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June 12, 2025 18 mins
On this week's Harness Racing Alumni Show we are joined by standardbred breeder and owner Don Tiger.  Don gives us an update on the continuing litigation of his horse Charlie May who was disqualified after winning the 2021 Meadowlands Pace. Tiger also discusses his current status and plans for his small racing stable. All on this week's broadcast.  
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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Harness Racing Alumni Show. I'm Freddy Hudson.
I'm here with Trade Martin and Bob Marks the Harness
Racing Alumni Show with your host Freddie Hudson and Trade Martin.
Join us today is standardbred owner and breeder Don Tiger. Don,
Welcome back to the Harness Racing Alumni Show.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Great to be with you guys. Things are heating up.
It's early June. We got two year olds starting to
come out. Fun time of the year for harness racing
for sure, and just a good time for racing in general.

Speaker 3 (00:34):
Don, what is the latest. Join to Charlie may Saga. Yeah,
Charlie may Saga. We went back.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
We found some stuff in the last couple of weeks.
I mean, I hate to use this case justifying Ruez
out in California, but that took like seven years to adjudicate.
I'm not saying that's how long this is or is
not going to take, but I mean there's a lot
of moving parts. Obviously, the you know we did win
in a court of log I think that's very important

(01:01):
to discuss is that we had a judge list and
all the evidence, and he ruled in my favor obviously
in the New Jersey Racing Commission very stingy and does
not want to acknowledge that result. So it's a battle
that will continue. But we have recently done some stuff
and again they're, you know, oblivious to what's happening. Also

(01:25):
they're starting to the Commission seemed to be getting a
little more involved with some of the nefarious activity that's
themed from the March of twenty twenty indictments. There's been
some more people that have gotten recently sanctioned slash ban
from the industry fined, and believe it or not, that
does tie in indirectly because there was a lot of

(01:49):
people that were indirectly or directly involved with the case
that either have been removed from office or are there
is incriminating evidence against them. So we'll see how it
plays out. But I mean it's it's still full speed ahead.
And again recently we just did some stuff.

Speaker 1 (02:08):
So are you on the state level in this litigation
or the federal level?

Speaker 3 (02:12):
Now, yeah, that's a good question.

Speaker 2 (02:14):
I don't know. My council kind of is always looking
at different things that involve this. I believe that we're
still trying to stay to the state level. However, the
federal level is obviously on the plate too. I think
it's like a chess match, to be frank, I think,

(02:35):
you know, we move a piece, they move a piece,
We move a piece, and obviously we want to put
them in check and then possibly mate. Still a long battle.
I mean again, I'm not expecting anything this year. I
would expect they'll be continued to be dialogue and you know,
we'll just keep pushing forward. But you know, it's in

(02:55):
the rearview mirror per se. But it's it's just like
the room as case you justify. I think I was
twenty eighteen. I think that then got adjudicated last year.
You know it eventually, you know, the court systems matter
how you play it, whether it's fed, state propel it,
they have to at some point in time come back
and do something to you know, to finish the case off.

(03:19):
So you know, we'll see, we'll take it day by
day and see. But I mean again, nothing's changed. The
facts of the case haven't changed, which is great. So
now it's just a matter of how we adjudicate it
and when we adjudicate it. It's always been my goal,
as you know, just to win the race, not even
necessarily the purse, it's you know, just to be acknowledged

(03:40):
as the winner of that race.

Speaker 3 (03:41):
So we'll see.

Speaker 2 (03:42):
I mean, we're just going to keep pushing forward, and
you know, unfortunately or fortunately I have to let counsel do
what they have to do and you know, kind of
go from there.

Speaker 3 (03:51):
How much money have you sunk into this now? In
the litigation? You know?

Speaker 2 (03:57):
I the good news is it's been very like the
last couple of years, mainly just filing fees and stuff
because I've had some really good people working on my
case that have done it pro bono and you know,
for basically contingencies. So it's been great. But you know,
so that's the good part. I haven't been reaching in
my pocket up late. But I mean the early years
twenty one and twenty two, I mean we're talking excess

(04:20):
of six figures.

Speaker 3 (04:21):
You know, right, But I had to do it.

Speaker 2 (04:24):
I had to keep doing it because it's it's not
even just as much for me or the horse. It's
more for the industry. I mean, you know, we talk
about this privately, and obviously me, you and Bob talk
about this a lot. The industry is in a bad place,
and you know it's self inflicted. So I think they're
making some positive steps. I don't I think might be

(04:46):
too late. But I mean the big thing that you
have to stand out there, there's a lot of money
that does come from horse racing, but there's also a
lot of money from the states and the casinos that
go into horse racing. And you're conso battling, you know,
bureaucrats who looked that they could proportion that money from

(05:07):
state level, like in my state Pennsylvania, for years, the
governor and they've tried to move that money into education, schooling, housing,
road infrastructure, whatever. And you know they've been thwarted a
couple of times. But sooner or later, if you've got
an industry that has all the problems we do, that
can't kind of, you know, adjudicate itself. I mean I
do see at some point in time them losing funding.

(05:29):
Look at Florida with the decoupling. They used to race
dogs down there. Now they have no dogs. Now they're
down to one throwbread track, and you know that's that
could go away. And I mean that's a big throwbread
track with a big winter meet. So I don't know
it's it's but I don't think it's safe. Anybody in
racing should not feel safe. And you know, if and

(05:52):
when it happens, you know it'll continue to have a
domino effect. So I guess we'll just see what happens.
But one of the things I think I've tried to
do is let's clean it up. Let's get the bad
apples out of the industry. Let's start to set up
rules on all levels and let everybody play on the
same playing field.

Speaker 3 (06:11):
That's all.

Speaker 1 (06:12):
Yeah, let's talk about your stable a little bit. Now,
what's your stable consists of? Now, you know, breathing wise
and racing wise.

Speaker 3 (06:21):
Yeah, I only own the brood Mares.

Speaker 2 (06:23):
I breed her back every year and I get a
baby every year, and that's my stable. I don't have
any horses outside of her, and she throws a baby
every year. Obviously. The two horses I still have in
training are Charlie May and Shane Falco, both doing extremely well.
Some bad luck of late, which we'll get into in
a little bit, but you know, they're doing well, but

(06:44):
really excited. I have a two year old past and
colt named Mickey May. Ironically, I named him kind of
after Charlie May. I said, well, it's an always be Mickey's.
I named it Mickey May, which is Pennsylvania Bread, which
steps out of my comfort level a little bit. I've
pretty much brought all these horses to a high Brett
stallions because I love racing in Ohio.

Speaker 3 (07:02):
But the report.

Speaker 2 (07:03):
Cards are amazing on him. We're very excited. I'm not
sure he's the next Charlie mayor the next Shane Falco,
but we're going to see.

Speaker 3 (07:11):
But he's exciting.

Speaker 2 (07:13):
And those are the only three horses I have in training.
I do have a down by the seaside on the ground,
and let's see what else we have down on the
We have a I'm drawing a blank. But there was
another horse, Ohio Bread Stallion that we bred to last
year that I have a cult from too. So I

(07:34):
got a couple on the ground and we're back in
full to Monty Mickey. So some exciting stuff as far
as that goes, yep.

Speaker 3 (07:42):
Okay, now you've had that to again. Al whatever happened
to him?

Speaker 2 (07:49):
Yeah, I don't know. He didn't make the races. I
did sell him as a yearling for I think one
hundred and five thousand something like that, and I was
real excited about him because I named him after my
friend al Mases who passed away from COVID. And you know,
I almost thought about keeping the horse, but just some
very nice breeding with the down by the Seaside and

(08:10):
the stable c A bought the horse. Never really I
got some report cards and I know he had some
gate problems and then really haven't followed up with him.
But he's never qualified, never made the racist. So very
unfortunate because he was a good looking individual too.

Speaker 3 (08:23):
So yeah, yep. So now you just have Shane Falco
and Jarlie May racing. Shane Falco he's racing in Kentucky.

Speaker 2 (08:33):
No, I just moved him up to Ohio. I have
a guy, Terry Desicco working for me. Now. Terry's phenomenal.
He came up under Hervey. He was a New York
guy and he moved to Kentucky and more of a
hands on guy, small stable, three to five horses. That's
exactly what I like. I like somebody that's very hands on.
And he went down to Kentucky and when we you know,

(08:55):
I sent Charlie May out for the Burgada series. Got
a lot of checks over there. But what isn't successful
in the whole series, and we ended up bringing him
back home. And when I was getting ready to bring
him back home, you know, I kind of talked to
Terry about it because it was one of those things
I kind of do quickly to get ready for the
Battle Lake Erie, and he wanted to take on the task.

(09:16):
And I said, man, that's great, and he says, how
about if I moved to Ohio. So he packed up
his bags. He's moved him and his wife up to
Ohio and couldn't be happier. He only has three four head.
He wants to keep his numbers down like that so
we can concentrate on the horses. And just a phenomenal situation.
And you know, so far, so good. I mean, I

(09:36):
like where both horses are sitting. But yet Shane qualified
last week and fifty five flat over at Sciota, and
then he got sick a couple of days after the race.
He since has bounced out of it, so I'll probably
be entering him this week for Northfield. He fits a
nice condition race up Northfield. In same sickness, we had

(09:56):
a sickness in a barn Charlie. He caught sick. But
he's doing well. Now too, and probably enter him for
an overnight at Sciota and then looking to get back
to New Jersey for hopefully the Brower and the Hout
and if it all works out.

Speaker 3 (10:12):
Good and so what what what else is on the schedule?

Speaker 2 (10:17):
Well, I have the same schedule as last year pretty
much for Charlie. It's easy because there's a lot of
good Ohio bred races here and you know, it's it's
basically for anybody, because I do get a lot of calls,
people call text all time. When am I going to
see him? He's still a big fan favorite, which I'm
going to get into in a second, because there's a
real cool story to talk about the fan favorite. But
the uh, I would say, it's a mirror schedule. The

(10:42):
only thing that was really weird that got derailed is
there's a few races that I really just pick out
every year that like that I that.

Speaker 3 (10:49):
Mean a lot to me.

Speaker 2 (10:50):
One of those is the Battle of Lake Erie, and
I had him out east and you know, I had
been to talk with Davey and Coney a couple of
times and I had a spot he goes, oh, yeah, yeah,
you're good, You're good, And you know, after the Borgata series.
I did the right thing. We weresed six weeks in
a row with Charlie. I just gave him a week
out in the field, let him grasp, let him get
you know, his legs under him. And then also I

(11:11):
even sent him up just to the clinic where he
swims and takes it easy for a couple of days.
And uh then I brought him back to Ohio and uh,
you know, Dave called and said, you're still good for
the battle. I said, oh yeah, I'm still good for
the battle. I'm going to get a tune up, race
in on Saturday, and then we'll be up the following Saturday.
So I was pretty excited. And uh, you know, I

(11:32):
even I talked to Brett Miller. He wanted to go
drive him into battle, which ironically Brett didn't win the
battle on a different horse, so good for him, congrats.
But uh, you know, I went out and I raced
in the battle, and I'm like, I mean, I'm sorry,
I raced in the overnight, I told Dave we were
good to go, and I got a text that said
I was disinvited. So that really, that really was kind

(11:52):
of a gut punch because I'm like, how do you
get disinvited from something? I mean, no call, no explanation,
no nothing. And this kind of tells you about how
the sport is. Us on a panel, a bunch of us.
We all know, racing highs and lows. I mean you
get horses, get sick, quarter cracks, buy a post, draws
like it's it's a game that there's a lot of

(12:14):
highs and a lot of loads, and so we're hitting
a real low, you know, like, hey, we came home
specifically for the battle because I was invited to the
Camlock Classic.

Speaker 3 (12:22):
I passed. I said, don't go into the battle.

Speaker 2 (12:25):
I was probably going to get an invite over to
the Algar or the undercart over there, and I passed
on that just to get them home, and then your
home kind of town, you know, turns our back on you.
I know the horses lines weren't great, but what they
did was unacceptable. I mean, it's his it's his ball,
his rules, so he can do what he wants. But again,
the only reason I'm prefacing this is because, like anything,

(12:46):
I kind of stepped backwards, got a little kick in
the mouth. So this is how the Lord works in
very mysterious ways. I'm at work on Monday and I
get this email very important. I get this email from
a May. So this Amy May reaches out to me
and she says, hey, I'm not looking for you know,
any financial planning the house. I just want to let

(13:08):
you know that me and my husband every year we
go to the Medealants Pate kind of like their date night.
And I found out these folks living free Hold, New Jersey.
So they bet on Charlie May in the pace and
they won, and then they lost and it was it
was tough, it was very hard. So then they keep
going back every year, and in twenty twenty three they

(13:30):
were back there obviously, same post position, same bet. They
butt Charlie May again and that's when he upset on
the medelants Pace undercard. And I don't even know what
he paid. I think if paid sixty eight dollars or
something like that. And they got married that year, in
twenty twenty three, but they were having massive problems getting pregnant.

(13:51):
They had a lot of fertility problems. So when Charlie
May won the howton this folks? They even in the
email he sent this to me, said that they gave
us hope and it said, Hey, you know, here's somebody
that came back. So you know, this is the exact word.
They felt Charlie May was an inspiration to keep pushing

(14:11):
forward becoming our parents, to becoming our goal of being parents.
Their daughter was born last June, so June and twenty
four and they named the daughter Charlie May. So just
what a heartwarming story. And I reached out to this
young lady because she gave me our phone number. And again,
you know, I'm a guy who played sports in college

(14:32):
and high school of minor league baseball. I've had a
lot of fun, and I consider myself kind of a
hard tough guy times. And I'm just crying listening to
this story. But talking to this young couple from Freehold,
New Jersey, and then seeing pictures and having the perseverance
to name a horse.

Speaker 3 (14:48):
Like Charlie May.

Speaker 2 (14:49):
And where the irony comes in this whole story is
me and my wife had extreme fertility problems to try
to get pregnant, and anyone that knows the real backstory
Charlie May Stiple Hannover when we first tried to get
her pregnant the first time to I'm blanket even on
the stallion that Charlie's sire is. But we tried, tried, tried, tried,

(15:15):
and we were down to like it was June and
they were not doing any more collections, and I kept saying,
like to the breeder, He's like, we're just gonna you know,
we got to get rid of this horse. We can't
breed this horse anymore. And I'm like, we got to
do something. And we did a live cover, the very
last cover of mccardal. We got overnighted and Charlie May
got pregnant. So I mean, like, for Charlie May to

(15:37):
have fertility problems, me and my wife have fertility problems
in the maze to have fertility problems kind of brings
us all together. And I think the really cool part
for me is is like this is something where you know,
Charlie May might raise six months, two years, four years,
and he's going to retire, but this young little girl
is going to be growing up and having a big
life and it's always going to be a membrance of him.

(15:59):
And man, I think got super cool but really cool story.

Speaker 3 (16:02):
Yeah you're done. Was that the favorite fan story?

Speaker 4 (16:07):
Yes, that's exactly what it is. Yes, Yeah, I mean
it's just a yeah, yeah, just it's like I said,
these are folks that don't go to the track on
a daily basis. It's their date night, you know, kind
of like you know, there's certain people like me.

Speaker 2 (16:21):
I would go to the Breeders' Cup for thoroughbred racing.
It's just something I do, whether you know it's in
California or Kentucky.

Speaker 3 (16:27):
I just go.

Speaker 2 (16:28):
And it's kind of like a family thing. A lot
of us, you know, friends and family always go. We
get a box, and so it's what these folks do.
They've been going to the metatlands Pace night for a
date night for you know, ever, and now they're married
and now they have a little baby. But to say
that Charlie May was an inspiration because of what happened
to him and then how he you know, basically, I

(16:49):
don't want to say reversed fortunes.

Speaker 3 (16:51):
A lot of people.

Speaker 2 (16:51):
Always believe that him winning the hout and was kind
of like you know, karma, divine intervention, however you call it. Cool,
But to hear a story like that, especially when you're
starting to be one of those lows you get left
out of the Battle of Lake Erie and you know,
you're thinking, man, the thinks I had a race, I
plan all this stuff, and all of a sudden you

(17:13):
get picked right back up and you're back up in
the sky with the clouds, and you realize that the
Good Lord's connecting people.

Speaker 3 (17:20):
Just really cool.

Speaker 2 (17:21):
That's all I can tell you.

Speaker 3 (17:23):
Yeah, don did you have anything else that you wanted
to add?

Speaker 2 (17:28):
No, I think I think that's good.

Speaker 3 (17:29):
It's good catching up with you guys. It's been a while.

Speaker 2 (17:31):
I mean, obviously, you know, I hope that some of
this stuff, the commission start to clean house, start to
take a little bit better care of what's going on.
Because again, horse racings anywhere between fourteen to eighteen percent takeouts.
If you go make a bet on a sporting event
like the oilers and payan their series, or you're playing

(17:53):
ten percent takeouts, So like you know, they're up against it.
You know, people want to pull one arm band a
slot machines. Horse racing just isn't Some of the statistics,
if you just eyeball it are starting to go negative
again as far as handles go outside of the big
days with like the Belmont and Kentucky Derby. But I mean,
if you look at the statistics even on a USTA website,
it looks like it's negative and it'll continue that trend

(18:15):
unless we get a better product. So hopefully some people
that are listening to this taking some heed that there's
you know, there's a lot of good stories like the
Charlie May story out there and maybe people can start
to fix things to get a going the right correction.

Speaker 3 (18:28):
But with that, I'm going to close the show out.
I want to thank you so much for joining us today.

Speaker 2 (18:33):
My pleasure always good to talk to you guys.

Speaker 3 (18:36):
Okay, that's a wrap for this week's show. Thanks for listening,
and please don't forget to join us again next week
The Hunt is Racing Alumni Show
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