2005 - Harness Tracks of America, Inc.

HARNESS TRACKS OF AMERICAExecutive NewsletterA daily fax and e-mail report on racing and gaming developments in North America and beyondStanley F. Bergstein, EditorTHE RITA AND BRAULIO SHOWThere is no levity to what is happening in the Gulfof Mexico, but to read New York sports pagesthis morning Hall of Fame jockey Braulio Baezagets equal billing with the evil lady Rita who isrampaging toward Galveston. Baeza, assistantclerk of scales for NYRA, was fired yesterday,along with his boss Mario Sclafani, after a 291-count indictment charged the two with defraudingbettors, trainers, and other jocks by conspiringwith some jockeys to falsify their actual weightin stakes and other races on 67 occasions. JockeysJose Santos, who rode Funny Cide to hismuch publicized victories in the 2003 KentuckyDerby and Preakness, and Robby Albarado,Heberto Castillo Jr., Ariel Smith and CornelioVelasquez were named as co-conspirators in thesuit, but do not face criminal action. They could,however, face sanctions from the New York Racingand Wagering Board.Sclafani and Baeza are in much deeper water.The charges brought by state attorney generalEliot Spitzer, state comptroller Alan Hevesi andstate police superintendent Wayne Bennett includescheme to defraud, conspiracy, falsifyingbusiness records, tampering with a sports contestand grand larceny. Although Spitzer said thecharges resulted from a yearlong investigationby the AG’s Organized Crime Task Force, andHevesi acknowledged that the new managementof NYRA had brought the matter to light immediatelyon discovering it, one had to read as far as13 paragraphs or more into most stories to discoverthat fact. NYRA itself went farther, andmade its role clear in a press statement, that readin part: “NYRA initiated the investigation intothese alleged improprieties two years ago and wehave cooperated fully with all government andlaw enforcement agencies.” The pressdamage to racing integrity, nevertheless,has been, like Rita’s potential impact inthe Gulf, enormous.September 22, 2005The negative publicity involving one of racing’sgreatest former jockeys was not the only pressblow yesterday. Newsday and others jumped onthe story of NYRA trying for a quick sale of 80acres near Aqueduct, even though state officialsclaim NYRA’s assets belong to the state. NYRAmay turn out to be right or wrong in what it isdoing, but you wouldn’t know it from the stories,which imply deep, dark acts of impropriety.One such implication was cast by attorneyDonald Kinsella, representing -- according toNewsday -- “one of several entities that seek toreplace NYRA when the state franchise expires.”Kinsella, who would not identify his client,which to some journalists would disqualifyany objectivity connected with the story, wrotea letter to comptroller Hevesi calling NYRA’saction “remarkable.” Some might think newspapersprinting charges by lawyers refusing toidentify their clients also classify as “remarkable,”but they get printed, sell papers, and dotheir damage to the accused long before adjudication.BETTER NEWS ELSEWHEREThere were happier developments yesterday onother fronts. In Washington, the American HorseCouncil revealed that thanks to Senator MitchMcConnell of Kentucky, language making horseseligible for federal disaster assistance now is includedin the Department of Agriculture 2006 appropriationsbill in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.In Maryland, a very positive story in Gazette.com,the online newsletter of Maryland CommunicationNewspapers, on the strong economic recovery ofRosecroft Raceway.And in Pennsylvania, Mohegan Sun president BobSoper says he expects Mohegan Sun at PoconoDowns to be the first track slots operation in thestate. Pocono already is building a temporaryracino, and Soper thinks they will be readyto roll by spring.