JC / Railbird

NY Racing Issues Archive

Leaping to NYRA’s Defense

Michael Veitch refutes some of the charges made against NYRA by state comptroller Alan Hevesi in his audit of the organization released last week:

Steven Crist does much the same, but is less diplomatic when it comes to Hevesi’s motives:

This summer might be a tough one for NYRA. Hevesi is scheduled to deliver another two audits on the association in the coming months, and July 1 is the deadline for NYRA to meet the conditions set out for it to avoid federal prosecution. “The New York Racing Association remains on shaky ground as it works to break free of criminal charges and clear itself of tens of millions of dollars in debts.” (Times-Union)
I don’t know enough about New York politics or the business side of New York racing to offer more than a tentative opinion on the situation, but I’d say it looks like NYRA is going to find it difficult, if not impossible, to keep its franchise when bidding starts in 2007.

Posted in NY Racing Issues on June 20, 2005

NYRA “Takes the Cake”

New York state comptroller Alan Hevesi blasted NYRA in a financial audit issued yesterday for violating NYRA and state rules in awarding contracts and said the organization had “mismanaged” and “squandered” money. Among Hevesi’s findings: that 38 out of 58 NYRA contracts were not competitively bid on, including one for almost $800,000 that was awarded to former chairman Barry Schwartz’s son-in-law for web services; that NYRA paid more than $400,000 in horse transport charges for board members and other thorougbred owners; and that invoices for services performed by contractors were missing. “The management was awful,” said Hevesi, although he took care to praise current management for their cooperation with the monitoring firm of Getnick & Getnick and the efforts made to reform the organization. (Blood-Horse)
The Times-Union reports that the biggest contract awarded without following procedure was ignored by the auditors.
In the wake of this latest bad news about NYRA, Paul Moran opines: “It has become painfully apparent in what are perhaps the darkest days that the racing game in New York has ever seen, that the New York Racing Association no longer works, that the partnership of racing and government is dysfunctional and that a wholesale restructuring that makes the operation of Belmont Park, Saratoga and Aqueduct a private enterprise is the only way to save the game.” (Newday)

Posted in NY Racing Issues on June 16, 2005

Odd Couple of NY Racing

The New York Times has a long, front-page article on the evolving relationship of Marylou Whitney, “the doyenne of racing,” and Magna owner Frank Stronach, and how the two could affect the future of New York racing. The piece does a good job of conveying the clash between old-money racing and upstart entrepreneurialism, and the unease with which both cultures regard each other:
“‘I don’t care if Frank Stronach is taking over — he’s not moving me out,’ Ms. Whitney said … No one at the table disagreed that the [racing] industry was in trouble; Las Vegas, state lotteries and the proliferation of gambling and slot machines in state after state had been siphoning gambling dollars from horse racing for decades. But no one was eager to embrace Mr. Stronach, either. They were tired of what they considered his bullying and hectoring, and suspicious of his plan to Las Vegasize racing. Look at what he had done at Gulfstream Park, his track in South Florida: rock concerts, scantily clad cheerleaders. What next? …
“Mr. Stronach has long favored aggressiveness over accommodation … Mr. Stronach envisions horse racing as the anchor of a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week global gambling and entertainment colossus. He envisions a day when customers at his tracks can bet on horses, play slot machines or his racing game, shop and dine. Away from the tracks, they could watch races on his TV network and bet on them online …”
What the article doesn’t do is give much sense of what a Stronach-Whitney alliance could mean for New York racing. I had the impression after reading the piece that there is wariness mixed with respect, but little warmth, on both sides, and that the future of racing in New York is more complicated than any of the discussion over it has so far suggested. (And it did sound complicated already, what with the NYRA franchise expiring in 2007 and the slots issue.)
One reader writes: “That was quite a story in the NYT today … That Stronach guy at least seems to realize that racing in its current form is dying, unlike the society doyenne lady. I’m not so sure that cheerleaders are the answer, but I would be interested in visiting Gulfstream and checking out the changes that they’re making. It’s sad that [many people] don’t have the attention span to wait 20 minutes between races, but better to acknowledge that and provide additional stimulation at the track than to live in denial and watch the last few venues wither away.” Good point.

Posted in NY Racing Issues on March 8, 2005

One Thing After Another

This isn’t NYRA’s week. A report issued by New York state comptroller Alan Hevesi on Tuesday accused the organization of spending more than $1 million on inappropriate and excessive expenses between 2002-2003, including country club memberships for two NYRA executives (Lexington Herald-Leader), and this morning came the announcement that the clerk of scales Mario Sclafani and his assistant Braulio Baeza have been suspended indefinitely as a result of the ongoing investigation into jockey weights at New York racetracks. Throw in the latest on the Jockeys’ Guild and it’s all enough to make even the most devoted fan feel a bit hopeless about the corruption and mismanagement that seem so rife in the game. (San Francisco Chronicle)

Posted in NY Racing Issues on January 12, 2005