MORAN: Free to swing away..

[Kasept]

If you haven't been reading the free-swinging Paul Moran on his blog, you're missing a near-daily treat. Moran, unencumbered by the restrictions of Newsday, has been blasting away on his Blogspot at the stupidity, vapidity and arrogance of those working hard at derailing NY racing. His take on laughable Carole Stone and the Pataki-created "Non-profit Racing Association Oversight Board" is another direct hit.

LINK TO PAUL (Also in the DT Links):
http://paulmoranattheraces.blogspot.com/



Tuesday, December 18, 2007

The hits just keep coming
By Paul Moran

Developments unforeseen indeed.

My misjudgment. I thought there might be a Christmas moratorium on overt displays of abject stupidity from people better served by silence. Wrong.

Another apology for forgetting about the Non-profit Racing Association Oversight Board, which I thought was as dead at George Pataki’s political career. Its chairperson, Carole Stone, sounded a good deal more informed before she opened her mouth on Monday and suggested that the board would strike a third-party deal unless the New York Racing Association agrees to continue operation beyond Dec. 31 with no franchise agreement and no guarantees.

Where does Ms. Stone think that, even were such action technically legal, a third party would hire a sufficient number of people to operate Aqueduct while maintaining the facilities at Belmont Park and Saratoga? Who would turn on the lights? Man the betting machines? Manicure the racing surface? Man the starting gate? Park the cars? Make the popcorn? Publish the program? And by the way … all the vendor contracts, which include closed circuit television, photo finish and timing, janitorial service, manure removal and other ingredients essential to the conduct of racing expire with the franchise. No third party has contracts in place to cover simulcasting and dissemination of the television signal to the state’s off-track betting outlets.

Apparently, Ms. Stone and her fellow board members believe that racing just happens by itself. One would think that the uninformed benefactors of the politcal system would carefully guard rather than so willingly expose their lack of expertise.
Racing is a complex endeavor. Ignorance happens by itself.