The governing body of the Oklahoma Horse Racing Commission retroactively increased the salary of interim executive director Amanda English to $95,000 — effective Sept. 1 — and approved a $35,000 severance payment for former director Dr. John Chancey, who resigned in August while raising concerns about a horse breeding “incentive fund” and simulcast distribution contracts.
With Chairman Brian Burget absent from Thursday’s meeting, the OHRC entered four separate executive sessions for private conversations about English’s pay, Chancey’s severance, the settlement of a lawsuit alleging wrongful termination and an ongoing audit about the finances of the Oklahoma-Bred program.
When Chancey resigned in August, it came after a year of speculation that the commission was about to fire him. He said he reported his concerns about the Oklahoma-Bred program to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation.
Chancey severance
The OHRC approved paying Chancey three amounts totaling $35,083.64:
• $13,564.44 as compensation equal to 18 months of his health insurance premium;
• $850 as the longevity payment he would have received on what would have been his next employment anniversary; and
• $20,669.20 as one week of pay for each year of his 17 years of OHRC employment.
As Chancey waited with assembled industry leaders and meeting attendees during one of Thursday’s executive sessions, he said he still believes the matter should be criminally investigated. The duration of the audit process has frustrated him and other observers.
“I’m disappointed about the Oklahoma-Bred audit and getting the findings out, as far as where we’re at with it and what’s been going on for how many years,” Chancey said. “I know that, going forward, I believe the (OHRC) finance manager has got a system worked out with [the Office of Management and Enterprise Services] keeping records of everything. But before now, going back several years, I’m very disappointed with what has happened.”
Commissioners spent about an hour in executive session with certified public accountant Shanna Dutton and OHRC general counsel Michael Copeland, but the mounted masses left with little clarity.
“It’s not done yet,” Vice Chairman Kurt Murray said of Dutton’s audit. “She really didn’t give us any indication of how far along she is or how much more she’s got to do.”
Asked if he had a reaction to whatever was discussed in executive session, Murray responded, “Not really.” He confirmed the program would continue to provide purse supplements and other payments to horse breeders, which are funded through unclaimed betting tickets, breakage and a percentage of the exotic handle.
“Everything is going to go from here on out right now,” Murray said. “There’s nothing that’s going to change our stance on anything, so everything should be good to go.”
Murray said Commissioners G.R. Carter and Kathleen McNally left Thursday’s meeting after voting to enter executive session to discuss the Oklahoma-Bred program audit but before the conversation began.
After they approved Chancey’s severance — despite hearing from Copeland that the agency faces significant budget needs — the commission recognized Chancey’s 17 years of employment by presenting him with a statue.
Court cases, union punishment and simulcast consternation
While Oklahoma’s horse racing industry awaits those audit results, other issues facing the OHRC have drawn attention locally and nationally.
A pay dispute between jockeys and the Thoroughbred Racing Association of Oklahoma briefly interrupted operations at Remington Park last month before the Jockeys’ Guild and TRAO struck an agreement to increase the minimum per-race mount fee from $75 to $100 and institute an additional pay award for fourth-place finishes.
After the agreement, however, the Jockeys’ Guild announced Sept. 23 that its board had voted to take action against a handful of jockeys who rode in races when the majority of the guild’s members were boycotting as leverage during pay negotiations. In a statement posted on Facebook, the guild’s leadership said it “determined that those jockeys’ actions constituted conduct harmful to the jockey colony at Remington Park and behavior detrimental to the guild’s objectives.”
“The board unanimously determined to impose disciplinary actions, including expulsions and suspensions, on jockeys who accepted and rode mounts on Sept. 4 and 5 at Remington Park,” the statement read. “As a result, those individuals will no longer receive the benefits associated with guild membership, including temporary disability benefits, life and accidental death and dismemberment insurance benefit, representation, and the health care reimbursement benefits that qualifying guild members receive (as) a result of the agreements between the guild and participating racetracks.”
On Thursday, while the Horse Racing Commission met for one of its four executive sessions, English said OHRC staff and commissioners “were really glad that [the parties] came to a agreement.”
“Of course, everybody’s here for the same thing — horse racing — and we were able to get through it and get horse racing going,” English said. “We are working with the Jockeys’ Guild on the rules. They’ve asked to be involved in that process. And of course, we welcome anybody, any of our stakeholders, that want to be involved. And so hopefully we’ll see some better relationships with them and get all of those things taken care of. And in the future, hopefully it doesn’t come to the way it was.”
Since being promoted to interim director, English’s plate has been full, which she said has motivated her not to apply for the job on a permanent basis. During Thursday’s meeting, the commission briefly discussed its national search for a new director. Commissioner Courtney Gregg said about 15 of the applications received so far have been advanced for consideration. Commissioners discussed how the job is posted somewhere online, although it is not listed on OHRC’s own website under “job postings.”
“Good people apply, please,” Gregg said after the meeting.
Commissioners voted to delay further discussion of the executive director job posting until their Nov. 20 meeting. They also voted 5-3 to have OHRC staff prepare final orders for the Nov. 20 meeting that would renew horse racing and casino gaming licenses for Remington Park, Will Rogers Downs and Fair Meadows Race Track in 2026. The topic spurred contentious conversations about simulcast agreements and off-track-betting contracts at the OHRC’s August meeting — another topic Chancey said he put on the FBI’s radar.
“(We are) still working on some of the OTB issues, but that will be handled separately from the organizational license,” Copeland told the commission Thursday.
Chancey and Copeland had argued two months prior that Remington Park’s arrangement with Remington Park Disseminating Company was improperly allowing simulcasts of out-of-state races to be broadcast within Oklahoma borders at tribal casinos. RPDC is owned by Global Gaming Solutions, the Chickasaw Nation’s casino gambling corporation. The tribe also owns Remington Park in Oklahoma City.
“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 in August. “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.”
Asked about her goals for the ongoing negotiations over simulcast contracts that have delayed renewal of the racing and gaming licenses for Oklahoma’s three tracks, English declined to say if she believes — as Chancey does — that imported simulcasts at tribal casinos should be factored into horsemen’s purses.
“We are hoping to see a resolution to all of that, where horse racing continues and we get everybody compliant with what statute says, what the rule says,” English explained. “So again, we can do horse racing. That’s what everybody’s here for. And I believe that we can come to those agreements. We’re working with the tribe, and obviously our legal division is involved in that. Everybody’s looking it over. It’s complicated. All of the structure of that is very complicated. But we’re hopeful.”
Commissioners also voted to accept a settlement agreement Thursday in a lawsuit filed by Jerry Goss in 2018. Goss, a former OHRC steward, sued the agency and its former director, Kelly Cathey. Goss alleged that “his termination was wrongful and unlawful” and that Cathey “issued ex-parte directives and edicts to disproportionally punish, sanction and suspend some licenses” at hearings overseen by stewards.
“Each time Goss voiced any dissent, he was ostracized,” his petition stated. “Anytime Goss pointed out rule violations concerning favored licensees, he was told to, ‘Let it go,’ or simply told ‘Stop,’ ‘Drop that,’ ‘Don’t mention that again,’ or ‘It won’t be good for you.’ Goss used his best efforts to ensure lawful compliance and voted during hearings to uphold OHRC licensees’ constitutional rights to a fair hearing and reasonable enforcement of OHRC rules of racing, for those actions he was singled out.”
Goss’ attorney, Clark Brewster, said his client was pursuing “positive change” within the troubled state agency.
“Jerry Goss filed this suit to not only attempt to right a wrong regarding his termination of employment as a racetrack steward but also to shine some light on the dysfunction, disregard of racing rules and cronyism that existed within the Oklahoma Racing Commission,” said Brewster, a noted horseman in his own right. “With the settlement of this case he truly hopes he made some impact on implementing positive change.”
English said she did not have a copy of the Goss settlement terms as of Thursday afternoon. Brewster declined to specify the award to his client.
Another case involving on-track drama also found resolution this week. Hall-of-fame horse trainer Eddie Dwayne Willis and his grandson, Cooper Dewayne Willis, saw their criminal cases adjudicated in Oklahoma County District Court. In 2024, the two men were charged with assault and battery for an on-track incident at Remington Park that involved Cooper Willis allegedly using his horse as a weapon to attack trainer Ollie Matthews. The arrest warrant alleged that Eddie Willis hurled a racial slur at Matthews, a claim Willis denied to KFOR. Both men pleaded no contest, but Cooper Willis was convicted and his grandfather entered a plea agreement for a deferred sentence.
Meanwhile, in Tulsa County District Court, the OHRC is pushing criminal charges against hall-of-fame horse owner Danny Ray Caldwell of LeFlore County for a June 4 altercation at Fair Meadows Race Track in Tulsa. Filed three months later on Sept. 4, the OHRC’s assault and battery charge affidavit alleges that a security guard named Chemmie Lee Terry “was pushed into a steel gate” and “verbally assaulted” by Caldwell.
English said she did not know the details of the criminal case against Caldwell, despite the agency’s role in the district court prosecution.
(Clarification: This article was updated at 8:15 a.m. Friday, Oct. 17, to clarify a vote taken by the commission and to include additional details. It was updated again at 9:28 a.m. to correct reference to a district court.)
