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Aqueduct will stay open for training

Posted: Wednesday, March 31, 2010 6:03 PM

by Paul Post
 
The New York Racing Association has shelved a cost-cutting plan to eliminate training at Aqueduct but will take drastic steps to stay open through the Belmont Park and Saratoga Race Course meetings.

Previously, NYRA said it could save $300,000 per month by shutting down Aqueduct training when racing shifts to Belmont in late April. Plans called for moving about 400 horses from Aqueduct to Belmont, Saratoga and perhaps some out-of-state tracks.

NYRA is faced with a major cash-flow problem resulting from three main problems: the declines in the economy and wagering, the state’s inability to open a racino at Aqueduct, and New York City Off-Track Betting Corp.’s bankruptcy.

Many industry leaders are concerned NYRA might not be able to stay open this spring and summer.

“It’s going to be close,” Rick Violette, a prominent trainer, NYRA board member, and New York Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association president, said on Wednesday.

Despite its cost-saving potential, the Aqueduct training reversal comes as NYRA is trying to stave off competition from Monmouth Park in New Jersey, which will offer purses of $1-million per day during a 50-day, weekends only racing program this year.

Many horses soon will be heading north from Florida and taking up stall space at Belmont. If NYRA eliminated training at Aqueduct, many horses currently stabled there would have to find homes elsewhere and would not be available to race this spring at Belmont, negatively impacting its program, Violette said.

On Friday, NYRA eliminated 12 jobs whose combined salaries totaled $1.4-million. Senior Vice President/Chief Administrative Officer John Ryan, with a $295,000 salary, was the highest-ranking official to be let go.

NYRA is in such dire straits that those jobs would not have been safe even if Aqueduct training had been eliminated, Violette said.
 
New York City OTB says it is running out of money and is scheduled to close on April 11. State leaders are working on a plan to keep the company open, but there is a significant concern that New York City OTB’s statutory payments to NYRA will be severely reduced or delayed.

“It is our hope to get through the Saratoga meet and go from there, although what happens with New York City OTB has the potential to impact our plans,” NYRA President Charles Hayward said. “The New York City OTB situation is still very precarious and we are hopeful that the Legislature will intervene.”

Paul Post is a New York-based Thoroughbred Times correspondent