Beshear removes prominent KY horseman from racing panel after alleged misconduct

Gov. Andy Beshear has removed prominent Lexington horse breeder Alan J. Leavitt from the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission after Leavitt was accused of “repeated inappropriate behavior” with a commission staffer.

When the Lexington Herald-Leader asked Beshear’s press office why the governor removed Leavitt, it released a statement from Amy Cubbage, Beshear’s general counsel.

“I was made aware of unwanted and unacceptable statements and conduct made by a Horse Racing Commission member toward” an employee of the commission, Cubbage said. “I reviewed the materials and documents related to this situation. There is a standard of conduct and his actions clearly violate those standards and necessitated removal.”

Leavitt, 85, said accusations of inappropriate behavior against him are “totally untrue. I have never sexually harassed anyone.” He sent the Herald-Leader several emails that he says prove his innocence.

Leavitt is president of the Kentucky Standardbred Breeders Association, and president and general manager of Walnut Hall Ltd. in Lexington. His wife, Meg Nichols Leavitt, is owner. He also is a member of the Harness Racing Museum Hall of Fame in Goshen, N.Y.

Beshear issued an executive order July 16 removing Leavitt from the racing commission. The Democratic governor did not say why in the order but noted state law permits the governor to remove commissioners “for any cause the governor deems sufficient.”

Beshear had appointed Leavitt to the commission that regulates horse racing and parimutuel wagering in Kentucky in April 2020 for a four-year term. Leavitt had served for eight years on the panel under former Gov. Steve Beshear, father of the current governor.

On July 15, a day before Leavitt’s removal by the governor, Cubbage received an email about Leavitt from Benjamin Long, general counsel of the state Public Protection Cabinet, which oversees the racing commission.

In the letter, obtained by the Herald-Leader through an Open Records Act request, Long said Leavitt “has engaged in repeated inappropriate behavior.”

“What began as unwelcome and inappropriate communications sent by Mr. Leavitt to .... developed into offensive and harassing communications.” The Beshear Administration deleted the name of the person involved in Leavitt’s alleged communications and the Herald-Leader does not generally publish the names of alleged sexual harassment victims.

Long said he sent emails to Leavitt at least three times directing him to cease communications with the individual and to view a harassment training video.

“In each instance, Mr. Leavitt defied directives and refused to complete the training. Mr. Leavitt also refused reasonable requests to meet with PPC (Public Protection Cabinet) and KHRC (Kentucky Horse Racing Commission) staff to discuss his contact toward” the individual.

In March of this year, Long said, racing commission chairman Jon Rabinowitz spoke with Leavitt by phone and told him to “cease communications” with the individual.

“For the following three months, Mr. Leavitt did not contact” the individual, Long said in his mid-July email. “However, earlier this week, Mr. Leavitt came to the KHRC and entered” the individual’s office.

During the encounter, Long said, Leavitt made comments about the individual’s body, “feigned ignorance of directives not to communicate” with the individual when she attempted to terminate the conversation, “and later made a joke about sexual harassment to KHRC Executive Director Marc Guilfoil.”

Long said the individual reported Leavitt’s conduct and indicated feeling “demeaned, mocked, objectified and angry regarding the encounter.”

Long said he had talked to Rabinowitz about Leavitt and both agreed that Leavitt should be removed from the commission.

The Herald-Leader also obtained through an Open Records Act request a July 13 email the woman sent to Jacob Walbourn, deputy general counsel of the Public Protection Cabinet, about Leavitt.

She told Walbourn, “I just wanted to let you know that you all may receive a call from Alan Leavitt regarding PPC’s directive that Mr. Leavitt is not supposed to have any contact with me.”

She said Leavitt had stopped by the commission office to see Guilfoil and Leavitt walked to the individual’s office and said hello.

“I also said hello. Mr. Leavitt asked if we could ‘shake hands like two humans.’ We then shook hands,” said the individual. “Mr. Leavitt said that he brought donuts, and that I could have one, as it would not ‘affect my weight.’

“He then stated that I could eat anything I wanted and still stay thin. I awkwardly said thanks, but was about to tell Mr. Leavitt that we needed to end this conversation, per my understanding of the PPC directive. Before I could continue my sentence, Mr. Leavitt then asked” about a photo on her shelf.

She said Guilfoil then showed up and asked Leavitt to come into his office. Leavitt told Guilfoil “just a minute” and then the individual said she told Leavitt they did not need to continue their conversation and reminded him that they were not to have contact.

“He told me twice that he had no idea what I was talking about,” the woman wrote.

Leavitt provides emails

Leavitt told the newspaper that he had brought donuts to the racing commission office as a gift to the staff who worked there.

He said he never before had seen in person the woman and that he did say the individual “was trim enough to ignore the calories in one of my doughnuts.”

Leavitt also said racing chairman Rabinowitz “has hassled me at every turn” since Leavitt spoke against the commission’s support of a second horseman’s organization.

“The facts speak for themselves here,” said Leavitt. “I have never sexually harassed anyone, and I am being attacked by people whose viciousness is only exceeded by their total disrespect for the truth.”

Leavitt produced two emails he sent the woman more than a year ago, on May 13, 2020, and on June 27, 2020.

In the first email, Leavitt told the individual, “My apologies if I was unintentionally rude when we just spoke. Sometimes I forget that even a fish wouldn’t get into trouble if he just kept his mouth shut.”

A few minutes later, the woman responded, telling Leavitt that “no offense was taken and I appreciate your entertaining fish metaphor.”

In the June 27, 2020, email, Leavitt said he had discovered that the individual was the neighbor of one of his close friends in Lexington and that the neighbor walked with the individual in question.

Leavitt informed her that he walks daily at the Alltech Arena at the Kentucky Horse Park and needed a walking companion for three days of the week. “Let me know if you are interested,” he said.

On July 10, 2020, Leavitt received a message from Public Protection Secretary Kerry Harvey notifying him that his communications with the woman “have come to our attention and create a concern. These communications could reasonably be construed as unwelcome and inappropriate.”

Harvey asked Leavitt to “terminate your correspondence” with the individual and to complete online training about sexual harassment.

Leavitt replied to Long, general counsel of the state Public Protection Cabinet, about an hour later, saying he had visited the training link Long sent him and questioned if Long were accusing him of sexual harassment.

“I am 84 years old, and I have never before been accused of that. Yet you apparently claim that my emails constitute sexual harassment,” said Leavitt. “I assure you I need no training to avoid sexually harassing anyone. As I said above, that is something I have never before been accused of, and I certainly don’t intend to start at my advanced age.

“I’m willing to let this matter drop here, unless you intend to pursue it, in which case I will regard myself as a victim of slander.”

Leavitt responded to Long later that afternoon of July 10, 2020, saying he totally rejected Long’s conclusion that his two emails to the individual were “objectively inappropriate.”

Leavitt said if he completed the training video as officials requested, he would be admitting that he was guilty of sexually harassing someone, “which I vehemently deny.”

He also said he had no intention of writing to the individual again and said the accusations against him were “flowing from my stand against the actions the commission is taking re the new horseman’s organization.

“I have also objected to being shunted aside as the chairman of the sire stakes advisory committee. Those are the real reasons you are cooking up these phony charges. If you want to go further with this harassment, then I suggest we all sit down with Gov. Beshear and let him hear about all this.”

Leavitt said he was “happy to drop this whole matter here and now if you are, but I’m not taking any training course in avoiding sexual harassment. As a graduate of Andover and Harvard, I am well aware of what it is, and I would be going against every moral precept I learned there if I were to ever engage in something so vile.”