Hayward statement -- completely lame

[SoCalMan2]

http://www.drf.com/news/nyras-hayward-says-takeout-reduction-permanent

Hope I posted the link correctly.  As I understand it, only people who bet through NYRA Rewards are getting credited for the extra take out incorrectly stolen from them.  I cannot understand for the life of me what the h*ll Hayward is talking about.  What I can\'t figure out is whether (A) Hayward is a complete moron, (B) Hayward is fundamentally unable to communicate, or (C) David Grenig is a terrible reporter.

I bet largely at Twinspires.  I have extremely detailed concrete records showing all my NYRA wagers.  If I am understanding the article correctly -- a very big if -- I cannot get the money that was admittedly stolen from me for one of two reasons (a) the NYRA would like to, but they cannot identify me or (b) because the NYRA already gave to Twinspires the money they stole from me.

If my understanding from the article is right, these two reasons are totally and completely ludicrous.

AS to (a), NYRA can identify me.  All they need to do is announce that I should write in and identify myself.  Then I send them all my Twinspires records and voila...i am completely identified and all my NYRA wagers are spelled out perfectly (in detail that even the IRS accepts).  The idea that he cannot identify people like me is so ludicrous that he cannot have possibly meant that.  

AS to (b), if Twinspires has the stolen money, then Hayward should be telling me that Twinspires has my stolen money and they are the people I should be contacting (and Twinspires should be fine with this -- why would they want to keep stolen money from their own customers).

Am I missing something here?  Are they completely just avoiding giving us back our stolen money?  Who should people like me be writing to (A) NYRA or (B) Twinspires?  This totally makes me sick.  This moron should have told the people who he admitted he robbed how to get their stolen money back.  The concept of saying I stole your money but it is too hard to give it back to you has to go down as one of the most ludicrous things in the remarkable death spiral of this sport.

[sighthound]

Assemble your records, calculate the amount owed to you, and send a certified letter personally to Hayward requesting your due reimbursement, under threat of lawsuit.

[SoCalMan2]

Sighthound

Thanks!

To everybody,

Does anybody know how to calculate what you are due?  Is it simply a percentage of your payout in the relevant bets?  For example, if you cashed for $10,000 in eligible bets, are you entitled to $400?  (I am guessing that the difference between 25% and 26% is 4% -- that is how i arrived at that figure).

Also, how on earth are they excluding the pick 6 from eligible bets?  They freely admit they charged a different take out than they advertised as an inducement for people to bet.  But, they claim they did not cheat because they could have taken out 36%?  What about fraud in the inducement? Deceptive trade practices? What planet are these guys on?  They are basically saying it was okay to lie to the customers to get them to bet as long as the lie was something they could have lawfully done.  That is just insane.  Am I misreading what Hayward said?

[plasticman]

If the takeout is 25% and you bet 10k, they\'re removing 2,500 before the  money is given back. With a 26% take, they would remove 2,600. Seems like only a 100 dollar difference.

Also, \'cashed for\' and \'amount wagered\' is different. If you place one two dollar straight bet on a longshot trifecta and that tri pays 10,000 for 2, than you only got \'robbed\' for 2 cents.

As far as your original post goes, i agree with you, it makes no sense that they\'re allowed to \'get away with\' admitting they committed a white collar crime and have nobody threaten to file class action against them.

Maybe their position is that they\'ll just keep everyone\'s money because most people won\'t bother filing lawsuits....and, to the people who actually file or threaten to file, those people will get paid asap.

[BitPlayer]

SoCal -

Two pointa:

I think he\'s saying that TwinSpires has your money.  The ADW pays a fee for the signal and has a net profit (before operating expenses) equal to the difference between that fee and the takeout.  If the takeout goes up, the ADW\'s profit goes up; if it goes down, so does the ADW profit.  That\'s why ADW\'s have resisted some takeout reductions.

It\'s not a question of what was advertised.  According to all that I have read, NYRA accurately disclosed the takeout they were charging.  It\'s just more than they were allowed to charge.

[SoCalMan2]

Apologies for being slow on this. $100 out of $2500 is 4% which is what I originally thought.  But, when I look at what you write about how it works, I come to a different conclusion.  

For example, let\'s say total pool was $100,000 and there were $100 of winning bets.  In the correct scenario there is $75,000 to return to the 100 winning wagers or a payoff of $750 for every $1 wager.  In the criminal scenario, there is only $74,000 to return so the incorrect payoff was $740 for every $1 wager.  the $10 difference represents only 1.35%.  Does that mean you take what actual cash was paid to you on the affected wagers and figure out what 1.35% of it is and that is what you are due?

Apologies if I am being slow on this...just trying to figure out what is right.

[SoCalMan2]

BitPlayer Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> SoCal -
>
> It\'s not a question of what was advertised.
> According to all that I have read, NYRA accurately
> disclosed the takeout they were charging.  It\'s
> just more than they were allowed to charge.

Thanks.  I had not picked up on that.

[miff]

Brilliant, Charlie, handle sure to swell!!



NYRA Launches RaceQuest Handicapping Tool
By Blood-Horse Staff


The New York Racing Association has launched RaceQuest, an online handicapping "application aimed at new and novice horse players that also synthesizes handicapping angles into a useful wagering tool for the experienced bettor."

According to a NYRA release, RaceQuest was developed by Creative Racing Solutions, a Burlington, Mass., based company founded by John Pavlov and David M. Ward. Ward was the primary architect and developer of Formulator, Daily Racing Form's software product.

RaceQuest can be accessed from the main NYRA web site.

Among the RaceQuest features are:

--Take the Guided Tour. A free series of lessons that will teach players the most important and proven handicapping factors, including race shape, speed figures, trainer and jockey statistics, class, and form. The lessons are taught by a team of interactive avatars, each with unique philosophies on how to handicap.

--Practice with Game Mode. Players can test their skills by making practice bets on historical races, watching the race replays, and viewing the results.

--Live Mode. Users can apply their knowledge by purchasing RaceQuest past performances to wager on future races through programs like NYRA Rewards. RaceQuest past performances are presented in an innovative format that will be valuable to novice horseplayers and seasoned handicappers alike.

"By lowering the learning curve and offering fun and easy tools to educate new fans, RaceQuest enables beginners and novices to make informed decisions quickly and easily," said NYRA president and CEO Charles Hayward."

[TGJB]

At least someone is trying.

[richiebee]

From a DRF article which SoCal linked in a previous post:

\"Robert Megna, the state\'s budget director and chairman of the Franchise
Oversight Board, which also didn\'t detect the [takeout] mistake, sent a
scolding letter to Hayward last week which in part chastised him for comments
he made defending NYRA\'s wages paid to its executives.

\'You have repeatedly argued that high compensation paid to NYRA officials is
needed to ensure that the best talent is attached to the Association\' Megna
wrote \'That position, of which we are skeptical to begin with, rings hollow in
light of NYRA\'s failure to manage a most basic accounting task.\'

\'We made a mistake...for which we apologize\' Hayward said \'The most important
thing is for the state to have a healthy racing and breeding program, and I
think we\'re a lot better off today than we were two years ago, a lot better
off than we were four years ago, a lot better off than we were six years ago\'\"

                  ...           ...          ...

I think everyone who posts on this site has a passion for Racing. My passion
was so strong that in 1979 I left my third year of law school (I used to carry
around a brown briefcase which I still have today, which contained the Daily
Racing Form, the most recent edition of the Blood Horse, and, for the sake of
balance, a copy of the United States Constitution) and ended up as a $90 per
week hot walker at the Fair Grounds. But I digress.

When I became a fan of horse racing and horseplayer in the 1970s, the Decade
of Champions, NYRA racing was the gold standard. Important graded races were
run at other tracks, especially Gulfstream, Santa Anita and Arlington; but to
be realistic without being provincial, if you owned or trained a horse and
wanted to enhance its breeding value or win an Eclipse Award, you more or less
had to, with apologies to Woody Stephens, cross the Hudson and look up at
those big buildings. Belmont and Saratoga were hallowed racing ground based on
the great horses, jockeys and trainers which competed there over the years.
To use baseball terminology, NYRA was \"The Show\".

Again, I am not a provincial or conceited New Yorker. I have no problem with
the fact that good quality racing is now found more frequently in other
venues, that there is racing in states such as Oklahoma and Texas and
Minnesota. I watch with interest and without resentment as there is continued
growth and improvement in racing at Keeneland, Tampa and Oaklawn. All good for
racing, but the same way NBA Commissioner David Stern will admit that the NBA
is a better league when the Knicks are competitive, Racing will be a healthier
sport/business with a strong franchise in the Nation\'s number one media market.


         ...         ...              ...            ...

Clueless Clown Charles Hayward, I call \"BULLSH*T\" on your statement that NYRA
is better off now than when you took the reins. Let me count the ways, in no
particular order.

1) Without Genting, NYRA would be NoNYRA. Aqueduct would be in the final
stages of physical collapse under tons of rust and pigeon crap. You are lucky
that you and other New York State elected and appointed officials have not
been sued by citizens of the state for the millions of dollars of lost revenue
during the 10(!) year period between the approval of the Racino and the actual
opening of the Racino.

2) The scandals: Weightgate, auditgate, Frankie LaBocetta, takeoutgate,
Paragallo (perennial leading owner currently incarcerated for animal neglect)
and Richard Dutrow, Jr., about whom I will speak my final words: To those who
like to trivialize his transgressions by saying that most were \"minor\"
or \"administrative\" let me just point out that this most usual of the usual
suspects HAD SYRINGES IN THE DESK IN HIS OFFICE IN HIS BARN. This was a man
whose track record was such that his barn should have been searched 3 times a
week and probably should have been frisked each day on his way through the
stable gate.

3)NYRA is better because Bill Nader, a young visionary, left for Hong Kong?

4)Show me where the number of catastrophic breakdowns has been reduced on your
watch.

5)How many graded stakes races have been downgraded/degraded on your watch?

6)Number of Breeders Cups held at NYRA tracks on your watch?

7)You have been rather unsuccessful at marketing the Belmont Stakes as a big
event unless there is a Triple Crown at stake.

8)Lets look at today\'s Aqueduct nine race card: The obligatory 4 maiden races
plus two $7500 claiming races. The purses on the $7500 claimers, which drew
full fields are 27K and 29K, respectively. While everyone is ecstatic over
increased purses for these cheap claimers, I think what it means for
horseplayers is that we will see more and more of these races at \"the bottom\"
at NYRA. There will be an influx of these horses from other circuits running
for the big pots, which will compensate for the fact that these cheap claimers
will probably be making less starts per year.

In the same vein, at that purse structure, lets take a $15,000 claiming animal
who is claimed by fictional trainer Richard Rodriquez. RR takes this animal and
works his magic -- floats teeth, some corrective farrier work, some tapping,
some injecting, some rest and relaxation, and after one month the refurbished
beast is dropped in for a claiming price of $7500-- half of what he was
claimed for. Of course he wins by the length of the stretch under a hammerlock
of a hold by the jockey, paying $3.60 and running 6 furlongs in 1:08.1. Even
if he is claimed off the 50% drop, the owners are 10k richer minus expenses.
This is good for Racing?

Mr. Hayward: I am not accusing you of killing NY racing, but it is certainly
dying a slow death under your stewardship. I am offering right now to compose,
 proofread and/or edit, and hand deliver, your resignation letter.

NYRA is at a crossroads, and nothing I have seen leads me to believe you are
the man to lead the program in the right direction.

[sighthound]

^^^^^ This

[moosepalm]

Richie, I was a 3rd year law student the same year you were, but because I hadn\'t discovered the wonders of this sport, I slogged my way through to a degree.  Based on what you just wrote, I think you have gleaned more worthwhile knowledge from your detour than I did, with my more conventional path.  Very well said.

[plasticman]

Hayward has the lead by 3 lengths inside the 16th pole, but on the far outside here comes richiebee.....richiebee is gaining rapidly. Final yards, Heyward trying to hold on but is gasping for air and here comes RICHIEBEE....ZOOOMING BY! Richibee GOING AWAY by 3 expanding lengths....with Hayward a well beaten and tiring 2nd.

Awesome writeup Richie. You echo what many of us are thinking. Hopefully someone will get this post to Mr Hayward promptly (with a CC to every politican and racing writer in the state)

[FrankD.]

GO RICHIE GO !!!

The only thing that\'s as true as your words is my 60 % and rising decline in what I put through the windows over the past year. The \"leaky roof\" circuit type product that NYRA continues to put out holds no allure here.

I wish I saw this post earlier today. My wife and I went out for a movie; War Horse of course and happened to run into Steve Byk. I really could have lobbied for our occupy the Carolina BBQ movement.

Bravo Richie Bravo,

Frank D.

[BB]

Frank, how about this great Hudson Valley weather, eh?

And it says here - http://www.drf.com/news/hovdey-seven-time-champ-bailey-gets-his-eclipse-say - that Steve Byk now has an Eclipse vote, so he can look forward to a whole lot of lobbying from now on.