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NYSGC Adopts Enhanced Harness Racing Wagering

The New York State Gaming Commission adopted three new wagering rules that will provide bettors more options in the sport of harness racing in New York. The rules were adopted by the Commission at the Nov. 30 meeting and will take effect on upon publication in the State Register.

“The new wagering formats will provide increased opportunities for bettors, and, we hope, increase interest in the sport. Any increase in handle is beneficial, as it ultimately leads to incremental purse offerings at racetracks here in New York,” said Commission Executive Director Robert Williams.

The rules adopted are as follows:

Pick Six Jackpot

The Pick Six Jackpot rule, also known as the “Rainbow or “Jackpot” wager, will appeal to bettors by providing a larger prize when there is only one winning wager from a pool. If there is more than one winning ticket, then the major portion of the day’s pool is paid out to those who selected six of six winners, and the minor pool is added to the carryover. The carryover gets paid out when there is a unique winning ticket, or when there is an intermediate or final distribution approved by the Commission, which would occur at the end of a race meeting. This new wager parallels the Commission’s Thoroughbred racing pick-six jackpot rule.

Jackpot Super High Five Pools

The new wager option requires the selection of the first five finishers in a single race in the correct order of finish. The entire pool would be paid to the bettor with a unique winning ticket, if there is only one winning ticket. If there is not only one winning ticket, the net pool would be split into a major pool and minor pool. The major pool would be a carryover in the next Jackpot Super High Five pool and the minor pool would be divided among all winning wagers. Additionally, the rule provides for contingencies in the event of dead heats and races with fewer than five entrants.

Triple Wager

The new rule amends the triple wager rule for harness racing, which requires the selection of the first three finishers in a single race in the exact order of finish by reducing the number of entries in a race for which the triple is permitted from six to five.

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New York Advances Clenbuterol Restrictions

The New York clenbuterol clampdown that was foreshadowed earlier this month by New York State Gaming Commission (NYSGC) equine medical director Scott Palmer, VMD, has been codified into a series of proposed rule amendments that advanced Nov. 30 by a unanimous 5-0 commission vote.

The new clenbuterol regulations follow a model rule of the Racing Medication and Testing Consortium (RMTC) that was approved last August. After publication in the New York State Register and a public commentary period, the commission will have to vote again to formally adopt the changes.

According to a brief written by NYSGC general counsel Edmund Burns that was included in the informational packet for Monday’s meeting, “The proposed rule amendments would require the attending veterinarian to receive written approval of the Commission’s Equine Medical Director of a clenbuterol treatment plan for an identified horse prior to the start of such treatment.

“The proposal would also require horses treated with clenbuterol to be placed on the veterinarian’s list and not be removed until a workout for a regulatory veterinarian is performed and the horse is found to be negative for clenbuterol in blood and urine…

“In addition, horses on the veterinarian’s list for clenbuterol use would be required to submit to periodic tests while on such list to ensure that no more clenbuterol is administered to the horse than necessary to complete the pre-approved treatment regimen and to ensure that muscle-building and fat-reducing effects have dissipated before the horse is removed from the veterinarian’s list.”

Over the course of about two decades, clenbuterol in Thoroughbred racing has devolved from being a legit drug administered to effectively treat airway diseases to a substance of performance-enhancing abuse that is now more often intentionally given to bulk up horses, allowing them to gain a pharmaceutical edge that makes the animals stronger and faster.

Speaking during a Nov. 11 video press conference hosted by stakeholders and regulators who make up an alliance of Mid-Atlantic racing interests, Palmer described the abuse of clenbuterol in this manner as “basically an end-run around on our anabolic steroid ban.”

Beyond the NYSGC, the Maryland Racing Commission, Gulfstream Park, and Oaklawn Park are among the jurisdictions and racetracks that have recently or are in the process of tightening clenbuterol rules to some degree. On May 1, the Canadian Pari-Mutuel Agency started banning clenbuterol 28 days out from race day at tracks country-wide. Back on Jan. 1, the California Horse Racing Board enacted clenbuterol rules that are similar to New York’s proposal.

Additionally, NYSGC executive director Robert Williams told commissioners Monday that “Pennsylvania has indicated that it will soon commence regulatory change, and it is expected that Delaware, New Jersey and Virginia will also consider the rule proposal.” West Virginia, he said, needs to change its clenbuterol rules via the state legislature.

Also on Monday, the commission unanimously adopted 13 new rules during the monthly meeting, with six pertaining specifically to Thoroughbred racing. They were:

A rule to restrict the administration to Thoroughbred horses of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) “such that only one clinical dose may be administered during the week before the horse races. The proposal would limit the administration to the intravenous route, and adopt stricter thresholds for the two most commonly used NSAIDs, flunixin and phenylbutazone, as has been recommended by the RMTC and adopted as a model rule by the Association of Racing Commissioners International (ARCI). The proposal also reduces the list of NSAIDs that could be administered lawfully within one week before the horse races to only three by eliminating the NSAIDs that are not widely used and for which the appropriate lab threshold is unclear.”

A rule requiring trainers to maintain a record of serious bleeding episodes, kept for up to four years, unless given to a subsequent trainer or owner or reported to the NYSGC. The commission will establish a reporting system to collect such information, and a trainer will be permitted to delegate this duty to the treating veterinarian.

A rule to allow a horse eligible for furosemide administrations to be removed from the furosemide list for the limited purpose of running in a race whose conditions forbid the administration of furosemide.

A rule requiring Thoroughbred trainers “to keep a record of equine drug administrations not recorded in veterinary records, including the drug, dose, and date and time of administration.” This requirement will create a record of drugs that are administered after having been dispensed by veterinarians, and will make such records available for inspection for a period of six months.

A rule to revise the Thoroughbred out-of-competition (OOC) sample collection rule, “intended to conform our existing rule to [the ARCI] model rule [that] has received widespread industry support. The new rule will authorize “an effective collection program that protects the constitutional rights of horse owners and trainers when a regulatory jurisdiction seeks to collect” OOC samples.

A rule to “strengthen the health and fitness protections and upgrade the licensing requirements for jockeys, apprentice jockeys, exercise riders and outriders who ride a Thoroughbred horse,” which also mandates a baseline concussion assessment for all licensees who horseback.

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Rice Emails Suggest Entry Information Did Not Necessarily Convert To Additional Wins

On the sixth day of a hearing examining her receipt of information from the New York Racing Association (NYRA) racing office, trainer Linda Rice said the emails provided to her by entry clerk Jose Morales had minimal impact on her decisions about which races to enter or the results of those races.

Rice continued her testimony started Wednesday before a hearing officer as part of the the proceedings, which will determine whether her actions were “inconsistent with and detrimental to the bests interests of racing generally” or were “improper acts and practices relating to racing” according to state rules. An investigation by the New York State Gaming Commission uncovered evidence that between 2011 and 2015, Rice received faxes and emails from former entry clerks Jose Morales and Matt Salvato, giving her the names and past performance records of horses prior to draw time. Senior racing office management has said the names of trainers and horses in a given race are not to be released until after a race is drawn (with stakes races being the exception).

On Thursday, Rice described the circumstances around her first getting this type of information from Morales. As the horse shortage in New York began to worsen, Rice remembered that racing office personnel became more aggressive about “hustling” races, or trying to convince trainers to enter their horses. She recalled being in the racing office several times when a clerk would print out current entries with horse names and past performance records and let her look at the sheet. She also said she witnessed this happening with other trainers.

Rice said she often asked NYRA stakes coordinator Andrew Byrnes to provide her lists of stakes nominations along with an idea of which horses were probables for a stakes race, which is not considered confidential information. She recalled one morning when Morales called to say he had faxed her this information on a stakes race she'd requested, along with entry and past performance information for a race she hadn't asked about, which he was tasked with hustling.

“I thought for a second, 'That's odd,'” she said. “But I'd already had him slide the races across the desk in the racing office and seen other racing clerks do it so I didn't think much of it.”

Rice is accused of receiving this information on an ongoing basis, both for races Morales was hustling and for races she requested to see. Morales initially faxed the information to Rice's office but switched to using email when the fax machine was out of order one morning. Fax transmission records are no longer kept from the period of time in question, so the commission's evidence focuses on copies of emails accessed by investigators.

Rice revealed that of 74 or 75 emails with race information, she entered horses in 23 of the races included in those emails. She won three of those races. Rice said there were around 80 races on the NYRA circuit she entered during the same period of time for which she did not receive any information from Morales. For the period of time covered by the emails, Rice said she won 16 percent of her races, a bit lower than her usual 20 percent.

There were many factors that determined whether or not Rice would enter a horse in one of the races for which Morales provided entry information. She said she typically points horses at races two or three weeks ahead of time and is not inclined to change the horse's program just because the office is hustling a race. She also bases some of those decisions on whether or not a preferred rider is available, in addition to the usual factors like a horse's performance in workouts, physical condition, etc.

Rice also addressed testimony from earlier in the hearing that she had a tendency to enter a race and then later swap out one horse for another. This wasn't due to any insider info from Morales, Rice said, but more likely because turf races would attract so many entries that the racing office would give preference to horses who had not yet run at the meet. If she learned a race was oversubscribed and her entry had already run at the meet, she might swap another horse in that was more likely to make the final cut.

Andrew Turro, Rice's attorney, completed questioning the trainer at the conclusion of Thursday's hearing. Thursday had originally been scheduled as the final day for the hearing, but commission counsel has not yet had a chance to cross examine her, or to present any rebuttal evidence. An additional two days have been blocked out to conclude the hearing Dec. 9 and 10. No timeframe has been provided as to when the hearing officer may make a decision in the case.

Read previous coverage of the Rice hearing here.

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Rice Hearing Begins With Testimony From Two Former NYRA Employees

The long-awaited hearing by the New York State Gaming Commission into alleged “corrupt and improper acts in relation to racing” by trainer Linda Rice began on Tuesday as counsel for the NYSGC began laying out the case against her. The hearing, which was postponed from March of this year, will determine whether Rice received information from racing office employees in New York from the 2011-12 Aqueduct meet through 2015 to help her place her horses in the most opportune races. Rice is accused of receiving “regular, continual and improper access to the confidential names and other information” of horses entered in races at New York Racing Association tracks, and of paying “substantial sums” of money to racing officials there to induce them to give her that information.

Depending upon the hearing results, a notice from the NYSGC states that her license could be suspended or revoked and she could be fined up to $25,000 for each violation.

Two days have been allocated for the NYSGC to present its case against Rice, with a third day potentially being scheduled for next week. During the following week, Rice's counsel will have up to three days to present their response.

On Tuesday, the hearing officer was presented testimony from three witnesses, two of whom are former employees in the racing office who say they provided Rice the information in question and received money from her.

It seems the allegations against Rice may have surfaced as the result of an unrelated investigation. Martin Panza, senior vide president of racing operations at NYRA, recalled an incident in spring 2014 when an unidentified trainer placed entries for his horses without naming riders on the horses. About five minutes later, the trainer would tell Panza, he got a call from a jockey's agent offering to put his rider on one of the trainer's horses. The timing seemed suspicious to the trainer and to Panza, who launched an investigation. NYRA's information technology department pulled data connecting IP addresses to the 40 or 50 people in the organization who had access to the Jockey Club's InCompass software, which is used to manage entries. Most accounts only were only associated with IP addresses corresponding to NYRA facilities, but Panza recalled one in particular – that of racing office employee and racing official Jose Morales, Jr. — that had “pages” of different IP addresses using it.

Panza testified he then contacted law enforcement, since NYRA didn't have the ability to trace those IP addresses to devices and locations. Police in Queens launched an investigation and several months later, law enforcement, prosecutors, and NYRA investigators spoke with Morales.

Morales testified he had provided his InCompass login information and/or print-offs of race entries to a number of jockey's agents, including Matt Muzikar, Mike Gonzalez (whose license was suspended 10 years by NYSGC), and Bill Castle. Prosecutors were interested in pursuing a criminal case against Morales, and Morales said his attorney at the time convinced him the only way he could avoid jail time was if he turned over additional information. That's when he opened up about his arrangement with Rice.

Morales said he'd known Rice since childhood, as she was friends with his parents. One day after he began working in the racing office, he said Rice called asking for a colleague of Morales who wasn't in, so Rice worked with him to help fill a race.

“I remember the day like it was yesterday,” Morales said. “I guess I was hustling her in the race and I guess she trusted me to see if [her] horse fit, and the horse ran bad and then what happened was, she wasn't really upset … she didn't like it, no one likes it when their horse runs bad … but she called me later to say the horse didn't run any good.

“She said, 'Hey, listen, you can help me, we can help each other, and everything is good.'”

Morales recalled racing office employees being assigned races they needed to “hustle” or push to get filled. Different employees had relationships with different trainers they could call to see if a horse in the barn could be ready for the race. Morales explained that Rice would help him get races filled, and he would fax (or sometimes email) information showing the horses that had been entered in races prior to draw time.

Morales recalled Rice bringing envelopes of cash to him, and to other racing office employees, a few times a year. Morales might get as much as $2,000 in one envelope two or three times a year before he ended his employment in 2014 to pursue a career as a jockey's agent. Morales also borrowed money from Rice several times. According to his testimony, Rice never specifically offered a set amount of money in exchange for certain information, but Morales came to expect he'd get it.

Morales' license application to become a jockey's agent in New York was denied in late 2016. He has reapplied and said the commission has not made a determination on his application. Counsel for Rice questioned whether his testimony this week was designed to sway the commission, and Morales said he had not been offered a deal in exchange for it.

“That was the only reason I even went to the racing office, is I wanted to make contacts and better myself,” Morales said. “Working in the racing office in New York, you can't make a living. It pays $40,000. What are you going to get with $40,000 in New York?”

Although Panza was very clear that racing office employees are instructed not to provide anyone with the identities of horses entered in races prior to their release in the overnights, Morales and former colleague Matt Salvato said they weren't given specific instructions about this, or any other aspect of the information in InCompass.

Salvato admitted to giving Rice information on occasions when Morales had a day off. At first, he said he had no idea he wasn't supposed to release that information. He took one envelope of cash from Rice delivered to him via Morales but when he saw a colleague reject such a payoff, he said he realized there must be something wrong.

Morales said that despite this, he knew what he was doing would be frowned upon – and he knew he needed to keep it a secret.

“My bosses basically told me, 'You've got to be careful,'” said Morales. “They obviously knew something was going on to a point, but it's like they turned a blind eye. They didn't want to know, but they knew.

“I never told anyone directly this was happening. People came to me and I'd deny it. If people knew what was really going on, a lot of the other trainers are going to come and complain.”

Morales said he believed, but has no proof, that other racing office employees were also giving their InCompass logins to people outside the office. Both Morales and Salvato said they did not provide information about horses' identities or past performances to any other trainers prior to draw time.

“Obviously people say you don't feel sorry until you get caught, right?” said Morales, chuckling, when asked about passing information to Rice. “Obviously, looking back, it wasn't the right thing to do. It wasn't fair to the little guy, busting his ass outside in the cold weather. The little guy with two or three horses was trying to win races, too.”

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