Please sue send a lawyer to sue Andrew Cuomo to vindicate the rights of New York Bettors secured by NY Const. Art. 1, Sec. 3 that are being abridged by the OTBs, public benefit corporations, not being open on all Easter Sundaysin 2012 when races are being run all across the United States that we want to be. Help us send NY PML Sec 105 straight to hell in a court of the State of New York since the New York State Racing and Wagering Board refuses to ask the New York State Attorney General for a FREE Opinion. See also below
Open On 1st Palm Sunday, Otb Rakes In $2m - New York Daily News
articles.nydailynews.com/.../18220335_1_racing-and-wagering-boar...Cached
Open On 1st Palm Sunday, Otb Rakes In $2m. BY JERRY BOSSERT DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER. Monday, April 14, 2003. New York City Off-Track Betting ... Horse Racing Draws a Line at Licensing Chechen Leader
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Two racing boards did not grant a license to Ramzan A. Kadyrov, whose rule in Chechnya, critics say, has been marked by abductions and torture.
By BILL FINLEY
Published: November 28, 2011
Thoroughbred racing has always attracted a mix of royalty and rogues. Blue bloods like the Whitneys and the Vanderbilts have long been owners. So, too, have mischief-makers like the mobster Arnold Rothstein, who won the 1921 Travers at Saratoga with a racehorse named Sporting Blood.
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Times Topic: Ramzan A. Kadyrov
Bill Denver/Equi-Photo
Sweet Ducky won two minor stakes races at Monmouth Park last year but was taken out of the United States when Kadyrov purchased him, only to return.
James Hill for The New York Times
Ramzan A. Kadyrov at a fashion show in September.
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The horse’s charming name, Sweet Ducky, has not seemed to help his case.
Last month at Keeneland racetrack in Lexington, Ky., with Sweet Ducky scheduled to race, the State Department reached out to the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission to make it fully aware of the longstanding allegations that have been made against Kadyrov. The commission subsequently ordered the horse scratched because Kadyrov and his representatives did not answer a request to appear at a hearing before his request for a license could be approved. Kadyrov, it should be noted, is not a frequent visitor to the United States.
Two months earlier the New York State Racing and Wagering Board had also received an application for a racing license for Kadyrov. Such requests are usually approved within a matter of days, but the New York racing officials, who also consulted with the State Department, delayed processing his application and appeared ready to delay the matter for the foreseeable future.
“Short of the State Department drastically changing its tune on Mr. Kadyrov,” said one New York racing official who refused to be identified by name, “it’s safe to assume he will not be racing horses in New York State.”
Alvi A. Karimov, a spokesman for Kadyrov, said he believed the licensing issue was a flimsy pretext for scratching a horse who was simply too good.
“I have no doubt that all this fuss was raised exclusively with one aim — to kick the horse out of the race,” Karimov said in a telephone interview. “The horse had all the qualities necessary to win the race. I am deeply convinced that there was no other reason than that.”
Karimov added that he regarded the decision as “ideological sabotage against the Chechen authorities,” adding, “Targeted work is being conducted by certain organizations in the United States.”
He said Sweet Ducky had received an invitation that granted him the right to participate, “and then at the last moment they said due to some reasons and so on and so forth.”
Kadyrov, 35, who became the leader of Chechnya in 2007, is an avid horse racing fan and has acquired a stable of top thoroughbreds who have competed in major races in Russia, United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Australia, Hong Kong and England.
He began to assemble his stable around 2008, and one of his first acquisitions was Racecar Rhapsody, who finished fourth in the 2008 Preakness Stakes and later finished fourth in the Russian Derby for his new owner.
In March, Kadyrov purchased Gitano Hernando from American owners for a reported $4 million. Three months later, he won the $2.3 million Singapore Airlines International Cup in Singapore with the 5-year-old horse.
“You have a guy who is very passionate about horses and cares about horses,” Robert Harrison told The Associated Press in an article published in May. The article described Harrison as Kadyrov’s racing manager.
“When his horses are injured, he takes them to Chechnya, where they have a great life,” Harrison added. “There are not very many owners who will do those kind of things. He has a very compassionate side to him.”
The world of horse racing has always thrived, sometimes with a wink, sometimes not, at the sketchy quality of some of its players. Whether it has been Hollywood poking fun at the sport and its nefarious characters or real-life investigations over the years into fixed races, crooked jockeys and the rise of drug usage, racing’s image has always been less than pristine.
Kadyrov, though, seems to have presented a new challenge. It is not hard to see why, given his bloody reputation. Some Australian politicians protested in 2009 when one of his horses entered the Melbourne Cup.
“If this nasty character were to get his hands on the Melbourne Cup, it would be the lowest point in Australia’s sporting history,” Senator Bob Brown told an Australian newspaper. But the horse ran and placed third, winning a purse worth about $450,000.
Sweet Ducky entered Kadyrov’s stable in 2011. Owned by George and Lori Hall, who are based in New Jersey, the horse won two minor stakes races at Monmouth Park in 2010 and was on the Kentucky Derby trail after finishing second this year in the Jan. 30 Holy Bull Stakes at Gulfstream Park in South Florida. That changed when Kadyrov bought him, turned him over to the South African trainer Herman Brown and sent him to Dubai to run in the United Arab Emirates Derby, where he finished 13th.
It appeared unlikely that Sweet Ducky would return to the United States. Kadyrov had never started a horse in this country and seemed intent on focusing on major races in Eastern Europe, Asia and the Middle East. But Sweet Ducky did come back. With Seth Benzel, a trainer based in New York, he had a workout at Saratoga in June and was entered in and then scratched from the Oct. 7 race at Keeneland.
Rachel Denber, the deputy director of the Europe and Central Asia division of Human Rights Watch, applauded the efforts of regulators to keep Kadyrov’s horses off the track.
“Scrutinizing this person and, especially, looking at where his money is coming from, was absolutely the right thing for these racing commissions to do,” she said. “These are state licensing commissions, and they have a duty to scrutinize Kadyrov.”
Sweet Ducky eventually surfaced at Woodbine racetrack in Toronto, where he was entered in a $78,937 race on Oct. 30.
“We have no reason to deny the man a license,” Gunnar Lindberg, an Ontario Racing Commission steward, said before Sweet Ducky’s race at Woodbine. “All there are at this point are allegations. I have Googled him, and at this point in time, there are no charges against him or any charges pending in North America. He is also licensed in the United Kingdom and is spending a lot of money there on horses.”
The Woodbine race was a disaster for Sweet Ducky. He trailed every step of the way and finished last. He has not raced since, and his whereabouts remain a mystery. The New York Racing Association has a record of Sweet Ducky’s leaving Belmont Park to race in Canada, but not one of any return.
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