Belmont celebrations mask racing’s money troubles

NEW YORK, (Reuters) – The connections of the horse  that wins today’s $1 million Belmont Stakes may not be the  only ones struggling to contain their emotions when the final  leg of the Triple Crown is over.

Officials at the New York Racing Association (NYRA) might  also be tempted to spontaneously join in the celebrations after  enduring a tumultuous month in which they faced the prospect of  shutting down for the rest of the season and sacking more than  1,000 people because of financial problems.

The Belmont Stakes is one of the world’s great races and  Saturday’s event should be an epic event, with a massive crowd  expected to roll into the picturesque track on a perfect  summer’s day.

But the roar of the crowd and the colorful sights of a  packed course will only mask the problems NYRA has faced and  could encounter in these turbulent times for the equine  industry.

Just a few weeks ago, NYRA, which runs tracks at Belmont,  Saratoga and Aqueduct, announced that the rest of the 2010  season might have to be cancelled after Saturday’s 142nd  Belmont Stakes and there was no guarantee there would be a  143rd edition next year.

NYRA posted the grim notices to 1,400 employees that  layoffs would start a few days after their showcase race before  the New York state government intervened.

The government, which had been slow out of the gates in  their promise of approving video lottery machines, hurriedly  passed a bill giving NYRA a loan to keep it afloat.

“If we didn’t get the money from the state we were going to  have to close down because we wouldn’t have had the money  potentially to make payroll,” NYRA President Charlie Hayward  told Reuters. “That was all real, people thought we were bluffing or  there was some sort of brinkmanship going on, but the state  came to realise that they didn’t want to shut down racing.” John Sabini, chairman of the New York State’s Racing and  Wagering Board, also conceded the club was in a dire position  because of circumstances outside its control, including the  bankruptcy of Off-Track Betting (OTB), which provides about 10  percent of the NYRA’s revenues.
“It was at a point where something had to be done,” Sabini  told Reuters. “There was some significant danger.”

While the financial bailout has ensured the short-term  survival of racing in New York and plenty of smiling faces when  Saturday’s winner is presented with the traditional garland of  white carnations, both NYRA and the state agree that much has  to be done to safeguard the long-term future of horse racing,  not only in New York but in the rest of the United States.

ATTENDANCE DECLINES

Attendance and betting turnover across the country have  been steadily declining for years with tracks from coast to  coast battling financial difficulties.

Some of the biggest meetings, including the Breeders’ Cup,  face uncertain futures, while administrators are struggling to  find ways of drawing a new generation of racegoers to the  track.