Hayward, who earns $475,000 a year in the position, was placed on unpaid leave along with NYRA’s Senior Vice President and General Counsel Patrick Kehoe, who earns $423,000, following a report from the New York State Racing and Wagering Board’s preliminary investigation.
The investigation began following a state audit in December of 2011, when it was discovered that NYRA overcharged bettors by keeping an additional one percent on exotic bets – totaling over $8 million – for 15 months beginning in September of 2010.
“NYRA takes the matters identified by the… New York State Racing and Wagering Board extremely seriously,” said C. Steven Duncker, chairman of the NYRA Board of Directors. “NYRA will take all appropriate steps and actions to cooperate with the state’s inquiries and insure the integrity of our operations.”
In the report released by the Wagering Board, the organization sites an email correspondence between Hayward and the publisher of the Daily Racing Form, who brought the overcharge to Hayward’s attention. Hayward email response read:
“This gentleman is correct. Off the record, we have been working on this for some time. We originally had thought that we would announce this for Saratoga but political forces intervened. Since we are showing substantial losses in 2010 and 2011 and we have been smacked around by Cuomo (and he could check the SRWB from approving), we decided to wait.”
Hayward will remain on unpaid leave until the investigation is finalized.
