Clueless clown George Haines, CEO SA, comments in DRF as to why the handle was down app 9% for this last meet. Mentioning the obvious,the economy,NYC OTB shutdown,horse shortage, he fails to acknowledge the possibility that the players boycott of SA may also have something to do with the decline.Transparent Haines did comment on the horse safety issue which is mandatory whenever one of these clowns speak(they rarely mention jockey safety as often)
The Clueless Clowns running the game continue to bank on the fact that we players/gamblers are mainly voiceless and not that strongly organized. These out of touch clowns will still be thinking that when they begin to shutter some of these places.
Mike
Mike, please name one thing that is more important to \"jockey safety\" than \"horse safety\".
miff Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Clueless clown George Haines...fails to
> acknowledge the possibility that the players
> boycott of SA may also have something to do with
> the decline.
> Mike
\"...the player boycott\"? Huh? You make it sound like it was something formal, or widespread.
No diminished support for SA at my gambling facility. I\'ll ask around to see if any of the local big boys knew they weren\'t supposed to bet SA.
Just for grins, Mike -- of that 9% decline SA suffered, how much of that is due to this player boycott thing of which you speak? Hang a number on it, please.
Rick B.
Magic,
Get your drift but better equipment for a starter and at least as much research as they do on horse safety. I\'d guess there are many more studies being conducted on what can be done for horse safety than there is specifically for jockey safety.Not sure that ALL horse safety improvements automatically translate to jockey safety too.
Wonder what Ron Turcotte and others in his position really think about \"horse safety\"vs jockey safety.
At the same time that \"they\" stump on horse safety,lame-o\'s go to the gate daily,aided by strong in between meds that often get some past the morning/afternoon vet.If \"they\" were serious they would ban all race day AND in between meds. We would then have a pure game, running about 1/3rd of the races now run.
Mike
Mike, I agree with virtually all of your assessments of the clowns. I just think the \"they care more about the horses than the jockeys\" argument is a red herring.
Rick B,
Maybe Jeff Platt Pres. of HANA could take a shot at answering that.I doubt it\'s a conicidence that the pick 6 pool at Santa, for example, was off by app 25+% most days of the meet since they raised the takeout.
Mike
There are a number of very interesting things heading down the pike in this industry. Whether they take effect soon enough to save some tracks from going under who knows, but the invisible hand is finally slapping some sense into people.
The boycott was formal. It was real. I know a lot of people who participated in it--real people with real names who used to bet real money on SA. And Miff is exactly right about the Clueless Clown stuff.
By the way, if you want to hear an interesting interview, go to Steve Byk\'s radio show of 12-24-2010 (available in the At The Races archives, third hour) and listen to Byk interview Ric Hammerle just before the SA meet began. Quite an attitude on display in this interview. There\'s talk (from Byk) of the need to \"rally around this\" [return to real dirt, with takeout increase] and the need to \"encourage what has transpired.\" There\'s also some laughter about the boycott.
The entire interview is overflowing with optimism about the meet. Of course the interview took place before the meet began.
Santa Anita\'s actual handle decline was over 20% in total handle: $589 million for 2010 to $467 million for the 2011 winter meet. They ran fewer races, so the per-race decline was a lower percentage, and that\'s the \"spin\" number Santa Anita is using, but the meet was nothing short of a catastrophic financial failure.
For those who don\'t believe there was some sort of California boycott, Golden Gate was down 19.4%. Guess that\'s just a coincidence.
If you want some positive news, Gulfstream and Tampa\'s handles are both up more than 6% each, which considering the industry trend is pretty impressive.
Clueless Charlie Hayward and co in trouble AGAIN!! More evidence that NYRA management does not have the minimum amount of business accumen to run a $2 billion+ operation. Can\'t they find some f--king professionals to run the NY Racing game?
DRF:
Former employee sues NYRA, claims pressure to issue work permits to illegal aliens
By Matt Hegarty
A former administrative employee of the New York Racing Association has filed a civil lawsuit claiming that the association withheld legally required overtime pay and pressured her to accept incomplete immigration forms to issue permits to employees, according to a copy of the lawsuit.
Patricia Cerda, 43, claimed in the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in New York on April 11 that she was "forced to resign" due to the pressures. She is seeking back wages for unpaid overtime, lost wages, and damages from the "hostile work environment" as a result of the association refusing to address her concerns about the documentation of illegal aliens, according to the lawsuit.
NYRA spokesman Dan Silver said Monday that the association does not comment on pending litigation.
In her lawsuit, Cerda claimed that NYRA managers pushed her to accept incomplete immigration documents to issue work permits in several instances, and she contended that approximately 60 to 100 illegal aliens work at the association or on the association's three backstretches. Cerda was hired by NYRA in 1990 and was promoted to a manager with the Identification Office in 2006, the lawsuit claims. She resigned in 2010.
The lawsuit also alleges that Cerda was not paid a salary equal to male employees in similar positions and that NYRA refused to pay overtime wages when she worked more than eight hours a day or five days a week
miff Wrote:
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> Clueless Charlie Hayward and co in trouble AGAIN!!
> More evidence that NYRA management does not have
> the minimum amount of business accumen to run a $2
> billion+ operation. Can\'t they find some f--king
> professionals to run the NY Racing game?...
>
No, but political hacks are a strong possibility. I think Jesse Jackson Jr. is a good candidate since he blamed the dead economy on the iPad last week. With logic like that, it looks like he has NYRA potential. If they really want professional, they should go to Hong Kong. They really know how to do it right there. From what I understand, all workouts are filmed, all horses working are identified with saddle cloths, their tote system doesn\'t have the mystery odds changes in the middle of the race, etc.
Guess where the head of marketing for Hong Kong racing came from.
oh no, say it isn\'t so.
Bill Nader, former NYRA head of marketing.
Unplayable 5 & 6 horse fields is why I have stayed away from SA.
Bill Nader, former EVP and COO of NYRA, is the Director of Racing for The Hongkong Jockey Club.While at NYRA, Bill was always available to listen to a reasonable suggestion.
Present NYRA management is smug and takes a \"What the f--k do you know attitude when suggestions are made\"
NY Racing would be far better off with Bill Nader at the helm.
Mike
sekrah Wrote:
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> Unplayable 5 & 6 horse fields is why I have stayed
> away from SA.
OK, my suspicions are seconded -- THIS is why I stayed away from many SA races, too.
I guess we were both part of the \"formal boycott\", and didn\'t know it. At least, no one can prove that we *weren\'t* part of the boycott.
The takeout increase was supposed to increase field size. The Clueless Clowns got that wrong, too.
Miff hits it right on the head again! But doesn\'t the question after all the differing views come down to \"why\" they aren\'t listening to the horseplayers? I really don\'t know myself...what I do know is this:
Oaklawn Park lost 9 days of the 54 racing days scheduled and were up on everything - on track pools, attendance, ...and had 64K people on Derby Day in a town of 38K...yeah, CA gets it alright...6 horse fields is where it\'s at. Keeps up with Golden Gate that way I guess. Quite frankly, I find Tampa much more appealing as a bettor. It\'s not close.
Sure let\'s close down Santa Anita-One of tHe best places to see a race live. Lets let our game only happen at places like finger Lakes or Turfway- thats where the future is...
California racing has short fields because the number of owners has fallen drastically-there just aren\'t as many folks who can afford to be an owner any more. the monthly cost is around 3500 per horse- no way you can even break even in this game. I\'ve always wondered why the state doesn\'t subsidize the owners to a greater degree, since it is a source of revenue for them. I live in the SF area, and it has been really hard since Bay Meadows closed-the city of San Mateo hasn\'t built any of the development they planned-the old track is a vacant lot-now the local politicians realize the revenue they are missing since the track closed.
\"Sure let\'s close down Santa Anita-One of tHe best places to see a race live\"
Smith,
Never, but insisting the Clueless Clowns get it right would help a great deal.Weekend cards at Santa not nearly as bad as being portrayed here, much better than the now \"secondary\" venue AQUEDUCT.
Mike
http://www.paulickreport.com/news/ray-s-paddock/does-racing-need-mo-disclosure/
What happens when you can start betting Hong Kong here. What will happen to the pools at Aqueduct and Santa Anita then? Everyone is so concerned with fixing the racing here..which isn\'t going to happen unless you close 50-percent of the tracks currently operating.
Rich Curtis Wrote:
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> The boycott was formal. It was real. I know a lot
> of people who participated in it--real people with
> real names who used to bet real money on SA.
Well, I don\'t doubt that some of you SoCal guys were \"officially\" boycotting SA...but claiming some sort of victory using the overall decline in handle as proof seems somewhat specious to me. Miff was \"certain\" the boycott was working -- so certain that he couldn\'t even make a guess as to the actual percent of handle reduction could be attibuted to the boycott, as opposed to the economy, the horse shortage, further general disinterest in racing, questions over Obama\'s citizenship, etc.
First of all, the boycott simply wasn\'t \"widespread\" -- not if players in as big of a market as Chicago barely heard about it, let alone participated in it. (Yes, we can read in Chicago, but we are pretty used to some group always bitching about something relatively trivial in SoCal, most of the time while we are facing REAL problems, like being ass-deep in snow and freezing our nutsacks off for weeks on end. So we probably didn\'t give the boycott much thought -- or credence -- here.)
Second, I question whether a formal boycott was even necessary: as poster Sekrah and I indicated elsewhere in this thread, we weren\'t \"formally\" boycotting SA, per se -- it\'s just that the racing sucked, and we looked elsewhere. Did we help \"the cause\"? Great if we did. Would have been even better if we knew we were helping: were there any interim reports about the boycott after the initial announcement? Where? I must have missed them.
The whole thing kind of reminds me when the NBA banned excessive hanging on the rim after a dunk, and I protested by declaring that I would no longer be dunking when I played basketball -- I was formally boycotting dunks. The NBA acted as though my boycott had no effect whatsoever. Bastards!
There is little transparency in American horse racing. There is no disclosure of the full range of Mo\'s treatments, or whether Sweet Catomine has been snuck out of Santa Anita in the middle of the night to go to a hyperbaric chamber. As a bettor, you have far more information about the physical condition of the athletes competing when you bet on NFL games by virtue of the injury reports provided by the teams, and you can see how easily those are manipulated by someone like Belichick.
As to Mo, who knows really what is going on? I have no reason to believe that Pletcher would lie directly about any of this, but if a trainer decided to do so -- for purposes of stoking the stud market or otherwise -- we would never know.
This is legitimately one of the very best articles ever written about our business. Great work by Ray.
Miff was \"certain\" the boycott was working
Rick,
\"certain\" ...kinda early to be drinking, never used that word.
Mike
Rick,
I posted a link to the boycott website right here on December 27th. That was as far as I felt I should go on this board. The center of boycott talk was--and is--Paceadvantage.com. There was also a lot of activity on the Paulick Report, much of it involving fighting between Paulick and the boycotters. And of course the HANA website had a lot of stuff. The DRF had a little, which was a little more than one might have expected. And Crist mentioned the boycott in a column.
Regarding the cause and effect of boycotts and handle: There is very little that I hate more than the misuse of cause and effect. Therefore, I\'m not going to go any further than this:
1: I personally know a lot of people who boycotted SA specifically because of the takeout increase. I\'m one of them.
2: SA had high expectations before the meet began. The meet was a debacle. If SA had it to do over again, I don\'t think SA would have allowed any of its people to publicly laugh at the idea of a boycott.
3: Please listen to the Byk interview that I mentioned yesterday. That interview needs to be heard to be believed.
4: Did you, Rick, really bet more money at SA last year, on synthetic, than you did this year, on real dirt? This is the type of question that further complicates the cause and effect--though from the opposite direction. A lot of people were predicting an explosion of betting once SA returned to real dirt. What happened to it?
I know gamblers who were also staying away because they were worried about performance unpredicatablity due to the switch back from Poly to dirt.
The horses in CA have gone from Hollywood cushion (which JB calls \"dirt\") to Del Mar poly (which trainers call one thing in the morning, a different thing in the afternoon, and a four-letter thing after they lose a race) to Fairplex dirt (which only Martin Pedroza understands) to old SA cushion (different from Hol cushion/dirt), back through the cycle again, then to SA Pro-ride (which Baffert called \"real dirt\" after he won a few races), through again to Hollywood cushion/dirt, and so on, finally arriving at the real dirt at SA, at which point we start hearing the \"Handicappers afraid to bet different surface\" thing as an excuse for why the Clueless Clowns\' higher-takeout meet sucked.
The boycott certainly made a difference. So did OTB closing, and (for example) SA having 51 horses entered last Fri or Sat-- before scratches.
The average field size at Santa Anita decreased slightly but was basically the same as last year, so while the fields are always small there it\'s not a new factor that would suddenly make people stop betting. The boycott was new. The surface change, okay, maybe I\'d buy that as a factor, except like Rich Curtis said, Santa Anita said handle would skyrocket due to the return to dirt---instead it plummeted.
The boycott was a major topic on Pace Advantage and the HANA website. It did have a lot of backers---and apparently had some sort of effect. Obviously it wasn\'t the only factor, but when CA handle drops 20 percent while competing tracks do better, doesn\'t that at least say something? As horseplayers, we should all STRONGLY hope the tracks noticed the boycott and believe it was real, as it might actually give us a voice the next time a state wants to raise takeout.
A couple of things have already happened with takeout (the new low takeout pick 5\'s at CRC and Hol), and more are on the way. As I said a few days ago, the invisible hand has started smacking some sense into the industry.
I laughed. Best description I\'ve heard, evah - especially the Martin Pedroza part.
miff Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Miff was \"certain\" the boycott was working
>
>
> Rick,
>
> \"certain\" ...kinda early to be drinking, never
> used that word.
>
> Mike
Mike, you are correct.
There was a slight level of smugness to your comments about the boycott \"working\" that I translated as certainty on your part. That\'s my explanation. Doesn\'t make me any less wrong, though. I\'ll try to be more careful.
Rich Curtis Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Rick,
>
> I posted a link to the boycott website right
> here on December 27th. That was as far as I felt I
> should go on this board. The center of boycott
> talk was--and is--Paceadvantage.com. There was
> also a lot of activity on the Paulick Report, much
> of it involving fighting between Paulick and the
> boycotters. And of course the HANA website had a
> lot of stuff. The DRF had a little, which was a
> little more than one might have expected. And
> Crist mentioned the boycott in a column.
>
> Regarding the cause and effect of boycotts and
> handle: There is very little that I hate more than
> the misuse of cause and effect. Therefore, I\'m not
> going to go any further than this:
>
> 1: I personally know a lot of people who
> boycotted SA specifically because of the takeout
> increase. I\'m one of them.
>
> 2: SA had high expectations before the meet
> began. The meet was a debacle. If SA had it to do
> over again, I don\'t think SA would have allowed
> any of its people to publicly laugh at the idea of
> a boycott.
>
> 3: Please listen to the Byk interview that I
> mentioned yesterday. That interview needs to be
> heard to be believed.
>
> 4: Did you, Rick, really bet more money at SA
> last year, on synthetic, than you did this year,
> on real dirt? This is the type of question that
> further complicates the cause and effect--though
> from the opposite direction. A lot of people were
> predicting an explosion of betting once SA
> returned to real dirt. What happened to it?
I\'ll address item 4 first: it was pretty hard to bet less on SA dirt races this year than I did on SA syn last year, because I bet almost nothing on it last year -- I hate that shit. That goes double for the poly at AP, TP & Kee.
That said, I hate short fields even more, simply because there is no value there for me.
High takeout? Don\'t care. If it\'s my kind of race, I\'ll beat the take, in the short-term and over the long haul; if it\'s not my kind of race, the takeout rate might as well be 100%. My job is to stay the hell away from races that don\'t suit my handicapping capabilities. 12% rolling pick-3\'s at Sam Houston are nice, but the PP\'s for that track might as well be in Chinese -- I can\'t figure the damn thing out.
Rich, your cause is noble, and if you and your cohorts succeed in getting the takeout lowered at SA, God bless you -- all of us that play that track will benefit in some way.
I will point out that in order for a boycott to be really effective, the word will have to get out to more than just PA and HANA -- did you know that there are over 30 North American racing oriented Internet forums out there? PA just completed their first season of an Internet forum handicapping league, and there were 50 -- yes, \"five - oh\" -- teams. (A few forums were allowed more than one team if they had tons of members.)
Anyway, good luck. That I don\'t believe SA and other tracks don\'t give a rat\'s ass what us bettors think or do, doesn\'t mean everyone should be so sour. I\'ll be watching for those changes JB keeps mentioning -- please God may I have some sort of sign that racing isn\'t the dead number I think it is, or will be shortly. I\'d love to be wrong about this.
well said, Shanahan. That\'s the same question I\'ve asked myself so many times. \"Why aren\'t they listening to the horseplayer?\" Why?
TGJB Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> A couple of things have already happened with
> takeout (the new low takeout pick 5\'s at CRC and
> Hol), and more are on the way.
Consider these numbers:
$87.55 $3.85
$73.30 $3.20
$101.85 $4.45
* Horseplayers were cheering the low 14% takeout that accompanies the new Pick 5 bet at Hollywood. I wonder how much cheering there was when the first set of numbers (above) were posted at Hollywood last night after the 5th race: those are the Pick 5 payouts for 5 of 5, and the 4 of 5 conso, respectively.
* The second set of numbers represent last night\'s 5 of 5, and 4 of 5 conso payouts IF the take had been a more \"egregious\" 28%. Call it semantics, but getting $87 for picking 5 of 5 vs. $73, and seeing this as some sort of victory for the player is missing the big picture, IMO. Is that why we play the Pick N\'s -- to grind out $14 additional dollars?
* The third set of numbers, as you might have already guessed, is last night\'s Pick 5 payout from Hollywood if the takeout were ZERO.
Sorry. While I like lower pricing as much as everybody else, we just won a very small battle with \"lower takeout\"...while our handicapping efforts (and our bankrolls) continue to be diluted by short, uncompetitive fields.
We are looking at the wrong thing. You all want to boycott something? Boycott short fields. Stop rewarding these tracks for carding crap races with 2 competitors and 4 fillers. If I see another $6 exacta, I think I might puke. Lower takeout doesn\'t turn $6 exactas into $18 exactas...but larger fields do!
Rick B wrote:
\"Sorry. While I like lower pricing as much as everybody else, we just won a very small battle with \"lower takeout\"...while our handicapping efforts (and our bankrolls) continue to be diluted by short, uncompetitive fields.
We are looking at the wrong thing. You all want to boycott something? Boycott short fields. Stop rewarding these tracks for carding crap races with 2 competitors and 4 fillers. If I see another $6 exacta, I think I might puke. Lower takeout doesn\'t turn $6 exactas into $18 exactas...but larger fields do!\"
I don\'t think organized boycotts are a good idea unless you\'ve got a clear way forward. With takeout, horseplayers can say \"Lower the takeout or we\'ll make you pay,\" and the people in charge can decide to capitulate and lower the takeout. With field size, on the other hand, well, racetracks have known for a long time that small field size kills handle. Bettors have been informally boycotting small fields forever. I even handicap races in field-size order, more or less, starting with the biggest fields and stopping with no guilt as soon as I get tired. The people in charge wish right now that they had bigger field sizes. Therefore, if you pressure them further on this, you open the door to a bunch of nasty unintended consequences that may or may not turn out to be worth accepting.
As for your point about the exacta payoffs, it reminds me of a TV commercial Los Alamitos used to run. You see 10 horses racing each other and then crossing the finish line. Then the camera cuts to the crowd and every single person is smiling and clapping. One wonders, possibly something is missing here?
Clueless clowns at NYRA at it again.The failure of at least 6 NYC Sports Bars/OTB type restaurants(pre OTB shutdown) that I know of make this a perfect fit for NYRA.They can\'t even run racing properly, so now it\'s this capital intensive, high operating costs venture they \"could\" be thinking of. Makes perfect sense.They\'ll be looking for a bailout before you know it.Incidentally, would be surprised if Charlie is unaware of the possibly new 12 franchise type super OTB\'S/Sports Bar/Restaurants that Albany may be awarding to private enterprise. I\'d suspect if they did, they may revoke NYRA\'s present on the books authority to open 8(?) of these.
BRILLIANT Charlie!!
DRF:
\"As NYRA expands gaming at Aqueduct, its simulcasting at Belmont Park, and its account wagering business via phone and Internet, Hayward also hinted that NYRA could be interested in the sports bar market as a means to increase off-track betting in New York City.
"We don't need legislative approval, but we need approval from the mayor and City Council," Hayward said. "It's too early. It won't be betting parlors. We want to go in the restaurant and sports bar business\"
You\'re assuming they would be similar to the previous teletheaters in Manhattan, owned and operated by NYRA. Could be windows set up in existing operations, which would not require much capital.
Yes JB,
The only way to get the lions share of the pie,for NYRA,would be to own and operate. An interesting idea being floated in to have hundreds of betting type terminals all over the borough(like cash machines)
Incidentally, was close the owners to 2 Restaurant/Sport Bar OTB\'s, one in Staten Island that went under.
Favorites at Woodbridge in NJ seems to be financially successful.
Mike
I was at Aqueduct on Friday for the first time in years, and I would say they need to follow through and finish working on the plant before they move on to other endeavors. There is SO much work to do there. The entire structure is covered with rot, rust and peeling paint everywhere. So it is indeed a little jarring to hear this guy talk about \"restaurants\" at this point. It\'s like listening to my kids talk about what they\'re going to do when they grow up and I have to say \"that\'s great, now go clean up your room.\" First things first.
I see glimmers of hope - there was a decent crowd, a few races with more than four horses, and overall I had a nice day. I just want them to make it a nice place with slot machines instead of a dump...with slot machines. I don\'t need chandeliers, but hopefully when the place quiets down when Belmont opens they will hire some guys with scrapers to go around and clean the joint up. There are parts of the place that look like they have not been looked at or fixed in decades. Really a shame, because it could be GREAT. HP
HP,
Word is that the Genting Group, a total first class operation, looking to solidify it\'s position in the NY/US Gaming Market and will spare no expense.We\'ll see.
Mike
Genting Group would be great...but really there are places where all that\'s required is a garden hose and some ammonia and I can\'t understand why they don\'t do that?
I was with a few guys, not racetrack regular types and not fusspots, and we were looking around spotting things, just basics that were awful and had clearly not been addressed at all since the last century.
When you walk out the door of the clubhouse to go stand out by the finish line to watch them come in...the paint and plaster chips come down on your head! Layers and sheets of the old stuff is just hanging there waiting to fall.
I\'ll tell you...I would volunteer to go in there with 10 guys and some paint and basic tools and in a day or two the place would look ten times better. It\'s just an embarrasment...and re-reading what this \"clueless clown\" said, it\'s obvious that he does not walk around the Big A or he would be addressing this instead of his wish list for expansion. He should get out there with some of these other execs on a weekend and do some real man\'s work instead of yakking about dreamland.
HP
Clueless NYRA in over their heads AGAIN!!can\'t make this stuff up.
NYRA calls on TwinSpires to handle phone account wagering
by Frank Angst
Citing increased call volume as stretching its limits, the New York Racing Association plans to contract with Churchill Downs Inc.'s TwinSpires.com to handle its phone account wagering.
On Monday, the New York State Racing and Wagering Board approved NYRA's plans to close its wagering call center and contract with TwinSpires to handle the business. The NYSRWB noted that the plan said no New York jobs would be lost as the NYRA employees will be moved to other positions.
NYRA spokesman Dan Silver said call volume to NYRA's account-wagering platform, NYRA Awards, has surged this year. Interest has increased since last year's closure of New York City Off-Track Betting Corp. as NYRA has successfully redirected many of those displaced players to its account-wagering platform.
"Our call volume for NYRA Rewards has exploded," Silver said. "In the first three months of 2011, our calls are up [more than] 400% from last year. Going to an outside call center with racing experience improves not only our capacity but also improves our customer service level with more robust system handling."
Silver said in the first three months of 2010, NYRA Rewards fielded 91,000 phone calls and, this year, those calls are up to 440,000.
NYSRWB spokesman Joe Mahoney noted that Churchill Downs Inc. will have to be licensed to handle account-wagering calls in New York. That process is not expected to be a problem.
The NYRA-Churchill call center agreement follows the April 22 announcement that TwinSpires would serve as the platform for Keeneland's planned ADW, set to launch this fall. Churchill already has similar agreements with tracks that were former AmericaTab customers, like Oaklawn Park and Tampa Bay Downs.
"This is a business-to-business service we can provide to other companies, and it\'s very turn key for our B-to-B customers," Churchill spokeswoman Julie Koenig-Loignon said. "It allows us to monetize the significant technology investment we've made and the experience we've gained through building our own branded ADW [TwinSpires.com] and acquiring and integrating the AmericaTAB, Brisnet, and Youbet.com companies."
Mike,
I can continue to go one up on the local level with Capital OTB.
They are eliminating the Brisnet entry sheets that they have distributed to their parlors for free for years. They are closing down the print shop. Ingenious lets save money but not letting the players know who is running. Many of the senior crowd that accounts for 95 % of their business hangs around betting a few dollars a day to pass the time. Do they really think these guy\'s are going to buy a form or the NYRA program ?
But wait it gets better !
They\'ve moved the television studio from a Schenectady location of 36 years or so to the Albany Tele-Theater. Yes the same building I posted a couple of weeks ago that is going under the wrecking ball. Of course they had to spend at least 50k remodeling the Capital Room to host the TV production in a building that is set to be torn down within the next year !!!
Brilliant !!!!
Now the \"other\" clueless clowns want to get involved!! From Bloodhorse:
Feds May Step In on Race-Day Drug Use
A federal bill may be filed next week that creates a three-strikes-you're-out penalty system for anyone found guilty of racing a horse under the influence of a performance-enhancing drug.
The bill, sponsored by U.S. Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) and expected co-sponsor U.S. Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-Ky), proposes to implement the tougher penalties by amending the Interstate Horseracing Act of 1978, which allows the horse racing industry to conduct offtrack and Internet wagering across state lines. The following penalties are proposed:
* first violation: a fine not less than $5,000 and a suspension not less than 180 days,
* second violation: a fine not less than $10,000 and suspension for not less than one year from all activities related to horse racing,
* third violation: a fine not less than $20,000 and a permanent ban from all activities related to horse racing.
The suspensions proposed would also apply to the horse. After the first violation, the horse would be suspended from racing for at least 180 days. The second violation would carry a one-year suspension from racing, and the third violation would result in a two-year suspension.
The bill does not state specifically who would be held responsible—the trainer, the owner, or the veterinarian—nor does bill address the different classifications of medications or the thresholds of their effectiveness.
Alan Foreman, chief executive officer for the Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association, said he didn't see the need for any federal medication regulation.
"I am mindful that there have been some regulatory failures, and we are talking about Dutrow," said Foreman, referring to New York trainer Rick Dutrow Jr., who was suspended by the New York State Racing and Wagering Board in February for a total of 90 days for hypodermic needles in his barn and for a winning horse's positive test for a banned painkiller at Aqueduct in 2010. Dutrow has appealed the state ruling.
"Put that aside, the violators are few and far between,\" Foreman said. \"We have very few serious violators, and we have a very effective deterrent system. The system works; better than in any sport in the world when it comes to drug detection."
Udall's bill also gives authority for enforcement to the Federal Trade Commission, which caused some racing industry leaders to question how the added layer of federal enforcement would be funded at a time when budgets are tight and state regulatory commissions are fighting to secure adequate funding for essentially the same function.
Keith Chamblin, vice president of marketing and communication for the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, said the organization would withhold comment until the final bill is filed.
"We had anticipated a bill would be introduced around the Triple Crown and prior to the Derby," Chamblin said. "We cannot comment until an actual piece of legislation is dropped. What is being proposed and what is ultimately introduced may be very different."
Ed Martin, president and CEO of the Association of Racing Commissioners International, also said he could not comment on the bill until his organization had adequate time to analyze what's being proposed.
\"The bill does underscore the need for the reform that RCI has been talking about,\" Martin said. \"Whether this is the proper route to go is up for debate. We share the senator's frustration."
The bill comes on the heels of a call by the outgoing and incoming RCI chairmen to phase out race-day medication use in racehorses within the next five years. Support for further examination into race-day restrictions has been expressed by The Jockey Club, the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association, the Kentucky Thoroughbred Association/Kentucky Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders, and the Thoroughbred Racing Associations.
The National Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association said more discussion is necessary before rules are considered.
An international summit to address race-day medication is being planned for the summer by the NTRA and the American Association of Equine Practitioners. A date and location have not been determined.
If anyone knows how I can get in contact with the people behind this legislation please let me know.