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, Editor May 10, 2005WHAT FEATURES CAN DORegular visitors to this site know the editor’s passionfor solid features and what they can accomplishin coverage, and Saturday’s KentuckyDerby and its bizarre payoffs provided the bestpossible examples. Here are a few:REGULATORS: FRIEND OR FOENew York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman,in his latest book “The World Is Flat,” makes thepoint repeatedly that technology and theInternet have changed the world, that boundariesno longer exist with meaning, and that those whodo not learn this lesson will fall irretrievably behind.Racing and its regulators are not exempt.It is imperative that the people who control racing,whether state racing commissions in theUnited States or federal regulators in Canada,come to realize that this is not their fathers’ orgrandfathers’ pari-mutuel world. A case in pointis the current controversy in Canada, where Canadiantracks, hoping to start common pool bettingwith Hawthorne and Balmoral and Maywoodin the Chicago area, have received approvalfrom the Illinois Racing Board but have beenrebuffed by the Canadian Pari-Mutuel Agency,which regulates pari-mutuel wagering in Canada.Steve Mitchell, Woodbine Entertainment’s seniorVP and CFO, alluding to the CPMA’s mandate“to protect the wagering public againstfraudulent practices, thereby helping to maintaina viable racing industry,” says CPMA mustbe accountable to the Canadian public. He saysCPMA should “get on with U.S. common poolsusing the principle of ‘host tracks rules apply’or tell the public what fraudulent activity theyneed protection from.” Woodbine has taken outfull page ads in Daily Racing Form inviting itscustomers to call, fax and e-mail governmentofficials urging them to give Canadians accessto U.S. pools, and has invited the CPMA to a‘town hall’ meeting to listen to Woodbine’s customersfirsthand. CPMA’s ambiguity is confusing.It allows commission vets to administeranti-bleeding medication in detention barns withoutnotifying the public which horses aretreated, but it won’t allow common poolwagering. Who’s protecting whom fromwhat?The hard-to-believe story of one of the seven winning$1 tickets on the Derby superfecta, worth$864,253.50, being lost by a bettor and then foundby a mutuel clerk at Turf Paradise. After the bettorand track employees sifted through all of thegarbage bags in the clubhouse, naturally with noluck, a mutuel clerk named Brenda Reagan, informedthat her machine had produced asuperfecta winner, said she noticed two ticketslying next to her machine. One was the winner.The huge coverage in New York and New Jerseyon the two friends handicapping in the Meadowlandsparking lot who tossed out the “figs” andpicked by names and hunches, and came up withone of the $864,254 winners. Meadowlands PRdirector Carol Hodes, off on Monday, left wordfor the mutuel department to notify her if the winnersshowed up. They did, and Carol interviewedthem by phone, wrote a release, and the storyexploded all over the place.Betting volume. It broke records all over theplace, and a good example was HTA associateCapital OTB in Schenectady, NY, which receivedone of its biggest positive stories ever in the AlbanyTimes Union with the its $3 million day, biggestone-day handle in its 33-year history.And then there was Kentucky. With all of thegrievous problems facing racing, the KentuckyRacing Authority got coverage by postrace worryingabout advertising on jockeys’ pants. If that’ssuch an overriding issue (no pun intended) itseems that it could have been checked out prerace,and offenders ordered to change theirbritches, saving the bruhaha.