By Dick Jerardi
Kate Demasi has won 1,888 races since she began her training career in 1984. Demasi and her husband Greg’s Pewter Stable has won 533 races since 2000. She is a member of the Parx Hall of Fame. She has been active in the PTHA for decades, most recently as vice president and board member.
She has run for PTHA president once and, as revealed on Jan. 5, was elected overwhelmingly for a three-year term. She took over officially on Jan. 12. One day later, minutes after saddling a horse in the fourth race at Parx, Demasi spoke about her new role, which is very much like her old role, just with a different title.
“I’ve been really active in the PTHA all this time, and I just felt like we really need to work together and become cohesive again,” Demasi said. “I felt like since I had already been there, done that, it was the next logical step. I was so happy for all the support of everybody that voted, of the current board we had at the time that was very supportive of me running. It was really an honor and a privilege to be able to run and be voted in. I’m just ecstatic.”
That she has so much experience with the PTHA has allowed her to move into the new role seamlessly.
“A lot of paperwork,” Demasi said with a laugh about her first 24 hours in charge. “Everybody’s really working together. Everything’s great, so I am excited.”
That Demasi has been at Parx for so long and is so well known among the backstretch community as someone who cares about the welfare of her employees specifically and everyone at Parx generally made her an appealing candidate.
Had she ever run for something quite as prestigious as president of an organization so large that 2,162 ballots were sent out in mid November?
“I don’t think so,” Demasi said.
Eventually, 507 ballots were returned. Demasi got 314 votes to owner John Julia’s 169.
Ten board members were also elected, five trainer directors and five owner directors. Scott Lake got the most votes among the 11 trainers on the ballot with 286. John Servis (275), Butch Reid. (252), Ed Coletti (222), and Danny Velazquez (183) were also elected. There were 12 owners on the ballot. The winners were Richard Malouf Sr. (240 votes), Greg Newell (239), Jack Armstrong (201), former president Bob Hutt (187), and John Fanelli (186).
When she found out she had won the election, “I was just really super happy,” Demasi said. “You never know how things are going to shake out. Are people going to send their ballots back in and stuff? I was really happy for all the support that the horsemen here really do know that I’m in their corner, and I’m fighting for them. We’re a community, and we’re a tough little community too.”
And when asked what has been good about the PTHA in her years as board member and now president, Demasi said, without hesitation, “the number 1 thing is ‘Turning For Home,’ (the PTHA’s race horse retirement program). You know that’s near and dear to my heart. When we established ‘Turning For Home’ and what we’ve done and see it springboard in all the other states around us. Let’s face it. We have a great program here, year-round racing. We do have a good relationship with frontside (Parx management). We just need to re-establish that again. The purses are good here. If you have a Pa. bred, this is a great breeders’ program. I mean, there’s so much to be thankful for, not to mention our health and pension program. Who wouldn’t want to be here, right?”
Demasi has some of her own ideas of what to do going forward, but wants to work with the board and “sort out what we need to address first. I’m excited to meet and greet the new board coming. Hopefully, we’ll be doing that soon.”
When Demasi was asked how she is going to find the time to fulfill her duties as president while training and owning horses, she just smiled and said: “I have been asked that so many times and I said to everyone I’ve already been really, really active on the board for a while so it’s really just a little bit more with some paperwork here and there, obviously being visible for our organization. But, at the end of the day, I’ve really been fighting the fight behind the scenes.”
She will just have a new title: PTHA president Kate Demasi.
