NYRA Board Taps Bonomo as New Chairman

The board of the New York Racing Association has tapped Anthony Bonomo as the new NYRA chairman.



The selection of Bonomo, who races horses under his Brooklyn Boyz Stables and MEB Stables, came not during an open board meeting but was done by a proxy vote of his colleagues.



It also came as state lawmakers in Albany were approving a new state budget that will keep NYRA from emerging from its state control period later this year. NYRA, whose board is controlled by a majority of state government appointees, including Bonomo, was to have emerged from a three-year state oversight period in October.



The new state budget, though, prevents NYRA from morphing into a privately-run enterprise until 2016.

"I guess the governor wanted to keep the status quo,'' Senate Racing and Wagering Committee chairman John Bonacic said March 31 of Gov. Andrew Cuomo. "I thought this past year NYRA's performance was satisfactory, not great, not poor, but satisfactory. So I didn't see the harm in extended it another year."



Bonacic noted that NYRA also failed to produce a plan, as required by law, outlining new governance and other structural changes to take it out of the government control period. "They kicked the can down the road for another year,'' the Republican lawmaker said.



The selection of Bonomo was first reported by the Saratogian newspaper and a NYRA board member April 1 confirmed Bonomo's appointment.



However, there has been no comment all day from NYRA. The position of NYRA board chairman is supposed to be, by law, a recommendation of the governor with approval by the NYRA board.



In the 2012 reorganization law, Bonomo was one of the board appointments of Cuomo. His biography on the NYRA web site lists him as president of Administrators for the Professions, an insurance company management group that runs a major medical liability insurance carrier.



Bonomo replaces Dr. David Skorton, who left the NYRA board after he was tapped to run the Smithsonian.