Officials for the New York Racing Association and the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association on Friday publicly acknowledged at a state legislative hearing that they have so far been unable to agree on the number of racing dates that should be run over the next two years at NYRA’s tracks.
Andrew Offerman, NYRA’s senior vice president of racing and operations, and NYTHA president Tina Marie Bond both cited the disagreement in testimony in front of a joint New York Assembly committee meeting on Friday in Albany. The hearing was called to hear testimony on issues affecting the Thoroughbred and Standardbred racing industries in the state.
According to the testimonies, NYRA appears to want to run approximately 10 less race dates next year, while horsemen are adamant that racing dates not be cut, even for the short term. While the difference appears meager, both sides prepared talking points to justify their positions in front of the committees.
Citing “concerning trends and seasonality” in field sizes, Offerman said that NYRA wanted to run a total of 190 days in 2026, with the latter portion of those dates held at Belmont Park, the Long Island track which will begin hosting most of NYRA’s racing dates when it reopens in mid-September of next year. NYRA was scheduled to run 200 live racing dates this year at Saratoga and Aqueduct, but a handful of racing dates have been canceled for weather conditions.
Offerman compared New York’s racing dates, including those at Finger Lakes Racetrack, with the total number of dates in Kentucky, where purses have doubled over the past 10 years due to massive growth in subsidies from new casinos owned and operated by the state’s racetracks. According to Offerman, New York runs 20 percent more racing days and 27 percent more races than Kentucky tracks, despite Kentucky offering 20 percent more in total purses.
“That’s created incredible competitive pressure on New York’s horsemen and racetracks,” Offerman said.
Cutting dates would lead to larger field sizes in the remaining races, more wagering on those races, and higher purses in the races, Offerman added.
Bond, who is also on NYRA’s board, said that any cut in racing dates would jeopardize the stability of stables that are already facing steep increases in costs over the past five years. Most of the horsemen who race in New York during the winter are year-round residents of the state, Bond said.
“It is our duty to ensure that they can generate the revenue to keep their small businesses on sound financial footing year-round,” Bond said.
Bond also said that any drop in racing dates would cripple momentum in the state’s breeding industry because breeders would grow uncertain about the direction of the state’s lucrative breeding incentive program. She also urged legislators to support a bill that would require NYRA to consult with horsemen on the distribution of the purse account.
NYRA said in prepared remarks submitted to the joint committees that it intended to increase racing dates to 200 once Belmont Park opens year-round in 2027. When the new Belmont Park opens, NYRA expects to hold the majority of its winter races over a synthetic racetrack, rather than dirt. Synthetic surfaces have generally attracted higher field sizes than dirt racetracks in cold-weather racing locations.
CAW curbs urged
Also at the hearing, two speakers provided testimony urging the committee members in attendance to consider measures to curb the activity of computer-assisted wagering groups in pools at New York tracks.
Marshall Gramm, a horse owner, breeder, and self-described “semi-professional bettor” who is a well-known advocate for bettors, credited NYRA for being the first major racing operator to restrict CAW play by shutting off its win pool to the teams with three minutes to post in 2021, but he said more needed to be done to cut down on late odds changes and “reduce rebate inequities” to restore confidence among the vast majority of bettors.
Gramm said that potential solutions include reducing the takeout in all NYRA pools to reduce the margin available for rebates to the CAW teams, as well as putting restrictions on late wagering for all “visible pools,” which are those pools in which all players can see will-pay prices prior to the race going off, such as the double, exacta, and win, place, and show bets.
Without action, either by legislators or racetracks, Gramm suggested, the sport is facing further drops in betting action among all players.
“There’s no one who I talk to, among people like me at the semi-professional level, whose handle has not dropped significantly,” Gramm said.
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