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OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Dr. Sandra Dixon, a Lasix veterinarian for the New York Racing Association, was fired for what she was told was “a conflict of interest” potentially stemming from the fact she is the mother-in-law of trainer Rob Atras.

Atras, a former assistant to Robertino Diodoro, went out on his own in January and has won nine races from 15 starters at the Aqueduct meet. Atras is married to the former Brittney Dixon, who is Sandra’s daughter. Brittney Atras works as an assistant to her husband, who maintains a 10-horse stable at Belmont Park.

According to Sandra Dixon, she was visiting a friend in the NYRA stewards’ office on Feb. 8 and was asked by a NYRA official what she was doing there. Dixon said she was going to watch a race on television in which her daughter’s horse was running. That horse, Science Fiction, won that day’s sixth race.

Dixon said she was summoned the next day to NYRA’s human resources department. Two meetings and eight days later, on Feb. 16, Dixon was escorted off the grounds by NYRA security and told she could not be on the grounds of a NYRA track for 90 days.

“What she was told is this was solely a matter of family status,” said attorney Karen Murphy, whom Dixon has retained. “That can’t be the basis to discriminate against somebody without more. There’s absolutely no more.”

Dixon said she was told her termination did not have anything to do with her job performance.

“I was assured more than once that my work performance was not at issue and not a problem,” Dixon said.

Dixon said she had been upfront with NYRA about her daughter’s marital status and whom she worked for since Brittney began working at NYRA last year, first for Linda Rice then for Diodoro, for whom she began working for last July at Saratoga.

According to Steve Lewandowski, the steward for the New York Gaming Commission, Dixon’s veterinary license is in good standing.

Dixon, 53, joined NYRA in November 2017 as a Lasix veterinarian. NYRA has three Lasix vets and each is given daily assignments regarding which horses to administer Lasix, which is given 4 to 4 1/2 hours out from a horse’s race. The Lasix vets do this administration independent of an examining veterinarian, who checks for soundness.

Dixon said that she has administered Lasix to Atras-trained horses on three occasions.

NYRA, in the early 2000s, was the first track to institute a third-party Lasix veterinarian. A Lasix vet also draws blood for pre-race and out-of-competition testing.

A Lasix vet is not required to be on the frontside to do his or her work. There are offices in barns on the backside of both Belmont and Aqueduct at which Lasix vets record what they’ve done on a given morning and also pick up their assignments for the following day.

However, Dixon said she was never told she was not permitted to be on the frontside whether on or off the clock.

Asked if she felt her son-in-law’s meteoric success was a factor in her termination, Dixon said, “I can’t speculate if things would be handled differently if he was 0 for 14. I don’t know.”

Murphy said she is hoping to get a meeting with NYRA officials to further discuss Dixon’s firing. Murphy is suggesting that NYRA simply doesn’t assign Dixon to treat any of Atras’s horses.

Murphy said NYRA’s legal department “is in a positon to say ‘Okay we have this decision, let’s accommodate our vet of a year who’s done a great job and make sure if there’s any appearance of a conflict – even if it’s not actual conflict – let’s change up the routes.’”

Through a spokesman, NYRA declined comment.

On its website, NYRA posts a code of ethics, which, in part, reads “It is important to avoid even the appearance of impropriety, which may occur when a reasonable observer might assume there is a conflict of interest and, therefore, a loss of objectivity while acting on behalf of NYRA. … Likewise, we should all endeavor to pursue a course of conduct that will not raise suspicion among the public that we are likely to be engaged in acts that are in violation of any trust.”

Murphy said this termination would be a stain on Dixon’s résumé should she seek future employment.

“We want her job back and for her reputation to be restored,” Murphy said. “This is just 100 percent wrong and the consequences are 100 percent significant.”

Dixon said she would like to return to work to NYRA.

“I like my job,” Dixon said. “I built a life here.”

NYRA has already advertised for a Lasix vet position.

This story originally appeared on DRF.com. 

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DELRAY BEACH, Fla. – They have names like Boomerang and Big Loop, Comet and Corkscrew, Tornado and Velocity. The road to the Kentucky Derby has so many twists and turns, it’s like a roller-coaster ride. So, perhaps the most-appropriate horse for this time of the year is one named for the manufacturer of roller coasters bearing those monikers.

Vekoma is a company based in The Netherlands that makes roller coasters installed at amusement parks the world over. Its namesake, a 3-year-old colt whose clever name was inspired by his sire, Candy Ride, is located in a far more tranquil setting, here at Palm Beach Downs, a training center about 41 miles northwest of Gulfstream Park where trainer George Weaver is based for the winter.

Exiting the northernmost barn on the property from a stall that faces north – toward Kentucky – Vekoma has trained daily at Palm Beach the past two months, with six works beginning on Jan. 12 through last Sunday. He’s locked into the car, chugging up, up, up. He’s about to head over that spot at the top of the rise and careen on that wild, crazy, twisting, looping, screaming journey, beginning on Saturday in the Grade 2, $400,000 Fountain of Youth Stakes at Gulfstream.

“We’ve done as much as we can with him in the morning. It’s time to get over there and run and get his 3-year-old campaign started,” Weaver said on a gorgeous Wednesday morning while sitting on a picnic table adjacent to the track at Palm Beach. “He’s had a nice series of works. But it’s a tough race, two turns off the bench.”

Vekoma showed plenty of promise last year in two starts. He defeated maidens at Belmont Park going six furlongs in his debut, then five weeks later won the Grade 3 Nashua at Aqueduct, a one-turn mile, earning a Beyer Speed Figure of 97. He was considered for the Remsen but instead was given a break to prepare for what potentially lays ahead.

“The idea was to give the colt a chance to get to the Derby,” said Weaver, who trains Vekoma for Randy Hill and Matt Gatsas. “We thought the time would do him well. We didn’t want to risk burning him out.”

Vekoma is not an imposing specimen. Considering his chestnut color, small star, and his sire, he bears a striking resemblance physically to what Gun Runner looked like in the spring of his 3-year-old year. Gun Runner was third in the 2016 Derby, and went on to be the 2017 Horse of the Year.

“He’s medium-sized, well balanced,” Weaver said, adding that those qualities are what attracted his attention when he and Steve Venosa – who often pinhooks his yearling buys – picked out Vekoma for Hill when he was acquired at Keeneland in September 2017 for $135,000.

“I bounce ideas off of Steve, and he gives the stamp of approval,” Weaver said. “He looked athletic to me. I thought he moved well.”

Weaver, 48, has been training on his own since 2003, but he’s been involved in the game for more than three decades. He first got interested as a youth growing up in Louisville, Ky., the son of parents who were fans of the sport but had no other connection.

“I like animals, I like horses,” Weaver said.

After briefly working one summer at a farm and deciding he much preferred the action at the racetrack, Weaver got his first job working for trainer John Hennig, whose son Mark and son-in-law Kiaran McLaughlin already were working for D. Wayne Lukas.

“I told him I didn’t just want to hot walk. I wanted to learn,” Weaver said. “He told me when the opportunity presented itself, he’d feed me into Wayne’s organization. It happened a lot sooner than I thought it would.”

Weaver initially worked under Lukas’s son, Jeff, and Jeff’s top assistant at the time, Todd Pletcher. After Pletcher went out on his own, Weaver eventually worked as an assistant for Pletcher before deciding he needed to go out on his own as well. Weaver’s biggest victory came in the 2005 Dubai Golden Shaheen with Saratoga County.

While working for Pletcher, Weaver met his wife, the former Cindy Hutton, who is the exercise rider for Vekoma. “She’s a big part of everything we do,” Weaver said. They have one child, a son, Ben, who is 16.

Now, at Palm Beach – a private training facility with just six barns – Weaver and Pletcher are neighbors. And on Saturday, among those Weaver will face in the Fountain of Youth is the Mark Hennig trainee Bourbon War.

“Wayne is a great horse trainer and was a great coach for us,” Weaver said. “We’re all proud that we were part of his organization. It’s kind of a fraternity.”

Lukas has won the Derby four times. Pletcher twice. That’s another fraternity Weaver would surely like to join. Wouldn’t that be an exhilarating ride?

This story originally appeared on DRF.com. 

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