Trainer Shelbe Ruis

Trainer Shelbe Ruis, who trains for her father Mick Ruis' Ruis Racing, took to Twitter Saturday after C Falls' scratch was reported mid-card for the eighth race and said Santa Anita racing secretary Steve Lym "harassed" her.

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"I was harassed from the new racing secretary for scratching my horse for unsafe conditions," Shelbe Ruis said on Twitter Saturday. "They don't care about horse safety at Santa Anita."

A day later Shelbe Ruis deleted the tweet, but said she largely stood by her comments, with some exceptions. She said Lym apologized to her Sunday and she is hopeful they can move forward. She also said she "did not mean to say that Santa Anita does not care about horse safety."

"I stand by what I said, because that's how I feel," Shelbe Ruis said. "Intimidation is the same as harassment, and I don't appreciate being bullied. He called me and apologized, and I appreciate that. I don't want to sound like I'm crying about it. I'm just trying to stand up for myself."

Lym took issue with Shelbe Ruis' description of their interaction Saturday, specifically with the word "harassed."

"I briefly spoke with her this morning. I'm not a disingenuous person. If she felt she was harassed by me—and that's a heavy word—it wasn't harassment. I called her once," Lym said. "We were trying to hold a card together. Everybody got a call, and I told her that. The way we left things this morning, I thought everything was OK."

In another tweet Saturday, Shelbe Ruis said, "Apparently it's OK to scratch for unsafe conditions for a stake race, but my (maiden special weight) horse doesn't matter."

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The stakes scratch she spoke of was in reference to Hronis Racing's Nolo Contesto, who was withdrawn mid-card from the Robert B. Lewis Stakes (G3) by trainer John Sadler because of the track condition, which was listed as "sloppy (sealed)."

According to the current Santa Anita condition book, stakes scratches are allowed "prior to the third race or two hours before post time." Regular scratch time for races at Santa Anita is 10 a.m. on the day before the scheduled race. For overnight races the current condition book states "the field may scratch to 10 interests at the specified scratch time. In the event that multiple requests to scratch bring the field below 10, those requests may not be honored pending the reason and/or be determined by lot if necessary." That verbiage is in the condition book for Jan. 17-Feb. 3, but the condition book for Feb. 7-18 has that language omitted.

The disagreement Saturday was not the first time a member of the Ruis family has taken issue with a Santa Anita racing secretary. In September, Mick Ruis—who was training his horses at the time but has since pulled back to let his daughter train in California—announced he was pulling most of his horses out of the state because his stall space was cut by previous racing secretary Rick Hammerle. Hammerle was removed from his position at Santa Anita Nov. 30 and Lym was announced as the new racing secretary Dec. 22.

BALAN: Ruis to Move Horses Out of CA Over Stabling Dispute

"I can't believe the new racing secretary was threatening to take her stalls away for scratching on that track," Mick Ruis said Saturday night. "I completely stopped training and still have 100 horses so I would not have to get upset about the way they treat the horsemen. I tried to be a voice and it kind of backfired on me."

Lym confirmed that Shelbe Ruis expressed to him she felt he threatened to take stall space away, but disagreed with her opinion of their interaction Saturday.

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"That's what she told me. She felt I was threatening with stalls," Lym said. "The year is still young. I can't tell you what kind of stalls she's going to get this year. I'm not threatening anything. If you perform, you'll get stalls. If you don't, you won't get stalls. That's the same with everyone."

Trainer Jeff Mullins also scratched two of his horses mid-card Saturday—Whitehouse Road from the eighth and Candyman Garret in the 10th—a result of talks he had with jockeys coming off the track after the first couple races.

Mullins said he informed the racing office before entries were taken Jan. 30 that, if the track was hard and sealed because of soggy conditions, he would not run Whitehouse Road.

"They already had the seed planted for him," Mullins said.

For Candyman Garret, a horse claimed by Mullins in September, he said owner Phil Bongiovanni didn't want to run on a wet track in the first place. The trainer also didn't want to squander the multiple months of work it took to get the Overanalyze  colt ready to race by putting him on a harder-than-usual surface.

"I claimed him and took four months to get him right, so I didn't want to waste all that work," Mullins said. "The owner was against running on that track, anyway."

Tim Ritvo, the chief operating officer of The Stronach Group, said he communicated with Mullins early in the card, although he felt the surface was safe. Mullins said Ritvo only encouraged him to make his scratches prior to the start of the Pick 6 sequence, because Saturday was a mandatory payout day for the wager. Mullins said when he called the scratch in to the racing office Lym, "genuinely tried to talk me out of scratching."

"I told him, 'I'd love you to run, but the horses come first,'" Ritvo said. "Do what you want with the horses, but we'd love you to run. That's what I say to everyone. ... And I was in the jocks room the entire day.

"It's not about threatening anyone. We could use the horses. I don't want to hear the track is unsafe, because that's untrue. We wouldn't run if the track was unsafe.

"The track isn't unsafe just because it's muddy. Tracks are muddy all around the country. It can be unsafe if there's ruts. It can be unsafe if there's holes. ... The bottom line is, and I don't understand out here—I struggle with this. We float tracks all around America when it rains. You don't have to run, but some horses actually like to run in the mud. Some horses run better in the mud.

"It's a safety issue. No jockey is pressured to run. No horse is pressured to run. If we think the track is unsafe, we'll cancel racing. If we think it's safe, we'll continue on."