If appearance translates into reality, then the New York Racing Association is on a steady course to greener pastures after new NYRA chairman David Skorton directed with “a feeling of urgency” Friday’s meeting of the NYRA Reorganization Board that called for substantive changes to increase equine safety, including less winter racing at Aqueduct, and closed with an impassioned plea by new board member “Iron Chef” Bobby Flay to transform Belmont Park into a destination location.
Skorton also presented a “Three Year Work Plan” for the largely state-appointed board, which will revert to private control by 2016, and said that current NYRA president and chief operating officer Ellen McClain, who announced her resignation at the meeting, will stay on at least through March 31 during the transition to a new chief executive officer.
A search committee headed by Skorton will engage a search firm and a compensation advisor to hire the new CEO.
Earlier this month, in the wake of an alarming spike in catastrophic injuries at Aqueduct when four horses broke down in three racing days, Skorton directed board member Anthony Bonomo, who heads NYRA’s Equine Health and Safety Committee, to come up with immediate steps to nip the problem in the bud.
“This is one area we have to be bold and move as fast as possible,” Skorton said yesterday.
Bonomo, presenting his proposals, said, “One fatality is one too many. To say we will accept the status quo is not true. We have an obligation to the horses and an obligation to the jockeys to keep them out of harm’s way.”
To this end, Bonomo said, “We are putting safety ahead of finance” in his committee’s recommendation to immediately authorize NYRA to race about seven days less this winter at Aqueduct than the dates mandated by the state.
The board approved the recommendation unanimously. The approval of the state legislature will be needed, but Skorton indicated that should not be a problem.
His three-year plan called for eight steps to be taken: 1. Establish, oversee and support an optimal management structure and leadership for NYRA. 2. Implement best practices to promote equine health and safety. 3. Optimize the racing experience for NYRA customers. 4. Enhance quality of racing at NYRA tracks to maintain NYRA’s traditional position of national leadership. 5. Judiciously employ new technologies to the benefit of the wagering public. 6. Optimize NYRA relations with its host communities, racing organizations and relevant governmental entities within New York State. 7. Ensure that NYRA’s operations ensure a safe working environment for its employees and support vibrant local and state-wide economies. 8. Prepare NYRA for re-privatization.
Flay – who earlier voiced his distaste of winter racing, saying, “The product is not good” – closed the meeting with his call to revitalize Belmont Park with new restaurants and retail stores so that “people in their 20’s and 30’s wake up and say ‘let’s go to Belmont because it’s fun to be there.’
“I’m here [on the board] to help create that experience,” said the noted celebrity chef, who has a string of successful eateries across the country. “Belmont is our biggest opportunity. We have some funds to spend, let’s get started.”
After one of the older board members noted such plans had been on the drawing board for years, but had been stymied for a variety of reasons, Skorton said, “This is a different time in the life of NYRA.” He then proposed reviving those old plans while forming a team to do long-term thinking about NYRA.
* After nine months in exile, former NYRA CEO Charles Hayward — fired last May by the NYRA board over the takeout scandal that paved the way for Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s hostile takeover of the troubled association — resurfaced on Thursday, issuing a statement that said he had been fired without cause based on a false interim report by the State Racing and Wagering Board; that he was not allowed to respond to the charges; and that he cooperated with two subsequent investigations (the findings of which have never been released).
Hayward concluded his statement by saying, “I had an employment agreement with NYRA and met all my obligations. I expect NYRA to do the same.”
That could include paying Hayward the remainder of his $475,000 a year salary, along with a possible severance package and bonuses.
Hayward’s demands could set up a confrontation with the governor, who is known to play hardball. (Just ask the last NYRA board.)
If this were a match race between the two, Cuomo would be the odds-on favorite. But seeing as New York State is not without blame — neither the State Racing and Wagering Board nor the state’s racing Franchise Oversight Board caught NYRA’s failure to lower the takeout on exotic wagering, as mandated by law, that led to Hayward’s departure — perhaps Cuomo will decide simply to pay him.