NYRA increases purses

[Kasept]

Originally Posted by SentToStud

To me, people are down on NYRA because there's nothing tremendously different about the how they operate vs a couple years ago when all the **** went down.

In the end, two mutel clerks were found guilty. One paid $5,000 in restitution and the other got 2-3 years probation.

In the meantime, Barry Schwartz, who was CEO of NYRA when a contract worth $750,000 was no-bid awarded to his daughter and son-in-law was allowed to just walk away instead of being indicted for fraud.

$750,000/$5000 = 150. Schwartz's "indiscretion" was 150 times, in dollars, worse than the mutuel clerk's. Yet he was able to retreat to his 600 acre farm and maintain his place in the ownership and breeding industry in NY.

When you have this kind of blatant and unpunished malfeasance occur at the top of a non-profit organization, people are going to want change. Supporters of NYRA can point to all the staff and oversight changes made since but with this kind of recent history as well as poor financial results, nobody can be surprised that people are distrustful and want change.

The ad agency that received that contract for marketing Saratoga was widely applauded for their work and generally credited for the large attendence jump at the Spa in the late 90's/early 00's.. Or does the result of the work not make a difference?

And it certainly didn't involve malfeasance given there is no obligation on NYRA to put work like that out to bid. There was nothing illegal about giving the assignment to his son in law's agency. Nepotism maybe, but not malfeasant.

You want to punish malfeasance? Go after the Albany Legislature phonies who pushed to have their cars serviced by the NYRA mechanics and filled their gas tanks at the pumps at the backstretch garage. Or were siphoning wood and work off the NYRA teet by making carpenters build porches at their summer cottages...

You're goring the wrong ox.