you won't see in the background is an equine ambulance, or often a human ambulance, either. Breakdowns are not tallied in any kind of uniform national system but do seem to occur with some regularity, and are often left in video of the race broadcast afterwards. While the bush tracks don't have a vet handy, someone usually does have a gun and euthanizes the fallen runners by shooting them.

Many times, the races are documented by a photo finish camera and one or more professional photography or videography companies which sell connections win photo montages similar to what you'd see after a race at a sanctioned track. The main difference is that there is no winner's circle at most of these tracks, and instead connections huddle around the horse as they stand in the middle of the racing surface.

In many ways, bush racing has managed to achieve what sanctioned American racing has failed to. Facebook pages for unsanctioned tracks are published nearly exclusively in Spanish, and photos and video from the events show an enormous, enthusiastic, and predominantly Hispanic crowd.

“A lot of times some of the bigger venues will have live music,” said Pelzel-McCluskey. “They sell beer and alcohol (no, they don't have a liquor license). They market these events and a lot of the marketing is sort of family-friendly. They want the race fans to come and bring their kids and bring their friends and pay money to get in and to park, and then bet while they're there.”

Bush tracks have also been able to promote their athletes in a way conventional racing hasn't. Horses often run under pseudonyms that are different from their American Quarter Horse Association-registered names to evade detection, and heavily Photoshopped digital posters advertise two runners like boxers ahead of a fight. Pelzel-McCluskey said that she has seen a variety of journeys for horses on the bush track circuit; some start their careers at legal tracks and transition to bush racing because the money is better. Others may use the bush tracks as a testing ground for young or unproven horses before their ownership decides whether to send them to sanctioned tracks. Others seem to go back and forth. Long, repeated gaps in a horse's Equibase record can be a sign of a horse who switches.

The horses have their own fan bases, even though they, like their counterparts at legal tracks, tend to come and go. In case the individual retires or breaks down, there are still match-ups for fans to get invested in. Ownership of bush runners is organized into teams called “cuadras,” with multiple horses running for each team. Match-ups between two or three horses generate buzz for the horses' rivalries as well as the teams'.

Organizers of bush races make some of their money from illegally taking bets, but also by charging attendees. Sometimes they pay a low price per carload, but on at least one day of illegal racing in Georgia it cost $100 per person to get in – far higher than general admission at any sanctioned Quarter Horse races.

Why is this a problem?

The activities at bush tracks are a thorn for many different enforcement agencies.

State racing commissions are concerned by the illegal wagering that takes place at many bush tracks, since the state and the tracks aren't getting a cut of that. And, as the entities charged with safeguarding racehorse welfare, they're also worried about the abuses that have been well-documented at bush tracks.

“The laws that apply to it have always been tied to parimutuel wagering, because that's the unsanctioned part,” said Scott Chaney, executive director of the California Horse Racing Board.  “Frankly, from a CHRB perspective, we don't care that much about the parimutuel part. We would prefer it not go on, but in some ways it's probably like trying to address home poker games — technically illegal but probably not something anyone's ever going to do anything about. What we care about is the animal welfare component.”

Speaking to the Post, Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit chief of science Dr. Mary Scollay alleged that some of the substances found in syringes used on bush track horses in the post parade could be of interest to the Food and Drug Administration and Drug Enforcement Administration. One 2019 incident described in the Post recalled a horseman headed to an unsanctioned Georgia track who was pulled over. Police discovered “boxes” of amphetamines and anabolic steroids in the trunk of his vehicle.

In an October 2022 report to the Texas legislature, the Texas Racing Commission characterized unsanctioned tracks as “largely ungoverned spaces that allow for a wide range of organized criminal activity, to include human trafficking, unlicensed alcohol sales, tax evasion, [as well as] turning a blind or knowing eye to illicit drugs and shocking devices that can injure or maim racing horses and undermine the sport's integrity.”

The frequent use of injectable drugs and associated cases of transmissible diseases among bush track horses makes the operations dangerous for horses stabled nearby those from the bush circuit.

Read our previous reporting on the transmissible disease risks in unsanctioned racing here.

And roughly a decade ago, of course, the FBI busted members of the Los Zetas drug cartel for using Quarter Horse breeding and racing – both sanctioned and unsanctioned – to launder the organization's money.

Setting aside the welfare and legal considerations, Pelzel-McCluskey thinks the sanctioned racing world should be equally concerned about another aspect of the bush races – people with no knowledge of horse racing may not necessarily recognize the difference between a race at Los Alamitos and a race at Georgia's Rancho El Centenario. And most people who don't work in the racing world can't tell the difference between a Thoroughbred and a Quarter horse, no matter where it's running.

“When you look at what we're doing in sanctioned racing, with HISA, with surface monitoring, with all the rules, we're trying our best,” she said. “I'm not saying it's perfect. We've got lots of problems still. But we're trying our best to make this sanctioned sport work for the horse and the rider, to assure the spectator we're doing everything possible to make these horses happy and comfortable and have a lifelong trajectory. And yet, you have this other thing going on that's just putting horses in the ground. It's very difficult to explain this.

“The more the general public start to see, I'm very concerned the things they see in bush tracking are what we allow to happen in sanctioned racing. The perception is terrible.”

Enforcement challenges

It's not difficult for a casual racing fan to uncover Facebook pages devoted to illegal racetracks or to racing cuadras, which goes to show how unbothered operators are by the prospect of attracting regulators' attention. Besides the fact that social media brings their life blood – their audience – routinely promoting events hasn't had many serious consequences for them.

On its face, it may seem like the easiest thing sanctioned racing could do to discourage bush tracks is to dole out stiff penalties to people who cross back and forth between the bush tracks and the sanctioned tracks.

Ownership of a cuadra is not detailed in most Facebook posts, and trainers aren't often named either, but jockeys sometimes are. Some riders have a nom de course for bush racing, but other licensed riders may attend illegal races wearing their name or initials on their clothing, and many will post photos from bush tracks on their own profile pages to brag about a win. After only a few hours' searching, the Paulick Report discovered ten jockeys who had ridden in sanctioned racetracks in 2022 or 2023 and who had also identified themselves in Facebook photos or YouTube videos as having piloted winning bush track horses. One was a multiple graded stakes winner, while another was multiple graded stakes-placed, both in Quarter Horse stakes races.

Most state regulations don't specifically prohibit a licensed rider from participating in unlicensed activity. Even if they did, photos from a bush track may not always be enough to prosecute.

“Given where we are with deep fakes and AI, it's not as straightforward from an evidentiary standpoint as people think,” Chaney said.

In California, it's the wagering that's illegal, but it's hard to prove that a facility is collecting bets outside the parimutuel system. Even if investigators can prove it, it's only a misdemeanor charge.

In New Mexico, regulators also wanted to take action against licensees crossing the line but are still trying to figure out how to make it work.

“The agency has contemplated promulgating a rule that would cause for revocation of a racing license if you were caught on the premises of unsanctioned racing, whether race riding or eating a taco,” said New Mexico Racing Commission executive director Izzy Trejo. “We have tested it against the excuses we think we would receive, and it may a difficult to build cases in the very liberal courts here in New Mexico.”

Trejo believes that fewer trainers than riders cross back and forth between regulated and unregulated racing.

“To combat these people from infiltrating our industry as trainers, we have created a trainer's test that is so difficult to pass,” he said. “It's easy pickings because these guys do not know the rules of racing, nor do they care to learn them.

“Also, we have diligently gotten rid of one paper trainer after another due to rule violations, hence all the rulings we disseminate. Paper trainers and match racers go hand in hand.  We have taken that approach because paper trainer cases are also hard to crack due to our limited resources.  I think that has helped our drug violations decline from over 170 in 2016 to just 42 in 2022.”

If the bush races are illegal, you may wonder, why don't authorities show up at post time and shut it down?

Shuttering an illegal track in the middle of a card is an enormous logistical undertaking. Because so much of a bush track's business is done in cash, attendees and participants are often heavily armed. Organizers often hire off-duty local police to serve as event security, which raises questions about how objective local law enforcement could be about pursuing illegal activity going on there. Even without potential alliances between track operators and local police, the size of the crowds at bush events makes the job too big and too dangerous for one or two unarmed racing commission investigators to handle on their own.

In its 2024-25 legislative appropriations request, the Texas Racing Commission requested an additional $679,154 for each year to add personnel who could network with other state agencies to address an estimated 20 bush tracks in Texas. The report estimates that effectively addressing the state law violations at bush tracks would require cooperation from the state's comptroller, department of agriculture, department of public safety, alcoholic beverage commission, animal health commission, veterinary board, secretary of state and parks and wildlife.

New Mexico has two investigators working for the racing commission, and Trejo says most horsemen know them by sight, so gathering intelligence at a bush track is impossible. Even without the risk of recognition, state racing commission investigators don't have the power to make arrests and often may not have enforcement authority off sanctioned properties.

“I understand the feeling on trying to regulate these facilities,” Trejo said. “The bottom line is it is tough. Many facilities are also 'training centers' and the argument will always be that they are training their horses. The fact of the matter is it is not illegal to have two horses compete against one another on private property. The problem with these unsanctioned locations is that they are funneled by drug money or other illegal activity.

“We thought the best way to attack the unsanctioned racing is to have law enforcement back into busting them using the RICO [Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act] statutes. That of course, takes some time to investigate since you must trace the origin of money and then follow it as well and prove how that money is tied into the purchasing of horses and land, illegal beer or alcohol sales, prostitution, and drug trafficking.”

Some track operators are cleverer than others when it comes to evading state or local laws that should dissuade them. The Post's reporting told the story of a Georgia bush track operator who learned he couldn't legally sell tickets to bush races, so he sat at the facility entrance and offered people the chance to buy $20 pecans; one pecan meant the person was entitled to watch races for free. The Post also noted that track operators who apply for zoning changes for their facility may claim the property will be used for events or parties as a means of explaining the traffic and noisy music that can sometimes come along with a race weekend.

There have been cases of large scale, multiple-agency raids on bush tracks. In 2007, some 200 law enforcement agents arrested 100 people at an unsanctioned track in Oklahoma on charges including racketeering, money laundering, and illegal gambling. Authorities in Washington and Texas have conducted multi-agency raids of unlicensed tracks in recent years. Trejo recalled several cases roughly nine years ago in New Mexico where law enforcement took action against bush track operators, but said it didn't halt the surge of bush racing's popularity in more recent years.

Solutions

There are a couple of routes by which sanctioned racing may choose to address bush racing – by strengthening state regulations, or by pushing for it to be banned at a federal level.

In California, Chaney pointed to Assembly Bill No. 1298, which was introduced in this year's California legislative session and would make unsanctioned racing operators subject to up to a $25,000 civil fine for each day of racing that takes place without a license from CHRB. The bill was introduced by Assemblymember Avelino Valencia, whose district includes Los Alamitos Race Track.

Beyond the state legislature, Chaney also says that the CHRB is trying to determine what, if anything, it may do with photographic evidence given to the staff by animal welfare groups and by this publication of licensed participants in bush racing.

“Although I cannot comment on the likelihood of filing complaints, I can say we are investigating this evidence as we speak,” Chaney told the board during a March 16 meeting. “Staff has developed language for a CHRB regulation that specifically prohibits licensees from participating in unsanctioned racing. We anticipate presenting that language to the board next month.”

Chaney also reported he sent a letter to the American Quarter Horse Association ahead of its annual convention, expressing the CHRB's concerns about the practice.

For its part, the AQHA was asked by this publication whether it had any official policies on the eligibility of participants in bush racing for AQHA-recognized stakes races, awards programs, or the eligibility of horses into the AQHA studbook. The organization was also asked whether it has offered investigative resources to state or federal agencies that may have an interest in shutting down bush tracks.

Chief racing officer Janet VanBebber provided the following statement to the Paulick Report in response:

“AQHA is collaborating with other key industry stakeholders such as the American Horse Council and the American Association of Equine Practitioners regarding efforts to address unregulated racing. As a breed registry, we do not endorse or condone unregulated racing. Should animal welfare charges or convictions result from unregulated racing, our rules allow us to suspend a member or prevent someone from becoming a member.

“Regarding sanctioned racing, AQHA supports the penalties issued by racetrack authorities. AQHA maximizes all efforts to partner with authorities in protecting the horse and the industry through the deployment of integrity teams and through supporting presiding authorities' investigations. Moving forward, we are working to take further actions to protect the welfare of the American Quarter Horse and are opening conversations with new partners who share this goal.”

Two years ago, Arizona ramped up classification of unsanctioned racing where gambling is taking place, making it a type of racketeering charge that would be a class six felony in the state. Maxwell Hartgraves, spokesman for the Arizona Department of Gaming, said the state body “investigates illegal horse racing on an ongoing basis and has taken action multiple times in recent years regarding illegal races. This included shutting down illegal racing near the area of Picacho Peak as well as multiple cease and desist letters at a variety of other locations.”

Although sanctioned Thoroughbred racing now has national regulation for safety and medication regulations through the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority, the group says it does not have the legal ability to address illegal bush racing.

“HISA does not have authority over bush tracks,” said HISA spokeswoman Mandy Minger. “If a training facility is providing official works and it's hosting unofficial races, there might be something we could do.”

The Jockeys' Guild does refuse to pay out certain benefits to riders who are injured while participating in unsanctioned racing.

“The Jockeys' Guild  for decades has been opposed to unsanctioned racing,” said Terry Meyocks, president and CEO of the Guild. “Due to safety concerns, members of the Guild do not receive temporary disability payments if injured at a track that is not sanctioned.”

Chaney and Pelzel-McCluskey believe that the most effective solution will be federal legislation making unsanctioned racing illegal, the same way cockfighting and dog fighting are now illegal at the federal level.

Unlike cockfighting and dog fighting, however, there are legal forms of horse racing, and training. Chaney points out that the sculpting of language on a federal prohibition could be tricky so as to not accidentally outlaw training at legitimate training centers or casual riding. He noted that there are animal rights and animal welfare organizations which are also paying more attention to the bush tracks. PETA senior vice president Kathy Guillermo made a presentation before the CHRB at the commission's December meeting, detailing similar findings to the Post's story last summer. Several commissioners expressed surprise and disgust at the evidence of welfare abuses uncovered by the organization.

“To have racetracks and commissions and animal rights activists all pushing for the same thing is strange bedfellows but I think all of our advocacy aligns at this point,” said Chaney. “None of us likes these places because of the animal welfare piece.

“It feels like for the first time it may be reaching a critical mass; that there are enough groups with disparate interests talking about it and writing about it that maybe there's some chance something could happen.”

Pelzel-McCluskey thinks that the interest of animal welfare groups could backfire on legitimate racing if stakeholders don't seize the opportunity to stamp out the bush tracks now – or at least make a clearer attempt to separate themselves from the unsanctioned racing.

“The equine industry is my industry,” said Pelzel-McCluskey. “I'm here to help and support them and make everything the best I can under USDA rules and regulations. What I tell them is I'm really worried about sanctioned racing, because the leaders in ferreting out what's going on on bush tracks are welfare activists.

“Get ready. If you, the industry, are not stepping forward to put legislation in place to deal with the problem to separate yourselves and protect yourselves, I don't think these activists are going to protect you. They're going to take down all of racing.”

The post ‘They’re Going To Take Down All Of Racing’: Here’s Why Legitimate Tracks Should Be Concerned About The Bush Circuit appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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