Fast-Track Career
Teena Fix-Appleby spends her days at the racetrack — but there’s no horsing around for her.
GRANTVILLE, PENNSYLVANIA
When Teena Fix-Appleby was a child, her playground was Penn National Race Track here where she fed, groomed and walked her playmates — the family’s horses.
Visions of one day becoming a jockey filled her heart. It was a dream that faded soon after growing up — and growing too tall.
Today, Fix-Appleby still puts her horse sense to work at the racetrack as a Field Investigator for the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture.
And if she can’t fulfill her childhood dream of riding a horse into the winner’s circle, at least she can accompany her husband there: She recently married jockey David Appleby.
STRICT REGULATIONS. There are some 20,000 people licensed at Penn National, including the workers at the off-track wagering halls, vendors who sell food for the horses, and the concessionaires who take care of the spectators. Fix-Appleby, a steward with AFSCME Local 2528 (Council 13), and three other field investigators license about 3,000 new people each year.
"Horse racing has really strict rules that most people are not even aware of, such as running FBI and state background searches on newcomers," she says.
Fix-Appleby is responsible for ensuring that every owner, trainer and jockey is in good standing with the Racing Commission and that no one has been suspended from another track in another state.
"It is my job to make sure each person is photographed, fingerprinted and interviewed, if necessary," she explains.
If there is a problem, she conducts an investigation — discreetly — by examining stables from top to bottom. "Sometimes we get tips that jockeys have stored illegal electrical devices to fix a race. Although these charges are usually unfounded, I must still explore and report my findings."
When inconsistencies show up on the license application, she conducts the necessary interviews for the commission’s director of enforcement. But if illegal activity is determined she turns the case over to others.
STABLE OCCUPATION. Fix-Appleby has worked at the track for over 20 years, and her job wasn’t always pushing papers. Working in the job classification of farm worker at the track, she cleaned stalls, wrapped horses’ legs, bathed the animals and collected urine samples for drug testing.
"When a horse’s urine is positive, it must be tested for illegal substances by a state veterinarian," she says. "In this case a positive reading can result in the Racing Commission’s holding back a horseman’s purse money until that horse is clean."
While Fix-Appleby loves her current job, she misses working directly with the horses. "I especially like working the night shift — that is where all the action and excitement is," says Fix-Appleby whose office is adjacent to the grandstand.
"Although I am now on the other side of the fence, I am still in the thick of horse racing and there is no other place I would rather be."
By Venida RaMar Marshall
