new york state gaming commission | Horse Racing Free Tips

NY Seeks to Prevent Jockey Appeals That ‘Game the System’

The New York State Gaming Commission (NYSGC) unanimously advanced a rule proposal Tuesday that seeks to end the resource-draining practice of jockeys appealing riding infractions during big-money race meets like at Saratoga, then withdrawing those protests once the meet is over for the sole purpose of delaying a suspension until it is more convenient for the penalized rider to serve the days.

The proposed rule, which first must be published in the state lawmaking register and then be subject to a public commentary period before coming up again for a final NYSGC vote, would give the commission discretion to instead make the jockey sit out a suspension at a subsequent meeting at the same track.

It will not pass through that process in time to be in effect for the upcoming Spa season.

“Subjectively, this tactic appears to be most frequently used during the Saratoga race meet, where purses are substantially larger than at other subsequent meets,” NYSGC executive director Robert Williams explained to commissioners prior to the June 29 vote.

“Following the stewards' punishment for transgressions, experience has found that many jockeys seek a hearing, which administratively stays the penalty pending commission resolution of the matter,” Williams said.

“And while commission staff has been diligent in attempting to hear cases during the meet where the alleged transgression occurred, the full adjudication process can extend beyond such meeting,” Williams continued.

“As a result, the jockey can seek to game the system by requesting a hearing and then withdrawing the request at the conclusion of the meet, serving the suspension during a [different] meet [that] the jockey prefers.

“This tactic has real impact on commission operations, as staffing spends resources in arranging and preparing for a hearing that fails to be conducted,” Williams concluded.

According to a brief written by NYSGC general counsel Edmund Burns that was included in the informational packet for Tuesday's meeting, the former Racing and Wagering Board, a predecessor agency of the NYSGC, once had a “Saratoga policy” that allowed the agency to require a suspension for a violation that occurred at Saratoga to be served at Saratoga, even if the suspension had to be stayed to allow it to be served there the following year.

But, Burns wrote, “the New York Court of Appeals struck down the policy, concluding that it required formal rulemaking to be valid.”

A request for comment on the proposed New York rule emailed to Terence Meyocks, the president and chief executive officer of the Jockeys' Guild, did not yield a reply prior to deadline for this story.

The proposed language of the rule follows:

“If a jockey commits a riding infraction and the penalty of a suspension or revocation is not served during the same race meeting, then the commission in its discretion may order that the penalty be served, in whole or in part, at a subsequent race meeting at the same track.”

The post NY Seeks to Prevent Jockey Appeals That ‘Game the System’ appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Baffert Files New York Lawsuit Claiming NYRA Has No Legal Authority For Suspension

Bob Baffert has filed a lawsuit against the New York Racing Association in United States District Court, Eastern District of New York, reports the Thoroughbred Daily News, seeking to overturn NYRA's May 17 decision to not accept his entries or allow him stall space.

Patrick McKenna, NYRA's Senior Director of Communications, issued the following statement Monday: “On May 17, the New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA) temporarily suspended Bob Baffert from entering horses in races and occupying stall space at Belmont Park, Saratoga Race Course and Aqueduct Racetrack. NYRA took this action to protect the integrity of the sport for our fans, the betting public and racing participants following Mr. Baffert's public acknowledgement that the Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit tested positive for betamethasone, a banned corticosteroid.

“In making the determination to temporarily suspend Mr. Baffert, NYRA took into account the fact that other horses trained by Mr. Baffert have failed drug tests in the recent past, resulting in the assessment of penalties against him by thoroughbred racing regulators in Kentucky, California, and Arkansas.

“NYRA will vigorously defend the action it has taken in this matter.”

The lawsuit, filed by attorney Craig Robinson, argues that NYRA does not have the legal authority to suspend Baffert. It alleges that while NYRA is a non-profit corporation, it “is specifically governed by the New York law that grants it the exclusive franchise to conduct live Thoroughbred racing and simulcasting at the state-owned racetracks on behalf of the state, from which the state derives substantial revenue.”

As such, the suit contends, the only entity with the authority to suspend Baffert is the New York State Gaming Commission. That, in turn, would mean that Baffert is protected from violations of his right to due process, which the suit alleges would include suspending the trainer prior to the completion of the Medina Spirit investigation by the Kentucky State Horse Racing Commission.

The suit reads: “Specifically, Baffert maintains a right to rely upon and use his New York State occupational trainer's license that was duly issued to him without limitation by the New York State Gaming Commission (the “Gaming Commission”); NYRA has, without legal authority, and without any notice or opportunity to be heard, attempted to indefinitely suspend Baffert's trainer's license issued by the Gaming Commission, thereby preventing Baffert from practicing in his chosen profession or using his state-issued license on state-owned property.”

Read more at the Thoroughbred Daily News.

The post Baffert Files New York Lawsuit Claiming NYRA Has No Legal Authority For Suspension appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

Linda Rice Will Continue To Train After Court Grants Temporary Restraining Order

The County of Schenectady Supreme Court has granted a temporary restraining order to Linda Rice, just two days after the New York State Gaming Commission officially issued the order to revoke her training license for three years, reports the Daily Racing Form. As a result, Rice will be allowed to continue to train horses in the state of New York.

Andrew Turro, Rice's attorney, had argued that without injunctive relief, “Rice's training business, the result of a very successful 34-year career, will be irreversibly destroyed before the court can hear this case and determine Ms. Rice's application for a stay/preliminary injunction.”

Regarding Wednesday's decision, Turro told DRF: “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.”

Licensees in New York are entitled to appeal a finding of a hearing officer to the appropriate court, and it is common for stays of suspensions to be issued while the appeals process plays out.

Rice had seen her license revoked officially on June 7, two weeks after the NYSGC voted to uphold a hearing officer's recommendation that Rice's license be revoked with the condition she could not reapply for licensure for at least three years. She had also been ordered to pay a fine of $50,000 and was to be denied all access to New York gaming commission-sanctioned properties.

Rice is accused of receiving information from the racing office about which horses were entered in which races prior to the official close of entries. The alleged information exchange took place over a period of 2011 and 2014, and the commission first brought a complaint against Rice in 2019. A series of hearing dates took place in late 2020, during which the commission and Rice's attorney presented information to a hearing officer along with numerous volumes of data and interview transcripts.

Rice to NY Court: 3-Year Ban ‘Shocks One’s Sense of Fairness’

Seeking to overturn a 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 legal team for trainer Linda Rice has filed a complaint in a state court alleging that the penalty is “so unduly harsh and so disproportionate to Ms. Rice's purported misconduct that it shocks one's sense of fairness and constitutes an abuse of discretion on the part of the Commission.”

In a complaint seeking a declaratory judgment that would either annul or vacate her penalties that went into effect June 7 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, the filing in Schenectady County Supreme Court alleges that “the overwhelming and undisputed hearing evidence demonstrated that the information Ms. Rice was given was not in fact 'confidential,' and that, as a result, there was absolutely nothing 'improper' about Ms. Rice having received that information.”

Culminating an investigation that stretched over five years, NYSGC members voted 5-0 on May 17, 2021, 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.”

Rice had testified during eight days of NYSGC hearings late in 2020 that she had, in fact, handed over cash gifts to various NYRA employees over the years.

But the veteran conditioner, who has been training since 1987 and owns seven NYRA training titles, also testified that she did not expect any special favors in return for that money, and that any entry-related information she did receive from NYRA employees was a type of disclosure that was routinely divulged to other trainers.

Rice's filing contends that “the Commission's Order must be annulled and vacated because it is 1) unsupported by substantial evidence; 2) premised on an unconstitutionally vague regulation, which must be invalidated; and 3) wildly inconsistent with precedent, rendering it arbitrary and capricious.”

The complaint lays out the following timeline:

“Over five years ago, in May 2016, Ms. Rice voluntarily attended an interview by the Queens County District Attorney's Office in connection with the purported misconduct at issue in this case. The Queens County District Attorney's Office declined to prosecute Ms. Rice.

“Over three years ago, on February 1, 2018, Ms. Rice agreed, without hesitation, to be interviewed by the Commission in connection with its allegations of misconduct. Nearly two years later, the Commission, which has known about, and never

prosecuted, similar behavior that is widespread in horse racing, charged Ms. Rice.

“Although the regulation upon which it is based…is extremely broad, subjective, and indefinite, the Commission's first charge against Ms. Rice accuses her of 'improper' receipt of certain 'confidential' race information…. The Commission's second charge against Ms. Rice accuses her of having paid bribes to receive certain race information.”

The filing notes that during the course of investigating the allegations, “The Commission did not summarily suspend Ms. Rice pending the outcome of its charges against her. Instead, the Commission permitted Ms. Rice to continue to train, which she has been doing now for several years without any noteworthy action having been taken against her by the Commission, and without any similar allegations of wrongdoing having been made against her by the Commission.

“In sum, Ms. Rice is currently training horses in good standing, and she has been doing so for the entire six-year period following the end of her purported misconduct in March 2015.”

One plank in Rice's legal filing asserts that during the time frame that was being investigated, “neither the Commission nor NYRA had promulgated any rule or regulation identifying what specific information about upcoming races could, and could not, be shared by racing officials, including entry clerks, or what specific information could, and could not, be requested or received by trainers.”

In actuality, the filing asserts, “The overwhelming and undisputed hearing evidence established that, as matter of practice well-known to the Commission for many years, the same information Ms. Rice is accused of having improperly received–and which the Commission now claims is 'confidential'–has been provided–unpunished–to trainers by racing officials, including entry clerks, on a regular and routine basis in efforts to 'hustle' trainers to fill race cards.”

Thus, the filing states, “The Commission's Order, which finds that Ms. Rice received 'confidential' race information, and that it was 'improper' for Ms. Rice to have that information, is therefore unsupported by substantial evidence, and it must be annulled and vacated as a consequence.”

The filing also appeals to the court to consider that a license revocation would deprive Rice of her only source of income and imperil the lives of the 55 individuals who depend upon her 75-horse stable for employment.

“The consequences of the Commission's determination to revoke Ms. Rice's license for three years would be, in other words, severe and irreversible,” the filing states.

“In light of Ms. Rice's unremarkable disciplinary history and otherwise stellar reputation, which even the Commission recognizes, the destruction of Ms. Rice's career is

substantially inconsistent with, and disproportionate to, Ms. Rice's purported offense.

“That is particularly true given that the receipt of race information from NYRA racing officials was a wide-spread practice not prohibited by any specific regulation and known to, and not prosecuted by, the Commission for decades,” the filing concludes.

As of 1:15 p.m. Tuesday, the case had not been scheduled for a hearing on the court's docket.

The post Rice to NY Court: 3-Year Ban ‘Shocks One’s Sense of Fairness’ appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post