{"id":5902,"date":"2012-05-01T08:25:55","date_gmt":"2012-05-01T12:25:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/?p=5902"},"modified":"2012-05-01T12:18:48","modified_gmt":"2012-05-01T16:18:48","slug":"morning-read-decline-of-ny-horse-racing-turns-into-freefall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2012\/05\/01\/morning-read-decline-of-ny-horse-racing-turns-into-freefall\/","title":{"rendered":"Morning Read: Decline of NY horse-racing turns into freefall"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>It’s hard to know which dire story to link to, as we ponder the sorry state of the horse-racing industry in New York state and the North Country.<\/p>\n

Breeding and training thoroughbreds and harness horses has been a tradition in our region for decades.<\/p>\n

But shifting ethical practices, purses based more on slot-machine returns than actual horse races, and alleged corruption have crippled the sport.<\/p>\n

The head of the New York Racing Association is now on leave, under investigation for allegedly skimming winnings owed to bettors — a scandal that is only the latest setback for debt-wracked NYRA.\u00a0 This from the Albany Times Union.<\/a><\/p>\n

New York Racing Association President Charles Hayward<\/a>…already on thin ice with state authorities for a series of missteps in dealing with government leaders, now finds himself in serious trouble as a result of the state Racing and Wagering Board<\/a> inquiry that concluded he misled the public when he asserted that NYRA was surprised to learn it had overcharged bettors by about $8.6 million from mid-September 2010 through the third week of December\u00a02011.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The New York Times<\/a> has also been unfolding a devastating series of articles looking at the rising rate of injuries and deaths for both jockeys and horses.<\/div>\n
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Since a casino opened at Aqueduct late last year, offering vastly richer prizes, 30 horses have died racing there, a 100 percent increase in the fatality rate over the same period the previous year. Like Wes Vegas and Coronado Heights, many had been injected repeatedly with pain medication in the weeks before their breakdowns, according to a review of veterinary records by The New York Times.<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Horse racing has always been a controversial, morally fraught sport — dramatic and beautiful to watch, but also burdened by corruption and exploitation of both horses and riders.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
New revelations suggest that the situation has grown worse, not better.\u00a0 What do you think?\u00a0 Time for a house-cleaning?\u00a0 Time to rethink the pros and cons of the sport?\u00a0 Comments welcome.<\/div>\n
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<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s hard to know which dire story to link to, as we ponder the sorry […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[22,10,6692,44],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5902"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5902"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5902\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5904,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5902\/revisions\/5904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}