The following is a statement from Jeff Gural regarding the results of a poll taken of USTA members in slots states over the months of January & February
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A poll of USTA members in the state of Delaware, New York and Pennsylvania sent to all USTA members in those states has shown overwhelming support for the concept of using a tiny portion of the slots money to enhance the capabilities of testing labs in their efforts to deter the use of non-therapeutic and illegal substances in racehorses. 84% of those responding supported the idea.
The second question relates to using slots money for marketing in conjunction with the racetracks and in that case almost 87% responded favourably to the idea. The poll was done by Plante and Moran with the cooperation of the USTA but was paid for by Jeffrey Gural. Mr. Gural commented that he was extremely pleased with the results and truthfully somewhat surprised by the overwhelming support that both ideas had. He mentioned that he made a similar proposal at the USHWA Banquet and received a standing ovation. He commented that there appears to be a disconnect between the leaders of the horsemen’s association and the members. He is however, hopeful that these poll results will finally bring action on the part of the industry to use a small portion of the hundreds of millions of dollars from slots revenue to solve the drug problem, get us on national television and utilize other marketing tools that are available but at the present time unfunded.
Mr. Gural has asked the directors of the USTA to take this matter up when they meet next week and form a committee to look into the feasibility of implementing this type of approach in order to accomplish these goals; especially trying to bring younger people into the industry.
As recent events have shown, relying on long-term government support is risky and it is time we take action using the resources that are available to help solve our long and short term problems.
As you know, we have recently come under attack both in Pennsylvania and Ontario by government leaders who feel a portion of the slots money going to purses should be allocated to other pressing needs that the government has. I fear the same thing could happen in New York.
Recently at the USHWA Gala I made the suggestion that rather than wait around to see what happens we take it upon ourselves to we approximately 5% of the $500,000,000 that we receive in the states that have slots and use that money to try to solve three of the sport's biggest problems.
The money would be used to fund a top drug lab with the goal of eliminating all illegal medications that many of our leading trainers suspected of using. The next goal would be to use a portion of the money to televise our major races nationally. The thoroughbreds through the Jockey Club are funding $10,000,000 towards this. Lastly, fund marketing programs designed to expose the sport to younger people who hopefully will replace the older generation that is slowly disappearing. Without addressing these three problems I am 100% certain that our sport has a life expectancy of no more than 10 to 15 years, at which point the vast majority of our customers along with the breeders and the people who buy yearlings will have either passed away or become too old to participate in the sport.
To continue to wait for track owners to reallocate money from the prime business of casino gambling is foolish. In truth, we make more money as a result of their focusing on marketing a casino since that is where the vast majority of the purse money is generated.
To my surprise, when I made that proposal I received a standing ovation from the audience. It would seem that the industry strongly supports that concept. I was hoping that at the annual USTA meeting coming up in a few weeks you could address this issue and form a committee and allocate a small amount of money to formulate a proposal that could be submitted to the horsemen's associations in those states that have slots in an attempt to get the industry behind this suggestion. I know it will not be easy but I think the government's recent actions are a wakeup call which we could either heed or ignore but by ignoring it I think we will simply insure our demise which as the owner of three racetracks and two breeding farms is not something that I would like to see happen.
Thank you for your consideration and I appreciate your considering this suggestion.
Gentlemen, this kind of "in
Gentlemen,
this kind of "in fighting" is not good. i've been involved harnessing racing for over 30 years in Ontario. i firmly believe that the Ontario slot-at-tracks program was the best in North America and i think that many neighbouring states molded there slot programs around Ontario. now look what has happened.........racing in Ontario is being completely gutted. politicians everywhere will be looking for ways to pay down government deficits, please do yourselves a favor, keep your petty bickering out of the "limelight" or you'll find yourselves with a Gov. Christie or Premier McGuinty on your doorstep taking away everything.
Commenting after seeing the
Commenting after seeing the response from Joe Faraldo. Is this feud ever going to end?
I find it funny that Mr. Faraldo talks about the push poll questions, yet won't put them in writing so we can see how manipulative they were. If so truly manipulative, wouldn't you think he would have protested the questions when the poll first came out?
True, not everyone responds to polls. For Mr. Faraldo's benefit, a 33% response rate is phenominal; typically a mailing gets a response rate of less than 10%.
You would think horsemen in the United States would have learned from what happend in Ontario. Apparently, the SOA of NY feels it could never happen to them. I am sure OHHA and COSA felt the same way.
Finally someone that seems
Finally someone that seems to be getting the word out and the horsemen are listening.
In Ontario they (the government) are closing some of the slots parlours and slowly choking the livelihood of all people involved in horse racing from the farmer who grows the hay to the grooms that take care of the animals. It's a funny thing, I do not see these people, the (government), taking a cut in their salaries, or there pension plans or their personel spending of the taxpayers money, thousands of dollars in lunches, car rentals, planerides, vacations, all at the tax payers expense. They say they need money for more urgent things like health care, ect, ect,well why do they not practice what they preach, and start by given themselves a cut on their ridiculous salaries and pension plans also fire the 200,000 that are doing nothing to deserve a pay check.is not this the most wonderfulless place on earth for the underdog??????