A prize-winning horse trainer is underpaying workers at his Belmont Park stable, the US Labor Department said in a lawsuit.
More than 100 groomers and hot walkers who help clean stables and take care of horses at Steve Asmussen’s facility in Belmont haven’t been properly paid overtime amid willfully shoddy record keeping, according to the complaint filed in Brooklyn Federal Court.
Asmussen’s workers at Belmont would allegedly get a measly $25 extra for working a race day, rather than be paid time and a half once they reached the 40-hour a week mark, the feds charged.
A lawyer for Asmussen didn’t answer a request for comment.
It’s not the first time the Texas-based trainer—who also has year-round stables in the Lone Star State and Kentucky and races horses in Louisiana and New Jersey—has been accused of cheating workers. The Labor Department first made similar accusations in 2012.
Asmussen has surpassed $300 million in total earnings and produced three Breeders’ Cup winners, according to his website.
In 2015, the New York State Gaming Commission fined him $10,000 after PETA accused him of giving his horses performance-enhancing drugs.



