Alan Foreman

THA Chairman/CEO

Alan Foreman is widely recognized as one of American racing’s most influential individuals. For more than 35 years, Foreman has devoted his legal practice and energies towards protecting and defending the best interests of horsemen and the betterment of the racing industry in North America. A 1972 graduate of American University with honors and a 1975 graduate of the University Baltimore School of Law, he was a former Maryland Assistant Attorney General and counsel to the Maryland Racing Commission. Foreman is well-known for his representation of the Maryland Stewards in the infamous 1980 Preakness Stakes controversy involving Genuine Risk and Codex. He was a partner in the major Baltimore law firm Weinberg and Green (now Saul Ewing) before establishing his own law firm in 1991. Foreman is counsel to many racing industry and equine organizations. In addition to his law practice, he was the THA’s first Executive Director and now serves as its Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Foreman is the longest serving director of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association and Vice-Chairman of the Racing Medication and Testing Consortium.  He is a frequent lecturer and has authored numerous articles. In 2012 New York Governor Andrew Cuomo appointed Foreman to the New York Task Force on Racehorse Health and Safety. He co-authored its widely acclaimed Report, and its safety and welfare recommendations are being implemented in racing jurisdictions throughout North America. In 2014, he was appointed by Governor Cuomo to serve on a New York Task Force on Jockey Health and Safety. Foreman is a lifelong Maryland resident and lives in Pikesville, Maryland, with his wife, Randi. They have three sons.

Tina Marie Bond

THA President, NYTHA President

Tina grew up in the Finger Lakes area. She married H. James Bond and has two sons, Kevin and Ryan, who are Assistant Trainers for their father. Jim, Kevin and Ryan share training duties at Belmont Park during the winter. They are all together at Saratoga during the late spring, summer and fall.
Tina is a graduate of Bryant & Stratton Business Institute. She worked for Xerox, Eastman Kodak, and ESL Federal Credit Union before she began working full time in the Thoroughbred industry. Tina has been breeding, raising, and racing Thoroughbred racehorses for 40 years.

Tina and Jim own, manage and reside at Song Hill Thoroughbreds LLC. Song Hill, a 100-acre farm in the town of Stillwater, NY, is home to broodmares, weanlings, yearlings and horses on layup. Many of their retired raceshorses and mares are also residents of Song Hill Thoroughbreds.

Tina and Jim breed most of their own racehorses. Tina has campaigned Ruffino, Raffit, Tommasi, Gattinara, Orino, Tizzelle, Cerretalto, Giacosa, Rinaldi and many others racing in the Royal Blue and White colors of Bond Racing Stable. Tina’s Bond Racing Stable also has many partners from all over the United States. Tina and Jim have a private barn in Saratoga that is home to their racehorses from April until November.

Tina has experienced racing at the top North American Racing events such as the Breeders’ Cup, Kentucky Derby, Belmont Stakes, etc. She has traveled to Canada, Dubai and Japan for international racing events.

Tina also enjoys photography and is a published photographer.

Chris Block

THA Vice President, ITHA President

Chris Block was elected President of the Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association in the fall of 2021 and took over Jan. 1, 2022, from Mike Campbell.

Block, who has been active as a horsemen’s advocate and in legislative issues in Illinois for many years, is from a family of Thoroughbred breeders and owners who have played a major role in the state’s racing industry. As a trainer, he is a multiple stakes winner with more than 1,300 victories through early 2022, and his horses have earned more than $46 million.

David G. Richardson

THA Vice President, MTHA Executive Director

Possessing the rare combination of vigorous exuberance and energy and a wealth of thoroughbred racing-related professional experience, Richardson became MTHA’s Executive Director in 2011.

Richardson’s background centers around advertising, marketing and creative design. He served as partner for 16 years at David Hayden Advertising in Upperco, Maryland servicing numerous national racing-related clients such as Northview Stallion Station, Turfway Park, Maryland Million and NTRA, among many others.

In addition, Richardson served as the Marketing Director for the highly successful MATCH Thoroughbred Championship Series, whose innovative marketing campaigns received many industry accolades. Richardson’s modern thinking and progressive approach to problem solving is coupled with a wealth of legislative experience as well, having served multiple terms as an elected municipal councilman in Maryland and a past Secretary / Treasurer of the Maryland Municipal League.

Richardson’s impact on Maryland racing has been significant in his tenure with MTHA. Major accomplishments include the creation from scratch of the industry-renowened Horsemen’s Health System, the development of the Beyond The Wire Throughbred aftercare program, the establishment of one of the state of Maryland’s most powerful and influential Political Action Committees, vast backstretch community improvements, improved relations with industry partners, a top-to-bottom overhaul and modernization of the MTHA, and producing one of the best communications efforts in the racing industry.

Along with his wife Nicole, who serves as the Director of Finance for the Maryland Horse Breeders’ Association, Richardson is the owner/operator of Greenmount Bowl, a very successful community duckpin and tenpin bowling alley in Hampstead, MD. Richardson also founded Greenmount OTB which is located next door to the bowling center which was authorized by the Maryland General Assembly to apply for a bricks and motor sports betting license in late 2021.

Bessie Gruwell

THA Secretary, DTHA Executive Director

Bessie Gruwell was born into the racing industry and obtained her trainer’s license at the age of 18. She began training horses full-time when her father Tom Lovelace passed away suddenly in 1983. Gruwell ran a successful racing stable for 22 years, winning nearly 400 races in the Mid-Atlantic region.  Gruwell served as President of the DTHA from 1998 until 2005, when she accepted the position of Executive Director.

Andy Belfiore

NYTHA Executive Director

A native of Massachusetts, Andy Belfiore grew up riding show horses. She started her career in racing on the backstretch at Belmont Park, working as a hotwalker, groom and exercise rider, before joining the Rick Violette stable as assistant trainer. After six years as Violette’s assistant, she moved to the frontside at the track, and spent five years in the communications and marketing departments at NYRA.

Belfiore left NYRA to take the post as editor in chief at the Thoroughbred Daily News. During her tenure, the TDN grew from a four-page publication with just a few hundred subscribers to a leader in the Thoroughbred industry with a website that gets more than 110,000 hits a month from 118 countries and territories. Named Director of Communications for NYTHA in December, 2011, and Executive Director in September, 2015, she was instrumental in the creation of the TAKE2 and TAKE THE LEAD Program and is Executive Director of the TAKE2 organization.

She served as a consultant for NYTHA and as Project Manager for the national Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association and the Mid-Atlantic Plan to Reduce Equine Fatalities from 2019-21. In the fall of 2021, she was named the Executive Director of the Florida Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association, and returned as NYTHA’s Executive Director in January of 2024. Belfiore is married to DRF‘s Michael Welsch.

Robert Hutt

PTHA President

Jeffrey Matty Jr.

PTHA Executive Director

Jeffrey Matty Jr., who took over as Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association Jan. 1, 2022, upon the retirement of Mike Ballezzi, brings a diverse range of experience to the position, including serving as Racing Manager for Besecker Racing Stable, an Assistant Stakes Coordinator at Monmouth Park, and a racing official with Parx Racing.

Matty served as Racing Manager for Besecker Racing Stable in King of Prussia, Pa., since 2014. In that capacity, he managed more than 100 horses at any given time that were part of the stable’s portfolio, overseeing and managing results that consisted of more than 750 wins and $16.5 million in earnings. He also advised trainers on entries, nominations, and campaign outlooks, as well as assisted with purchasing broodmares, yearlings and 2-year-olds in training. In December 2019, he organized and executed the full Besecker dispersal at the Fasig-Tipton sale.

His first job in racing was as a racing official at Parx, where he worked for two summers under Sal Sinatra and under the mentorship of Albert Ott. Matty then went on to work for two summers as an Assistant Stakes Coordinator at Monmouth. Matty is a graduate of Saint Joseph’s University, where he earned dual Bachelor of Science degrees in Management and Sports Marketing.

Pat McBurney

NJTHA President

David McCaffrey

ITHA Executive Director

David McCaffrey has served as Executive Director of the Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association since 2016 after a long and successful career as one of the top Standardbred trainers in Illinois.

The job includes representing and addressing the needs of more than 1,500 Thoroughbred owners and trainers, cultivating relationships with racetrack management, and overseeing the about $1.5 million in budgets for three different entities under the patronage of ITHA. McCaffrey also has been involved in initiatives that positively impact the lives of backstretch workers and negotiations for improved living conditions and more robust health and dental care.

On the regulatory and legislative side, McCaffrey has testified on behalf of ITHA members in front of the Illinois State Senate and House committees on pending legislation and in front of the Illinois Racing Board on the issues of horsemen’s rights, increased purses, proposed rule changes, and racing schedules. The ITHA in recent years advocated for racetrack gaming and has worked with the Illinois Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association and Illinois Harness Horsemen’s Association on multiple fronts to improve the economics of racing in the state during a time of multiple racetrack closures.

Previously, McCaffrey was IHHA President from 2008-16. He won roughly 1,800 harness races as a trainer and won eight Trainer of the Year titles at Maywood Park.

Michael Musto

NJTHA Executive Director

Mike Musto was born and raised in West Long Branch, New Jersey, a mile away from Monmouth Park.  His passion for the racing industry was ingrained when he began working with his father, assisting in the running of four tack shops at Monmouth Park, Atlantic City, Garden State and Meadowlands. In 1979, he secured a position as the Assistant Bookkeeper at Meadowlands and in 1985 became the Horsemen’s Bookkeeper at Garden State Park.  Two years later, Musto was hired by Sam Fieramosca as an assistant to the then New Jersey HBPA, a position he held until Fieramosca’s retirement in October 1999. He was promoted to Executive Director of the NJTHA at that time. During his tenure as the Executive Director, Musto has been instrumental in developing and overseeing one of the industry’s only worker’s compensation program covering all backstretch stable employees as well as jockeys, and he continues to maintain horsemen’s programs and services such as a medical, benevolence, appreciation events and other backstretch services to assist the hard-working men and women in the racing industry.

Joe Orseno

FTHA President

Joe Orseno has been a member of the FTHA Board of Directors for five years. Orseno is interim President and serves as Chairman of the Backstretch Committee, as well as serving on the Executive, Aftercare and Benevolence Committees.

Orseno grew up in Philadelphia and has always loved sports. He played football, basketball and baseball in high school. His dad loved going to the track and handicapping races. Orseno often tagged along. He started parking cars at Cinelli’s restaurant across the street from Garden State Park Racetrack as a way to make cash during high school. From there, Orseno started working around the barns on weekends.

Orseno started training horses in 1977. In 1997, be became the private trainer for Frank Stronach. In 2000, Orseno won the Preakness with Red Bullet. Later that year, he won two consecutive races on the Breeders’ Cup card. He won the Juvenile with Macho Uno and followed that up with Perfect Sting, the winner of the Filly and Mare Turf. Orseno has amassed over $32 million in earnings, boasting 34 graded stakes wins, 11 of which were Grade I.

Orseno has earned leading trainer titles five different times. One of the highlights of his career was winning five races on a single card at Gulfstream Park. In 2000, he was honored by NY Turf Writers with the C.V. Whitney Achievement Award. Orseno says Macho Uno was the best horse he has trained; Perfect Sting was his personal favorite.

Orseno first became involved in trainers’ meetings at the racetrack to have a voice in improving track safety. He is now very excited to work with the board. He credits the FTHA with getting the ball rolling in the right direction to make the racetrack safer and the turf course better. Orseno’s wife, Michelle, is a veterinarian. They have one daughter, Aly. Orseno also has a daughter and son, Shannin and Joseph, and three grandchildren.

Herb Oster

FTHA Executive Director

Tim Ritchey

DTHA President

Katharine M. Voss

MTHA President

Katy Voss has been a trainer in Maryland for more than 40 years. She helped found the MTHA in 1987 and is currently Secretary, as well as a member of the MTHA Purse, Finance and Legislative committees. She also is a longtime board member and secretary-treasurer of Maryland Million and a former president of the Maryland Horse Breeders Association.

Voss comes from a well-established family of horse people. Her father, the late John B. Merryman, served on the MTHA Board of Directors, and, with Voss’ late mother Kitty, bred and raced a successful stable for many years. Voss’s siblings—Ann, Edwin and Elizabeth Merryman—are also successful trainers in the region. Voss owns and operates Chanceland Farm, a large breeding, training and rehab facility in Howard County that she developed with Bob Manfuso who passed away earlier in 2020.

Chanceland is also an active consignor at Maryland auctions. Over the years, Voss has developed many outstanding stakes winners, including Twixt (a Maryland-bred champion in the 1970s), Bishop’s Fling, Smart ’n Quick, Due North, Wood So, Woodfox, Rugged Bugger, Carnival Court, Polish Holiday, Creamy Dreamy, Lies of Omission, Tuzia, Our Peak, Plata, Corvus, Saratoga Bob and Las Setas.

During the 2020 Maryland legislative session, she used her decades of legislative experience to work in Annapolis to support the Racetrack and Community Development Act and sports betting at the racetracks. She is currently working on the design of the barns and other aspects of the new stable area at Laurel Park envisioned in the legislation.

Voss said navigating through the construction schedules for rebuilding Pimlico Race Course and Laurel Park while maintaining a successful racing and training program is of the utmost importance, as is the need for strong, dedicated leadership to continue the progress in Maryland.

“Going forward, I believe the biggest challenge to the Thoroughbred industry, not just in Maryland but nationally, is the cost of developing horses,” Voss said. “The vast majority of owners never recoup their investment unless the horse is a stakes horse. The consequence is fewer owners developing fewer horses, resulting in shorter fields, which leads to lower demand for young stock and breeders breeding fewer mares as reflected in The Jockey Club’s annual foal crop statistics. This downward spiral will continue if we don’t come up with solutions and make the necessary changes as soon as possible.”

IN MEMORIAM

Rick Violette (2018)

NYTHA and THA President

Rick Violette Jr., a successful Thoroughbred trainer and President of the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association since 2008, died in October 2018 after a battle with cancer. He was a driving force for creation of the Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association and served as its long-time President.

Violette got his start in the equine industry showing hunters and jumpers on the East Coast circuit. He also galloped racehorses part time before opting to make a career at the racetrack. A graduate of Lowell University in his native Massachusetts, Violette began working on the backstretch at Suffolk Downs. He was assistant trainer to Emile Allain at Woodbine for two years before moving to New York to take the job as assistant to David Whiteley. He started his own public stable in 1983.

Top horses developed by Violette include graded-stakes winners Citadeed, Coosaragga, Dream Rush, Diversify, Free of Love, Gitchee Goomie, High Finance, Man from Wicklow, March Magic, Marquette, Miss Huff n’ Puff, Must Be War, Nijinsky’s Gold, One and Twenty, Outperformance, Read the Footnotes, Samraat, Savedbythelight, Spurious Precision, Summer Doldroms, Upon My Soul, Upstart and Worstcasescenario.

Violette for two decades served as President of NYTHA and the THA and has held the post as chairman of the New York Jockey Injury Compensation Fund for more than a decade. He was widely recognized for his work in leading NYTHA through the bankruptcy and reorganization of NYRA; negotiating the horsemen’s share of VLT revenues and backstretch improvements at the NYRA tracks; the reorganization and strengthening of the Backstretch Employee Service Team; and acquiring state of the art equipment for the New York Drug Testing and Research Program. Violette was also a staunch advocate of equine welfare and safety, and founded the TAKE2 Second Career Thoroughbred Program and TAKE THE LEAD Thoroughbred Retirement Program.

John Forbes (2021)

NJTHA President

John Forbes, one of the founders of the Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association and a longtime advocate for horsemen’s rights, died in January 2021.

Forbes came from a racing family. Both his parents trained horses, and his mother, Nancy Shakespeare Forbes, was the third woman ever to earn a trainer’s license in the U.S.  At 24, Forbes went to work for John Tammaro Sr. in Maryland.  Three years later, he captured his first race with Town House, a 5-year-old maiden, at Lincoln Downs in Rhode Island.

In 1995, he formed a limited partnership that raised $1.95 million to purchase yearlings and race them through 1998. Among those purchased was graded stakes winner Tale of the Cat, who later sold for $11.7 million. Forbes has been Monmouth’s leading trainer on five occasions and is the all-time winningest trainer in Meadowlands history.

Forbes won more than 2,100 races in his career. The 2006 recipient of the Buddy Raines Distinguished Achievement Award, Forbes has served as president of the New Jersey Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association since 2010.