Posts Tagged ‘peter berube’

By Ray Paulick
Former jockey Ricardo A. Valdes, one of seven riders banned from Tampa Bay Downs in December 2006, was indicted Wednesday along with two Michigan businessmen on 19 federal counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to influence sporting contests by bribery, and unlawful use of a facility in interstate commerce—all in connection with a series of alleged race fixing incidents at Tampa Bay Downs in Florida, Delaware Park in Delaware and Great Lakes Downs in Michigan, from December 2005-December 2006.

The other two men indicted, Ghazi Manni, 52, and Mitchell Edward Karam, 76, were named in a separate federal indictment involving a point-shaving scheme that also resulted in charges against six former University of Toledo basketball and football players.

Click here to read the race-fixing indictment.

Click here to read the point-shaving indictment.

The indictment, handed down by assistant U.S. Attorney David Morris in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan’s Southern Division, said Manni, Karam, Valdes and “others known and unknown to the grand jury, “devised and effectuated a scheme to defraud and for obtaining money by ‘fixing’ Thoroughbred horse racing contests.” The trio is charged with using insider information provided by jockeys to help make wagering selections and then “bribing jockeys participating in these contests to give less than their best effort to win and to handle their horses other than for the purpose of winning.”

The indictment states the 43-year-old Valdes “and other persons known and unknown” accepted money and other things of value to “use less than their best efforts to win a race.” Valdes is also charged with “attempting to recruit other Thoroughbred horse jockeys to join the conspiracy.”

If convicted, the three men face up to 25 years in prison and fines of as much as $500,000.

The indictment cites a series of phone calls and voice messages involving the three men, a pari-mutuel clerk at the Northville Downs harness track in Northville, Mich., and an employee of Huntington Bank in Hamtramck, Mich. Federal authorities apparently had wiretaps on the calls.

Listed are four specific races at Tampa Bay Downs in which Valdes rode in January and April 2006.

– In the 10^th race on Jan. 10, 2006, Valdes finished sixth with Urilla, the 3-1 second choice in the wagering,  Urilla trailed the field for the opening half mile before passing horses late, according to the Equibase chart.

– In the third race on Jan. 29, 2006, Valdes finished second on Cocoa Beach Rocket, the 4-1 third choice who led briefly in the stretch “but hung late,” according to the chart.

– In the eighth race on Jan. 31, 2006, Valdes finished sixth on Sharenski, the 5-1 third choice who trailed the field for the opening half mile.

– In the third race on April 15, 2006, Valdes ran last aboard Chalk Chalk, a 12-1 longshot who showed early speed on a turf route but bore out on the first turn and faded quickly.

The other jockeys banned by Tampa Bay Downs in December 2006 were Terry Houghton, Joseph Judice, Derek Bell, Jorge Bracho, Luis Castillo and Jose Delgado. Of that group, only Houghton and Bell rode in any of the races cited in the indictment. Bell finished seventh in the Jan. 29 race on Greatest Creation, who showed early speed at 8-1 odds. Houghton finished third Jan. 31 on Camilles Castle, a 6-1 shot who “chased the leaders but failed to respond in the drive,” according to the chart.

Bell told the Thoroughbred Times in January 2007 he was questioned by the Thoroughbred Racing Protective Bureau about the Jan. 29, 2006, race in question but denied any wrongdoing.

None of the other jockeys banned by Tampa Bay was named in the indictment. The Tampa Bay ban on all seven jockeys still stands.

Peter Berube, the Tampa Bay Downs vice president and general manager, declined to comment on the indictment, which provided no specific details about alleged race fixing at Delaware Park or Great Lakes Downs.

Copyright © 2009, The Paulick Report

Support the Paulick Report. Make a donation today.

By Ray Paulick
For those racing fans who come to Florida during the winter months and are unhappy with the sterile environment of Calder Race Course or the schizophrenic nature of Gulfstream Park Racing & Casino, I have three words for you: Tampa Bay Downs.

The little racetrack near Tampa that first opened its doors in 1926 is absolute heaven for fans of Thoroughbred racing. If you like good value, sitting outdoors in the Florida sun, or getting a close-up look at the horses, Tampa Bay is the place to go in the Sunshine State. After coming to Florida for the better part of 40 years, I made my first visit to Tampa Bay Downs last weekend, and the only question I had was, “What took so long?”

Though the track offers a card room, a modern simulcast center and other indoor comforts, the main attraction at Tampa Bay Downs is old-fashioned live horse racing. Good-sized fields and competitive takeouts make Tampa an interesting track for horseplayers, too, and the fact that handle for the current winter season is on par with the 2007-08 meeting is a sign that track management, led by GM Peter Berube, is doing something right, especially in the face of a very difficult economy.

I was pleasantly surprised to see a nearly full parking lot and a bustling clubhouse and grandstand when I arrived for the Saturday program, when attendance reached almost 5,000. Free parking and only $3 for clubhouse admission makes Tampa Bay Downs an entertainment bargain for people in the area, and the competitive takeouts (win, place, show 17.5%; daily double 18%; pick 3s, pick 4s, etc, 20%; exactas, 21.5%; trifectas, superfectas, 25.9%) helped the track rank 11^th in the recent survey by the Horseplayers Association of North America.
High takeouts at Tampa were a sore spot among some gamblers in recent years. “We’ve been very aggressive the last four years in reducing and tweaking our takeout,” said Berube.

Berube said the economy presents a very real challenge to the track, which he said relies on retired snowbirds and tourists from the north. As a result, on-track attendance is down about 5% and on-track handle has declined 10% this year. Simulcast figures have helped make up for the on-track wagering shortfalls. “The weekends have been fine, but weekday programs have been very soft on-track,” Berube said. “The weekday customers are the ones who are mostly on fixed income.” Those are the folks who have seen their retirement savings hammered by the collapse in the stock market.

Berube said Tampa essentially has the same market as Gulfstream Park on Florida’s East Coast. “Just like them, we’re selling Florida sunshine and good entertainment value.”

The difference between the two winter tracks, especially since Gulfstream Park was rebuilt and is now as much a casino as it is a racetrack, is as clear as night and day: Gulfstream has few outdoor seats and puts a premium on its indoor dining rooms and slot machines, while Tampa has ample, free outdoor seating, both in the grandstand and on the apron, where picnic tables and benches are popular among the diverse fan base.

With a saddling paddock and walking ring at the top of the stretch, fans on the apron or in the grandstand can easily view the horses, when they are brought over from the stable area or while in the walking ring. It’s one of the most intimate and fan friendly racetracks around.

Since Stella Thayer bought the track in 1986, Tampa Bay Downs has embarked on a steady stream of capital improvements. Berube has been at the track for 15 years, and says that “racing will always take top priority here. That’s a tribute to the ownership. She’s a horsewoman,” he said.

Berube said an average of $1 million per year is invested in capital improvements, which include a turf course installed in 1997, an infield video board bought last year, a totally renovated clubhouse, and a modern simulcast room. The track also offers wireless internet access for its patrons.

Video billboards are sprinkled along freeways in the Tampa area, and Berube said they have been a great marketing tool for the track because of the ability to change the message during the day. “We’ll promote pick six carryovers as they occur, and we’ll even change the message from a racing promotion during the day to the card room at night,” he said.

Tampa Bay Downs was always a well-kept secret, at least for me. It’s not anymore.

Copyright © 2009, The Paulick Report

Sign up for our Email flashes to get the latest news, analysis and commentary from Ray Paulick

Visit the Paulick Report for all the latest news throughout the racing world.

By Ray Paulick

Under normal circumstances, handle on the 2008 Breeders’ Cup World Championships would blow past all previous betting records. But the economic crisis gripping the United States and many other countries is anything but normal.

This year’s World Championships take place over two days at Santa Anita Park Oct. 24-25 and includes 14 Breeders’ Cup races, up from the 11 held at Monmouth Park in 2007 when the event was first expanded to two days.  Last year’s two-day handle was a Breeders’ Cup record $147 million ($31.5 million on the Friday card and $115.7 million on Saturday), but the total was below expectations by at least 10% because of the extremely wet weather conditions. The previous all-sources wagering record was set in 2006 when $140.3 million was wagered on eight Breeders’ Cup races on a single day at Churchill Downs.

Ken Kirchner, the president of FalKirk International and the longtime wagering consultant to the Breeders’ Cup, wouldn’t make any predictions about this year’s handle. “It’s hard to say where the economy is going to be in 10 days,” Kirchner told the Paulick Report. “Everybody has been down between 10% and 20% in wagering all summer and fall. Things can change quickly, but certainly the trend isn’t good.”

Kirchner hopes some fans have been stockpiling a bankroll for the big event. “It’s not a positive situation,” he said, “but we’re going to have very strong and full fields and some people may just be waiting for this as opposed to betting the run-of-the-mill races.”

Holding the Breeders’ Cup’s traditional dirt races on a synthetic surface doesn’t bother Kirchner. “The new (Pro-Ride) track seems to be playing fair,” he said. “If the horses show up, the bettors will follow.

Kirchner did say scheduling the Breeders’ Cup on the last weekend of the month is a disadvantage because of consumer spending habits. “Having it at the beginning of the month (when Social Security and other fixed income checks arrive) makes it 3% to 5% stronger,” he said.

The Breeders’ Cup had the first $100-million wagering day in North American racing history Nov. 6, 1999, at Gulfstream Park. That was the year the Filly & Mare Turf was added, making it an eight-race championship.

By comparison, Kentucky Derby day betting topped $100 million for the first time in 2000, and it’s grown significantly since. Churchill Downs now holds the North American record of $175 million established on the 2006 Kentucky Derby program. Add wagering from Friday’s Kentucky Oaks program ($33 million in 2006), and the total tops $208 million.

It’s clear the Breeders’ Cup braintrust is trying to emulate the success of the Friday Oaks/Saturday Derby format at Churchill Downs by bundling all of the filly and mare races on this year’s Friday program (and by requiring fans to purchase seats for both days as Churchill Downs has done with the Oaks and Derby). The Breeders’ Cup doesn’t have the cachet of the Kentucky Derby (or the Oaks for that matter), though that doesn’t mean the new format will not work.

With the additional Breeders’ Cup races, better weather and a more traditional big race venue (Santa Anita vs. Monmouth Park), handle will increase this year. My prediction is for $175 million in wagers over the two championship days. Without all the economic uncertainty, $200 million would seem realistic.

SPEAKING OF BETTING, REMEMBER THAT JUNE 28 RACE AT PHILADELPHIA PARK when wagers were allowed at some Florida simulcast sites after the race had been run? The Thoroughbred Racing Protective Bureau issued a report and sent it to the tracks involved – Philadelphia Park and Tampa Bay Downs – but according to Peter Berube, Tampa Bay’s vice president and general manager, he still doesn’t understand exactly how the Philly Park past-post bets occurred.

“I have the report,” Berube told the Paulick Report last week. “It’s highly technical but draws no conclusions and places no blame on anybody. Apparently it was a sequence of events that took place between the tote companies.”

Scientific Games (formerly Autotote), which handles wagers for Philadelphia Park, was experiencing technical problems with its system that day at races from Philly and Delaware Park. Tampa Bay Downs and 11 other North Florida wagering sites (dog tracks and jai-alai frontons) use AmTote. A communications breakdown between the systems failed to send a stop-bet signal to AmTote.

Joe Wilson, chief operating officer of Philadelphia Park, did not return phone calls seeking a comment.

According to Berube, the past-post wagering was limited to his track, with most of the past-post bets placed by one customer, who is known as a big bettor at Tampa Bay. “What’s in the report would lead me to believe that there was no abnormal spike in bets overall,” Berube said. “We were the 14^th ranked site in terms of total bets (on the fourth race, the race in question), but first in cashes. We were the only site that had a negative settlement (with more winnings that money wagered).”

Berube said he interviewed the horseplayer who allegedly made the past-post wagers but allowed him to collect on his winning bets. “We brought people in and spoke with them but after Philadelphia Park priced the race I couldn’t tell them to give us the money back.

“I’ve been here 15 years and have never experienced anything like this before,” said Berube, whose father, Paul Berube, is the former head of the TRPB.

Copyright © 2008, The Paulick Report

Sign up for our Email Flashes to get the latest news, analysis and commentary from Ray Paulick

Visit the Paulick Report for all the latest news throughout the racing world.