From a DRF article which SoCal linked in a previous post:
\"Robert Megna, the state\'s budget director and chairman of the Franchise
Oversight Board, which also didn\'t detect the [takeout] mistake, sent a
scolding letter to Hayward last week which in part chastised him for comments
he made defending NYRA\'s wages paid to its executives.
\'You have repeatedly argued that high compensation paid to NYRA officials is
needed to ensure that the best talent is attached to the Association\' Megna
wrote \'That position, of which we are skeptical to begin with, rings hollow in
light of NYRA\'s failure to manage a most basic accounting task.\'
\'We made a mistake...for which we apologize\' Hayward said \'The most important
thing is for the state to have a healthy racing and breeding program, and I
think we\'re a lot better off today than we were two years ago, a lot better
off than we were four years ago, a lot better off than we were six years ago\'\"
... ... ...
I think everyone who posts on this site has a passion for Racing. My passion
was so strong that in 1979 I left my third year of law school (I used to carry
around a brown briefcase which I still have today, which contained the Daily
Racing Form, the most recent edition of the Blood Horse, and, for the sake of
balance, a copy of the United States Constitution) and ended up as a $90 per
week hot walker at the Fair Grounds. But I digress.
When I became a fan of horse racing and horseplayer in the 1970s, the Decade
of Champions, NYRA racing was the gold standard. Important graded races were
run at other tracks, especially Gulfstream, Santa Anita and Arlington; but to
be realistic without being provincial, if you owned or trained a horse and
wanted to enhance its breeding value or win an Eclipse Award, you more or less
had to, with apologies to Woody Stephens, cross the Hudson and look up at
those big buildings. Belmont and Saratoga were hallowed racing ground based on
the great horses, jockeys and trainers which competed there over the years.
To use baseball terminology, NYRA was \"The Show\".
Again, I am not a provincial or conceited New Yorker. I have no problem with
the fact that good quality racing is now found more frequently in other
venues, that there is racing in states such as Oklahoma and Texas and
Minnesota. I watch with interest and without resentment as there is continued
growth and improvement in racing at Keeneland, Tampa and Oaklawn. All good for
racing, but the same way NBA Commissioner David Stern will admit that the NBA
is a better league when the Knicks are competitive, Racing will be a healthier
sport/business with a strong franchise in the Nation\'s number one media market.
... ... ... ...
Clueless Clown Charles Hayward, I call \"BULLSH*T\" on your statement that NYRA
is better off now than when you took the reins. Let me count the ways, in no
particular order.
1) Without Genting, NYRA would be NoNYRA. Aqueduct would be in the final
stages of physical collapse under tons of rust and pigeon crap. You are lucky
that you and other New York State elected and appointed officials have not
been sued by citizens of the state for the millions of dollars of lost revenue
during the 10(!) year period between the approval of the Racino and the actual
opening of the Racino.
2) The scandals: Weightgate, auditgate, Frankie LaBocetta, takeoutgate,
Paragallo (perennial leading owner currently incarcerated for animal neglect)
and Richard Dutrow, Jr., about whom I will speak my final words: To those who
like to trivialize his transgressions by saying that most were \"minor\"
or \"administrative\" let me just point out that this most usual of the usual
suspects HAD SYRINGES IN THE DESK IN HIS OFFICE IN HIS BARN. This was a man
whose track record was such that his barn should have been searched 3 times a
week and probably should have been frisked each day on his way through the
stable gate.
3)NYRA is better because Bill Nader, a young visionary, left for Hong Kong?
4)Show me where the number of catastrophic breakdowns has been reduced on your
watch.
5)How many graded stakes races have been downgraded/degraded on your watch?
6)Number of Breeders Cups held at NYRA tracks on your watch?
7)You have been rather unsuccessful at marketing the Belmont Stakes as a big
event unless there is a Triple Crown at stake.
8)Lets look at today\'s Aqueduct nine race card: The obligatory 4 maiden races
plus two $7500 claiming races. The purses on the $7500 claimers, which drew
full fields are 27K and 29K, respectively. While everyone is ecstatic over
increased purses for these cheap claimers, I think what it means for
horseplayers is that we will see more and more of these races at \"the bottom\"
at NYRA. There will be an influx of these horses from other circuits running
for the big pots, which will compensate for the fact that these cheap claimers
will probably be making less starts per year.
In the same vein, at that purse structure, lets take a $15,000 claiming animal
who is claimed by fictional trainer Richard Rodriquez. RR takes this animal and
works his magic -- floats teeth, some corrective farrier work, some tapping,
some injecting, some rest and relaxation, and after one month the refurbished
beast is dropped in for a claiming price of $7500-- half of what he was
claimed for. Of course he wins by the length of the stretch under a hammerlock
of a hold by the jockey, paying $3.60 and running 6 furlongs in 1:08.1. Even
if he is claimed off the 50% drop, the owners are 10k richer minus expenses.
This is good for Racing?
Mr. Hayward: I am not accusing you of killing NY racing, but it is certainly
dying a slow death under your stewardship. I am offering right now to compose,
proofread and/or edit, and hand deliver, your resignation letter.
NYRA is at a crossroads, and nothing I have seen leads me to believe you are
the man to lead the program in the right direction.
