- The decision to require all of the runners in the 2012
Belmont S.--in which I'll Have Another was bidding fora sweep of the Triple Crown--to be housed in a special
stakes barn and have their veterinarian records madepublic.

Few people in the racing
industry knew much aboutJohn Sabini in August 2008
when he was approved as thechairman of the New YorkState Racing and Wagering
Board. Four and a half busy
years later, Sabini, 56, retires
from state service Friday--andhis post as the chairman of
the Association of RacingCommissioners International-with a very high national
John Sabiniprofile as a regulator who had
NYSRWB
to deal with a number ofdifficult issues.
Sabini, a former Congressional staffer, New York City
Council member and state senator from Queens, said
he will start making phone calls Monday to lay thegroundwork to establishing a lobbying business.
During an interview with Mike Kane Thursday, Sabini
laughed at a question about whether he knew what hewas getting himself into with the Racing and Wagering
Board post.
"No," said. "And the tumultuous times. No."
Sabini's term included:- The board's investigation into the exotic wageringtakeout scandal that led to the firing of NYRA CEOCharles Hayward and counsel Patrick Kehoe and thestate's takeover of the association. Sabini said heregretted that his agency did not discover that bettors
were being overcharged an extra 1% for over a year,
but could not comment further because the state is still
investigating the matter.
- A series of nearly two dozen breakdowns at
Aqueduct during the 2012 winter meet, the resulting
investigation and the adoption of new rules that areamong the toughest in the nation.
- Dealing with the closing in Dec. 2010 of thebankrupt New York Off-Track Betting Corporation, thebiggest OTB in the country.
- The animal cruelty case in which owner-breeder
Ernie Paragallo was handed a lifetime ban from thesport because many horses were found to have been
mistreated at his farm.
The board's decision to revoke trainer Richard
Dutrow Jr.'s license for 10 years and fine him $50,000
for a lengthy series of violations during his career.
- The opening of the Resorts World Casino at
Aqueduct in October 2011 that produced thelong-awaited purse increases at the NYRA tracks and arevival of New York's Thoroughbred breeding business.

By coincidence, news that Sabini was leaving his postwith the board before it becomes part of the new New
York State Gaming Commission Feb. 1 become public
on Tuesday, the day the Court of Appeals announced
that it would not hear Dutrow's final chance to appeal
in state court.
MK: What is your feeling about the Dutrow case, which
involved personal attacks on you, questioning whether
your involvement prevented him from receiving due
process?
JS: When someone's career is on the line they aregoing to look at whatever straw they can grasp at. I
think if it wasn't that it would have been somethingelse.
The fact of the matter is that the decision is what it
is. The idea is that we get the people who treat animals
in a cavalier fashion in order to win.
Repeat offenders should be punished with surety andspeed. Unfortunately, there wasn't speed on this one.
There needs to be a swift and sure punishment forpeople that cheat. I think that the industry is moving inthat direction.
MK: What led to the approach of looking at Dutrow'sentire career when determining the penalty for the twoviolations at Aqueduct in November 2010?
JS: We went at it with the idea that at some point thelicense becomes a responsibility. It's not a right to havea license. It's a privilege to have a license and if you
repeatedly abuse the rules then the license shouldn't bethere for you.
MK: Why do you feel that the handling of the New York
City OTB closing was a major success story of youradministration?
JS: We were in a profound position because a 45%
hole in the hull of the ship was happening in one day.
We took measures to bring the industry and the state
together.
First of all, I was told it was the first time thateveryone in the industry was in the same room at thesame time, which I found amazing. I was able tocompel the industry to work as one for everyone's
benefit, which usually doesn't occur in racing.
We got the video streaming for NYRA and we got theOTBs and tracks who had on-line accounts to allow
people to open up accounts without having to go to abranch with an ID and cash. As an emergency rule weallowed them to do it over the phone or the Internet.
Before that, in order to open an account, you had toshow up somewhere at a bricks and mortar location.

When New York City OTB when belly-up, we were alittle frightened that the off-shore companies, which
didn't have to play by that rule, would garner all thebusiness. We moved very quickly on that, to the pointthat by post time of the first race at Aqueduct on thefirst day of no New York City OTB, people could havebeen ready to go. In fact, Yonkers was. They had
already programmed their computers for our rule.
So we tried to mitigate whatever crisis was going tohappen as a result of New York City OTB being such a
big player and blowing up. I thought that wasimportant.
We couldn't afford to be slow to react to it because
in a business that is on a downward trend anyway thatwould have been a death blow, I think. I really believethat a lot of dominoes would have fallen and had we
not done the things that we did in the wake of New
York City OTB closing, that racing in New York wouldlook a lot different today. It would still be around, but I
think it would have taken a long time to find anequilibrium
I don't think NYRA would have been sustainable atthe model it is at now. And I don't think there wasgoing to be any bailouts from government, like there
were in the post. I don't know what would havehappened, but I wasn't going to wait around to figure itout. My attitude was to do what you've got to do to
get this done, as best you can.
MK: What are your biggest regrets as you leave thejob?
JS: There are a number of things. The fact that theNYRA takeout situation wasn't caught earlier. We takeresponsibility on that. There is an investigation going on
to see who was pro-actively doing it or who is toblame, but we had some obligation as well, and that's adisappointment.
The other major disappointment is that we couldn't
get the Assembly to sign onto an Interstate Racing
Compact, which I believe would streamline and andhelp the industry regulate itself nationwide.
One of complaints you hear from horsemen is thatthese rules are different in every state. Well, it's hard tochange the rules uniformly. That would have allowed us
to do it. It passed the Senate largely because I had
been a member and Governor [David] Paterson pushed
it, but we couldn't get it through the Assembly, largely
because of the harness horsemen. That was a missed
opportunity.

MK: What is your feeling about the investigation by theoutside panel of racing experts into the breakdowns atAqueduct and the changes that were made?
JS: I think the report that was done was good. It put
measures in that frankly would have been harder to getin had we not had the alacrity of the situation of thebreakdowns. There were things that we did that I
wanted to do for some time, but that forces in theindustry would have opposed. That opposition was
harder to do in light of the breakdowns and in light of
the task force. The changes in the claiming rules andthe claiming prices were things we talked about doing
before, but we knew we were going to get blowbackfrom the industry. This sort of underlined the need forit.
MK: What are items are on your list ofaccomplishments?
JS: Getting the lab moved to SUNY Morrisville allowed
us to do things more economically. And shrinking thesize of the agency.
We've made the RWB staff in Schenectady leaner
and more economical. The number of full-time
employees is down about 30%.
Drug testing is our number one non-personnel
expense and I brought the cost of that down. We also
have a lab that can do testing for other entities. Everytime that we sign a new entity it will bring the costdown. The industry is talking about moving toward
regional labs and by doing that it allowed us to start tomarket the lab. We hope to do some testing for otherstates.

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