Clueless Clowns at it again!

[miff]

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

[magicnight]

Mike, please name one thing that is more important to \"jockey safety\" than \"horse safety\".

[Rick B.]

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.

[miff]

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

[magicnight]

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.

[miff]

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

[TGJB]

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.

[Rich Curtis]

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.

[jma11473]

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.

[miff]

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

[number5858]

miff Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> 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.

[TGJB]

Guess where the head of marketing for Hong Kong racing came from.

[number5858]

oh no, say it isn\'t so.

[TGJB]

Bill Nader, former NYRA head of marketing.

[sekrah]

Unplayable 5 & 6 horse fields is why I have stayed away from SA.