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
GOOD NEWS LOOMS IN NY
If Tom Precious is right, there is good news for
New York tracks hoping to take advantage of the
recently enacted legislation that gives them VLTs.
Precious is the veteran Albany bureau correspondent
for the Buffalo News, who also writes for
Blood-Horse magazine, and in both publications
today he says state negotiators have agreed to
provide an additional 5% of VLT revenues for
construction and other capital costs in ramping up
for the machines, and that the legislation itself,
scheduled for a 3-year trial run before sunset provisions,
will be extended to 5 years, increasing
chances for institutional funding. Precious also
says the negotiators from Gov. George Pataki’s
office and the state legislature have agreed to extend
the number of hours the VLTs can operate at
the tracks. The original legislation specified 10
a.m. to 10 p.m. on weekdays and 10 a.m. to midnight
on weekends. Precious says those hours will
be lengthened, but with no specific agreement as
yet on how much. Tracks have been urging 18-
hour a day operation.
Along with that ray of sunshine, however, came a
cloud on the horizon. A five-judge panel of the
appellate division of the state supreme court yesterday
ruled that the compact between the St.
Regis Mohawk tribe and two successive New York
governors “is the antithesis of the highly restricted
and ‘rigidly regulated’ forms of gambling permitted
by the New York Constitution” and thus invalid.
The court ruled, as others in other states
have, that legislative approval was needed for compacts.
The legislature can correct this by approving
existing compacts, and yesterday’s decision
did not deal with or affect larger issues beyond
the specific St. Regis matter at hand. By its language,
however, it conceivably could
muddy legal waters enough in future cases
to prolong the issue and possibly delay
introduction of the VLTs at New York tracks.
May 3, 2002
FONTAINE THE HANDICAPPER
Paul Fontaine of Rhode Island has been many
things in his career -- successful attorney, successful
harness horse owner, track executive, HTA and
USTA director -- but tomorrow afternoon he assumes
a new role: Kentucky Derby handicapper
for youth. It is a complex tale.
Fontaine and his friend and associate, Gary
Piontkowski, president of Plainridge Racecourse
in Plainville, MA, have been strong supporters of
the Harness Horse Youth Foundation, based in
Carmel, Indiana. Fontaine is vice president of the
highly worthy organization. At the Harness Racing
Congress in Las Vegas in March, Fontaine and
Piontkowski met with HHYF president Callie
Davies Gooch and executive director Ellen Taylor
to discuss future funding of the foundation. It
was decided to have the HHYF participate in
Plainridge’s Kentucky Derby promotion. In a
spin-the-wheel event with local Plainville charities,
the HHYF picked up $1,250. It also sold $1 raffle
tickets for Plainridge with a top prize a $5,000 bet
on the Kentucky Derby. Ms. Taylor sold the winning
ticket to Harold Breidenbach, a harness racing
owner in Lima, Ohio, and a trustee of the Youth
Foundation. Breidenbach donated the ticket to
the Foundation. Ms. Taylor, whose family has
been in harness racing for generations, knows trotters
and pacers inside-out, but not thoroughbreds.
She named Fontaine as designated handicapper
for the Foundation. So tomorrow Fontaine bets
$6,250 on the Derby, for the kids. Careful, Paul,
or you’ll be disbarred from future handicapping..
K.D. OWEN DIES AT 98
Kenneth Dale Owen, one of harness racing’s most
illustrious owners and breeders, has died at 98 in
his birthplace, New Harmony, Indiana. Owen was
a descendant of famed Welsh social reformer
Robert Owen, who bought New Harmony
in 1825 and created a Utopian community
there.