Value Tech Blog

This is good news for the upcoming Del Mar meet …HORSE RACING: Del Mar pleased that Hollywood Park will stay open for training – North County Times
http://www.nctimes.com/sports/article_9022ccd7-b1a0-5295-b349-b5c203990762.html

Hollywood Park announced this week it will remain open for training until July 22, or until renovation of Santa Anita’s main track is completed.

“We’re happy Hollywood Park decided to stay open,” said Tom Robbins, Del Mar’s executive vice president/racing, on Friday. “We just don’t want any interruption of training for horses (in the Los Angeles area).”

Del Mar was worried about horses not being able to work for its meet, which will open on July 20.

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This deals just with the fillies…

Senate Dems Target Tax Breaks for Horse Racing in Debate Over Debt Limit – FoxNews.com
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/06/30/senate-dems-target-tax-breaks-for-horse-racing-in-debate-over-debt-limit/

Democrats are targeting $126 million in tax write-offs for the horse-racing industry that they say amount to a “Bluegrass Boondoggle” offered up by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in the 2008 farm bill

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Generally, I don't mind a government shutdown  But when that closes a race track, it's not welcome!  Hopefully, Canterbury will be running again soon

Track closes after last horse race but still seeks injunction to reopen | StarTribune.com
http://www.startribune.com/sports/124838174.html

At 12:01 a.m. Friday, Randy Sampson sat glumly in the card club at Canterbury Park, watching the government-ordered closure that still didn’t seem quite real. As dealers put away the cards and chips and players formed long lines at the cashier’s windows, the president of the Shakopee racetrack accepted condolences and good wishes from many regulars, who were as upset as he was that the government shutdown had shuttered Canterbury.

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This has got to be embarrassing for the NYRA…More outrage at NYRA – The Observation Deck – timesunion.com – Albany NY
http://blog.timesunion.com/opinion/more-outrage-at-nyra/12698/

Our opinion: The payoffs are huge — for the bosses. The people who support horse racing deserve better. So do
the people who depend upon it.

Take a look at that tote board, New York, for all it says about the precarious state of horse racing here yet the comfortable lives of the people operating it.

New York Racing Association President Charles Hayward has complied, albeit belatedly after a stern warning, with a Cuomo administration demand for salary information. Mr. Hayward makes less than his contemporaries do, he says, at $475,000. That’s up from $460,000, in case anyone’s counting, which they surely should be. The bad publicity that Mr. Hayward and Patrick Kehoe, NYRA’s top lawyer, feared as they tried to keep such details private starts right there.

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Life At Ten hearing against chief racing steward begins | Daily Business Report | Kentucky.com
http://www.kentucky.com/2011/06/29/1792849/life-at-ten-hearing-against-chief.html

A hearing began Tuesday into racing commission charges that Kentucky’s chief state steward failed in his duties last fall regarding the mysterious losing performance of Life At Ten in the Breeders’ Cup Ladies Classic at Churchill Downs.

In March, the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission voted there was sufficient evidence of a violation by John Veitch for a hearing. Veitch was a Hall of Fame trainer before becoming Kentucky’s chief steward in July 2005.

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What a concept! Giving he fan-quite literally the patron- a better product!

Racing on the right track | Editorial | Kentucky.com

http://www.kentucky.com/2011/06/28/1792061/racing-on-the-right-track.html

Horse racing in Kentucky is bringing in new fans the old-fashioned way: by giving them a better product.

All the doom and gloom we’ve heard about the future of Thoroughbred racing makes the success of night racing at Churchill Downs even sweeter.

Churchill’s “Opening Night” the Saturday before this year’s Kentucky Derby drew 38,142 people, the biggest crowd ever assembled under the Twin Spires outside the Derby, Oaks or Breeders’ Cup.

Posted via email from Michael Pizzolla On ValueCapping™, Horse Racing, And Technology

Posted via email from Michael Pizzolla On ValueCapping™, Horse Racing, And Technology

Got to love this!

California Philharmonic summer series moving to Santa Anita race track – Los Angeles Times
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2011/06/california-philharmonic-santa-anita-park.html

The California Philharmonic has announced that its audience won’t have far to go to find its new summer home after its impending ouster from its longtime outdoor digs at the Los Angeles County Arboretum in Arcadia. It’ll shuffle on down the road to the Santa Anita Park horse-racing track, also in Arcadia, for a five-concert 2012 summer season, with performances every other Saturday night starting June 30, 2012.

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Raffetto named president of TOC – Thoroughbred Times
http://www.thoroughbredtimes.com/national-news/2011/06/26/raffetto-named-president-of-toc.aspx

The Thoroughbred Owners of California (TOC) on Friday appointed racing executive Lou Raffetto as its president, effective on July 1. Raffetto has more than 30 years of management experience in the Thoroughbred industry, including successful stints at Pimlico Race Course, Laurel Park, Monmouth Park, and Suffolk Downs

Posted via email from Michael Pizzolla On ValueCapping™, Horse Racing, And Technology

The good news is that the new owner is a real fan, a handicapper, and someone interested in high quality racing,  with the financial resources to make it happen. 

Morris Bailey, now in control of Monmouth Park, is the future of New Jersey horse racing | NJ.com
http://www.nj.com/horse-racing/index.ssf/2011/06/morris_bailey_now_in_control_of_monmouth_park_is_the_future_of_new_jersey_horse_racing.html

On most weekends, his refuge is a table in the trackside dining room at Monmouth Park. Morris Bailey will spread out the Daily Racing Form and handicap that day’s races, determined to find winners.

JEMB Reality Corp., the New York City-based company he owns with $4.1 billion in assets, won’t even issue a bio or a picture of him for public relations purposes on the boss’s orders.

“I see this as a three- to five-year development project,” said Bailey, who plans for Monmouth to have extensive cross-marketing with Resorts Casino, starting with the hotel’s sponsorship of the Haskell Invitational. “But in the meantime I’m prepared to ensure that we have high-quality racing. That will cost money, and I’m prepared to see it through.”

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