Where is Press Spotlight on NYRA Board Appointment Process?
Included are current and former 1) judges, 2) elected officials, 3) political appointees, 4) elected politicians, 5) other attorneys, 6) harness racing executives, 7) OTB executives, 8) horse owners...
View ArticleWhat We Have Here Is an Opportunity to Communicate
The Senators and the witnesses attending the recent hearing on "Medication and Performance Enhancing Drugs in Horse Racing" may actually support the concept of uniform rules of racing and wagering...
View ArticleOn the Backside or Frontside, Racing’s a Numbers Game
In a breakthrough if not breathtaking announcement, Churchill Downs introduced a change to the eligibility criteria for its Kentucky Derby. No longer would earnings determine which horses entered the...
View ArticleRooting for Bennett Liebman and New York Racing
In his September, 2007 “Prepared Remarks to the New York State Senate Committee on Racing Gaming and Wagering” (http://www.governmentlaw.org/files/LarkinPresentation.pdf), Liebman confirmed his...
View ArticleRebates v Takeout: On Leveling the Playing Field
Although I was unsuccessful in accessing any examples, perhaps Mr. Liebman subsequently explored alternatives to selective rebating of individuals that could be considered more equitable approaches...
View ArticleSafety for Three Year Olds: Several Suggestions
A few months ago, HRI executive editor John Pricci once again opined that Triple Crown races needed better spacing. I and a few other HRI regulars took a position against “fixing what isn’t broke.”...
View ArticleReality Bites
ITEM: Media focus resumed on the hopefully soon-to-be-announced “New” NYRA leadership. One could almost hear the “Star Wars” theme blasting in Paul Moran’s reference to the State’s chief executive at...
View ArticleWhat, Me Worry?
In Vox Populi and Streams From the Subconcious, Mr. Pricci suggested, “… when compared to a typical downstate race-week, five days per week with 10 on weekends—Saturdays, anyway—it was as if 7-1/2...
View ArticleGov. Cuomo: Be Careful What You Wish For
My own reaction to Dicker’s revelation is one of amusement. It’s like falling asleep watching “Adam 12” and waking up to “Car 54 Where are you?” Now I’m being scheduled to watch a replay of the Pataki...
View ArticleAnother Governator?
In 2012, NYRA's "terminator" sought to assume control, ironically based on the then-existing management's failure to lower takeout when required. Cuomo's image has not descended to the level of his...
View ArticleWill New York Regulators Oversight Be Overlooked?
I find it interesting that the board appointments were announced prior to the release of the Inspector General's report on the takeout overcharging, i.e., NYRA's self-described "unintentional...
View ArticleRacing Post Breeders’ Cup Hurricane: Now What?
Whether it was the best that replaced the beauty, or the beast itself, the ride was ugly. The job of Baffert’s go-to jockey seems about as secure as Santa Anita’s present CEO. (See David Flores, Victor...
View ArticleWhen Trees Fall in the Forest… Does Anyone Care?
Resultantly, time may have arrived to consider an alternative to HANA; an organization that could utilize HANA’s expertise, if available, but with a more effective mission, structure, and a leadership...
View ArticleThe 2013 Prep Season: A Gift That Keeps On Giving
What I find shameful and embarrassing to the sport is CDI’s having eliminated the Illinois Derby at Hawthorne Race Course as a Kentucky Derby qualifier which was no error but rather a deliberate act....
View ArticlePlaying With Partners
I’m sure Churchill Downs thinks they improved their product by offering the Twinspires Player’s Pool which allows their customers to collectively conquer a Pick Six, even if they can’t brag about...
View ArticleA Welcome New Voice in the Wilderness
Subsequently he revealed an anti-professional player agenda with anti-HANA (Horseplayer Association of North America) undertones: "This isn't about the mutuel takeout, no matter what is constantly...
View ArticleWhat Will the Next Meeting Bring?
Then continued: "It seems curious, though, that the policy doesn't apply to the NYRA board of directors, which is also in a position to make decisions that should be, to quote Skorton, unencumbered by...
View ArticleTransparency or Invisibility, That Is the Question
But even that might not work: Odato. It seems unlikely we’ll ever know to what degree more vigilance on the part of the Franchise Oversight Board, chaired by Robert Megna, who now sits on the New NYRA...
View ArticleDoubling Down
Gregory A. Hall viewed the relationship a little differently in his Stronach taps regulator as new executive,"There's a saying in the news business that writers aren't talented enough to make up this...
View ArticleThe Roaring Teens
Land of Lincoln lawmakers do not have their crosshairs trained on horseplayers the way the California legislature does. But the Illinois Racing Board (IRB) did a California Horse Racing Board (CHRB)...
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