Following a lengthy review of his employment, embattled Oklahoma Horse Racing Commission director John Chancey resigned Thursday and confirmed he has reported his concerns about a horse breeding “incentive fund” and simulcast distribution contracts to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation.
For more than a year, members of the agency’s governing commission have entered executive sessions to discuss the employment of Chancey, who was the subject of a formal complaint. Two other complaints against different employees have complicated the dynamic. Along the way, other drama has percolated about how to finance new equine drug-testing requirements, how to set jockey pay levels, how to avoid conflicts of interest, how to pay funds legally obligated to a thoroughbred retirement program, and why a rider received a deferred sentence in April for a charge that he shocked his horse during a 2022 race with an illegal buzzer.
All the while, changes to commissioner positions and brewing bad blood between quarter horse and thoroughbred breeders has regularly raged at OHRC meetings, where rumor of Chancey’s incompetence mixed with belief he was finally asking tough questions of entrenched interests.
Moments after speaking with commissioners during Thursday’s executive session, Chancey said he believes he became targeted over the past year for digging into the Oklahoma-Bred program’s finances and for suggesting that horsemen’s purses are being shorted money from racetracks’ complicated simulcasting arrangements with the nebulous RPDC and WRDD — tribally owned entities with acronyms that stand for Remington Park Disseminating Company and Will Rogers Downs Dissemination.
“We’ve got so many problems,” Chancey said. “Do I like my job? No, not now. I used to, I loved it, but then I got into finding the seedy underbelly of this thing, and it just goes on and on and on. It was a dumpster fire, and I made the mistake of raising the lid and letting the air get to it.”
A Nowata native, Chancey said the OHRC has been plagued by “regulatory capture,” a scenario where “regulatory agencies may come to be dominated by the industries or interests they are charged with regulating,” according to Investopedia.
“The result is that an agency, charged with acting in the public interest, instead acts in ways that benefit incumbent firms in the industry it is supposed to be scrutinizing,” the website explains.
Saying he quit when four commissioners — whom he respects — asked him to step down, Chancey said it became “very controversial” when he dug into issues that have “been brewing for a long time.”
“You know, I’ve gone to the FBI, OSBI — you know, all of them — showing them what I had, and you know, we’re cooperating with them — or I am,” Chancey said. “I’ve been swimming through a river of shit for the last year. My only goal is to see if I can at least do a backstroke.”
‘Something doesn’t smell right’
By the time Thursday’s five-hour meeting of the Oklahoma Horse Racing Commission concluded with a recommendation that Chancey’s employment be referred to a “personnel committee,” Chancey decided to stop paddling in the murky waters.
Hired in February 2023 after six years as Remington Park’s supervising veterinarian, Chancey had faced allegations of poor management for months — murmurs that he was a good doctor but a bad bureaucrat.
Bennett Anderson, the prior chairman of the OHRC whose commission term ended June 30, told NonDoc in early June that he “absolutely” believed Chancey needed to be terminated “because of what I know.”
“The number one reason is that he doesn’t know what he’s doing,” Anderson said. “It’s the people that he’s hired. (…) We’re issuing licenses to felons. We’re turning down licenses to revered owners and trainers. We’re under-staffed and overwhelmed.”
Anderson pointed to a March 19 Facebook post from the Oklahoma Quarter Horse Racing Association warning equine owners that the OHRC’s processes had become more cumbersome.
“It is important for you to get your racing license early. Recent process changes and new staffing issues have caused a backlog in licensing, waiting until race day to get licensed could lead to unnecessary delays — or even your horse being scratched,” the organization posted. “If you plan to race in Oklahoma, we encourage you to apply for your license as soon as possible to ensure everything is in order before your horse is entered.”
Anderson became the OHRC chairman after then-chairman Keith Sanders died Jan. 11. Although Sanders had been dealing with heart issues, Anderson said executive session conversations during the commission’s November 2024 special meeting “took all the wind out of his sails.”
“He realized we weren’t going to have a vote on keeping or getting rid of the executive director,” Anderson said. “He got in his car, drove home to Atoka, his [family member] drove him to the hospital in Dallas, and he died four weeks later.”
In his June interview, Anderson described the November 2024 special meeting, which became a five-hour executive session about the unspecified allegations against Chancey.
“What I can tell you is that when the investigation was first done, it took months. When the investigator came with his final report, it was 80 pages. We went into executive session, and we spent four and a half hours reading it and discussing it,” Anderson said. “I can’t tell you what happened in executive session, but what I can tell you is this. There was no resolution. So the people that had filed the complaints then [went] to arbitration. I was at arbitration, there was no settlement, so their attorneys are now doing a full-blown [Equal Employment Opportunity Commission] investigation into the allegations.”
On Dec. 16 — two days after veterinarian Joe Carter authored a commentary in The Norman Transcript saying “something doesn’t smell right” at the OHRC — then-Vice Chairman Dan Pilcher resigned from the commission. A week later, Anderson said he was summoned to a meeting with Gov. Kevin Stitt where the governor asked what needed to happen. Anderson said he needed Stitt to fill the seats of Pilcher and Sanders to place the commission back at full strength in case of contentious votes.
“You know, it’s time to shit or get off the pot,” Anderson said June 11 about the need to vote on Chancey’s employment.
On April 17 and May 1, respectively, Stitt nominated former Edmond police officer and current nonprofit leader Courtney Gregg and longtime Ottawa County Farm Bureau leader James Fuser to fill the vacancies. During a May 22 Senate Revenue and Taxation Committee hearing to confirm Gregg and Fuser, senators questioned the pair about what Chairman Dave Rader referred to as “a running rivalry” between quarter horse breeders and thoroughbred breeders, whose longer-legged ungulates draw more betting action and larger purses by racing a full mile.
“I wasn’t aware of that, but I am aware of it now,” Fuser responded. “I actually have made one meeting and have kind of seen how things go. I am one of those that, when I serve on a board, I want to hear facts from both sides.”
Sen. Warren Hamilton (R-McCurtain) asked Gregg whether she thought her “training in deescalation will be in great demand on this commission.”
“I have only been able to attend two meetings, but I am going to say it is a very vital asset to have in maybe meetings in the future,” Gregg responded. “But hopefully we can move past some of those things and have more peaceful, productive meetings with a little less deescalation necessary.”
Rader told NonDoc on Sunday that he had received phone calls ahead of the May confirmation vote emphasizing how OHRC needed commissioners willing “to go in there and resolve their disagreements for the betterment of the industry.”
“There is a common knowledge that the quarter horse people and the thoroughbred people weren’t getting along and there’s a conflict among the commission,” said Rader (R-Tulsa). “It’s a really big industry. I got a sense there was a lack of communication, for sure. (…) You could just sense that there is a control struggle.”
Oklahoma-Bred Fund under forensic audit
With excrement metaphors abounding, Carter’s December commentary about issues at OHRC told a version of events that Chancey himself echoed to NonDoc.
“When Dr. Chancey began his role as executive director his office moved from the barns to the OHRC headquarters in OKC. There he immediately encountered a toxic work environment, much more toxic than what one might ever encounter on the floor of a stall in a barn,” Carter wrote. “He quickly realized he had some unexpected challenges. He began to wonder if there might be a better way of doing things. After months of careful and thoughtful review he started to make changes. He was met with much resistance.”
According to Chancey — and as published by Carter — Sanders asked Chancey to resign in May 2024, soon after Chancey said he had inquired about issues with the Oklahoma-Bred program and the simulcasting contracts he says OHRC staff members had asked him to “rubber stamp.”
“You know, when you get into your job, you’re trying to learn things. I could never get a straight answer from my finance manager on stuff. So finally, one day I said, ‘Look, nothing’s adding up like I think,’ because when he would do reconciliation, I’d just get a solid number and no explanation behind it as far as balances in here and there, with nothing to reinforce it,” Chancey said. “And so one day, I asked him for the budget of the Oklahoma-Bred Fund. Three days later, the chairman of the commission comes in to demand my resignation. So, you know, that was part of it. Well, I come to find out, yes, nothing’s adding up on this Oklahoma-Bred program. So we’ve had a forensic audit going on.”
Officially called the Oklahoma Breeding and Development Fund Special Account, the “Bred Fund” was created by the Legislature in 1983.
“The OBDFSA is an incentive fund which increases income for Oklahoma horse racing and breeding enterprises. Purse supplements, stallion and broodmare awards are paid to owners and breeders of qualifying accredited Oklahoma-Bred horses through a system of restricted and open company races at Oklahoma racetracks,” the OHRC website states. “The OBDFSA is funded by unclaimed tickets, breakage and a percentage of the exotic handle. Payouts are based on the handle at each track and vary slightly according to the track and the racing breed.”
But Chancey said an antiquated software platform called the “Binkley system” contained vulnerabilities and lacked basic financial controls. That claim appears to be backed up by a “repeat finding” in an October 2023 state audit, which cited the agency for a “lack of independent, documented deposit reconciliation.”
“The budget and finance manager reportedly performs a monthly reconciliation of activity from the Binkley database to reports from the state accounting system. This is not an independent review of deposits as the budget and finance manager handles the funds. He also reportedly receives deposit documentation from track personnel and compares it to a daily deposit report from the Binkley system. Neither of these reconciliations is formally documented and they therefore could not be verified,” state auditors wrote. “Without a reliable and independent reconciliation of activity reports to bank deposits, errors could be made, or revenues misappropriated, at the main office and at the tracks.”
That’s what Chancey said had been happening to Oklahoma-Bred Fund payments for an unknown period of time. In addition to identifying checks written to different entities and for different amounts than had been listed in OHRC records, Chancey said at one point he found “six months worth of checks in a desk drawer totaling $200,000.”
“So there’s multiple ways to get money out of the system. I mean, multiple ways. You can delete a deposit — very easy. You can add a deposit. (…) You can go back after the deposit and make changes,” Chancey said. “That’s part of the problem. Why there was so much inconsistency was because of all these people not doing their job. Or they can be nefarious if they want to be.”
The Oklahoma-Bred Fund discrepancies are the subject of an ongoing forensic audit being conducted by a third-party firm. Current OHRC Chairman Brian Burget told NonDoc on Friday that the forensic audit “absolutely” would continue despite Chancey’s resignation.
“The Oklahoma-Bred program has been a focus of the commission for a while now,” Burget said. “That’s why we’re undergoing an audit.”
Despite saying he “can’t speak to what made [Chancey resign],” Burget called Chancey “a wonderful man and a wonderful veterinarian.”
“I’m very thankful for the time he put in while he was here,” Burget said. “I’m not able to speak to the EEOC claims at this time. Obviously, I did not have any say in setting agenda items in the past. This was my first meeting as the chairman.”
Asked about the issues Chancey has alleged at the Oklahoma Horse Racing Commission, Burget acknowledged the challenges ahead.
“Every board and organization is going to have different challenges at different times,” Burget said. “How you address those challenges can impact a lot of the trajectory of where you want to go. And our goal is obviously to accept the challenges, adapt to those challenges and put us on a course to where we can best succeed.”
To that end, Burget has called a special meeting of the Oklahoma Horse Racing Commission at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, Aug. 26, at Remington Park to discuss Chancey’s resignation, appoint an interim director and begin a broader hiring process for the permanent position.
Follow @NonDocMedia on:
Facebook | X | Text or Email
‘Convoluted’ simulcast situation spurs dispute
If it sounds like Burget will have a full plate for the final two years of his term, Chancey tried Thursday to pile the potatoes high enough to draw public attention.
Thursday’s meeting marked the first time Chancey and his attorney, Michael Copeland, had spoken publicly about their concerns with simulcast distribution arrangements involving the companies RPDC and WRDD — a complex topic that Chancey said he has reported to the FBI.
While presenting agenda items about approving the 2026 quarter horse and thoroughbred race calendar at Remington Park (OKC), Will Rogers Downs (Claremore) and Fair Meadows (Tulsa), Copeland highlighted his concerns with the simulcast distribution and “off-track betting” location language in the “racetrack gaming license” applications.
Take Remington Park’s application, for example. Owned by a subsidiary of the Chickasaw Nation’s Global Gaming Solutions since 2009, Remington Park has historically received approval of its contract to provide simulcasts of its races to one listed off-track betting location: Thunder Roadhouse Cafe, near the corner of Western Avenue and Memorial Road in OKC. As such, state statutes require a racetrack with simulcast agreements to retain specific percentages of revenues for state and local government, as well as to enhance the purses awarded to race winners. The revenue requirements apply to local races as well as feeds imported from other states like Kentucky, New York and New Mexico.
But beyond its contract with Thunder Roadhouse, Remington Park also provides its live simulcast signal to RPDC, which then distributes the feeds to four tribal casinos around the state, according to Matt Vance, the vice president of racing operations at Remington Park. RPDC also contracts with out-of-state racetracks to stream their simulcasts to tribal casinos.
For imported races, Chancey contends the state’s same wager percentage requirements should be — but are not being — applied to off-track betting at tribal casinos receiving out-of-state simulcasts from RPDC. Copeland explained that belief to commissioners Thursday.
“There’s a legal disagreement that we have with the staff, I think it’s fair to say, whether or not the races that are imported into Remington Park under an import license — and then under those contracts distributed to off-track locations — whether they are required to distribute a portion of the wagers as per Oklahoma statutes or whether the tribal compact takes precedence on that,” Copeland said. “It’s just a question of whether or not you consider the betting having occurred under the auspices or authority of Remington Park’s license or whether it’s being conducted by the tribes.”
Vance, who helped launch RPDC in 2008 when Remington Park was owned by Magna Entertainment Corp., spoke to commissioners after Copeland.
“We have one statutory off-track location: That is Thunder Roadhouse. That is our sole off-track statutory site that falls under this gaming and racing application. They do very well. They’re one of the largest handling OTBs in the state off Memorial Road. They’ve been a great partner. I believe they’ve contributed over $3 million to purses in the last four years,” Vance said. “As to the tribal sites that we have — that this commission, unfortunately, doesn’t have jurisdiction over — I’d like our attorney Jared Easterling to speak to.”
Easterling, who later confirmed to NonDoc that RPDC is now owned by Global Gaming Solutions, acknowledged that simulcasting regulations and arrangements are “convoluted.”
“Essentially, I think there have already been attorney general opinions addressing this issue with regard to the tribal wagering facilities. There are compacts in place between the state of Oklahoma and the tribes that have those locations where they allow their patrons to conduct parimutuel betting on Oklahoma races and races out of state,” Easterling told commissioners. “That’s where the confusion is coming in. These are signals that are being sold to those tribal facilities, and I think that’s an issue that I think we can iron out with regard to the contract approval process. I don’t think there’s anything novel. I think these things have kind of been done the same way (every year).”
The disagreement between attorneys drew about 20 minutes of candid questions from commissioners Thursday before Assistant Attorney General Niki Batt interjected to stop the discussion, telling the agency’s governing board that whether imported simulcasts are being shown at casinos around the state without specification in OHRC-approved contracts was not germane to the day’s agenda items.
Burget — who prefaced the agenda items by saying they pose a personal conflict of interest that would prevent him from voting on the gaming applications — also asked to end the conversation.
“I’m going to try to keep us on track here, because we’re talking about organizational licenses,” said Burget, a shareholder at the McAfee & Taft law firm. “The license that they submitted has Thunder Roadhouse as the OTB. If there’s a question as to whether or not a tribe needs to be or shouldn’t be an OTB, it’s not in this license, and if that decision comes down the road, then that impacts what they can and cannot do as far as the simulcasting goes.”
Burget confirmed to NonDoc that he is abstaining from votes on the issue owing to McAfee & Taft’s historic representation of Chickasaw Nation entities, although he said that arrangement does not pose a big enough conflict to preclude his overall membership on the commission. He said he personally does not represent any Chickasaw Nation entity as an attorney.
“So the licenses are as submitted by the tribes,” Burget told NonDoc. “The tribes in their licensing did not reference any additional off-track betting locations or transmissions of signals through RPDC, so those discussions, I believe, are ancillary to the licensing process. But I intend to evaluate the RPDC and WRDD structures to ensure that everything is legally compliant.”
Joe Lucas, a former OHRC commissioner who has long served as a consultant and advocate for the Thoroughbred Racing Association of Oklahoma, said he has no doubt that RPDC and WRDD are following the law.
“He is totally illiterate when it comes to this simulcasting industry,” Lucas said of Chancey. “I am not worried about RPDC (or) WRDD whatsoever. I’m not worried about their legality and how it’s being done. I’m not worried about that one bit. He and his new attorney don’t know anything about this end of the business, and it’ll all shake out in the end. I don’t think there is any doubt that the concerns will all go away.”
To that end, Lucas said “bring it” when informed of Chancey’s reports to the FBI and OSBI. Underscoring tensions between quarter horse breeders and his thoroughbred association, Lucas suggested Chancey “bit hook, line and sinker” on allegations that quarter horse breeders make out of frustration because 90 percent of off-track bets being placed on thoroughbred races.
“That don’t spook me none. I’m telling you, I’m solid,” Lucas said. “Put it to rest forever. We’ve already done this before. Chancey was working out of the back of his truck as a vet on the back side (of the track) when I was on the front side doing this kind of stuff.”
Like Easterling, Lucas said the Attorney General’s Office has long dictated that third-party distribution contracts for simulcasting amount to a tribal sovereignty issue when Indian Country casinos are receiving the signals.
“In Oklahoma, the intrastate signal is being conducted that way because that’s under Oklahoma law. So they have to do that. There is no law that says if Churchill (Downs) sells their signal to a company that happens to be a Delaware corporation, [the OHRC has] no authority to say anything about that,” Lucas said. “They don’t have any control over what they do with that signal once they get it. Now, if it goes to a licensed facility in Oklahoma, like Thunder Roadhouse or Remington Park or Will Rogers or Fair Meadows, yes, that is when that applies. But a tribal casino is sovereign. They have no authority over how that money is to be distributed. It does not apply. They can’t just apply Oklahoma statute on distribution of revenue to a tribal casino. They have no authority to do that.”
Lucas said Thursday’s simulcast conversation and the Oklahoma-Bred program’s fiscal uncertainty are indicative of why OHRC needed a change at the top.
“All of this is a culmination of it, and it’s just continued,” Lucas said. “That forensic audit (of the Oklahoma-Bred program) is taking way longer than what we anticipated, and I’m sure it’s because she’s not getting all of the information she needs — the lady that is doing it. (…) Again, I don’t think anybody is taking money, I just don’t think they know where to look to find it. That’s the incompetence part, and they’re too stubborn or bullheaded or whatever you want to call it to ask for help.”
Chancey said he ultimately grew tired under the stress of trying to confront issues within such a powerful industry.
“My wife, I have to call her when I leave the office, because she thinks the cement truck’s going to run over me, you know, bringing all this up,” Chancey said.
(Correction: This article was updated at 7:40 a.m. Monday, Aug. 25, to correct reference to a health condition. It was updated again at 4:05 p.m. to correct reference to how Remington Park — not RPDC — sells its simulcasts to Thunder Roadhouse. NonDoc regrets the errors.)
