Rally at Belmont to save jobs

Hundreds of Elmont residents joined horse breeders and trainers from across the state at Belmont Park last week to fight for the installation of video lottery terminals at downstate racetracks.

Over the past few months, Elmont community leaders, business owners and legislators have all jumped into the fray in an effort to persuade the state to help revitalize the area around Belmont Park. Last Sunday, they were joined in the stands at Belmont Park by hundreds of people who make their careers in horseracing.

Breeders and trainers, most of whom spend weeks and months at a time shuttling back and forth between Aqueduct and Belmont, said they have grown sick and tired of watching the years tick by without action by the state on the pledge to install video lottery terminals in their facilities.

Numerous times during the rally, the breeders, trainers and track employees mentioned that the state sacrifices $1 million a day by not having VLTs. While the number may be debatable, the impact on local lives is not, they said.

Martin Harding, a horse groom who lives in Brooklyn, stood on the sun-soaked red brick by the racetrack and held a sign indicating his hope for VLTs at Aqueduct. “I came here to try to save my job,” Harding said. “There’s a lack of revenue coming into the industry, and that’s forcing trainers to cut help. So we got to work to get the slots in there so that purses can go up and trainers can hire more people.”

Sandra Smith, co-chair of the Elmont Coalition for Sustainable Development, said that breeders and trainers were in the same situation as local business owners, whose livelihoods also depend on the track. “Everybody’s in the same boat, looking for the same thing,” Smith said. “It’s not just the horseracing industry, it’s the Elmont community [that’s] at stake, as well. I’m fighting for revitalization in Elmont. If we lose Belmont, that’s a huge portion of this community.”

Many at the rally who live and work in Elmont said that breeders and trainers are members of the community’s fragile economic balance, even if they operate farms upstate. The fact that so much of racing’s focus falls on Elmont, they said, makes their livelihoods crucial to the community.

The rally was organized by the New York Thoroughbred Breeders and the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen’s associations in an effort to draw more attention to the issue of VLTs at local tracks. “It has been nine years since the powers in Albany promised to bring video lottery terminals to Belmont, Aqueduct and Saratoga race tracks,” said Rick Violette, president of the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association. “Their inability to do so has driven star horses to race in other states which can offer larger purses.”

The unmentioned fear among the rally participants was the possibility that the racing industry in New York state could collapse.

“We have gathered here today to tell an entire generation of Albany leaders that we have no intention of dying,” said Jeffrey Cannizzo, executive director of the New York Thoroughbred Breeders. “We have every intention of making our voices heard, and we have every intention of making sure they do their jobs so that we can do ours.”

The argument has been brewing for years, since the state promised the New York Racing Association in 2001 that VLTs would be installed at places like Aqueduct Racetrack and Belmont Park as a way to augment revenues in the face of declining attendance. Since then, VLTs have been installed only at upstate tracks, leaving the state’s racing authority without a significant year-round source of revenue at Aqueduct and a big boost at Belmont Park.

NYRA recently said as much at a hearing held in Elmont, even going so far as to threaten to cancel the Belmont Stakes, the third leg of horseracing’s triple crown, if VLTs were not installed or cash was not generated with another solution. Ultimately, the racing authority rearranged its schedule to ensure the Belmont Stakes would be run.

Most recently, racing officials were disappointed when the contractor that had been selected by Gov. David Paterson to install VLTs at Aqueduct had its contract rescinded because of doubts that had been raised about the transparency and legitimacy of the contract process.

Many of the speakers who addressed the crowd pointed to dysfunction in Albany, saying that the recent scuttling of Aqueduct Entertainment Group’s bid to install VLTs at Aqueduct was proof that the process needed to be reviewed, and that a new company could and should be selected quickly.

Local Republican legislators promised to work for those who came holding signs pushing for VLTs. Attendees wore the bright red hats handed out at the gate that were emblazoned with the slogan “Real Jobs, Real People,” and the words became a rallying cry at several points in the rally.

“I’m here today to pledge my support and offer the tools and resources of Nassau County in any way that they can help to keep this industry alive, keep it vibrant and honor the good work that you do,” County Executive Ed Mangano told the crowd.

“The impact will not only be on the employees that are here, but on the surrounding businesses,” said Legislator John Ciotti (R-Elmont). “The economic times today are tough, we all know that. The economic times today are really tough.”

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