Jockey agent suspended 10 years

[cj]

http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-raci...z-for-10-years

Honest questions:

1) What kind of race related information is there that is valuable?
2) Are people that can legally access this information allowed to bet?

[cj]

Was told the following on Twitter by Rob MacLennan ‏@RobMacASD:

" incompass is the system that takes entries. So as the horses were being entered in the morning he could see who was in race"

[upthecreek]

District Attorney Brown said that, according to the charges, the New York Racing Association maintains a computer system/database called InCompass which stores racetrack-related data, such as track conditions, thoroughbred statistics, thoroughbred health and injuries, thoroughbred availability and other restricted information. Access to the InCompass system is limited to only certain NYRA employees.


According to the charges, Gonzales paid a NYRA employee $100 a month to unlawfully use the employee's login and password to access NYRA's InCompass system on 170 different occasions between January 2, 2014, and April 1, 2015. Gonzalez allegedly used the InCompass system to review racing sheets and other data that provided him with information – including the track conditions, health and injuries of the racehorses and the identity of racehorses in need of a jockey – which he used to his own advantage to secure horses for his jockey.

[johnhannibalsmith]

I hope other tracks are paying attention.

[HalvOnHorseracing]

I'm not sure why some of that information needs to be kept under wraps.

Track Conditions. I'll admit, I don't know what the secret part of this should be. The first thing that strikes me is that if it is something like moisture or track depth in various parts of the track, why shouldn't that be public? I guess I'm not seeing what the sensitive insider information could be.

Health and Injuries of race horses. Same thing as above. Why should the public not know which horses are injured, or for that matter which drugs the horse is taking?

Which horses don't have jockeys named. Another one I don't get. Why shouldn't agents know that? The only down side I can see is that they might bother trainers excessively.

Did they say what happened to the guy who sold him access?

[SuperPickle]

Originally Posted by cj

Was told the following on Twitter by Rob MacLennan ‏@RobMacASD:

" incompass is the system that takes entries. So as the horses were being entered in the morning he could see who was in race"

CJ, I'm not 100% sure on this but I believe he had access to entries as horses were entered but before entries were closed. Obviously he could then give that information to trainers to curry favor. He'd know how races were looking in advance.

Given you name a jockey at entry I'm not sure it helped his agent business.

[johnhannibalsmith]

Originally Posted by SuperPickle

CJ, I'm not 100% sure on this but I believe he had access to entries as horses were entered but before entries were closed. Obviously he could then give that information to trainers to curry favor. He'd know how races were looking in advance.

Given you name a jockey at entry I'm not sure it helped his agent business.

I don't know what this guy did, but this is exactly the potential case with this sort of scenario (unless InCompass has changed a lot in a short time). If there's a spot you have a question mark next to because of who might be in there and can know exactly who is in the race... yeah... its quite a bit of an advantage... And as an agent, one of the first questions you get asked when you go see a barn about a spot for a horse - "who's gonna be in there?"... You earn that 25% by keeping track of things yourself so you can prove your worth by answering those questions helpfully, not by dialing up the real-time information that only the office has access to. These sort of punishments for this kind of stuff should be the norm.

[AltonKelsey]

I can see where you could keep track of allowance types, but figuring out who will be in a claimer (not some 20-1 shot , but the live ones) would be pure guesswork.

So knowing for SURE what was entered would be a big advantage to some.

[MonmouthParkJoe]

I think that is just it, knowing who is going where before they close and knowing how the race would set up given what is in there, then passing it on to trainers.

That being said, $100 a month doesnt seem like much when you consider the risk being taken.

[johnhannibalsmith]

Originally Posted by AltonKelsey

I can see where you could keep track of allowance types, but figuring out who will be in a claimer (not some 20-1 shot , but the live ones) would be pure guesswork.

...

Nah, it's not a science but not that bad - just extra legwork. Make out your list of everyone you think might be looking at that spot, stop by the barns asking if they're gonna put you on anything ever because there's a good spot for the big horse today. About half the time or better you walk away with a pretty good idea if they are going there or not with something.

[EMD4ME]

This was big news on track when it first came out.

I'm glad, give him 10 and black list his butt till 2118

[JohnGalt1]

Is this a comparable punishment to a trainer who has many doping violations and is given a $500 fine?

Maybe the punishment for a trainer is less severe because he puts horses on the track, and you can always get another agent.

[johnhannibalsmith]

Originally Posted by JohnGalt1

...

Maybe the punishment for a trainer is less severe because he puts horses on the track, and you can always get another agent.

More likely that this punishment is more or less the precedent for this type of offense that involves breaching a secure system for gain repeatedly.

[green80]

The only advantage that he would have is knowing who was in the race before the entries close. Most good agents can tell you who will be in a race before the overnight is out anyway. Any incompass info he obtained was of marginal help if any at all.

[AltonKelsey]

Yep. If you want to encourage rule violations and crime in general, a good way is to make first offense a slap on the wrist.

Most agents can count to 10, so they will remember this one.

Imagine the internal dialog, "So if I get caught , I drive UBER for 10 years, that makes me 56 when I can get back in ....nah, no thanks."