Make-or-Break Moment for Belmont Park

With state officials set to determine this month whether to okay a major borrowing plan by the New York Racing Association for a new Belmont Park  racetrack, dozens of supporters descended on the state Capitol in Albany on the morning of March 13 to press for the $455 million capital construction package.

The plan, embraced by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul in her 2023 budget plan that is being considered now by lawmakers, is backed as job creation, economic development, and a financial lifeline for the horse racing and breeding industries in the state.

Opponents, however, say the state has propped up NYRA and horse racing with money that should have gone to pressing needs in the state, including education and health care. Opponents have been joined by animal rights groups.

On Monday, though, proponents sought to portray a united front across various sectors, including breeders, horsemen, jockeys, unions, backstretch workers, and upstate and statewide business interests that rely on the Long Island-based Belmont Park for everything from its impact on racing in Saratoga Springs to agricultural businesses that supply Thoroughbred racing operations.

"If you care about horses, you want this deal… The time to do it is now,'' said Sen. Joseph Addabbo, a Queens Democrat who chairs the Senate racing, gaming, and wagering committee.

The group of proponents, who filled one part of the Million Dollar Staircase at the Capitol's third floor, including representatives of the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association, New York Thoroughbred Breeders, horse farm owners, jockeys, and lawmakers from upstate and downstate.

"Revitalizing Belmont is important for the entire industry, including the breeding farms,'' Assemblywoman Carrie Woerner, a Saratoga Springs Democrat, said of horse farms in her district that rely on business ties with Belmont.

"When you support the new Belmont, you support union jobs,'' Anthony Villa, business manager of a carpenter's union on Long Island, said to cheers from the rally participants.

The New York Racing Association has been pitching a plan to have the state lend its $455 million to finance a new Belmont Park, which would include a major overhaul and rebuilding of track areas, grandstand, and opening of the infield for large racing and entertainment events.

The state would issue a capital loan to initially finance the project, which could be completed in three years. NYRA would then tap into money it receives—under a revenue-sharing program authorized by the state—to pay back the state at least $25.8 million annually until the loan is closed.

NYRA notes Belmont, along with Aqueduct Racetrack | BloodHorse.com Track Profile">Aqueduct Racetrack and Saratoga Race Course | BloodHorse.com Track Profile">Saratoga Race Course, are state-owned assets and that its plan would greatly increase the value of Belmont. Additionally, NYRA has agreed to relinquish its lease on Aqueduct once the Belmont work is completed, thereby ending racing at the Queens track and making the valuable parcel open to future, unknown economic development plans by the state.

The timing of the rally Monday was planned to coincide with the release this week by Democrats who run the state Assembly and Senate of their own state spending plans. Those plans will either embrace, perhaps with some changes, or reject the Hochul Belmont plan that she unveiled earlier this year in her 2023 state budget package. The so-called "one house" fiscal plans don't represent the final say on the issue, but serve as indicators where the majority party lawmakers in the two houses stand on the borrowing plan.

The Monday rally was streamed live on Twitter by We Are NY Horse Racing, a group led by NYRA that is pushing the plan. Pink hearts would occasionally float up on the screen sent by supporters watching the feed who liked what one speaker or another was saying.

But messages by unknown opponents also popped up on the group's Twitter feed during the live stream. "Horse racing needs to pay their own way,'' one message read, which echoes the views of some critics who call payments and revenue-sharing provided to horse racing as akin to corporate welfare. 

"Why not let some of the exploited backstretch workers (speak),'' another message said before disappearing from the Twitter feed.

The state budget for this fiscal year is due by March 31, meaning the Belmont matter is fast approaching a make-or-break moment. A similar plan died last year when lawmakers objected to such a large financial package for NYRA; some have noted that the borrowing payback plan for Belmont is stretched out over 30 years, while NYRA's current exclusive franchise to operate Belmont and the other two tracks runs out in 2033. Backers of the plan say the state, should NYRA lose the franchise rights in a decade, could impose the payback terms on whoever might replace NYRA.

"It's a loan. It's not a giveaway,'' Sen. Leroy Comrie, a Queens Democrat, told the Capitol crowd.