JC / Railbird

NY Racing Issues Archive

Inside Job

“Raids last week at Aqueduct, Belmont and Saratoga were precipitated by a tip from New York Racing Association management who learned that jockeys might have been allowed to carry the wrong weights in races, an executive of the agency said yesterday. Peter Karches, the agency’s co-chairman-elect, said that once its management became aware that some weights might have been misreported, it notified the office of Attorney General Eliot Spitzer.” (New York Times)

Posted in NY Racing Issues on December 19, 2004

Investigation Focused on Weights

In raids yesterday on NYRA offices at Aqueduct, Belmont, and Saratoga, state police carted away boxes of records having to do with race entries and jockey weights. “All the forms removed from Aqueduct document what weight a jockey was assigned for each race and what weight was actually carried in a race…. If the attorney general believes that weights were deliberately falsified, it would be a violation of state law and could be considered a felony for tampering with a sporting event,” reports the Daily Racing Form.
More: “New search warrants for three NYRA thoroughbred tracks” (Newsday) and “Authorities are quiet after raids on three racetracks” (New York Times)

Posted in NY Racing Issues on December 16, 2004

Developing

New York state police and the state’s Organized Crime task Force raided offices at Belmont Park, Aqueduct, and Saratoga late this afternoon. State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer refused to comment on the search, “but a key investigator who has probed NYRA for much of the past three years said the search is a major inquiry with substantial ramifications in the racing industry.” (Times Union)

Posted in NY Racing Issues on December 15, 2004