To the little guy re: Future of Racing Session

[weegee]

I read in the Thoroughbred Times a meagre paragraph about the session with the Committee on the Future of Racing in New York at Queensboro Hall Wednesday night in which fans were given a chance to speak. I haven't seen anything else about it. However, the TT article did mention your name. Can you give your impression of how things went and what was said? Thanks.

[the little guy]

I don't really have a lot to say about it. I left after I spoke, and a lot of the stuff I heard in the 1 1/2 hours I was there was sort of unrelated to racing, and a lot that was racing related was sort of uselessly specific. Hearing someone complain that NYRA gouged for ticket prices on Belmont Day, when it is both irrelevent and untrue relative to other racetracks on big days, or complain that the food is bad, does nothing to further the process. There is a big issue at stake here and I don't see how dealing with the minutia of the situation does any good whatsoever. But, to each his ( or her ) own.

It was nice that the board gave people an opportunity to speak, and I trust and hope that they will see the bigger picture through a somewhat unnecessary ( though unsurprising ) haze of personal animus.

[weegee]

Thanks. It's amazing how large a less-than-succulent hot dog can loom in people's lives.

[Indulto]

It was nice that the board gave people an opportunity to speak, and I trust and hope that they will see the bigger picture through a somewhat unnecessary ( though unsurprising ) haze of personal animus.
NYRA garners praise at forum for its stewardship of racing by Eileen Morrison
http://www.thoroughbredtimes.com/todaysnews/newsview.asp?recno=63058&subsec=1 (http://www.thoroughbredtimes.com/todaysnews/newsview.asp?recno=63058&subsec=1)

Horseplayer Andy Serling said there were no suitors bidding against NYRA for a pre-slot franchise in 1997.

"I'm sure that NYRA wants to run racing in New York because they stepped forward when nobody else cared," Serling said. "As a racing fan, I want to be sure that whoever is running racing in New York is interested in racing. I want somebody like NYRA, somebody who's proven to me in the past that they've at least done their best to run racing."tlg,

Other than the "Blood Horse" article on the Saratoga Fan Forum, there hasn't been much interest in non-racing insider input on the part of the industry press. Hard to believe that there was nothing worth mentioning from non-food critics.


What was your impression of the Pataki political appointees?

[saratoga guy]

The Saratoga session a couple of weeks ago was similarly populated by "fans" who seemed confused about the purpose of the forum.

Some people clearly felt this was a chance to vent -- an older couple used their time to complain about the seats they received for the Saratoga season last year; a handicapper thought horses should be scratched if equipment change info wasn't properly announced to the betting public -- and then an owner used his time to respond that his horse shouldn't be scratched if he properly reported changes but it wasn't announced; and one woman had trouble making it through her time at the podium because she was choked up at the thought of Saratoga closing...

The Committee on the Future of Racing is charged with coming up with an RFP (Request for Proposal) that will lay out the terms that potential bidders will base their bids on.

I'm doubtful that it will include how tickets for seating should be sold. On the flip side, the Committee also doesn't have the ability to change state law -- so even the big guns who presented at the original hearings last month were often talking about things outside of the scope of ths panel.

All that said however, hopefully the Committee can take in all that they've heard and get a good sense of the industry.

I was disheartened at the first hearing in Albany when the panel was asking for definitions of terms like, "handle" and "takeout". However, at the fan forum in Saratoga I got some sense that they were a little more informed.

In the end -- I just don't know if this group even has the power to make a difference however. The final decision on bidders is going to be up to the politicians and therefore, this group's work might turn out to be mostly window-dressing... We'll see...

[toetoe]

Two pennies' worth:

Bad food can be controlled -- just fast or brown-bag. Gouging is another matter. I agree it wasn't germane to the bigger discussion, but it's disgraceful, even if ALL tracks do it.