Spitzer meets with NYRA brass

NEW YORK - Eliot Spitzer, New York State's attorney general, met with top officials of the embattled New York Racing Association at Spitzer's downtown Manhattan office on Tuesday, according to several people.

Paul Larabee, spokesman for the attorney general, would neither confirm nor deny that a meeting took place on Tuesday and said Spitzer would have no comment. Barry Schwartz, chairman of NYRA, was among the officials to attend, according to two sources.

A little more than two weeks ago, Spitzer released a report that was highly critical of NYRA management, including NYRA's president, Terry Meyocks, for tolerating corruption among mutuel tellers. In the report, Spitzer called for Meyocks to be removed.

Neither Schwartz nor NYRA's new legal counsel, Denis J. McInerney, returned phone calls on Tuesday.

In another development, Alan Hevesi, the New York comptroller, is conducting an audit of NYRA, according to Hevesi's office. "We can confirm that we are conducting an audit of NYRA, but we do not comment on anything else related to an audit," a spokesman for the comptroller said on Monday.