2002 - Harness Tracks of America, Inc.

More documents

Recommendations

Info

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 THE PEOPLE SPEAK LOUDLY Somewhere today, the Rev. Tom Gray, America’s most vocal critic of gambling, is turning white, blanching with the results of nationwide votes in which the people made it clear they like gambling and are prepared to support more. In Iowa, a testing ground where American Gaming Association president Frank Fahrenkopf said “the rubber hits the road,” all 11 counties that had to vote on continuing casino gambling for another eight years gave their blessings by wide margins. In Maryland, the pro-slots-at-tracks candidate Robert Ehrlich Jr. was elected governor, defeating slots opponent Kathleen Kennedy Townsend. In Tennessee, voters approved a state lottery. If the legislature follows the voters wishes, it will leave Utah and Hawaii as the only states without legal gambling. In North Dakota, a proposal to join a multistate lottery won by an overwhelming majority In Arizona, proposition 202, which expands Indian gaming, is winning by a narrow margin, but proposition 201, which would have given the state’s horse and dog tracks the same privilege, went down to defeat. Voters approved the continuation of the state lottery for another 10 years, but the governor’s race was still too close to call at press time. Almost $40 million was spent on the casino gaming battle, and there were some humorous overtones. The tracks were sued by the makers of Energizer Bunny batteries, which claimed trademark and copyright infringement after the tracks used the Bunny in advertising, and the tracks were threatening to sue Maricopa county after their pitchman, Joe Arizona, was cited on Halloween for impersonating a state policeman. Across the country, a number of towns voted against casinos in their borders. November 6, 2002 DEATH STALKS SULKY SPORT Three prominent figures in harness racing died in recent days. Most shocking was the death at 38 of Brian Pinske, whose body was found by his parents in his hotel room in Harrisburg, PA, where he was attending the weeklong Standardbred Horse Sale. An autopsy was ordered by the Dauphin county coroner’s office, but results were not yet available. Pinske was one of the most successful trainer-drivers on the formidable Chicago circuit, and was having his most successful season, his $2.6 million in stable earnings ranking him sixth nationally among all trainers this year. A graduate of Mankato State college, his powerful stable had won 127 races this year, led by the topnotch 2- year-old pacer Yankee Cruiser, a winner of 9 races and $342,994. Pinski is survived by his wife Brandy; a 3-year-old daughter, McKenna; his parents Tim and Marlys, of Plato, Minnesota; and a brother, Karl. Brian’s father and grandfather both were harness horse trainers. Leon Machiz, who campaigned such standouts as the $1 million North America Cup winner Arizona Jack, the Kentucky Futurity runner-up TV Yankee and the champion 2-year-old pacer of 1999, Tyberwood, died of cancer this week at 78. He was the former CEO and chairman of Avnet, one of the world’s foremost distributors of electronic components, and a civic leader in the New York area. He is survived by his wife Loraine; son Gary, a well known trainer; another son, Marc; and a daughter, Linda. Bernard Mann, former owner and president of the New Jersey Nets of the NBA and a longtime owner whose Escort won the first Meadowlands Pace in 1977 and whose Goalie Jeff and Clover Hanover also were major stakes winners, died at 73.
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 THE STORY THAT WON’T QUIT Thirty-five more pages of copy, representing a full spectrum ranging from the Albany Times- Union to the Baltimore Sun to the Grand Forks, North Dakota Herald to the Louisville Courier- Journal and Los Angeles Journal to the New York Times, New York Post and Newsday, to the Washington Post were waiting on the desk this morning, all telling of the involvement of a third Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity brother from Drexel university in the Breeders’ Cup Ultra Pick Six scandal. Other than the introduction of the name of 29-year-old Glen DeSilva, a frat brother of previously identified Derek Davis and Chris Harm, there was little to add to the story, except that DeSilva apparently was one of the bettors at Catskill OTB that led Don Groth to his initial endorsement of the Pick Six winner as simply a lucky guy he could vouch for. Although Groth did not identify DeSilva, others did, and said he had made frequent wagers at Catskill before the Pick Six story broke. No one has been charged as yet, but when they are that event will insure continuation of the story in all its glory, or gory. There was another interesting unrelated development, however, that cast an even longer shadow on computer hacking or manipulating or whatever you choose to call it. G-Tech Holdings Corporation, the world’s largest operator of national and state lotteries, which MSNBC News says operates computerized management systems to track and authorize payments of 94% of U.S. scratch lottery tickets and 71% of those sold worldwide, has warned governments that it is recalling hundreds of thousands of tickets in Taiwan after making discoveries that led it to believe the bar code used on the ticket has been cracked by outsiders. Government lotteries sold $27.5 billion (that’s with a B) scratch tickets around the world in the year ending June 30, 2001, latest numbers available. November 7, 2002 MSNBC said a Gtech scanner reads a unique bar code on each ticket and transmits it to a central computer for authorization to make a payout. In theory, it says, “a crooked distributor who knew the code numbers that authorized payouts could scan a sheet of tickets, pick out the winners and buy and cash them himself.” Gtech’s Taiwin tickets are printed by Pollard Banknote Ltd. of Winnipeg, Manitoba. Gordon Pollard, the company’s co-CEO, told MSNBC the recall was not due any printing mistakes in printing, but declined further comment. STILL COUNTING IN ARIZONA We’re a little slow in the great Southwest, so we can’t tell you for certain that Proposition 202, which strengthens the Indian hold on gaming in the state, has passed. It was leading 51.6% to -48.4% as of this morning, with 150,000 absentee ballots still to be counted. There was no question, however, what voters thought of letting Turf Paradise and Rillito Park and the dog tracks of Arizona in on the action. They lambasted that proposal by a vote of 774,315 to 194,942, indicating that either the tracks did a lousy job promoting the proposition or the people of the state simply think the Indians deserve a chance to better themselves and the tracks have enough already. Prairie Meadows in Iowa, on the contrary, breezed home an easy winner, as predicted, getting a solid mandate to operate its racino for another eight years. One breeder who spent $600,000 on improvements of their equine station told Blood- Horse “the track was too good of a thing for Iowa to lose. I can’t imagine taking something away that’s done this much good.” Her fellow voters agreed heartily with that view, and gambling won easily in all 11 Iowa counties where it currently is legal and where voters indicated clearly that they wanted it to remain.
Page 1 and 2:
HARNESS TRACKS OF AMERICA Executive
Page 3 and 4:
Page 5 and 6:
Page 7 and 8:
Page 9 and 10:
Page 11 and 12:
Page 13 and 14:
Page 15 and 16:
Page 17 and 18:
Page 19 and 20:
Page 21 and 22:
Page 23 and 24:
Page 25 and 26:
Page 27 and 28:
Page 29 and 30:
Page 31 and 32:
Page 33 and 34:
Page 35 and 36:
Page 37 and 38:
Page 39 and 40:
Page 41 and 42:
Page 43 and 44:
Page 45 and 46:
Page 47 and 48:
Page 49 and 50:
Page 51 and 52:
Page 53 and 54:
Page 55 and 56:
Page 57 and 58:
Page 59 and 60:
Page 61 and 62:
Page 63 and 64:
Page 65 and 66:
Page 67 and 68:
Page 69 and 70:
Page 71 and 72:
Page 73 and 74:
Page 75 and 76:
Page 77 and 78:
Page 79 and 80:
Page 81 and 82:
Page 83 and 84:
Page 85 and 86:
Page 87 and 88:
Page 89 and 90:
Page 91 and 92:
Page 93 and 94:
Page 95 and 96:
Page 97 and 98:
Page 99 and 100:
Page 101 and 102:
Page 103 and 104:
Page 105 and 106:
Page 107 and 108:
Page 109 and 110:
Page 111 and 112:
Page 113 and 114:
Page 115 and 116:
Page 117 and 118:
Page 119 and 120:
Page 121 and 122:
Page 123 and 124:
Page 125 and 126:
Page 127 and 128:
Page 129 and 130:
Page 131 and 132:
Page 133 and 134:
Page 135 and 136:
Page 137 and 138:
Page 139 and 140:
Page 141 and 142:
Page 143 and 144:
Page 145 and 146:
Page 147 and 148:
Page 149 and 150:
Page 151 and 152:
Page 153 and 154:
Page 155 and 156:
Page 157 and 158:
Page 159 and 160:
HARNESS TRACKS OF AMERICA THIS OUTF
Page 161 and 162: HARNESS TRACKS OF AMERICA Executive
Page 203 and 204: HARNESS TRACKS OF AMERICA Paul Jose
Page 211: HARNESS TRACKS OF AMERICA Executive
Page 249: HARNESS TRACKS OF AMERICA Executive
show all

2002 - Harness Tracks of America, Inc.

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?