New York Gaming Commission | Horse Racing Free Tips

Kentucky Position On EHV Quarantine At Saratoga Race Course

E.S. “Rusty” Ford, equine operations consultant for the Kentucky Office of the State Veterinarian, released the following update regarding a diagnosis of EHV-1 at Saratoga Race Course.

On Thursday evening (7/15) we received notification that Barn 86 at Saratoga Race Course had been placed under quarantine by NYRA Veterinary Officials and New York's Gaming Commission following a diagnosis of EHV1 in a horse that had been stabled on the grounds. Since that time, we have maintained open lines of communication with both NYRA and the NY Department Agriculture's State Veterinarians Office and have been working with the KY Horse Racing Commission and KY racetrack's management teams.

A description of the disease event can be viewed on the Equine Disease Communication Center's website.

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Additionally, we did reaffirm earlier this morning that the status is unchanged and there have been no new EHV cases reported.

Dr. Flynn and I would like to take this opportunity to remind you that mitigating risk of disease introduction and transmission is a shared responsibility with success dependent on multiple parties all working together to achieve the common goal of maintaining safe and healthy environments for our horses. Since Thursday, we have worked closely with our tracks and training facilities to establish procedures and protocols that continues to allow movement of horses originating from Saratoga Race Course onto Kentucky tracks. With that in mind, we want to ensure that other equine facilities receiving horses understand the importance of having strong biosecurity protocols in place and practiced daily when processing and managing new arrivals onto your facility. Your veterinarian is a valuable resource to review and give recommendations based on your individual premises and we, too, will be happy to review your plan and share our thoughts on best practices.

Kentucky's Position at This Point in Time: With horses in the affected barn remaining under quarantine, segregated from the general population, and being closely monitored for evidence of illness, we are satisfied horses residing in other barns at Saratoga can qualify and be permitted entry onto our Kentucky tracks and training facilities by fully meeting our established entry requirements. These requirements include a Certificate of Veterinary Inspection (CVI) certifying examination and issuance of the certificate was made during the 72-hour period preceding the horses arrival at the Kentucky track/facility and includes certification of the horse meeting our established EHV1 vaccination requirement as well as EIA testing.

Additionally, I am encouraging tracks to have the shipping of horses from Saratoga onto the grounds be scheduled with the stable manager and that the arrival and stabling information be shared with the track's Equine Medical Director or his designee.

We appreciate the opportunity to provide factual information resulting from the open lines of communication with NYRA and NY Department of Agriculture veterinary officials. We will continue to monitor this developing event and provide updates as new information is learned or a change in the status occurs.

Visit the Kentucky Department of Agriculture here.

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Temporary Injunction Allows Rice to Resume Training

A New York court has granted Linda Rice a temporary injunction that allows her to resume training while she pursues a legal appeal of the three-year license revocation and $50,000 fine for “improper and corrupt conduct” levied against her by the New York State Gaming Commission (NYSGC).

The ban went into effect Monday. Later on June 7, Rice's legal team filed a complaint in the Schenectady County Supreme Court alleging that the penalty is “unduly harsh.”

Daily Racing Form first reported the June 9 granting of the injunction. TDN could not reach Rice or her attorney for comment.

Rice had one entry scratched at Finger Lakes Monday because of the ban, but her lone starter Wednesday ran second at that track. She has 10 entrants over the next four days at her Belmont Park base.

Rice's court complaint seeks a declaratory judgment that would either annul or vacate her penalties for receiving race-entry information about rival horses from New York Racing Association employees while paying some racing office workers thousands of dollars in “gifts” between 2011 and 2015.

Culminating an investigation that stretched over five years, NYSGC members voted 5-0 on May 17, to agree with a hearing officer that Rice's years-long pattern of seeking and obtaining pre-entry information from NYRA racing office workers was “intentional, serious and extensive [and] inconsistent with and detrimental to the best interests of horse racing.”

Andrew Turro, Rice's lawyer, told the Form that “We are very happy about today's decision. The court's order restores Ms. Rice's ability to get back to racing and training immediately. We also look forward to challenging the commission's order in the court and ultimately vindicating Ms. Rice's rights.”

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Horse Racing Wants New Blood. Or Does It?

Earlier this year, the son of a longtime family friend called me and said that he had claimed an eight-year-old gelding the previous summer, and he had raced a dozen or so times for him, but now he was nine, and he was worried about him. He wanted to make sure that he retired him sound, so that he could have a second career. After six or seven years on the track, he had earned it, he said.

He asked my advice, and I had him contact Anna Ford at New Vocations, who said she would make room for him. It meant that he would lose money on the horse, and that he would be the one to fund a retirement from a career for which he was only briefly responsible, but he insisted upon doing the right thing, even though his trainer felt he could still run successfully. Blue Pigeon has now been adopted out as a hunter-jumper prospect, and he owes his future to his former owner, 23-year-old Philip Miller.

But when Miller went to Aqueduct last week to apply for a jockey’s agent’s license, he was told that not only was he unqualified, but that he was unqualified to even sit for the test to determine if he was qualified.

“Has he ever been in prison?” asked a friend of mine when she heard of the decision.

He has not.

In fact, Miller graduated from the Stevens Institute of Technology at the top of his class with a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance. Now an MBA candidate who earned his real estate license in his spare time this summer, he is the son of a prominent cancer specialist and racehorse owner, and has owned horses on his own or in partnership for two years. He grew up going to the racetrack, spends most days handicapping, and has won a bit of money on the ponies.

He has been known to bring home a stray dog or two, did seven years of weekly volunteer service at the Special Olympics as an assistant swim coach, is polite, intelligent, and well-spoken. He designed an app to provide free college tutoring to under-privileged students. Any industry would be happy to have him.

Except for horse racing.

Miller was offered the job as jockey agent for Ferrin Peterson, but has been deemed by the New York State Gaming Commission as unqualified because he has no hands-on horse experience on the backstretch. Let’s put aside for a moment that being a jockey’s agent requires no hands-on horse experience.

After her agent, Julie Krone, moved back to California, I suggested Miller as an option to Peterson, who had ridden a winner for Miller at Monmouth. I have known Miller for his entire life, knew he was looking to get into racing in a bigger way, and his father has helped out more racetrack families with care for their cancer-stricken loved ones than I can count. I should know. My family was the first.

She met with him, thought he was the perfect fit, and offered him the job.

But a rule on the New York Gaming Commission books reads that “a license to be a jockey’s agent may be initially issued only to an applicant who…has been licensed and has acted as an exercise person, apprentice jockey, jockey, assistant trainer or trainer in this or another jurisdiction for at least one year.”

So, without so much as looking at his resume and what he has accomplished at the age of 23, without discussing his two years of racehorse ownership, New York State Steward Braulio Baeza told him he wouldn’t even be allowed to sit for the test because he was unqualified.

He studied Multivariable Calculus and Business Law, made the Dean’s List every semester, and received a merit-based scholarship to attend the school.

But he’s unqualified to be a jockey’s agent?

There’s nothing wrong with taking the path from jockey or trainer to agent; Angel Cordero and Kiaran McLaughlin are two good examples of people who have succeeded at it. But to say that’s the only path defies reason.

The rule would eliminate the careers of almost any jockey agent you ever heard of-Harry Hacek, Vic Gilardi, Lenny Goodman, and more. The people who managed the careers of Steve Cauthen, Eddie Delahoussaye and Jorge Velasquez would have been deemed unfit at the start.

Ignore for a minute that the rule seems arbitrary, insular and protectionist, ensuring that the path of many bright young people trying to get into the sport will be blocked, and that only insiders can play. That’s not the best way to invite smart, passionate people into horse racing. (And for what it’s worth, the rule would disqualify the most talented racing secretary from being a jockey’s agent, which makes no sense.)

Shouldn’t consumers (trainers) and employers (jockeys) decide who succeeds at this job, not someone in charge of issuing occupational licenses?

How many times have we said we should bring new people into the sport? How many seminars have you attended on attracting young people? How many committees have we formed and organizations have we launched for just that purpose?

But instead of bringing his considerable intelligence, education, character and passion for the sport to horse racing, Miller will go on to work in another industry. He’ll do just fine.

I’m not so sure about us.

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As Linda Rice Hearings Progress, Questions Remain About What’s Normal In The Racing Office

The hearing of trainer Linda Rice wrapped its third day on Nov. 12 with more testimony from New York Racing Association (NYRA) employees about standard operating procedures in the racing office. The hearing is meant to determine what, if any, sanctions await Rice, who is accused of “corrupt and improper acts in relation to racing.” Rice could face suspension or revocation of her license, and fines of up to $25,000 per violation.

Former racing office employee Jose Morales testified last week he provided Rice with horses' names and past performance information via fax and email both for races he was trying to fill and races Rice expressed an interest in. The commission maintains Rice received an unfair advantage by having this information prior to the races being drawn when other trainers did ot, as she had the opportunity to add or remove horses from fields depending upon how the competition was shaping up.

Thursday's proceedings involved the completion of testimony from Martin Panza, senior vice president of racing operations at NYRA, who began testifying last week, and testimony from Chris Camac, assistant racing secretary at Aqueduct. Camac recalled Rice having a reputation for putting horses in races — particularly turf races — and later calling to swap one horse out for another just before draw time. Although other trainers may occasionally do the same, Camac said Rice did so more often than average and was known to turn in her entries somewhat later in the day than other trainers.

Not for the first time, senior racing office officials told a somewhat different story about what goes on in the racing office than employees further down the food chain. Morales and former colleague Matt Salvato said last week they had the impression it was routine in some situations to reveal the names of horses or trainers pre-draw during the process of “hustling” to generate entries for a race with few entries. They also alleged there wasn't an orientation program for new employees emphasizing what information was acceptable to give out and what wasn't, although Morales admitted to hiding his communications with Rice from others.

(Salvato was eventually fired from the racing office when the scheme was uncovered, but testified last week he would provide Rice information she requested if Morales was unavailable.)

Camac and Panza said that while was no formal training program for new racing office employees, employees were well-versed in what they could and couldn't say to trainers.

Camac and Panza were presented Thursday with sworn testimony from trainer David Donk which cast doubt on what information is commonly given out to trainers — even now. Donk was asked about whether trainers were provided with names of horses or trainers in entries pre-draw, and about whether trainers were shown entries after the draw to help them figure out which riders may be available.

Counsel for Rice read part of Donk's statement into the record.

“[Clerks] might show me the computer screen to show me the names of the entered horses but not the PPs … Whenever they hustle a race to try and get it to fill, they will often tell you about the horses in a race to try and make it fill,” the statement read in part. “It is no different today when they're hustling a race. They'll tell you who is in a race to help you make a decision.”

Camac disputed the apparent allegation by Donk that trainers are to this day given information he and Panza had described as confidential.

“I cannot speak for Mr. Donk but I can speak for myself and I tell you, this has not happened in 2019, 2020 for sure because I was here,” he said. “I never saw it. I don't believe it.”

And if he had overheard an employee providing that information?

“I would have taken them to the racing commission myself,” he said. “It's a thing called integrity.”

Panza had stipulated last week that trainers may be given information about what an anonymous competitor in a certain race has done during its last start, or how the pace is shaping up based on current entries, but the actual release of names is not permissible. Panza admitted many savvy trainers can probably guess which horses are likely candidates for a given race without getting confidential information, but said that knowing which were entered and which weren't could still be beneficial. Panza read Donk's statement as a reference to learning which riders were in a race after draw time, not which horses were there before draw time, and stated he was not aware of racing office employees divulging confidential information.

Camac was also confronted about a record produced by Rice's attorneys purporting to show a check made out to him by Rice, which attorney Andrew Turro said was accompanied by a thank you note from Rice. Camac said he had no memory of receiving or cashing such a check or a thank you note.

One witness for the commission, steward Braulio Baeza Jr., was not examined Thursday due to time constraints. He is expected to testify next week. Two days are allotted next week for Rice's attorneys to present their case, with an additional day allowed if needed. A timeline has not been given for a decision after the conclusion of the hearings.

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