nyra big wigs suspended

[stellastar31]

as everyone is talking about nyra big wigs it just came across the ny postnews line at 630 pm that the state racing board has suspended patrick kehoe v.p of nyra racing and charles hayward c.e.o for not paying out 8.5million dollars in winnings to ny bettors

[Boscar Obarra]

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/more-sports/york-racing-association-ceo-charles-hayward-knew-nyra-over-charging-bettors-state-report-claims-article-1.1069923

Doesn\'t make Crist look much better.

Is there no end to the malfeasance?

[sighthound]

But, but, but ... LASIX !  JOE DRAPE!  LOOK ELSEWHERE!

[JR]

The end of this regime is near. Then there\'s the next one. What was the line in Syriana, \"it needs to have the appearance of due diligence.\"

[Deadrockstar]

I\'ll give Steve credit. He responded to me when I correctly guessed his email. I won\'t post it but if you feel the need, contact me directly.

\"I was under the impression from the reader\'s question and NYRA\'s response that NYRA was eligible to apply for a takeout reduction, not that it was enforcing the incorrect rates or was \'ripping off the world,\' and that it was fashioning a takeout-reduction proposal.\"

Like Capt. Quint, he\'s gonna need a bigger boat...

[plasticman]

The biggest \'hero\' in all of this is the \'bettor\' who originally e mailed Crist and told him that the takeouts were wrong.

Certain Horseplayers > Certain Racetrack execs.

[miff]

Incidentally,think people should wait for Steve Crist to respond,very shortly,before jumping to conclusions on what he did or did not do.

Hear Charlie Hayward is already gone, a matter of formality pending full investigation out of Albany.

Mike

[Caradoc]

Okay, Crist has spoken.  Everybody satisfied?

Last August 1st, a reader sent me a note saying, as I understood it, that due to the expiration of legislation, NYRA could now ask the State Racing and Wagering Board for a takeout reduction if it wanted to. I forwarded the note to NYRA's CEO, Charlie Hayward, asking him, "Is this true?" He responded by e-mail that the reader was correct and then went on to say – prefaced with the words "off the record" --- that NYRA had not asked for a reduction yet because he did not think it would be approved due to various other political battles going on. He then asked me to keep "these details" of those political reasons confidential and said he wanted to discuss the issue and the possible forms of takeout reduction with me further.

He never did, and the next thing I heard about the matter was several months later in December, when an auditor discovered that NYRA had in fact been overcharging by applying an incorrect takeout rate on some bets for more than a year. It turned out that the rate should have automatically been changed 14 months earlier, not just that NYRA had become eligible to request a change in the rates.

This was news to me, and I personally believe this was news to Hayward. I can think of no reason why he would have concealed that knowledge, and I believe that had he known the wrong rate was being applied, he would have gotten it changed immediately. He has consistently been a proponent of lower takeout throughout the decades I have known him, and had opposed the very increase that had expired. State investigators, and some readers, may believe otherwise, but I find it completely implausible that he would deliberately overcharge bettors for more than a year and think it would never be discovered.

Nor do I understand what possible motive I would have for tolerating or agreeing to overlook such overcharging – I would love to have been the guy who caught the error and reported it on the front page of Daily Racing Form and corrected the rates and gotten some people (including myself) their money back sooner. With hindsight, I regret that I didn't follow up on the issue. But I personally do not believe Hayward knowingly overcharged his customers, and it never even occurred to me that might be happening. I assure you that I was completely unaware this was going on, and never would have tolerated it or agreed to be silent about it if I had.

[HP]

Wow is this bad.  Motive for Hayward - they were holding onto the money given NYRA\'s already precarious financial position?  How can Crist so he was \"COMPLETELY unaware\" given the note he got from one of his readers?  If they can get the takeout reduced, and they don\'t do that, and Crist just forgets to follow up, that equals \"completely unaware?\"  He should run for office.  And if it should\'ve been automatically changed 14 months earlier what does that say about Hayward\'s performance as CEO?  It sounds like since Heyward said \"off the record\" Crist put it out of mind and now he has to pretend he doesn\'t know anything when it\'s plain as day he knew plenty.  Sounds like he put his friendship with Heyward ahead of the interests of the players, and that\'s a nice way of putting it.

Would be interesting to know who the \"reader\" was.  That may also give a clue as to how the email got out, beyond speculating about who in NYRA had administrative rights to the email system and didn\'t like Heyward.  

HP

[Lost Cause]

Caradoc Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Okay, Crist has spoken.  Everybody satisfied?
>
>

Sounds like a bunch of garbage to me..but I\'ll let investigators worry about him..I\'m just glad some people will get shaken out finally...

[HP]

What was going through Crist\'s head during the FIVE MONTHS from August to December when

a) he knew NYRA could ask for a takeout reduction

and

b) he knew NYRA did not ask for a takeout reduction

Maybe he was preoccupied with writing another book about exotic wagering strategies?  He should have just said \"the matter is under investigation.\"  

HP

[Boscar Obarra]

It never really made a lot of sense that some issue of this magnitude could get \'overlooked\', and for that period of time.

 I figured they were fos, but didn\'t realize how fos they were.

[mjellish]

I dunno HP.  I for one think Crist is more or less telling the truth.  That just makes him inept, and Hayward too, but not co-conspirators.  And I think that makes the most sense.  Here\'s why.  

Let\'s assume for the sake of argument that Crist is best friends with Hayward.  Why would he cover something up for him for months when he knows the issue is going to come out eventually unless there was something in it for him personally.  I mean, I am old school and can completely understand not ratting out a buddy.  But if a buddy of mine showed up at my place and wanted to stash a body in my closet, how long would I let him do it unless there was something in it for me.  The stink is going to get you eventually...  

Even if you assume they are best friends, it would seem to me that without having anything to gain personally, Crist probably would have said \"Look, get your house in order within a week and I will try to feather the landing when the story comes out.\"  Rather than let it ride for months when you know it\'s going to come out anyway.

[Caradoc]

MJ:

Crist apparently wants us to believe that he understood only half of what a reader alleged to him, and the far less important half at that, the stuff about requesting a takeout reduction. The reader specifically alleged that the takeout rate NYRA was using was illegal. Crist\'s statement noticeably avoids any attempt to discuss that allegation or Hayward\'s admission of it, both telling omissions on Steve\'s part.  Once Crist had Hayward\'s admission, at the very least should have suspected there was a major problem, and every serious journalist I have ever known would have begun asking more questions, like \"Charlie, has NYRA been doing this since last fall? What\'s the number of what\'s been over-withheld?\"  Not Steve.  How can he argue without provoking laughter among sophisticated people that \"it was news to me\" when the auditor discovered the very problem the reader had identified to him and which Hayward had acknowledged to him months earlier?  Or that he \"personally believe this was news to Hayward\"?  Apparently he still hasn\'t read the interim report, which lays out in detail all the evidence indicating that Hayward did know, and why Hayward would be motivated to conceal it.

[mjellish]

Cardoc,

I get that.  So what would be in it for Crist?  How did he benefit?