Trainer Rice Faces Scrutiny From New York Regulator

Thoroughbred trainer Linda Rice will face a hearing before a New York regulator Dec. 18 that could decide whether her license to operate in the state is suspended or possibly even revoked.

The hearing date comes 22 months after the Daily Racing Form first reported allegations that Rice made payments to individuals at the New York Racing Association in return for information on race entries.

The New York State Gaming Commission, which will conduct the hearing at its Schenectady headquarters later this month, did not immediately return requests seeking information. State offices in the Albany area Monday are mostly closed—only essential personnel were ordered to report to work—following a major snowstorm in the area.

But several days ago the commission posted a hearing notice on its web site for Rice to determine the fate of her license and whether she should be fined up to $25,000 for each violation.

On the morning of Dec. 3, New York regulators updated the gaming agency's website to provide further information about the hearing involving Rice. The agency, in its rulings database, accused Rice of receiving "regular, continual and improper access to the confidential names and other information concerning the other horses entered in races" at NYRA "before the entries closed and you decided to enter the horses you were training in such races or not.'' Such alleged acts, the agency said, violate three different state laws or rules.

The agency also said Rice "paid substantial sums of money to NYRA racing officials, inducing them and for the purpose of inducing them to provide you with the foregoing improper access."

The hearing notice said incidents occurred at Aqueduct Racetrack between about 2011 and March 2015.

A gaming commission official on background acknowledged Monday that the Rice hearing involves "alleged improper advance access to non-public information and records maintained by NYRA." The commission "alleges that the access provided Ms. Rice an unfair advantage when deciding which races to enter her horses at NYRA tracks and, further, that she provided enticements to contacts in the NYRA racing office in return for this information."

The hearing will develop a record in the case, the agency said, and "enable her to present a defense."

A field in the web site entry apparently created to offer specifics about the matter was left empty.

Citing state steward Braulio Baeza, DRF reported Dec. 1 that the Dec. 18 hearing will concern alleged payments to racing officials at New York Racing Association tracks in exchange for information regarding races in which Rice would consider entering horses before she entered. Rice did not immediately respond to a request for comment from BloodHorse but in the DRF story she denied any wrongdoing and said she looked forward to meeting with state regulators.

NYRA officials in the past have said the incidents occurred prior to the installment of a new management team. BloodHorse previously reported on investigations by the Gaming Commission into the improper sharing of racing information. In 2017, the board revoked the license of former head NYRA clocker Stephen Foster for 10 years involving an alleged conspiracy involving the accessing of NYRA records.

Jockey agent Mike Gonzalez was arrested in 2016 involving alleged computer trespassing and he, too, had his license revoked in 2017 for 10 years.