2002 - Harness Tracks of America, Inc.

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
BIG M READY FOR PACE
Mach Three, the Berry’s Creek winner and North
America Cup runner up, has been installed as the
8-5 morning line favorite from post one in the $1
million Meadowlands Pace tomorrow night at the
Meadowlands. The track’s signature event, and
the richest of all races for pacers, the Meadowlands
Pace tops a weekend of stakes action that
also includes the $400,000 Stanley Dancer Trot
and the $400,000 Del Miller Memorial tonight.
The Pace is slated as the seventh race on
Saturday’s card, with a post time of 9:59 p.m. The
field for the 2002 Meadowlands Pace in post position
order (with drivers’ names in parentheses)
include: Mach Three (John Campbell); Three
Olives (Dale Hiteman); Brad’s Gold (Ron Pierce);
Mini Me (Dave Magee); Million Dollar Cam
(David Miller); Royal Mattjesty (Luc Ouellette);
Allamerican Ingot (Cat Manzi); McArdle (Mike
Lachance); Pacific Titan (Eric Ledford); and Yankee
Sensation (Ray Paver Jr.).
MORE TROUBLE
AT T KHBPA
The president and attorney of the Kentucky
Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association
both resigned this week as a result of a continuing
dispute over free-lance work by other association
officers. Alex Harthill, the KHBPA president,
said the KHBPA board should not have called
off its investigation of Century Consultants, the
consulting group formed by former KHBPA president
Rick Hiles, current executive director Marty
Maline and former counsel Don Sturgill. Harthill
originally ordered the investigation to determine
whether the consulting group had violated association
rules when it received $125,000 in consulting
fees from Choctaw Racing Services in Oklahoma.
Harthill also disclosed that the KHBPA has
so far refused to pay interim counsel Joseph
Cohen, who was hired following
Sturgill’s resignation, and that Cohen has
also resigned.
July 12, 2002
NY AG SUBPOENAS PAYP
YPAL
PayPal, the Internet payment processor purchased
this week by eBay, has received a subpoena from
the New York attorney general’s office asking for
details of Internet gamblers using its system. After
the announcement of the PayPal purchase,
eBay said that it will close off PayPal’s relationship
with Internet gaming firms. PayPal officials
said the New York attorney general’s office asked
for information about online gaming payments that
occurred through its network and said that it would
conduct investigations.
BINGO! THE BRAIN BOOSTER
The next time you’re tempted to make fun of the
crowd of blue-haired old ladies feverishly marking
their cards at the local church or bingo parlor,
remember this. Playing bingo can keep the mind
trim -- and the older you are the more agile you
may be, researchers have found. Tests showed
bingo players were faster and more accurate than
non-bingo players in a range of tests measuring
mental speed, memory and the ability to pick up
information from the environment around them.
Players have to be able to check numbers off
quickly and need rapid hand-eye coordination. And
unlike chess, bridge and backgammon, which need
skills stored in the brain and remembered when
needed, bingo requires speedy identification within
time constraints. Julie Winstone, from the University
of Southampton’s Centre for Visual Cognition,
has been testing bingo players’ mental agility
over the last year. Winstone’s research shows
what has been suspected for some time, that longterm
mental activity -- and particularly bingo --
could stave off the decline of cognitive abilities
such as speed, accuracy and recognition of patterns.
While Winstone tested old and young bingo
players as well as people who did not play the
game, older bingo players performed better
at many of the required tasks.