Horse Races

The White Pine Horse Races Association is working to bring horse races back to Ely on Aug. 19 and 20, and will coincide with the White Pine County Fair, Junior Livestock Auction and the annual Nevada Cattlewomen's Rancher-Businessmen's Barbecue. The association has been making contacts, lining up funding and sprucing up the grandstand, fairgrounds and getting the pari-mutuel betting area for the big race weekend. It is part of the Ely Elks Lodge and is headed up by Ken Kliewer, chairman; Ken Curto; Jack Smith; George Carnes, secretary; David Pfost, treasurer; Bob Bartlett, Jack Caylor, Kelly Brown and Bob Marcum. Steve Dobrescu has also been on hand to give technical advice since he and his committee headed up the last races run by White Pine Ag District 13.

Smith and Carnes visited several of the merchants and received race sponsorships. Curto is now contacting businesses to buy ads in the program.

The Elko County Fair has helped immensely by adding Ely conditions to their 2006 racing condition book.

Several of the committee members have made visits to other races to persuade horse owners to come to Ely and race in this event.

Now the committee is working to renovate the grandstand and fairgrounds with funds donated to the committee and coordinated by County Works Chairman Hank Blair.

The efforts of the Horse Races Association have helped Beta Sigma Phi to put on the White Pine County Fair and Livestock Auction again this year.

The committee is inviting individuals and groups to enter quarter horses and thoroughbreds to compete in this year's racing event. Information and details can be obtained by calling the Ely Elks Lodge, 289-4904, or Ken Kliewer, 289-4491.

A full racing committee barbecue and meeting is also being planned for Wednesday, July 12, at the fairgrounds starting at 6 p.m.

Kieren Fallon, one of horse racing's most successful jockeys, was charged with conspiracy to defraud on Monday as part of a police probe into alleged race-fixing.

Fallon, six times champion jockey and three times winner of the Epsom Derby, was one of eight people, including two other jockeys, charged in connection with the biggest investigation of its kind ever undertaken in Britain.

Police named the other seven as Miles Rodgers, 37, Joanne Richardson, 27, Darren Williams, 27, Fergal Lynch, 28, Darren Armitage, 41, Brian Pilkington, 70 and Philip Sherkle, 39.

Williams and Lynch are both jockeys. Rodgers is a former racing syndicate director.

In a statement, City of London police said the eight had been charged "with offences relating to allegations of fixing the outcome of horse races between Dec 1, 2002, and Sept 2, 2004, and money laundering..."

All were bailed to appear before magistrates on July 17.

Fallon arrived at a London police station straight from Ireland where he rode the colt Dylan Thomas to victory in the Irish Derby at The Curragh on Sunday.

Coolmore operation


The owners of that horse, John Magnier and Michael Tabor of the Coolmore operation, were among three men who pledged their support to Fallon in a statement in the light of the charges.

"John Magnier, Derrick Smith and Michael Tabor, for whom Kieren Fallon rides, have been assured that Mr Fallon is innocent of these charges and look forward to his opportunity to defend himself, and to the early resolution of this issue," the three said.

The charge against Fallon comes 20 months after he was first arrested. He has continued to race successfully while under investigation.

After 20 minutes, the 41-year-old left the police station on Monday morning without talking to reporters, climbed into a silver Mercedes and was driven away.

In all, police have arrested 28 people over the last two years as part of their probe. So far on Monday they have charged eight, released eight and were due to consider the other cases later.

The Horseracing Regulatory Authority was due to issue a statement later on Monday on whether jockeys who have been charged can continue to ride in Britain in the meantime.

Betting exchange


The police probe followed alleged irregular betting on an internet betting exchange which passed records from its tracking of betting patterns to racing's authorities.

Fallon is one of the sport's biggest names, known for his brilliant, forceful riding in a colourful career.

He shot to fame in the mid-1990s when he quit the modest North of England racing circuit and landed the plum job of stable jockey to trainer Henry Cecil at Newmarket.

He became champion jockey for the first time in 1997 and won the 1999 Epsom Derby for Cecil on Oath though the duo split soon afterward when Cecil's wife admitted having sex with a leading jockey. Fallon denied any involvement.

In 2003 he enjoyed a second victory in the Epsom Derby on Kris Kin and produced a dazzling ride on Islington to win one of the Breeders' Cup races at Santa Anita in California. His third and most recent Epsom Derby triumph came on North Light in 2004.

In 1994, he was banned from racing for six months for pulling a rival jockey from his horse at the end of a race. Early in 2003, he spent 30 days in a treatment clinic after admitting an alcohol problem.

looks like a video game. It contains clips of 250,000 horse races run over the past several years. And, according to the owners of Arkansas' only thoroughbred racing track, it saved the thoroughbred industry there.
Instant Racing, a new way to wager on horse races, is permitted in just two states: Arkansas and Oregon. But California could become the third if a new bill by Assembly Speaker Pro Tem Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, is approved by the Legislature.

AB 2409, which is due for a hearing in August, has drawn the ire of the San Mateo City Council, whose members oppose the idea of expanded gambling at Bay Meadows Racecourse. Proponents argue that the bill will provide a financial boost to California's beleaguered racetracks and stop the flow of talented horses out of the state, as owners and trainers seek bigger paydays at more lucrative venues.

Instant Racing is a game that allows bettors to place wagers on historical races. Built like a self-service betting terminal, but outfitted with flashy graphics, the machines show patrons handicapping information on anonymous 10-horse races, including the winning percentages of the jockeys, trainers and horses involved.

Once they place their bets, customers watch the actual race, with the option of viewing either the entire lap or the final furlong.


Oaklawn introduced Instant Racing machines in 2000 and has watched its revenues grow every year, said Cella, who estimated that purses for Oaklawn's live races will increase from a total of $12 million this year to $15 million in 2007.

"We were like Santa Anita and Hollywood and every other park in California: Going in the wrong direction," Cella said.

The track that Cella's great-grandfather built in 1904 was in danger of becoming "a rinky-dink county fair," he said.

Now the park is attracting a new set of customers who are younger and better educated than its traditional clientele. The track put out a survey and was surprised by what respondents told them.

"We were shocked, but delighted," Cella said. "They said, 'It's cool to go there now.'"

Owners of California tracks, including Bay Meadows, are in need of the kind cash infusion that Instant Racing could provide, according to supporters of AB 2409.

Forced to compete with tracks in more than a dozen states that are allowed to operate slot machines and other forms of alternative gaming, California tracks must adapt in order to avoid being wiped out, industry representatives say.

"The voters and the Legislature have said 'no' when it comes to adding slot machines at race tracks," Yee said in announcing the bill. "Our plan goes a different route by creatively saving horse racing with horse racing. This does not expand gaming, but simply provides a new and exciting way for pari-mutuel wagering."

But to the bill's critics, including San Mateo Mayor John Lee, Instant Racing terminals are merely slot machines in disguise.

"You put money in; you push a button. You have a slot machine, in my opinion," said Lee. "If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, acts like a duck, yeah, it's a slot machine to me."

Lee pointed to a decision by the Wyoming Supreme Court, which ruled on May 4 that the Wyoming Pari-Mutuel Commission exceeded its authority in allowing Wyoming Downs to install Instant Racing machines at four off-track betting locations in 2004.

"We agree ... that we are not dealing with new technology here, we are dealing with a slot machine that attempts to mimic traditional pari-mutuel wagering," the court concluded.

But to Frank Lamb, executive director of the Wyoming Pari-Mutuel Commission, the court simply got it wrong. Lamb said the conservative court took a narrow view of Wyoming law, which prohibits any "gambling devices." By that standard, the court also should have invalidated the off-track betting terminals that allow for wagering on simulcast races, but it didn't, said Lamb. He added that, in 18 months of operation, the Instant Racing machines provided Wyoming Downs with a significant boost in revenues.

There is a clear difference between a slot machine, which determines winners courtesy of a random number generator, and Instant Racing, said Cella. By using the handicapping information provided in the form of pie graphs, Instant Racing bettors can increase their odds of picking a winner from 10-to-1 to 7-to-1, he said.

Legal advisors for the California Legislature agree, determining that, unlike a slot machine, which is a "game of chance," Instant Racing qualifies as a "game of skill."

The creators of Instant Racing design their machines to look like video games in order to make them more accessible to new users, but that doesn't make them slot machines, said Drew Cuoto, president of the Thoroughbred Owners of California.

"I can dress up a vending machine like a slot machine. I can put lights and bells and a pull arm on a vending machine. But at the end of the day, it's still a vending machine that has been made to look like a slot machine for marketing purposes," Cuoto said.

But the game's appearance, combined with its swift rate of play, could be a dangerous combination for certain gamblers, said Jeff Marotta, the problem-gambling services manager for the Oregon Human Services Department. Marotta familiarized himself with Instant Racing when Portland Meadows installed the machines in 2003. The owner of the track, Magna Entertainment Corp., removed the machines in 2004, but may reinstall them as early as this year.

Marotta said he worried by Instant Racing's "speed of play," which permits users to engage in one game after another in rapid succession.

"One of the concerns I had was, we know that games that offer more of a rapid-rewards system are kind of more potent when it comes to developing problems [with— them," Marotta said.

With their quick style of play and entrancing electronic displays, slot machines "seem to have this ability to allow people to engage in a form of escape — some people call it dissociation — where they really kind of get pulled into it," Marotta said.

Marotta said a problem Oregon regulators had in grappling with Instant Racing was that the game didn't fit neatly into existing regulations. Cella said the issue is that, though he considers Instant Racing a pari-mutuel wagering device, at the same time it represents something altogether new.

"It's totally different," Cella said. "Who knows what's going to happen next year? Our industry must evolve to survive."