New York State of Mind - by Dan Liebman

Blood-Horse Staff — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 13:41:00 GMT

After many years in the same profession, it is not uncommon to feel the need for a new and greater challenge. Charlie Hayward fit that bill, so in November 2004, following a lengthy career in publishing, Hayward was named the president and CEO of the New York Racing Association.

If it was a challenge he wanted, Hayward was in the right spot.

In fact, he was brought in, Hayward said Sept. 13, “to fix things.” And there was much to fix.

At the time of his appointment, NYRA was operating under a court-appointed monitor overseeing its operations after the organization was being indicted and fined $3 million for its role in a tax-fraud scheme by employees. Investigators had uncovered widespread abuses; NYRA was bleeding millions month after month; the battle for a new franchise agreement was looming.

A challenge? You might say that.

In November 2006, a non-binding decision by the Ad Hoc Committee on the Future of Racing recommended that Excelsior Racing Associates be awarded the franchise to run racing at Aqueduct, Belmont, and Saratoga racetracks.

At about the same time, NYRA filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, claiming the state’s failure to approve a long-stalled casino project for Aqueduct had pushed it toward insolvency.

The committee was formed under the administration of Gov. George Pataki. Following the election of Gov. Eliot Spitzer, a full review was made and final bids for the franchise were accepted last year from four groups—Excelsior, NYRA, Capital Play, and Empire Racing Associates.

In the end, after much negotiation and political give-and-take, Spitzer formally recommended that NYRA receive a new 25-year franchise agreement. A key was NYRA’s release of a claim that it owns the land upon which the three tracks sit, acreage presently valued at $1 billion.

On Sept. 10, signatures were placed on 17 different documents, and the following day the bankruptcy court signed off on things. On Sept. 12, it was announced NYRA had emerged from bankruptcy and was officially the new franchise holder.

The state is also giving NYRA $105 million to help it emerge from its Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

A key question remains: Who will operate the video lottery terminals at Aqueduct? Three entities are bidding for the right to install the 4,500 machines.

Asked his three priorities for the new NYRA, now incorporated as a not-for-profit company, Hayward said the first will happen by the time this column is read by most.

“On Wednesday (Sept. 17), we are meeting with our employees to thank them for their hard work, their good frame of mind through everything, and to talk about the future,” Hayward said.

Second…“We won’t have any revenue from VLTs for at least 15-18 months, so we need to do priority planning. We are working on a long-term plan for our facilities.”

Third…“From a business perspective, we need to work with the OTB network. We need to consider rationalization and consolidation. It is a broken system.”

There are those on both sides of the argument as to whether or not NYRA should have received the new franchise agreement. Certainly the state gaining title to the land was a huge bargaining chip.

The state also has more oversight, the new board consisting of members chosen both by the state and the racing association.

New York is the most important racing circuit in North America, and its survival is critical to the entire industry. At the three tracks operated by NYRA, 23% of all graded stakes are run (110 of 481), and 35% of grade I contests (38 of 110).

The handle by New York citizens, and the total handle on New York races, is second to none, and the purses paid to horsemen, partly due to a strong state-bred program, are also significant.

NYRA has a new life, but many challenges lay ahead. The entire Thoroughbred industry needs to help the new holder of the franchise more than it helped the former franchise holders.

Just Like Yesterday - by Dan Liebman

Blood-Horse Staff — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 14:15:00 GMT

There are moments along the Triple Crown trail that remain forever etched in our minds. For this writer, one of those was April 27, 1978.

Prior to the Blue Grass Stakes (gr. I) at Keeneland, then run just nine days before the Run for the Roses, Jorge Velasquez slowly walked local favorite Alydar from the post parade and toward the outside rail. There, the jockey stood the dark chestnut before his elderly, frail owners, Adm. and Mrs. Gene Markey.

The Markeys, who owned historic Calumet Farm near Keeneland, beamed as their latest star stood glistening under the farm’s easily recognizable red and blue silks and blinkers.

Though it happened 30 years ago, one can still see the station wagon pulling onto the grass beside the clubhouse, and Mrs. Markey walking to the rail with the aid of a Keeneland usher.

For a racing crazy University of Kentucky student in the last year of his teens, Alydar winning that day by 13 meant only one thing—he would be Calumet’s ninth Kentucky Derby winner.

Of course, it was not to be. Alydar’s nemesis, Affirmed, won all three Triple Crown races, and Alydar became the only horse to run second throughout the classic series. In fact, the Derby (gr. I) was by far the least exciting of the three races, Affirmed scoring by 1 1⁄2 lengths. The two were separated by only a neck in the Preakness (gr. I), and put on a show in the Belmont (gr. I) that will be recorded as one of the greatest races of all time. For the final six-plus furlongs, they ran together, Affirmed a determined head in front at the wire.

The evening of April 20, 2008, this writer watched the 1978 Triple Crown races for the first time in 30 years. And as Alydar put his head briefly in front at the three-sixteenths pole in the Belmont, emotions rushed back of knowing Alydar would get his revenge in the Test of the Champion.

We all know what happened. Affirmed was that good.

As a 2-year-old, Affirmed made nine starts and won seven. He finished second twice…to Alydar.

As a 2-year-old, Alydar made 10 starts and won five. He finished second four times. His connections thought so much of him they ran him first time out in the Youthful Stakes at Belmont, which Affirmed won by five lengths, with Alydar finishing fifth. Affirmed would beat him three more times that year, and Alydar also finished second in the Remsen Stakes (gr. II) to Believe It.

A few weeks ago, The Blood-Horse arranged to reunite the jockeys of Affirmed (Steve Cauthen) and Alydar (Velasquez). Features editor Lenny Shulman asked questions, replayed the Triple Crown races, and sat back and listened for two hours. As he notes in his introduction, the tape of the races was really not needed—each day, each workout, each step of the races remembered as if it were yesterday.

Besides the remembrance in this issue, four lengthy video pieces with the jockeys will air in the coming weeks. (Watch the video here.)

It was a great rivalry, perhaps the greatest.

“Alydar and Affirmed were six or seven lengths better than the rest of their generation. Simple as that. Alydar would run away from his fields, but Affirmed would only do it when Alydar was there to make him do it,” Cauthen said.

“These two horses were like Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier. They always brought the best out in each other,” Velasquez said.

”The longest three weeks of my life was the time between the Preakness and the Belmont,” Cauthen said, later adding, “There wasn’t a lot between those two horses. One small mistake, one little thing, can switch it either way.”

It is the stuff movies are made of.

Here’s hoping some movie producer thinks so.

What's Going On Here : belmont

New York State of Mind - by Dan Liebman

Just Like Yesterday - by Dan Liebman