The Week in Review: Night Shift

“We'll leave the lights on for ya!” Maybe.

That was the message last week from New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who tucked a provision that would allow for limited night racing at Belmont Park into a much larger executive budget bill.

For several years now, the New York Racing Association (NYRA), which operates Belmont, has expressed interest in running some programs under the lights. The idea has gained even more traction since the New York Islanders hockey team announced last month that it will be building a new arena and retail/entertainment destination center on property adjacent to the historic track.

Current law allows Thoroughbred racing at Belmont to be conducted only between sunrise and sunset. The New York Senate passed a bill in June 2017 to allow night racing twice a week during Belmont's spring/summer and fall meets, but the bill never got voted on by the Assembly. Cuomo's version specifies the track could race nights Thursdays through Saturdays, provided the cards conclude by 10:30 p.m. and that post time conflicts with harness racing at Yonkers Raceway are avoided.

NYRA president and chief executive officer Chris Kay has been on the record as saying that lights wouldn't be installed right away pending passage of the bill, but would be part of longer-range plans of the development of Belmont into a year-round downstate Thoroughbred facility. Such plans, which hinge on NYRA being paid to vacate Aqueduct Racetrack, are years away at the earliest.

Putting aside the logistics and aesthetics of night racing for the moment and just concentrating on the politics of the decision, it is an anachronism that a state legislature in 2018 still has to give (or withhold) its nod of approval for business decisions whose precedent is rooted in 1890s logic aimed at eradicating “outlaw” tracks.

Portland Meadows in Oregon is often mistakenly credited with being the first United States track to race an extended Thoroughbred meet under lights in 1946. But that distinction actually belongs to New York's own Maspeth, a seedy half-miler on the outskirts of Brooklyn, which way back in 1894 held a “40 days and 40 nights” doubleheader season featuring strings of electrified lights and a powerful searchlight that followed the horses around the track when they ran at night. (South Side Park in St. Louis is believed to be the actual “first” to offer night racing in 1893, but its lighted races were held on more of an experimental basis).

New York's original night track was widely considered a low-level cesspool of rigged racing that operated in open defiance against the wishes of the state legislature and The Jockey Club. The two organizations subsequently joined forces, threatened that all Maspeth participants and horses would be barred from racing at regulated tracks, and changed then-existing laws about racetrack licensure to ensure Maspeth never opened for a second season.

The only name you might recognize among the long-forgotten participants at Maspeth is that of a so-so jockey who eventually hung up his tack, took up training, and ended up getting elected into the sport's Hall of Fame–the legendary Sunny Jim Fitzsimmons.

“I was riding one time when they threw the spotlights on as I was coming up the stretch,” the 13-time Classic-winning conditioner reminisced to the New York Times in 1949. “I looked out of the corner of an eye and I saw something moving up on the inside. So I rode harder and harder, but I couldn't draw clear. I won the race, and when I took a good look around at the finish, I discovered that what I had been trying to get away from was my horse's shadow.”

Racing too, has ever since been trying to outrun its own shadow in terms of escaping the “statutory straightjacket” that to this day requires legislative approval for such basic business decisions as what hours a track can or cannot be open for business.

Breathing Transparency

As of last Friday, the notation of “WS” in a horse's racing data in Britain is mandated to signify that the Thoroughbred has undergone some version of surgical repair to facilitate breathing since its last start.

For the time being, here in the U.S., those same initials stand for “We'll see.”

In America, no system currently exists to identify to the betting public which horses might be on their way to a positive form reversal thanks to being able to breathe easier. Nor does one appear to be in the immediate pipeline.

Bettors who have Google news searches set up to flag terms like “entrapped epiglottis” luck onto the occasional piece of key information in this fashion if a trainer opts to disclose that information in an interview, but such a system is hardly ideal or complete.

Overseas, the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) announced back in November that such declarations would be mandatory by Jan. 19.

“This is about openness, transparency and access to data for the betting customer,” said David Sykes, the director of equine health and welfare for the BHA.

The fact that the change was implemented on comparatively short order is as commendable as giving the public the “WS” notations in the first place.

Here in America, we've been busy wrestling for years with the seemingly insurmountable obstacle of correctly reporting first-time geldings. Some jurisdictions don't make much of an effort to publicly disclose the “ultimate equipment change,” and those that do want to bring about change still struggle over enforcement of the rules, most notably when and how the declaration must be made before an incorrectly reported gelding is forced out as a scratch.

An Unwelcome Blast from the Past

Remember Sean Alfortish? He's the former president of the Louisiana Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association (LHBPA) who spent 28 months in federal prison after pleading guilty in 2011 to felony fraud conspiracy charges that included rigging a horsemen's election, blowing some $800,000 of LHBPA funds on highly questionable personal and political expenses, and taking $25,000 in “back pay” after settling a sexual harassment complaint for that same sum.

According to a scoop first reported by John Simerman of The New Orleans Advocate, Alfortish is not only out of jail, but after having been released from probation nine months early, is now suing the Louisiana State Racing Commission (LSRC) in a “restraint of free trade” lawsuit because the LSRC won't let him reapply for a license to own racehorses.

Alfortish, 50, has enough experience with the legal system to know how to use the courts to his advantage: In addition to the time he admittedly spent getting spa treatments and staying in lavish hotels on the LHBPA's dime, he was a licensed attorney and a sitting magistrate judge in Kenner, Louisiana.

According to the timeline of events in the Advocate (read the full story here), even before he was sentenced in the federal fraud case, Alfortish initiated a separate 2011 lawsuit against the LHBPA for creating the negligent culture of dubious financial practices that allowed his own malfeasance to flourish. He told the Advocate he won that lawsuit, and that the confidential judgment he was awarded was more than enough to cover the $105,000 in restitution he was subsequently ordered by the federal judge to repay to the LHBPA.

“I never paid a dollar,” he unabashedly told the Advocate.

Alfortish was released from probation on Dec. 5, 2016. In September 2017, he approached the LSRC for a license, but was told that convicted felons in Louisiana had to wait two years from the end of their sentences to reapply.

But, according to the Advocate, Alfortish knew that Louisiana rule didn't apply in cases of reciprocal licensure. So he applied for an received an owner's license in neighboring Texas, where the rule says felons can apply five years from the date of entering a plea.

Armed with the Texas license, Alfortish attempted but couldn't get a reciprocal license past the Louisiana state steward. His request got kicked up the chain of command to the LSRC once again, but the current suit claims his attempts to get onto the LSRC agenda for a licensing hearing have been ignored. Alfortish is now asking for a court order forcing the commission to let track stewards, not the LSRC, decide his eligibility.

“I've always had horse ownership as a hobby,” Alfortish told the Advocate. “I'm not even saying I'm going to get a horse, but I'd like the opportunity.”