Random thoughts on NYRA

John Greenhaw

Tough week for NYRA. Canned Charlie and his mouthpiece. Bet the 8.5 million they screwed the bettors out of was not worth it!

Now the GOOD NEWS!

New blood spells better prices. No more Ramon on the 2/5 favorite. Rosie and Leparoux will get good mounts, along with the usual Spring/Summer jocks, JV, JC, and others.

Rosie is a new sensation for NY players. Will be overbet for sure, so look for bargain but be careful because she is pretty good. I kept waiting for her to fall back to earth this past winter at FG, but she just kept winning. Looking forward to one of the best Belmont /Saratoga meets in years!

DubyaB

I can't agree with you any more concerning your observations regarding NYRA . I am angry and somewhat outraged that this has happened on Charlie's watch. I had great respect for him . He fought the state over the years on behalf of the sport, the bettors & the Association . He was a regular guy who was more comfortable with a Form & a beer in his hand than anything else.

That said I am really concerned about the future of racing in NY . I am convinced that it has been Cuomo's mission to take down NYRA so that he can void the slots $ agreement with the horsemen. Consequently the state will then take all the cash for themselves & close Aqueduct . It has been well documented that the Gov has great disdain for horse racing & its participants. He once responded in an interview in the most condescending tone degrading the sport & the fact they are getting funds that he believes is undeserving to them. It is so ironic how politicians can become so virtuous when others mishandle funds . It is also of note that most of the NYS politicians that dogged NYRA over the years for alleged mis-doings are either under Indictment themselves or have been removed from office .
I think its rather simple NYRA needed short term cash to keep afloat until the slots money stated coming in . It is my sense that Charlie saw an opportunity to hold some $ for a while . So he made a call with the support of others to keep a "little on the side' until they got on their feet rather than kiss Cuomo's ass again for a loan . Where he possibilly would have to give up something in negotiations . I DO NOT beleive it was his intent to keep the cash . Nobody fought the take-out more than he did . Here is question . Where were all the state appointed oversight people to watch the operations of the Association ? Politics at its best .
Cuomo will impose his will by folding NYRA appoint some political hacks to run it & NY racing will be like Caunterbury Downs in 5 years. SAD

dirtyshirt

I'm not 100% percent sure I'll continue to use DRF past performances after this whole thing. I'm not really a person of huge conviction, but IMO Steve Christ is just as guilty. We'll see - but I'm not sure I want to support anything he's involved with.

dirtyshirt

This is the email exchange between Crist and Chuckie

“Later on August 1, 2011 Hayward responded to Crist: “This gentlemen [who contacted Crist to alert him to the takeout error] is correct. Off the record, we have been working on this for some time. We originally had thought that we would announce this for Saratoga but political forces intervened. Since we are showing substantial losses in 2010 and 2011 and we have been smacked around by Cuomo (and he could check the SRWB from approving), we decided to wait. Also, the regional OTBs who collectively lost money in 2010 will scream like stuck pigs and that would provoke Skelos who is very tight with the guys who run Nassau OTB to introduce anti-NYRA legislation for the benefit of the OTBs. Finally, we are quietly working on a plan to open 10 or so restaurant/bars in the city and we did not want the politicos to block this effort. We have some internal debates on how much to lower each pool and how we would present this to our simo customers, the consumers and the politicos. I would appreciate it if you could keep these details confidential. I would also welcome a further discussion on this topic with you before the meet is over.

“On August 1, 2011 Crist emailed Hayward: “Will keep it confidential and would love to discuss possible reduction schemes with you off the record whenever the time is right.”


Here's Crist's denial:

Last August 1st, a reader sent me a note saying, as I understood it, that due to the expiration of legislation, NYRA could now ask the State Racing and Wagering Board for a takeout reduction if it wanted to. I forwarded the note to NYRA’s CEO, Charlie Hayward, asking him, “Is this true?” He responded by e-mail that the reader was correct and then went on to say – prefaced with the words “off the record” --- that NYRA had not asked for a reduction yet because he did not think it would be approved due to various other political battles going on. He then asked me to keep “these details” of those political reasons confidential and said he wanted to discuss the issue and the possible forms of takeout reduction with me further.

He never did, and the next thing I heard about the matter was several months later in December, when an auditor discovered that NYRA had in fact been overcharging by applying an incorrect takeout rate on some bets for more than a year. It turned out that the rate should have automatically been changed 14 months earlier, not just that NYRA had become eligible to request a change in the rates.

This was news to me, and I personally believe this was news to Hayward. I can think of no reason why he would have concealed that knowledge, and I believe that had he known the wrong rate was being applied, he would have gotten it changed immediately. He has consistently been a proponent of lower takeout throughout the decades I have known him, and had opposed the very increase that had expired. State investigators, and some readers, may believe otherwise, but I find it completely implausible that he would deliberately overcharge bettors for more than a year and think it would never be discovered.

Nor do I understand what possible motive I would have for tolerating or agreeing to overlook such overcharging – I would love to have been the guy who caught the error and reported it on the front page of Daily Racing Form and corrected the rates and gotten some people (including myself) their money back sooner. With hindsight, I regret that I didn’t follow up on the issue. But I personally do not believe Hayward knowingly overcharged his customers, and it never even occurred to me that might be happening. I assure you that I was completely unaware this was going on, and never would have tolerated it or agreed to be silent about it if I had.


Listen fucker - I don't bet NY racing very often, but I'm not retarded either. You're a dirtbag and a liar.

Horsin~Aro

Unfortunately The Mob is not strong enough anymore in NYC. at least they robbed you behind the scenes.