“State Racing Committee holding hearing” plus 1 more |
| State Racing Committee holding hearing Posted: 07 Feb 2011 07:16 AM PST  To view our videos, you need to ALBANY, N.Y. -- The Senate Racing Committee held a hearing to address several issues facing the state's racing industry. Industry stakeholders came together to talk about how to revamp the gambling, racing and off-track betting. NYRA's President and CEO Charles Hayward also testified at the hearing. He says he views this as an opportunity to make racing even better in the state of New York. "We can make huge strides or we can keep on doing what we are doing. Many people in this room can help better shape a future for horse racing and I hope that we choose to do so," Hayward said. Meanwhile, leaders from the company that is developing a large racino at Aqueduct Race Track in Queens is making a push for the state to allow table games in its racinos, which would also create at least 10,000 jobs. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
| Horse racing: Meet the face of Channel 4 racing and Racing UK INTERVIEW Posted: 06 Feb 2011 11:41 PM PST He's the face of Channel 4 Racing and the face of Racing UK – including on those memorable summer Saturday's in York. And now he's a new dad – no wonder top presenter Nick Luck is hard to track down! Luck's TV career is currently on the crest of a wave – the 32-year-old is contracted as both the main host for Channel 4 racing's revamped Morning Line as well as the main man bringing Racing UK's flagship meetings into our living rooms on Channel 432. The southerner's sharp wit and racing expertise sees him covering Yorkshire's courses for both channels and Luck admits in particular, the stellar meetings on the Knavesmire get his juices flowing to the full. And full just about sums the presenter's life up at present, with Luck recently becoming a father to six-month old daughter Clementine. Racing remains in the TV star's blood, but added to his hours of dedication to the sport of kings is now the responsiblity of being a parent. And while in day's of old Luck may have been busy with his head burrowed in a Racing Post, on this occassion the star needed phoning back in half-an-hour, because he was changing little Clementine's nappy! Speaking exclusively to the Yorkshire Evening Post this week, and firstly about fatherhood, Luck laughed: "That probably makes me sound very worthy, but I did happen to be changing a nappy. It probably sounds very convenient or gives that impression, but our daughter – Clementine – is nearly six months old. "That's our first baby, she was born on the 23rd of August and it's been great but it's obviously coincided with a lot of developments on the work front. "It's been fairly hectic for the last couple of months but it's been good fun. "Obviously the re-launch of the Morning Line has meant slightly greater "I've been contracted to do 50 of those this year so that's going to be quite an exacting schedule. "But it's a challenge I am really looking forward to taking up. "I think it was a format where a lot of people agreed we needed an overhaul and hopefully we are being bold enough to suit some people's needs whilst being conservative enough to maintain what we had already. "In terms of the week that is obviously taking quite a lot of planning up from Monday and Tuesday putting new ideas in place with the new producer Sophie Veats. "Then I am dove-tailing that in with my Racing UK work which is still very much a priority and I will be doing 140 camera facing days for them this year, including all the major Festivals so I've made a big commitment and I want to make a big commitment as well because I've been at the channel from day one. "It's an exciting time at Racing UK too, because they have just taken control of their own production so in both roles really the organisations are in transational phases. "There's a lot happening in my life as well so it's an exciting time." But while Luck's exciting career now takes him not only all over the UK but all over the globe, few places give the presenting ace more pleasure than a day at one of Yorkshire's courses with York being top of his bill. For now meetings at Wetherby, Catterick and Doncaster are keeping Yorkshire's racing folk happy, but even Friday's meeting at Catterick was cancelled due to high winds, and Luck is already excited about what the summer and God's Own County will have to offer. "I think anybody who has seen any of the Racing UK output would know that I'm pretty fond of my summer racing in Yorkshire!" said Luck. "That Go Racing In Yorkshire week has been absolutely fantastic, I enjoy coming up for it every year and I make it my business really to do every Racing UK course throughout the course of the year so I will always get through all the Yorkshire courses that we cover which is most of them. "I do most of the days at York, but also Beverley, Ponte', Redcar, Beverley, Thirsk and so on. "York's fantastic and those big summer Saturdays are awesome from an atmospheric point of view. It must be the only course in the country where the crowd are still roaring away at the last of eight races. "From a broadcaster's perspective it is always a pleasure to work there and you are always very well looked after. "Some racecourses are just fantastic to work at York and would be very near the top in that respect." Luck, who now lives in Teddington near Twickenham, always knew he would end up in the media but for all his obvious passions for the sport, never dreamed he would be lucky enough to land a role in racing. "I was very lucky in so far as I think if you'd have asked me from when I was quite young, maybe when I was 11 or 12 what I wanted to be I would always have said I wanted to be a journalist," he said. "Racing was always my passion because in part I had grown up around horses and my parents had been involved in racing a little bit. "But I was always more pre-occupied with the business of really studying the racing even while my parents had horses and I grew up in a pretty horsey evnvironment. "My mum still breeds National Hunt horses and when I was younger, my parents had horses with the trainer Josh Gifford, who is my godfather. "That got me hooked as I started following his horses a lot and it was an easy way to draw you in as that was back in the late 1980s when he was right at the top of the tree and was having winners at every big Festival. "That got me going, then I spent a year working in Kentucky so I became a lot more interested in Flat racing, American racing, Bloodstock, those kind of things. "Then I went off to university and did a degree in French, spent a year in Paris and went racing a lot while I was there. I came back and did a Masters in French Literature and I genuinely thought I would go into writing or broadcasting, but I didn't ever have any thoughts about a career in racing because I thought opportunities would be fairly few and far between. Eventually, an opportunity came up at the original At The Races on their American racing programme back in 2002. The rest has snowballed from there, really." Despite his heavy racing schedule, Luck says even he forces himself to take time out from the sport. "You have to be able to switch off from time to time," he said. "Otherwise you become completely overwhelmed by racing and nothing else "You do have to switch off to preserve your own sanity and the sanity of the people around you. "Having said that, I don't think you could broadcast for a living if you didn't really get a kick out it and I don't think you could talk about racing for a living unless you enjoyed going racing on an regular basis. "I'm pretty lucky because essentially I get paid to talk about my hobby and I enjoy working hard and applying myself really thoroughly. "I can't claim any sense of great worthiness or entitlement to cover that, it's just that I happen to be lucky to have found something that I enjoy doing enough. "By the same token, it's probably one of those things you couldn't do unless you did enjoy it and if you got up one day and thought 'I don't really fancy going' then you probably ought not to be doing it." The presenter himself though takes nothing for granted. "I'm 32 but time flies by quite quickly and if an opportunity ever came up to diversify or just consolidate in a slightly different way then I wouldn't want to let those opportunities pass," he said. "You might only get them once and you are flavour of the month for a very short space of time." He needn't really be worried though, and the next real biggy on Luck's agenda will be the Cheltenham Festival in March, which he will lead for Racing UK. Luck is not adverse to a spot of tipping and feels Nicky Henderson's as yet unhyped Spirit Son could be one to watch. "Obviously, Nicky Henderson has got a fantastic hand in the novice division," he said. "And I'm quite keen on a horse I saw winning at Huntingdon called Spirit Son who I just think might be quite special. I think he could be about again quite soon." Rest assured so too will Luck – when fatherhood's not calling that is. GIFT OF THE GAB: Racing writer and presenter Nick Luck This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
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