can you help teach andrew cuomo et al that is is not the arbiter of holy days
Sunday, April 1, 2018
| Track Code | Track Name | Entry | Scratch | 1st Post ET | 1st Post Local | Time Zone | Stakes Race(s) | Stakes Grade | T.V. Indicator |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GG | GOLDEN GATE FIELDS | 48 | 24 | 3:45 PM | 12:45 PM | PDT | |||
| GP | GULFSTREAM PARK | 72 | 0 | 1:15 PM | 1:15 PM | EDT | |||
| SA | SANTA ANITA PARK | 72 | 24 | 3:30 PM | 12:30 PM | PDT | |||
| SUN | SUNLAND PARK | 120 | 0 | 2:30 PM | 12:30 PM | MDT |
01/02/2018 2:39PM
Frank Stronach honored with Eclipse Award of
dubious Merit
Thanks for the help. The item’s below. I’d be happy to mail you a copy, if you give me a mailing address.
Claude Solnik
Long Island Business News
2150 Smithtown Ave.
Ronkonkoma, NY 11779-7348
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.
Frank Stronach, the Austrian emigrant who made a fortune in Canada in auto parts and who has operated at the top of the Thoroughbred racing and breeding industry in North America for more than two decades, has been named the latest recipient of the Eclipse Award of Merit, the administrators of the Eclipse Awards announced on Monday.
Stronach, 85, is the chairman and founder of The Stronach Group, a private racing company with assets throughout the U.S. He has been named the Eclipse winner as outstanding breeder eight times and outstanding owner four times. The Eclipse Award of Merit is considered one of the highest honors in racing and is awarded to
recognize a “lifetime of outstanding achievement in service to the Thoroughbred industry.”
recognize a “lifetime of outstanding achievement in service to the Thoroughbred industry.”
Stronach will receive the award at the annual Eclipse Awards dinner and ceremony on Jan. 25 in Florida at Gulfstream Park, a track owned by The Stronach Group.
“I am flattered and touched to be recognized with the prestigious Eclipse Award of Merit,” said Stronach, in a release from the Eclipse Awards. “Horses and racing have been my passion, my labor of love, since I was a boy. It’s been an honor to be part of this great sport and help in creating world-class races, facilities, and training centers with our friends, partners, and co-workers.”
The release described Stronach as “the most decorated individual in Eclipse Awards history.” Along with his 12 Eclipse Awards combined as breeder or owner, five horses campaigned by Stronach have been named Eclipse Award winners.
Few people have had a larger impact on racing than Stronach over the past 20 years. Although Stronach has been breeding and racing horses in Canada and the U.S. for over 40 years under his farm name, Adena Springs, his leap into racetrack ownership in the late 1990s placed Stronach at the forefront of every aspect of the industry.
Stronach has lately taken a step back from the management of his racing company, which is now being led by his daughter Belinda. But The Stronach Group remains a formidable player in the industry, with assets that include some of the sport’s most high-profile racetracks, such as Gulfstream, Santa Anita, and Pimlico Race Course, along with an account-wagering company, Xpressbet.com, and the largest bet-processing company in the U.S., AmTote.
“Frank Stronach has had an undeniable impact on the Thoroughbred industry, accentuated by his tremendous commitment to excellence in so many facets of our sport,” said Alex Waldrop, the president of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, which is one of the administrators of the Eclipse Awards.
Food Truck ‘Wandering Dago’ Wins at Free-Speech Case
MANHATTAN (CN) – A New York food truck whose name includes an old-fashioned slur for Italians won a First Amendment challenge Wednesday against state regulators.
Wandering Dago is the food truck business in question, and its menu is similarly themed, hawking sandwiches with names like Goombah and Polack.
A popular wedding caterer, the company sued in Albany after New York’s Office of General Services deemed its name too offensive in 2013 to let it participate in an outdoor lunch program the state organizes every summer in Albany’s Empire State Plaza.
Though a federal judge sided with the state, the Second Circuit reversed Wednesday. Wandering Dago’s rights are assured, the Manhattan-based panel found, by the recent holding in Matal v. Tam.
In that ruling this past June, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a disparagement clause that had frustrated Asian-American rocker Simon Tam from trademarking the name of his band, The Slants.
George Carpinello, an attorney for Wandering Dago, noted in an interview Wednesday that his clients, like Tam, were being playful in their use of the ethnic slurs.
“But the court said it doesn’t really matter whether the intent is benign or offensive,” said Carpinello, an attorney at Boies Schiller Flexner.
Wandering Dago’s owners argued in a brief that their company’s name tells immigrant groups “that this food truck is for them.”
“We felt very strongly that the state was wrong when they censored our clients’ business simply on the basis of a name,” Carpinello added.
State officials countered with their interest in keeping events at the Empire State Plaza “family friendly.” Over the years, they noted in court filings, the state forced plaza vendors to remove “replica ‘black face’ figurines, panties with ‘Kiss Me I’m Irish’ printed on them, fertility pendants with a phallus that becomes erect when a chain is pulled, and marijuana leaf belt buckles.”
The Second Circuit determined Wednesday that New York’s treatment of Wandering Dago amounted to unconstitutional discrimination.
“Defendants engaged in viewpoint discrimination here even if the denial of WD’s application resulted from an across‐the‐board prohibition applicable to all speakers without regard to their intended messages,” U.S. Circuit Judge Susan Carney wrote for the three-person panel, abbreviating the food truck’s name.
A spokeswoman for General Services said that office is reviewing Wednesday’s decision.
Wandering Dago noted in its complaint that, not long after General Services denied it the plaza permit, its food truck was unexpectedly removed from its post at the Saratoga Race Course because “a state official had complained about [Wandering Dago’s] name.”
The Albany Times Union reported that the state official in question was a top adviser to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is outspoken about his Italian-American pride.
In 2015, the New York Racing Association settled with Wandering for $68,500, the Times Union reported.
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