Horse Racing Appeal Panel clears local harness racing trainer of horse cruelty

TORONTO – An appeal panel has reversed the decision of the province’s gaming commission that resulted in a two-year suspension of horse trainer Anthony Beaton last year.

Beaton, an experienced harness racing trainer based at Classy Lane Stables in Puslinch since 2020, was charged in December 2023 with cruelty to a horse and misconduct under the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario’s Rules of Racing within the Horse Racing Licence Act.

Beaton had repeatedly struck a yearling named Wait In The Truck with a training whip on the morning of Oct. 12 as it laid on the ground at Classy Lane Stables.

Wait In The Truck arrived at the stables days earlier, and according to Beaton, he was trying to break the young Standardbred – a process where trainers teach horses to race.

An anonymous tip about the incident with “alarming” photos that were said to have made a witness physically ill, resulted in a visit from AGCO officials and police the following day.

Beaton’s licence was suspended by the commission in December, and the trainer appealed.

Hearings before a three-member panel took place over 10 days from December 2023 to February 2024.

Horse groomers, a farrier, race officials, trainers, veterinarians, and an OPP detective testified during hearings before the quasi-judicial panel.

Characterizations about what happened varied dramatically depending on who was testifying; Beaton was either beating the horse and striking it in the face, or simply following industry practices by using a whip with moderate force to cause the horse to stand up.

According to Beaton’s statements to police, recounted in the 29-page Horse Racing Appeal Panel (HRAP) decision, Wait In The Truck was hooked up to a jogging cart when the horse fell to the ground on an asphalt driveway.

Beaton told police he shouldn’t have hit the horse, and that at least 15 welts and blood appeared. He estimated whipping the horse 25 to 30 times, but characterized many of his hits as taps.

He admitted to delivering five “full swings” to the horse.

Beaton went on to say breaking a yearling can be a matter of will – will the horse beat the humans, or will humans teach it to comply?

Beaton said he “hates to lose” the battle of wills, and acknowledged the whipping was excessive, and said he was angry and “lost [his] cool.”

Beaton would later tell the hearing he had no regrets, and did not accept those earlier statements.

Some of the groomers and trainers who testified at the hearings told the panel breaking yearlings is a dangerous process and can require several people.

Two witnesses told of Beaton being tossed from the jogging cart as the horse lunged and reared, throwing itself to the ground.

Following the whipping, the horse eventually got up and was attached to a walker and exercised — another aspect forming the basis for the AGCO’s cruelty charge.

In the days after, Wait In The Truck was examined by several veterinarians, who in testifying, also gave differing accounts and observations.

Veterinarian Pamela Chesterfield spent two hours examining the horse and found a number of surface injuries, including welts, lesions, inflammation and abrasions.

However, Beaton’s veterinarian, Joseph Malone, was not concerned about the horse’s condition when he examined it on Oct. 12, and found abrasions consistent with a fall. He felt the horse was “good to go.”

Another veterinarian, John Robertson, who has experience dealing with horse abuse and cruelty, testified that Beaton’s whipping of the horse would constitute “abuse” and potentially “cruelty,” and that the horse would have been “confused and afraid.”

Jean-Marc MacKenzie, Beaton’s representative counsel, argued the whipping wasn’t abusive or excessive and that Beaton’s conduct was within the confines of “industry standards.”

MacKenzie also argued walking the horse following the whipping was beneficial to the horse.

Though the AGCO has no policies for training yearlings, including the use of whips in training, and has not defined what cruelty is, the panel defined cruelty as “deliberate and/or malicious infliction of pain upon an animal.”

Exercising the horse proved “beneficial,” the panel ruled, and found Beaton’s use of the whip didn’t rise to the level of cruelty. 

It did however rule Beaton’s repeated whipping of the horse with increasing intensity was excessive.

“If repeated and excessive whipping of a horse, particularly when it is lying on the ground, conforms with the standards of the industry, then those standards must change,” the panel states in its decision.

Beaton was found in violation of a rule concerning conduct, but the panel dismissed the AGCO’s finding that he committed an act of cruelty.

The panel stated it found Beaton’s conduct to be a “one-off incident” that wasn’t typical of his “overall good character and excellent horsemanship.”

The panel also criticized the AGCO for erring too much in the interest of horse welfare and not enough in Beaton’s interests.

Five of Beaton’s horses were scratched from races as a result of his licence suspension, including a Sires Stakes event with a $300,000 purse.

The panel stated that Beaton, with winnings upwards of $5 million, has a “clean record with only two very minor violations … in some 22 years, and with over 2,000,” starts. 

“When anonymous tips are received by the AGCO, it is quite proper to take the information received seriously, but in order to assess it, it should conduct a detailed and thorough investigation on its own before it acts,” the panel stated.

The panel added AGCO officials observed injuries “much less severe than perhaps the anonymous complainants had indicated.”

The AGCO told the Advertiser its primary interests are safeguarding the welfare of racehorses, safety, and maintaining horse racing integrity.

“The AGCO believes all horsepeople have a role to play in demonstrating to the public-at-large that the racing industry is committed to the welfare of racehorses,” a spokesperson wrote in an email.

The spokesperson also stated the commission respects HRAP’s decision.

Beaton’s suspension term was also reduced by the panel, to four months from two years. It ended last month, when the HRAP decision was released.

Classy Lane Stables declined to provide comment for this story, and Beaton remains listed on the stables’ website as a trainer. 

The Advertiser reached out to Beaton twice for comment for this story, but did not receive a response.

*This story has been updated from a previous version to include comments from the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario.