Friday, December 14, 2012

open to the public should mean open for betting

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The Day at the Races: Thursday, December 13, 2012

For the first time, a NYRA Board meeting was open to the public and was broadcast on the Internet.

The “new” New York Racing Association has begun, officially electing Cornell President David J. Skorton as Chairman of the Board of Directors at its first Board meeting on Wednesday afternoon in Manhattan. Skorton was appointed to the position by Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Oct. 18.

The Board will run the embattled NYRA for the next three years before returning it to private hands. It promised transparency, and for the first time, a NYRA Board meeting was open to the public and was broadcast on the Internet.
The new Board, which has 17 members, was announced in October, several months after the firing of former NYRA President and CEO Charles Hayward and Senior Vice President and General Counsel Patrick Kehoe in May.
Its mission statement is, “Meeting the highest standards in thoroughbred racing and equine safety.”
The Board, currently looking for a new President and CEO to replace Hayward, is currently being operated by Chief Operating Officer Ellen McClain, who recently oversaw NYRA through a very profitable third quarter in 2012.
One of the measures approved at the Board meeting was prohibiting senior NYRA officers from wagering, although members of the Board still can.
In addition, the Board approved the 2013 racing dates for the Aqueduct Winter and Belmont Spring meetings, which run from Jan. 1-April 21 and April 26-July 14, respectively.
Highlights of the Aqueduct Winter meet include the running of the Grade I Wood Memorial and Carter Handicap on April 6, which also features three other stakes — the Grade II Gazelle and Ruffian along with the Grade III Bay Shore Stakes.
The highlight of the Belmont Spring meeting is the $1 million Belmont Stakes, the final leg of the Triple Crown, which will be run on June 8. Also on the card will be four other stakes events, including two Grade I heats — the Manhattan Handicap and the Just a Game Stakes, along with a pair of Grade II events — the True North Handicap and the Woody Stephens.
One week earlier, NYRA will offer a second “Showcase” day, featuring horses that were bred in New York, to go along with a similar day offered in the fall.
The inner-dirt season opened on a scary note with Slash Five being pulled up and vanned off in the opener. The colt was diagnosed as lame but doing okay. Last year, 21 horses died while competing over the inner-dirt track.



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Home > LI Confidential > Stop scratching on holidays

Stop scratching on holidays
Published: June 1, 2012


Off Track Betting in New York State has been racing into a crisis called shrinking revenue. Some people have spitballed a solution: Don’t close on holidays.
New York State Racing Law bars racing on Christmas, Easter and Palm Sunday, and the state has ruled OTBs can’t handle action on those days, even though they could easily broadcast races from out of state.
“You should be able to bet whenever you want,” said Jackson Leeds, a Nassau OTB employee who makes an occasional bet. He added some irrefutable logic: “How is the business going to make money if you’re not open to take people’s bets?”
Elias Tsekerides, president of the Federation of Hellenic Societies of Greater New York, said OTB is open on Greek Orthodox Easter and Palm Sunday.
“I don’t want discrimination,” Tsekerides said. “They close for the Catholics, but open for the Greek Orthodox? It’s either open for all or not open.”
OTB officials have said they lose millions by closing on Palm Sunday alone, with tracks such as Gulfstream, Santa Anita, Turf Paradise and Hawthorne running.
One option: OTBs could just stay open and face the consequences. New York City OTB did just that back in 2003. The handle was about $1.5 million – and OTB was fined $5,000.
Easy money.

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