NYRA: Uncertainty Over Development Could Impact Handle

The New York Racing Association is not saying whether it will shift its early fall racing meet from Belmont Park to Aqueduct Racetrack, but its 2019 budget is making plans for the possibility of such a switch.

NYRA officials told the New York State Franchise Oversight Board this week that they envision the racing corporation's handle dropping 3% in 2019, in part because of "uncertainty" over a mega-development project due to begin construction sometime this year.

The $1 billion construction project, adjacent to the track at Belmont, will include a new arena for the NHL's New York Islanders as well as entertainment, retail, and restaurant space. Construction was due to start in May, though it has been pushed back until June, or perhaps later, as a state environmental review process is still underway.

In reviewing NYRA's proposed 2019 budget, Robert Williams, chairman of the state oversight board, told NYRA officials Thursday that the document had a "theme that all of the Belmont fall meet is moving to Aqueduct.'' 

But Williams, who is also executive director of the New York State Gaming Commission, which regulates NYRA and other gambling entities in New York, said he's seen no such change in NYRA's calendar request that it must submit to the state for approval.

NYRA officials told Williams they want to be "conservative" in the corporation's budget, so the document assumes—from a fiscal perspective—that racing in September and October will be run at Aqueduct instead of Belmont.

But NYRA officials during and after the franchise oversight board meeting cautioned that no decision had been made to actually move the fall meet to Aqueduct.

Besides the uncertainty over the fall-meet location, NYRA officials told the oversight board that they are budgeting for a drop in handle also because the NYRA budget is not assuming a Triple Crown being on the line at Belmont this year, like it was last year when Justify  swept the series and helped increase interest, and it has budgeted a 4.5% drop in handle this year at Saratoga Race Course.

That projection, however, was made before NYRA recently extended the Saratoga meet to accommodate possible disruption at Belmont because of the planned construction project there.

The Saratoga meet will run from July 11-September 2, adding an extra weekend of racing that should boost handle. But NYRA officials stressed to the oversight board that the Saratoga schedule change is only an "experiment.'' They did not elaborate, nor did they discuss in any great detail with the oversight board why handle would drop with a possible move to Aqueduct in September instead of the traditional late summer/early fall meet at Belmont.