2002 - Harness Tracks of America, Inc.

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HARNESS TRACKS OF AMERICA Executive Newsletter A daily fax and e-mail report on racing and gaming developments in North America and beyond Stanley F. Bergstein, Editor INDIANA SUBSIDY VOTE NEAR The chairman of the Ways and Means committee of the Indiana House has told the Indianapolis Star that he expects a vote within two weeks on House Bill 1004, which if passed would transfer $10 million of the $26 million track subsidy from riverboat casino admissions to the general fund. Riverboat casino admissions might be raised from $3 to $5, but that would not offset the track subsidy loss since the additional $2 admission tax also would go to the state’s general fund. Also in the legislative hopper is Senate bill 333, which could affect revenues by legalizing dockside gaming and pull tabs, a form of VLTs, at tracks and OTBs. $1 MILLION GRAND SLAM BACK You’ve probably seen the car commercial running these days that says, “Not that you would but you could.” It applies to harness racing again this year, with two $1,000,000 bonuses on the line for a 3- year-old trotter or pacer that can win all four of the sport’s Grand Slam events. For pacers the tests are the $1.2 million (Canadian) North America Cup at Woodbine, the $1 million Meadowlands Pace at the Meadowlands, the $640,000 Little Brown Jug at Delaware, Ohio, and the $500,000 Breeders Crown at Woodbine. The hurdles for trotters are the $1.2 million Hambletonian at the Meadowlands; the $520,000 World Trotting Derby at the DuQuoin, Illinois; the $400,000 Kentucky Futurity at the Red Mile in Lexington; and the $500,000 Breeders Crown at Woodbine. Although the Grand Slam is only a year old, its degree of difficulty is formidable. No trotter or pacer to date, pre-Grand Slam or since its introduction, has been able to win all four races involved. That should be comforting to the Royal Surplus Lines Insurance company that writes the policy, but this is another year, and hope springs eternal within the human (owner’s) breast. January 17, 2002 SCORE ANOTHER FOR SIS Most of its accomplishments are registered without press or fanfare, but the solid work of Standardbred Investigative Services produces benefits for harness racing day by day. One came to light yesterday with a release from the U.S. Department of Justice, office of the United States Attorney, Eastern District of Michigan. It was a story on David F. Novak of Livonia, Michigan, who entered a guilty plea on the second day of his jury trial in federal court in Detroit on charges of illegally selling prescription human and animal drugs to an undercover investigator. “The investigator,” the release said, “was actually employed by Standardbred Investigative Services, a private organization dedicated to maintaining the integrity and security of horse racing and is funded by the horse racing industry. The year and a half long investigation was conducted by the Food and Drug Administration, Office of Criminal Investigation, with the assistance of Standardbred Investigative Services and Michigan’s Office of the Racing Commissioner.” SIS is jointly funded by USTA and HTA. Novak will be sentenced in April, and faces up to three years imprisonment, followed by one year of supervised release. BIG A WANTS 2,500 VLTS In an interesting juxtaposition of approaches, the New York Racing Association is asking for 2,500 VLTs for its Aqueduct operation, and simultaneously campaigning against Saratoga Equine Sports Center getting them in what could be a battle for survival in Saratoga Springs. Suddenly deeply concerned with traffic, restaurants and hotels in Saratoga in the month of August, when NYRA’s Saratoga operation is jamming the town, NYRA president Barry Schwartz is worried that VLTs at the Equine Center “would be a nightmare.” What about the other 11 months of the year when NYRA’s not there? Would you go for that, Barry?
HARNESS TRACKS OF AMERICA Executive Newsletter A daily fax and e-mail report on racing and gaming developments in North America and beyond Stanley F. Bergstein, Editor $2.1 MILLION UP IN SMOKE? When Bruce Garland of the Meadowlands appeared before the New Jersey Racing Commission last month in a date hearing, he told the commission that he could not agree to the proposed allocation because there was no certainty that $18 million in purse supplement legislation would be enacted. Shortly after, acting governor Donald DiFrancesco used a line item veto to reduce the supplement from $18 million to $6 million. Now, in another blink of the eye, it appears those millions are gone entirely, as New Jersey’s new governor, James McGreevey, started his regime by announcing draconian cuts, saying he was not bound by lame duck actions of his predecessor and was stopping all discretionary spending in the state. New Jersey faces a $2.8 billion shortfall, and McGreevey says reducing it will be “an agonizing prospect.” It appears that harness horsemen at the Meadowlands will have to share the agony, and purses will certainly have to be slashed in the face of the loss of the $2.1 million subsidy. MAGNA LAUNCHES XPRESSBET Using a good old harness track and harness racing service as the platform, Magna Entertainment announced today that it is launching XpressBet account wagering, using the old Call-A-Bet system at its Meadows track in Pennsylvania. It also announced Call-A-Bet will be renamed XpressBet. Part of the new system will be a multi-million dollar installation of speech recognition technolog provided by VeCommerce Limited, the Australian firm that services TAB in Australia. The system combines VeCommerce’s own multimedia platform, FirstContact, with what the company calls “the world’s best natural language speech recognition engine from Nuance Communications.” With it, consumers will simply phone their bets direct to the Meadows site. January 18, 2002 HOOF IN MOUTH DISEASE IN NH We have no idea who the next governor of New Hampshire will be, but if it is the Republican contender Gordon Humphrey the state is in for some interesting times ahead. While testifying this week before the House Ways and Means Committee there, Humphrey called gambling “a scummy, sleazy enterprise that has no place in this state.” The Telegraph in Nashua, which reported the slur, said that Dave DeLisle, president of the New Hampshire Thoroughbred Breeders Association, followed Humphrey to the microphone and said he found the candidate’s remarks “absolutely unconscionable and unbelievable.” Yesterday Ed Callahan, vice president and GM at New Hampshire’s Rockingham Park, demanded an apology from Humphrey. Callahan said all 6,000 people involved in the gambling industry in the state were “outraged and insulted” by the candidate’s remarks. WILLIAM HILL BIDS U.S. ADIEU British gambling giant William Hill has decided to give up the colonies. In a letter to U.S. customers signed by Jamie Hart, Sportsbook Director, the bookmaker said they were writing “because you have an account with William Hill Sportsbook and your registered address indicates that you are resident in the United States. Due to the continuing uncertainty of the legality of sports wagering over the Internet by U.S. residents, William Hill has decided to stop accepting such wagers with effect from 31st January.” The letter went on to say the decision does not affect U.S. citizens who are resident outside the United States, nor does it affect the William Hill casinos, “which will continue to accept wagers from U.S. residents.” After 5 a.m. Jan. 31, no deposits or bets on sports and racing will be accepted, and “any bets placed prior to that time will be settled in the normal way,” and balances can be withdrawn.
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2002 - Harness Tracks of America, Inc.

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