Mountaineer Casino, Racetrack & Resort and the local horsemen’s group signed a three-year contract Dec. 29 with just two days to spare. The old contract expires Jan. 1.

The contract between the track and Mountaineer Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association was signed at 4 p.m. EST, officials said. The deal averted suspension of full-card simulcasts and implementation of daily stall rent at the West Virginia track.

Details weren’t immediately available, but the track and horsemen’s group said verbal agreement was reached on key issues such as the amount of money that goes to stakes purses and charging horsemen a per-start fee rather than stall rent. The Mountaineer HBPA had expressed concerns over contracts governing export of the Mountaineer signal.

The Timesunion reports that NYRA has caved in regarding letting the State of New York audit its books.

As reported earlier, NYRA is asking for yet another bailout from the state, yet refused to show the state where the previous bailout monies have gone. The State controller was forced to serve NYRA with court subpoenas requiring them to submit to an audit of their books. Just yesterday, NYRA President Charles Hayward vehemently claimed that the state had no audit authority of them and that NYRA would see them in court. Today, NYRA officials other than their President said that NYRA was going to comply with the controller’s requests.

*The Following is pure editorial opinion – which is my opinion only and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of any other being, entity or company anywhere or at any time*

With the previous misdeeds done by NYRA management, I think that the state of New York has every right to be concerned when it comes to giving even more taxpayer money to NYRA. Even if by some legal fluke, last year’s New York Supreme Court ruling that private schools are exempt from State audits does indeed apply to the franchise operator of state owned race track and gambling establishments, when one signs a franchise agreement (as NYRA did) that explicitly gives the state your permission to audit your books at any time, you’d best be ready to open your books as you’ve waived whatever rights you may have had.

So it sounds to me like cooler heads at NYRA know where they stand and that they are doing the right thing.

The racing group that runs New York state’s thoroughbred race tracks vowed Monday to go to court to keep its books from the auditors of state Controller Thomas DiNapoli.

NYRA has burned through several bailouts from the state and is asking for another $30 million in bailouts but refuses to let the state see what they did with the previous bailouts. DiNapoli, frustrated with NYRA refusing to open its books for audit, served NYRA with subpoenas to force an audit.

Previous forced audits have revealed wrongdoing by NYRA management and Federal indictments of NYRA managers were dropped as NYRA promised to clean up their act.

(Via NYDailyNews.com.)

The Courier-Journal. newspaper serving the Louisville, Kentucky and Southern Indiana areas took a good look at proposals to increase at least the perceived integrity of the tote board system. One of the suggested solutions is that instead of shutting down betting when the horses break, do it when the tote board reports 0 minutes to post.

With the current system, delayed submissions from OTBs can make the odds change in the middle of a race. The betting public doesn’t know if the fluctuation is due to delayed submissions or someone betting after the start of the race

(Via The Courier-Journal.com)

While Santa Anita Park started its meet on December 26 and Gulfstream Park is just around the corner, fans in the Mid-Atlantic region have been left in the dark because of a simulcast dispute.

TrackNet Media, which markets racing signals for tracks owned by Churchill Downs Inc., Magna Entertainment Corp., and several other tracks, and the MidAtlantic Cooperative, which represents 17 tracks, have failed to reach an agreement on signal fees. TrackNet has been seeking an increase in the fees the cooperative pays to carry racing signals from its tracks.

Because of the dispute, fans at the 17 MidAtlantic Cooperative tracks were unable to wager on the Churchill Downs fall meeting and have not been able to bet on the current Fair Grounds and Santa Anita Park meetings. Unless an agreement is reached, Gulfstream Park also will not be available.

According to the MidAtlantic Cooperative, the two sides are further apart now than when talks started in August. The cooperative’s executive director, Martin Lieberman, said his tracks initially were seeking a multi-year agreement that gradually would put in place TrackNet’s desired fee increases. He said after that plan was rejected, the cooperative had hoped to negotiate TrackNet’s proposed two-year deal.

“TrackNet’s response was that there would be no change on the demanded rate increases and that its earlier proposed two-year deal was now only a race meeting to race meeting offer,” Lieberman said.

Lieberman said that while increased fees are the biggest stumbling block, TrackNet also has requested changes on regional advance-deposit wagering issues and regulatory matters that the cooperative has found problematic. He said some of the requests are not things the cooperative could control.

The Maryland Jockey Club suddenly finds itself backing a local group that opposes the addition of slot machines in Anne Arundel County.

The latest “strange bedfellows story” emerges after the Anne Arundel County Council approved zoning for slot machines at an area mall, Arundel Mills. The Maryland Jockey Club wants those machines to be added at its Laurel Park. While the vote also approved zoning for adding slots at Laurel, only one site ultimately will be chosen.

Monday’s 4-2 vote by the council to approve zoning for both sites effectively turns the issue over to County Executive John Leopold, whom the Baltimore Sun reports will veto the track plan in favor of the mall site.

“It is a sad night for Maryland racing,” said Maryland Jockey Club President Tom Chuckas. “More than 200 years of history and 15,000 to 20,000 jobs are in peril.”

The NYRA-Belmont Stakes-Aqueduct casino saga continues…

New York State Controller Thomas DiNapoli has repeated requested to audit NYRA’s books because of their claim that they may not be able to make payroll, thus not opening Belmont Park for the 2010 Spring Meet and of course, canceling the Belmont Stakes. DiNapoli is concerned due to the several bailouts that the state has given NYRA and that NYRA officials claimed they were financially stable just six months ago when they approached the state for another bailout. As the third jewel in THIS triple crown, NYRA officials have repeatedly refused to let the state audit their books, despite an agreement last year where the state of New York forgave NYRA of $200 million in debt and tax liens as well as giving NYRA $105 million in cash. In return, NYRA turned $1 billion in land over to the state and agreed to controller audits.

In response to the lack of cooperation from NYRA, DiNapoli has served them with a subpoena from the courts forcing them to open their books. NYRA has a history of trying to avoid audits. An audit two years ago showed that NYRA had hidden $50 million in franchise fees owed to the state. Six years ago, NYRA was indicted on Federal charges of conspiracy and fraud regarding money laundering and loan sharking by NYRA cage tellers.

In response to the audit demands, NYRA claims that they no longer have to abide by the audit clause in the agreement, that as a private, non-profit organization, it falls under the same protection from state audit as charter schools.

To recap a bit… the New York State Racing Authority has a 25 year exclusive contract to run Aqueduct, Belmont Park and Saratoga racetracks. Like many places in the United States, the New York State budget is full of red ink. Now NYRA says that they will be broke and not be able to open Belmont Park for the spring 2010 meet, much less the Belmont Stakes.

Among others, the Shonnecock tribe has proposed opening a casino at either Aqueduct or Belmont Park and the New York State legislature has approved video slot machines (video lottery terminals) for Aqueduct. Those slots are expected to bring in as much as $1 million per day in extra revenue, some going to the operator, some to NYRA and some to the state, earmarked for use in the education budget. NYRA claims that just 1/3 of that money would keep them in the black.

However, politicians being politicians, the legislature and Governor Paterson can’t agree on which of the five applicants/campaign contributors will get the license, pay the $200 million up front fee and then build and operate the casino.

NYRA claims that they are running out of money because of this delay. New York State gave them another bailout of $30 million this last summer to tide them over.

Santa Anita’s opening day of the 2009/2010 Winter/Spring meet attracted the largest opening day crowed in ten years! Granted, they opened with two grade I stakes races but there was a lot more going on this opening day than in previous years.

First, Saturday celebrated Santa Anita’s diamond anniversary, a big enough track event by itself.

In celebration of the diamond anniversary, Hall of Fame trainer Ron McAnally unveiled a life-sized bronze statue of John Henry who won twelve stakes races at Santa Anita in the 1980s while being trained by McAnally. The statue will reside in the track paddock gardens with a life-sized statue of Sea Biscuit.

However, the main attraction was Zenyatta, one of two females up for Horse of the Year, #2 in the Female Athlete of the year poll, undefeated in her 14 career starts and capping off her career by winning of two races at this year’s Breeders’ Cup, including pummeling the guys in the Classic.

Zenyatta was cheered by the 35,000+ crowd as she appeared in the Winner’s Circle after the sixth race in her last public appearance. She retires undefeated and a true champion as she heads to Kentucky to be a breeder.

A contract dispute threatens full-card simulcasts and could lead to daily stall rent and payments to keep the racetrack open for training effective Jan. 1 at Mountaineer Casino, Racetrack & Resort in West Virginia.

Mountaineer and the local Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association are in the process of negotiating a three-year contract that would cover 2010-12. As of Dec. 27, they had five days to strike a deal.

The recent closure of Phoenix Greyhound Park opened a loophole in Arizona state law that allows OTBs to stay open taking bets after 7PM.

With all of the bad economic news hitting tracks across the U.S. Turf Paradise sees this as a way to make up lost income. Eugene Joyce, President and General Manager of Turf Paradise said, “The down economy has pretty much had us swimming against the tide for the last year and a half.”

They are already looking at hiring more staff and staying open as late as midnight to carry night racing from the U.S. as well as Australian racing.

The increase in revenue is also expected to increase purses at Turf Paradise which should bring in better horses and riders, thus a win for everyone.

(Via KPHO TV Phoenix.)