By Bill Finley
When veteran New York trainer Gary Contessa ran a horse named Answer the Call (Dialed In) in a Sept. 25 claiming race at Delaware Park, he had no idea that he had violated a rule. He claimed the horse out of an Aug. 4 race at Saratoga and believed the filly was allowed to run outside of New York because more than 30 days had transpired since the claim. Little did he know that only a few days earlier, the rule was changed so that a claimed horse had to stay in New York for at least 60 days.
When he was told by New York State Gaming Commission Steward Braulio Baeza, Jr. that he was being fined $4,000, Contessa was outraged. Not only did that seem like a lot for a relatively minor offense, but as of Sept. 25, the listing of rules on the New York Racing Association website still had the old rule of 30 days.
“They put the rule into effect July 24,” Contessa said. “On Oct. 17, when I got this ruling, the NYRA website still hadn't been changed to reflect the new rule. Braulio reached out to me and said, 'I have to fine you for this.' I figured the fine would have been $500. I wouldn't have fought that. I might not even have fought a fine of $1,000. The horse earned $1,103. I made $100. He comes up with a $4,000 fine. The horse ran at Delaware 52 days after I claimed her. She had already run once in New York and was well beyond the 30 days, which was the rule for 30 years. I went on to NYRA's website and I double checked it. It said 30 days, end of story. When I said that to Braulio, he said it was my responsibility to know the Gaming Commission rules. Please. I don't think you could find a trainer in America who has ever gone on the Gaming Commission site to look at their rules because we get everything from NYRA. When I fill out a stall application, it says I am agreeing to follow NYRA's rules. NYRA didn't change the rules on their website.
“I said to Braulio, '$4,000, isn't that an awful lot considering the circumstances?' He said, 'That's my minimum fine. We give fines that count now.' The Gaming Commission reached out to me and offered a $2,000 fine. That was still too much. I would have paid a $1,000 fine. The $2,000 is too much because NYRA didn't even care to change the rule on their website.”
Contessa has hired attorney Drew Mollica who has already filed an appeal with the Gaming Commission. He called the $4,000 fine “outrageous.”
“The fine, even if there even should be one, is so outlandish, that this had to stop,” he said. “The game is dying in New York because small trainers are dying by the minute. Seven is a big field, the barn area is three-quarters full. The rule was in place for 30 years and then they just changed it. $4,000? What did he do, kill the Lindbergh baby?”
Mollica said that in New York, administrative fines are upheld unless “they shock the conscience.” He believes $4,000 for such a relatively minor offense is a matter of shocking the conscience and will use that in his defense.
“If this doesn't shock the conscience, this gaming commission has no conscience,” he said. “That fine is so disproportionate to the alleged crime that it shocks the conscious, and it can't. That is the rule.”
New York State Gaming Commission spokesman Brad Maione said there would be no comment.
“We have no comment while the matter is under appeal, adding that “the text of the ruling speaks for itself.”
As has been the case numerous times over the last several years, Baeza is once again at the center of a controversy. His fines come across as heavy handed, he doesn't seem to consider the mitigating circumstances that may be involved, and the stewards have made a number of mistakes, for which he has been held blameless.
In December, the stewards–among whom Baeza is the most powerful–appeared to have disqualified the wrong horse in the $500,000 division of the Great White Way Stakes for New York-sired horses.
“He took the wrong horse down in the stakes back in December,” Mollica said. “Did he get fined? No. He let a race start at the wrong distance. Did he get fined? No. He fined Frank Gabriel $2,000 for something he had absolutely nothing to do with. Are we trying to kill the game or grow the game? How can the horsemen's association allow these draconian penalties? You can go 100 miles per hour in a school zone and not get fined $4,000. It's abject craziness.”
“Braulio thinks he is untouchable and he also forgets that he was once a broke horse trainer,” Contessa said. “He forgot that. There was time when he didn't have two nickels to rub together. I guess he's forgotten about those days. On this, the punishment doesn't fit the crime and I am going to dig my heels in and fight this one.”
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