According to an AP wire report, the NY Times Fri edition identified the Autotote employee as Chris Harn, who just happens to be the same age as Davis, but that detail is not in the midwest edition. Drape's error-filled article indicates that the two may have been roomates in Phila., & yet another report indicates that Davis attended an Engineering School in Pa. Voila! Although it probably won't appear in print until a police investigator hands the info over to a reporter on a silver platter, the two culprits attended Drexel together, & Harn was a member of the local Alpha Tau Chapter of Tau Kappa Epsilon.

Hegarty's article today pts out that while Groth was sayingthe bet was legit & should be paid, he knew that that he had not installed the security device that would have recorded the bets. His excuse is that the system was relatively new, which might be true for Groth but is certainly not true in the industry. It would make sense that the conspirators selected Groth's operation because they somehow knew this. Anyone have a guess as to why that might be true? You have to absolutely love Groth's comments that this is "a big left turn in the story."

Hegarty's article also points out that while Weil & Pierce,wereholding conf calls & making public pronouncements about how this could not possibly have happened at Autotote, the security logs of Autotote employees entering & leaving the tote system were missing. I didn't think it possible, but these two are even worse than they appeared to be in the conf call yesterday.

If yet another task force is going to be formed, I say that the bettors who were swindled ought to have at least as many members as the two slots which have apparently been promised to Autotote. I will make that position known to the member of the Jockey Club I know, & let everyone who supports that position know the best way they can email Mr. Phipps to let him & the task force know what they think. Don't let this pass in favor of this week's action. The only way things get done is to do them.