Yonkers Raceway Casino Reopening
Yonkers will end its 2020 season with the New York Sire Stakes Night of Champions, but a number of stakes, including the Yonkers Trot and Messenger Stakes, have been cancelled for the year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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by Debbie Little
When Yonkers Raceway returned to action on Monday, June 22 after being sidelined for 15 weeks by the coronavirus pandemic, it seemed like everything was back on track at the historic Hilltop oval.
YONKERS – Empire City Casino by MGM Resorts has suspended operations at its casino and harness track, Yonkers Raceway, with an anticipated reopening within 14 days. Empire City learned on Tuesday, March 10 that an employee of the Standardbred Owners Associations, the harness horsemen association, tested positive for COVID-19 before dying. Yonkers Raceway is the proud home of three major harness events: the Yonkers Trot, Art Rooney Pace and Messenger. Yonkers Raceway is the proud home of three major harness events: the Yonkers Trot, Art Rooney Pace and Messenger Stakes. The largest casino in the Northeast, MGM Resorts Empire City Casino which is just north of New York City in Yonkers announced that it will reopen at 25% capacity to the public on Sept.
But with their casino still dark, the wheels came off on Monday, Aug. 18, when a joint press release from Empire City Casino by MGM Resorts and the Standardbred Owners Association of New York (SOA) announced an agreement to extend racing only through Saturday, Sept. 12, which is New York Sire Stakes (NYSS) Night of Champions.
“The casino has been closed since March, so that’s a long time of no money coming in for purses,” said Yonkers Raceway director of racing Alex Dadoyan. “And it’s not just the casino. Even though we have been open with racing, we have not been able to have people on property to wager either for the live racing or for simulcasting. The Saratoga [thoroughbred] meet is running upstate and that’s always the top simulcast signal for any track where you can generate some money on simulcasting and we’ve not been open the whole time.”
The release explains that racing would have ceased in August if not for this agreement where MGM Resorts will continue to pay operating expenses and the SOA will contribute $1.2 million to purses.
Raceway Casino Yonkers
“Maybe people outside of the paddock at Yonkers weren’t aware, but I’ve been telling everybody when the purses run out, racing will stop here. Period. End of sentence,” said SOA president Joe Faraldo.
“And then we decided to do this little bridge thing with the $1.2 million, which I was hoping we wouldn’t have to do. Maybe Christ could turn water into wine, but the SOA can’t turn pennies into millions of dollars. It just isn’t going to happen.”
The $1.2 million is coming from the SOA treasury and is not purse money. It is money that would otherwise be used for administration, welfare and retirement benefits for their membership, but the SOA did not believe that this amount would affect the form of benefits or services that they provide.
“I’ll do what I can do,” said Faraldo. “And that $1.2 million, that’s not something to sneeze about.”
The SOA of New York is stepping up to do this because we’re concerned about the Night of Champions. The vast majority of the funding [for Night of Champions] comes from revenue generated at Yonkers Raceway from racing as a minor component and from the VLTs as a major component. So we didn’t want to see all that effort go down the drain.”
Since returning to racing in June, the SOA has tried to be strategic and creative when it came to doling out their purse monies. They even picked up some sire stakes races originally scheduled for Monticello, because racing four nights with one NYSS night means only three nights would come from their purse account.
“In this economic time it is beneficial,” said Faraldo. “Because in normal times sometimes those (NYSS) races do not generate betting interest like your regular overnights, but in these times it’s absolutely essential that we have that. And actually I think the best night we had was all sire stakes which I couldn’t figure out at all. It hasn’t repeated but it did happen once this year. I’m glad we had enough reserves to get us through as long as we did. I wish we had more or that I had more alternatives, but I don’t.”
Even though Night of Champions is secure on the calendar, other stakes were not so fortunate.
The Yonkers Trot, the Messenger Stakes and their companion races – the New York, New York Mile (formerly the Hudson Filly Trot) and the MGM Park Place (formerly the Lady Maud) – are casualties of COVID-19.
Yonkers Raceway Casino Bus Schedule
“There was no more money, and if you read the release, the SOA made some maneuvers to fund for another month or so and they chose not to have those stakes and use that money for overnights instead,” said Dadoyan.
Dadoyan informed the Hambletonian Society when the decision was made to cancel the stakes with the hope that another track would step up to host the historic Triple Crown races.
“I did make some calls to various jurisdictions and a couple of tracks and nobody has any excess dollars to put into those races,” said Hambletonian Society president John Campbell. “The first priority for the SOA is to get their overnight horsemen and overnight horses raced and then the stakes would be another priority.”
It’s a balancing act putting on stakes for all these jurisdictions. I think every jurisdiction and every horsemen’s association realizes the importance of stakes to the industry, to the owners, the trainers and the breeding industry.”
According to Hambletonian Society stakes manager David Janes, a total of 47 colt trotters and 40 filly trotters made their 3-year-old payments on Feb. 15 for the Yonkers Trot and New York, New York Mile and as per the conditions, the monies will be prorated among the owners of the horses eligible at the time of cancellation.
Yonkers Raceway Casino Reopening Atlantic City
The same conditions apply to the 44 colt pacers and 39 filly pacers for the Messenger and Park Place.
“Obviously everyone can’t wait to get back to some sense of normal and we’re all hoping for a return to that,” said Dadoyan. “Having Empire City Casino open and having Yonkers Raceway resume and get back to some bit of normal. There hasn’t been a lot of normal in this area for the last six months or so, so everyone, in all aspects of life, is looking forward to a return to what was normal.”
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Standardbred Owners Association of New York recently made it clear that horse racing enthusiasts might see the return of live racing in the foreseeable future. Yonkers Raceway could reopen by the end of this month, as President Joe Faraldo recently confirmed. He also pointed out that this comes with its various challenges and requirements.
Horse people across New York State have been looking forward to the moment when they would return to live horse racing once again and be able to rely on the steady income of regular Standardbred races. Over the past couple of months, they were unable to do so, as physical distancing is still the recommended practice and live races were postponed. Now it is time for some changes.
Standardbred Owners Association of New York
Yonkers Raceway has the capacity to entertain individuals across the region with its diverse gaming and live entertainment products. Along with the live horse racing available on the premises of the racecourse individuals also have the chance to explore the racino. It has electronic video terminals up for grabs and players are often drawn to them whenever they visit Yonkers Raceway.
Empire City Casino saw about 1,000 workers put on furlough mid-March, as the situation across New York State was dynamically changing. There are 4,700 slot machines sprinkled across its gaming floor overseen by MGM Resorts. The casino operator is willing to see the reopening of both the gaming venue and the Standardbred racetrack, as this would support their future operation, the local horse people, as well as the community.
Yonkers Raceway Casino Jobs
The willingness to see live racing return to Yonkers Raceway is among the main engines that would see it happen in the upcoming weeks. Projections made by Mr. Faraldo are that locals could see live racing events return in the second or third week of this month. The President made it clear that the racetrack’s situation is rather complicated at the moment.
What’s to Come?
It does not feature a substantial number of racehorses as it is, but at the same time the safety measures it should comply with are more restricting than the ones mandatory for horse racetracks to the likes of Vernon Downs, Tioga Downs, Buffalo Raceway, Saratoga Downs, and Batavia Downs. Those racetracks have their racehorses on their premises.
When it comes to Yonkers Raceway, racehorses are being shipped in, which would then require the physical distancing of the individuals taking care of this. Mr. Faraldo stated that this is making the situation more complicated for the racetrack in comparison to rival horse racing hotspots. In the meantime, MGM Resorts is working on ways in which it could alleviate the process. This includes the installation of new faucets optimizing the process of washing hands.
Plexiglass screens are also going to be installed at the race office on the premises of Yonkers Raceway. In the meantime, Monticello Raceway refuses to open without horse people giving up their on-track handle, off-track betting revenue, and more. Mr. Faraldo expressed concerns that casino gambling would take advantage of local horse racing and undermine its future success.