ALBANY — The New York Racing Association put its top two officials on unpaid leave yesterday after a report suggested racing officials knowingly withheld nearly $8.5 million due bettors over 15 months.
The suspensions of NYRA president and CEO Charles Hayward and senior vice president and general counsel Patrick Kehoe follow a state Racing & Wagering Board report indicating racing honchos intentionally kept payouts to bettors below legal thresholds from September 2010 to last December.
NYRA board chairman C. Steven Duncker said NYRA — which operates Aqueduct, Belmont and Saratoga racetracks — will cooperate fully with state inquiries.
Gov. Cuomo yesterday called the report “shocking.”
“If the facts are correct, it’s very troubling,” Cuomo told reporters.
He would not comment specifically about Hayward, saying he wanted to wait for his inspector general to investigate potential criminality.
NYRA continued to keep 26 percent on payouts for “exotic” bets such as trifectas even after it was supposed to reduce its take to no more than 25 percent in September 2010.