That's fine.
Let's look at the big picture.
The sport is dying.
Horseplayers are almost unanimous that the sport is dying due to high takeout rates.
Industry people would argue that the sport is dying because of low purses (which are caused by no growth due to high takeout) and that the biggest of bettors have left the tracks for rebate shops.
In 1993 when Crist was honcho for NYRA and raised the takeout, the overall sport of racing was considered healthy....it was NYRA, as usual, that was unhealthy. So in an attempt at a money grab, he did what all smart people would do
, he raised the takeout.
Let's look at what happened......
Dahlman moved to Vegas, which was the catalyst for the inception of rebating and led to the mass exodus of big bettors from the racetracks all over the country.
Other tracks saw that NYRA raised the takeout and it didn't seem to hurt them or was reported that it didn't hurt them and they in turn made more money so across the nation others raised their takeout too.
NY and other areas that raised their takeout following NYRA's (Crist's) lead, have experienced no growth and are dead in the water (unless they get slot welfare).
When the casino boom started not too long after, racetracks were now hooked on the extra money from the raises and couldn't compete with it's new adversaries for the gambling dollar.
NYRA has a 26% takeout rate on p-3, p-4, tri and super wagers and is being used as a comparison to justify the takeout hike in CA.
So if you wanted to get just a little creative.....you could pretty convincingly argue that NYRA's (Crist's) action back then possibly had a lot to do with the fact that the industry is dying today.
If that's the case, based on what Dahlman said above,
do we still need to worship him because he's Steven Crist? 
