For Some, Wild--and Hardly Wonderful

re: For Some, Wild--and Hardly Wonderful

Janene — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 18:25:04 GMT

Wow, will the truth ever be told? DBW, I don’t know where you got that there was money stolen from the Charles Town HBPA? There was never a penny missing. There was a million dollars made for the Charles Town HBPA during our leadership. The fact is that my husband Dick and I did such a good job for the horsemen and the HBPA that the rest of the world wanted to be like us with the way we got along with the Charles Town Races management. We received a resolution from the National HBPA and I quote, “The work that Janene and Dick Watson have done at the National level for the HBPA has set the standard at a new high.”

We were both given Honorary Membership to the Charles Town HBPA for all the past work that we have done for the organization. This notification of rescinding my honorary membership was only done by six members of the board of whom 4 of them are newly elected. I will retain my Honorary Membership unless they hold a hearing, with a reason given, and attain a 2/3rds vote to rescind it. The person that made the motion advertised on TV for table games and was at several forums trying to harass me and take away my credibility as I was fighting for the table games legislation to be changed so the Charles Town horsemen could keep the money that they earn from table games. It is written for purse money to be divided equally with the Mountaineer horsemen, and I wanted it to be pro-rata so the horsemen can keep the money that is earned here at Charles Town.

My squeaky wheel has gotten the attention of our local Senator Herb Snyder along with Al Britton, the general manager of CTRS. They are going hand and hand with the horsemen to the 2010 legislature in January, to try to get this inequity corrected.

Check out today’s Martinsburg Journal: www.journal-news.net/.../529726.html

re: For Some, Wild--and Hardly Wonderful

DBW — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 18:54:03 GMT

From everyone I’ve spoken with at Charles Town, it’s a VERY small minority of horsemen that give the others and situation there a bad name. I’ve read the articles about the people in question in this case. We’re talking about a husband and wife team that was thrown out of the HBPA for admittedly stealing HBPA money for personal use. Money that could’ve been used to benefit horsemen through medical care or otherwise. The track threw them out as a blight on the game. Now THESE are the scorned horsemen we’re holding up as poster children for where management/horsemen relations have gone wrong? If this is the rallying point, we’re in deep, deep trouble.

re: For Some, Wild--and Hardly Wonderful

Convene — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 02:59:42 GMT

There always seem to be plenty of people ready to latch onto someone else's wagon and ride it for their own benefit, don't there! One thing IS for sure: the racing industry does need to put individual issues aside and pull together to save itself because, if that doesn't happen, maybe there won't be a racing industry and all those individual issues won't exist either. And that would be a terrible loss to those of us who have loved it for a lifetime. Let's get the sport on track first, then hash out the side-issues with compromise and, when necessary, abandonment of ideas that are proven not to work. So I guess my Christmas wish is the same as yours. Maybe everyone else's should be too.