NTRA nears security plan

A committee of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association will present a final business plan for a proposed Office of Wagering Security by the time of an NTRA board meeting in January, an NTRA official said Thursday.

The office, which has been discussed by the NTRA since early in 2003, would be responsible for monitoring wagers in U.S. commingled pools and developing recommendations to increase the security of the nation's electronic bet-processing network. The NTRA proposed the office after the U.S. bet-processing network was significantly compromised late in 2002 when an employee of Autotote, the bet-processing company now known as Scientific Games, rigged a bet on the Breeders' Cup pick six.

Keith Chamblin, the NTRA's senior vice president of marketing and industry relations and a member of the committee, said Thursday after an NTRA board meeting that the committee that is developing the business plan for the office has been asked by the board to "consolidate all its best ideas." The committee is headed by Bruce Garland, the former senior vice president for racing operations at the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority who retired earlier this year.

Also at the board meeting, the NTRA received an update on its membership renewal efforts. Chamblin said that as of the beginning of December, all of the NTRA's former members had committed to rejoin, and he said that several new members, including Philadelphia Park, would bring NTRA membership "to the highest it's ever been."