HARNESS TRACKS OF AMERICA Executive Newsletter

HARNESS TRACKS OF AMERICA
The death of Tom Cholakis. The popular former
HTA director as president of Capital District
Regional OTB, died at 73. Operated on for an
artery blockage, he left the hospital, returned
home, went into cardiac arrest and died suddenly.
A member of a prominent Rensselaer county
political family and a former county majority
leader and Republican chairman, he was headlined
in an Albany Times Union feature eulogy
as “a class act.”
Maier gets a year in jail, 5 years probation. Former
driver Daniel Maier, convicted of bribery
to affect the outcome of a race at Cal-Expo,
was sentenced to a year in prison and five years
formal probation for his part in a race-fixing
scheme. Maier did not drive in the race in question,
but bet more than $3,000 on it. Maier, 23,
is appealing. A second driver who was involved
in the case and testified for the prosecution, Raymond
Burt, received six days in jail and three
years probation. Sacramento Harness, racing
at Cal-Expo, also barred veterinarian Stephen
Slender from its grounds after receiving a notice
that Slender had been suspended by the British
Columbia Racing Commission.
The Meadowlands 2008 National Harness Handicapping
Championship will be held June 21 at
the track. It is the only tournament for harness
players to feature a $50,000 guaranteed grand
prize, and players can earn their way through
qualifying rounds or buy in for $1,000. The first
qualifier of the season will be Saturday,
Feb. 23. Fourteen tracks held qualifying
rounds for last year’s championship.
Executive Newsletter
A daily fax and e-mail report on racing and gaming developments in North America and beyond
Stanley F. Bergstein, Editor
January 29, 2008
LOST IN SPACE..OR OUT OF IT Northfield Park’s horsemen responding to a
January was a busy month, and a number of
newsworthy items were lost in space, or actually
because we ran out of it. Here are a few that deserve
tardy attention:
Cleveland news story broadcast about starving
and neglected horses at an area farm, produced
500 pounds of specialized grain feed, blankets,
and hoods. An Ohio Harness Horsemen’s Assn.
representative, Amy Hollar, organized the response
to an appeal from the Portage County
Animal Protective League request. Northfield
COO and past HTA president Tom Aldrich, commenting
on the development, said, “I have seen
this spirit many times from Northfield’s horsemen.
At the core of this business is a respect and
love for these animals.”
Pocono, Woodbine build new paddocks. Mohegan
Sun at Pocono is building a new $3.5 million
paddock and will introduce it at the start of the
2009 harness racing season. The 52,670 squarefoot
building will be air conditioned and heated,
accommodate a 14-race card, and contain the
racing’s secretary’s office, program department
and horsemen’s bookkeeper’s office. Work will
begin in September after the 2008 harness meeting
and the paddock is expected to be ready in
March, 2009. Woodbine Entertainment has already
broken ground on its state-of-the-art paddock,
designed to incorporate the best features
of the old one with the best ideas of paddocks
around North America. The two-story building
will contain 160 stalls, drug testing stations
for runners and harness horses, offices for track
veterinarians, emergency personnel and track
maintenance crews, a television studio and a second-floor
kitchen/cafeteria seating 60 to 75, with
an elevator and panoramic view of the track.
Target date for completion is Sept. 1.
A Joe Joyce scholarship is being established at
the Race Track Industry Program at the University
of Arizona in memory of the racing leader
who contributed so much to the program as
a member of its advisory committee.