On June 20, 2025, the United States Trotting Association (USTA) issued the following release regarding findings and conclusions in the matters of Connie Jenkins, Pamela Wagner, Stacey McLenaghan, Ashley Mulkern and Adrian Wisher, Jr.

The USTA, following an investigation by the Standardbred Racing Investigative Fund (SRIF), sanctioned John, Pamela, and Kelsey Wagner on May 30, 2025 for fraudulently transferring registered Standardbreds to Kelsey to avoid the consequences of John’s suspension by state racing officials after seven horses he trained tested positive for prohibited substances. SRIF uncovered additional misconduct in connection with the Wagners’ fraudulent transfers, and the USTA has entered rulings imposing sanctions against those involved.

Findings

On Feb. 6, 2025, Kelsey Wagner transferred 11 registered Standardbred racehorses to her aunt, Connie Jenkins, doing business as “Lucky Lilly Belle Stable.” All 11 horses had previously been transferred to Kelsey from Pamela or John Wagner in 2024. Jenkins became a USTA member in January 2025 and created Lucky Lilly Belle Stable in February 2025. These and other circumstances surrounding the Wagner family caused racing officials to question the legitimacy of the transfers.

In April 2025, Rosecroft Raceway began requesting documentation to verify ownership for certain entries, including specifically horses eligible for the Maryland Sire Stakes. Jenkins intended to race her horses in these stakes and submitted records to officials at Rosecroft to substantiate the legitimacy of her ownership. Jenkins’ trainer and driver, Stacey McLenaghan and Corey Braden, also produced records to Rosecroft. McLenaghan and Braden are close associates of John Wagner and maintain a training facility near the Wagner farm.

The records Jenkins provided track officials included an invoice for the 11 horses she acquired from Kelsey Wagner, charging $45,500 USD for the initial transfer and a balance of $50,100 USD due after the horses qualified. McLenaghan and Braden provided training bills for the horses, and copies of cheques were produced. Jenkins also gave racing officials what purported to be a bank record for a Wells Fargo account in the name of Lucky Lilly Belle Stable (“Wells Fargo Summary” or “Summary”), intended to corroborate the invoices and payment records given to track officials. After receiving these documents, Rosecroft allowed Jenkins’ horses to compete.

SRIF undertook its own investigation. In response to record requests, SRIF received deficient productions from Jenkins, McLenaghan, and Braden consisting largely of the same records they produced to Rosecroft. SRIF persisted, and after repeated requests and notification of a possible suspension of their USTA membership for non-compliance, SRIF received unredacted bank statements, payment information, and communications. These records confirmed that Jenkins and McLenaghan provided manipulated records to Rosecroft and SRIF/the USTA pertaining to the payment for the horses Jenkins purchased and the training arrangement between Jenkins and McLenaghan/Braden. Most notable was that the Wells Fargo Summary produced by Jenkins was a fabrication containing false information.

On April 15, 2025, it was announced that to qualify for Maryland Sire Stakes, Rosecroft was requiring documentation to verify ownership of any horses acquired since Jan. 1, 2024. Evidence obtained by SRIF established that the following day, April 16, 2025, McLenaghan emailed backdated February and March training bills to Jenkins, which were paid the following day with backdated cheques written from the Lucky Lilly Belle Stable account. Braden picked up those cheques at the Wagner farm after getting a call from John that they were ready and deposited them on April 17 and 18, 2025.

The Wells Fargo Summary falsely indicated one of these cheques was deposited on an earlier date and contained numerous other inaccuracies, including that several other deposits occurred earlier than they did. According to the Summary and a cheque produced by Jenkins for the $45,500 USD payment to Kelsey, this payment occurred in late January 2025, but authentic bank statements for the Lucky Lilly Belle account obtained by SRIF showed the account was not opened until February 2025. The Summary contained other inaccuracies, such as overstating the total deposits into the account. The (false) figures on the document did not even add up correctly, being off by $500. Although created to appear like an official bank record, the erroneous entries and irregular layout of the Wells Fargo Summary clearly established that it was not an authentic document.

When McLenaghan was first asked whether the invoices to Jenkins for training services were created after Rosecroft demanded records on April 15, 2025, she denied this, and indicated she believed the February invoice was sent sometime in March and that the dates and timing reflected in these records were unrelated to the Rosecroft issue. In a subsequent interview held after SRIF obtained records and communications inconsistent with her initial statement, McLenaghan acknowledged that she lied in her initial interview.

McLenaghan admitted that once Rosecroft announced on April 15 that it was requiring records to race in the Sire Stakes, she emailed Pam Wagner for Jenkins’ contact information and on April 16, emailed backdated training invoices to Jenkins.

McLenaghan and Braden further explained that other than a conversation between Jenkins, Braden, and John Wagner in which Jenkins agreed to a training and driving arrangement with McLenaghan and Braden, neither of them ever spoke to Connie Jenkins. They also explained that the initial financial arrangement was not to bill Jenkins for boarding and training costs, but that McLenaghan and Braden would get 30 percent and Jenkins 70 percent of the purse winnings Jenkins would be entitled to as an owner of the horses (this was in addition to the five percent share of purses they would receive for training and driving the horses, respectively). Once officials at Rosecroft began scrutinizing ownership of Sire Stakes horses, they switched to billing for the per-day cost of boarding and training. This change was only discussed by Braden with John Wagner and never with Jenkins.

When asked about the misrepresentation in the Wells Fargo Summary, Jenkins explained that Pam Wagner created the document and misrepresented the underlying financial activity, and that they created and submitted the Summary “in a moment of panic, given the pressure and confusion surrounding the investigation.” Jenkins stated the Summary was intended to more accurately reflect the timeline of the events in question and not to deceive. Contrary to Jenkins’ explanation, however, record evidence and the statements of McLenaghan and Braden established that the Wells Fargo Summary sought to corroborate a timeline of events that never occurred.

Regarding communications, Jenkins only produced the April 16 emails from McLenaghan that accompanied the invoices and one other short email with McLenaghan, and claimed she had no other written communications with anyone else about the horses, including the Wagners. She stated that McLenaghan would call her with updates on how her horses were training and other matters. That was not true according to McLenaghan’s statement that she never once spoke with Jenkins.

Jenkins’ resistance to providing SRIF with authentic and complete records and information, production of manipulated financial records, incredible explanations concerning these records and the events at issue, absence of communication with the trainers and caretakers of her horses, refusal to participate in an interview with SRIF’s investigator, and other issues caused SRIF to question the source of funds used to purchase the 11 horses from Kelsey Wagner and the legitimacy of Jenkins’ ownership. These concerns were elevated after SRIF discovered that John Wagner was using a previously undisclosed bank account in connection with the horses transferred to Kelsey and for which SRIF did not receive records. When records were demanded from that account, John canceled his USTA membership in response to notice from the USTA that he would be indefinitely suspended for not providing them.

Jenkins gave SRIF a bank record documenting the initial transfer of over $100,000 USD into the Lucky Lilly Belle Account from another account in her name, which she stated was the source of funds used to purchase the horses from Kelsey. SRIF requested records from this other account to confirm that the transferred funds did not originally come from someone other than Jenkins. Jenkins resisted producing these records, and SRIF narrowed their request in recognition of Jenkins’ protest. Despite this attempt at accommodation, Jenkins did not produce the bank records from this account and on June 5, 2025, the USTA indefinitely suspended her membership.

An additional investigation associated with the Wagners concerned Ashley Mulkern, who worked in various capacities for the Wagners. SRIF investigated the transfer of two horses to Mulkern in early 2025. One was transferred from Kelsey Wagner, without payment, in January 2025. The other was purchased on February 14, 2025, for $6,400 USD using John Wagner’s account at an online auction. Although John was the winning bidder, ownership of the horse was transferred directly to Mulkern from the prior owner on Feb. 18, 2025.

Mulkern informed SRIF that her parents gave her $7,000 USD cash to purchase the horse and that she used John Wagner’s online auction account because she did not have one of her own. Initially, Mulkern claimed she lacked financial records for the transaction because she paid the prior owner in cash for the horse and her parents would not provide SRIF with their bank records related to the money they gifted her. Mulkern’s response to SRIF’s record request was deficient in other respects and as a result, after repeated notice and continued non-compliance, on May 22, 2025, the USTA indefinitely suspended her USTA membership.

Following her suspension, Mulkern directed SRIF to the seller to confirm her description of the transaction. The seller told SRIF’s investigator that he received a $6,400 USD cheque (not cash) as payment for the horse. The seller also said that a few days earlier, he got a call from Mulkern in which she advised him he may be contacted by SRIF and asked him to tell SRIF’s investigator that she paid cash for the horse, which was false. The seller told SRIF the truth, however, saying that there was no way he would lie on behalf of Mulkern and jeopardize his USTA membership.

SRIF thereafter instructed Mulkern to provide a copy of the cheque used to purchase the horse. In response, Mulkern provided a cashier’s cheque issued to the seller from a bank account controlled by John Wagner, with the memo line indicating it was from Mulkern. Mulkern ultimately submitted to an interview with SRIF in which she explained the background of the transaction and admitted she lied when she told SRIF she paid cash for the horse and that she asked the seller to lie about the source of funds because she was worried about problems that may arise because of John Wagner’s involvement. Notwithstanding the lie Mulkern told SRIF regarding the cash payment, SRIF believes the transfer of the horse to Mulkern was legitimate.

SRIF’s investigation also included Adrian Wisher, Jr., who worked with the Wagners and was a trainer and driver-of-record for horses affiliated with the Wagners and Ashley Mulkern. SRIF requested information and records concerning Wisher’s work with Wagner-affiliated horses and individuals and inquired into Wisher’s acquisition of a horse previously owned by someone who, like John Wagner, received a 360-day suspension from the Maryland Racing Commission after horses he trained tested positive for prohibited substances. Wisher’s record production was deficient and on May 22, 2025, the USTA indefinitely suspended his membership.

Conclusions

Connie Jenkins
Currently, Connie Jenkins’ USTA membership is indefinitely suspended for violating USTA Rule § 26.16 because she refused to provide bank records that were necessary to confirm the legitimacy of her acquisition of the 11 Standardbred racehorses she purportedly purchased from the Wagners. Jenkins’ refusal to provide these records undermines the integrity of the industry by calling into the question the legitimacy of the registration of the horses in question. Jenkins’ USTA membership will remain suspended indefinitely. If she wishes to address her suspension in the future or avail herself of any USTA membership privileges, Jenkins will have to satisfy her obligation to produce the records in question. If that occurs, the investigation will be reopened, and the USTA will take any additional action it deems appropriate.

Independent of her indefinite suspension for failing to provide records under Rule 26.16, Jenkins violated USTA Rule § 20.06 governing fraudulent misconduct as this Rule applied at the time in question by producing false, fabricated, and manipulated financial records to racing officials and the USTA to allow her horses to run in the Maryland Sire Stakes at Rosecroft Raceway and mislead the USTA and others in their investigations. She engaged in deceptive and fraudulent conduct affecting the outcome of a race and otherwise injurious to the sport. She violated USTA Rule § 20.07 governing conspiracy as this Rule applied at the time in question by agreeing with Pamela Wagner to submit the false and fraudulent document to track officials and by taking acts to carry out this agreement/conspiracy.

At the time the underlying conduct was committed, US Trotting’s maximum fine for rule violations was $5,000 USD. Jenkins will receive a fine of $5,000 USD for violating USTA Rules §§ 20.06 and 20.07, for a total fine of $10,000 USD.

Pamela Wagner
For her involvement in the Wagner bearding conspiracy, Pamela Wagner received a total fine of $435,000 USD and her USTA membership was suspended indefinitely. Pamela Wagner also fabricated a false bank statement with her sister, Connie Jenkins, to deceive track officials into allowing Jenkins,’ horses to run in the Maryland Sire Stakes. That scheme was successful. Pamela Wagner violated USTA Rules §§ 20.06 and 20.07 and will receive an additional fine of $5,000 USD for each offense, which is the maximum fine allowed under the rules in effect at the time she committed the misconduct in question, for a total fine of $10,000 USD.

Stacey McLenaghan
Stacey McLenaghan admitted she lied to SRIF’s investigator when initially asked whether records submitted to Rosecroft Raceway were backdated and otherwise presented to address track officials’ demand for proof regarding the ownership of horses entered in the Maryland Sire Stakes. In so doing, she violated USTA Rule 20.06 governing fraudulent misconduct by a member. For this offense, McLenaghan will receive a fine in the amount of $5,000 USD.

Ashley Mulkern
Ashley Mulkern admitted she lied to SRIF in connection with her acquisition of a registered Standardbred because she was trying to avoid SRIF/the USTA learning that the purchase was linked to John Wagner. Mulkern later solicited a fellow USTA member to also lie to SRIF about the transaction, which he refused to do. In so doing, she violated USTA Rule 20.06 governing fraudulent misconduct by a member. For this offense, Mulkern will receive a “time served” suspension from today’s date back to May 22, 2025, when she was indefinitely suspended for noncompliance with USTA Rule 26.16. Because Mulkern has come into compliance with SRIF’s record and information request, her indefinite suspension under USTA Rule 26.16 is hereby terminated. No fine will be imposed.

Adrian Wisher, Jr.
Adrian Wisher, Jr., failed to produce records and information as requested by SRIF and on May 22, 2025, the USTA indefinitely suspended his membership under USTA Rule 26.16. Because of deficiencies in Wisher’s record production, SRIF and the USTA could not reach a definitive conclusion on his actions connected to the Wagners. For example, Wisher never produced complete, unredacted bank statements, which left SRIF unable to reconcile his financial activities in relation to the conduct under investigation. Despite Wisher’s lack of compliance, SRIF has completed its investigation. Therefore, the USTA will hereby terminate Wisher’s indefinite suspension and impose a 15-day suspension under USTA Rule 26.16 to commence on today’s date.

Connie Jenkins, Pamela Wagner, Stacey McLenaghan, Ashley Mulkern, and Adrian Wisher are entitled to appeal these rulings to the Executive Committee of the United States Trotting Association Board of Directors by stating their intention to appeal, in writing, to the Executive Vice President within 30 days from the date of these rulings.

In addition, because Connie Jenkins and Pamela Wagner remain indefinitely suspended, they are “person[s] not in good standing” under USTA Rule 4.130. Horses and USTA members associated with Connie Jenkins and Pamela Wagner are subject to the applicable restrictions under USTA Rules 20.15, 20.17, 22.05, 22.06, and 26.12. To ensure compliance with the USTA’s Rules and Bylaws, the USTA advises its members to consult with officials at the USTA before participating in transactions or engaging in business activities involving registered Standardbreds with Connie Jenkins or Pamela Wagner.

It is so ordered.

(USTA)