New York Racing Association

With 159 winners from 587 starters (27.09%), trainer Chad Brown secured an eighth consecutive year-ending training title at the tracks of the New York Racing Association (NYRA). Over the course of 196 racing days, Brown's runners finished in the top three 59.28% of the time. It was the Mechanicville native's best season on the NYRA circuit, surpassing the 154 he recorded in 2018. He completed the year with total New York purse earnings of just over $17.9 million. "It means a lot and I'm so proud of my team," said...

Richie Gazer, the longtime NYRA head clocker who is set to begin a 30-day suspension and pay a $2,500 fine for "altering a published work of a horse to make the horse eligible to race," has been denied a stay of his penalties by the New York State Gaming Commission (NYSGC) while he seeks to elevate the case to the state court level. Gazer's attorney, Karen Murphy, confirmed the NYSGC's denial to TDN on Friday afternoon, shortly after the commission emailed her the decision stating the stay would not be...

There would be no fairytale ending Thursday at Aqueduct for trainer Rick Schosberg. Silken Dollar (Central Banker), the last horse he will start before retiring from training, finished eighth in Thursday's fourth race at Aqueduct. That's OK. Schosberg, 61, learned a long time ago that the life of a horse trainer is never that easy. "Obviously the game has changed with the emergence of unlimited stall allocations," Schosberg said. "It's really affected the competitiveness of it. It used to be that every barn had a different outfit. Now there are...

Red Oak Stable (Stephen P. Brunetti) and Madaket Stable's (Sol Kumin) Mind Control (Stay Thirsty--Feel That Fire, by Lightnin N Thunder) winner of the GI $750,000 Cigar Mile at Aqueduct on Dec. 3 in the final start of his career, will stand at Rockridge Stud in New York under the management of Irish Hill Farm, Dutchess Views Stallions, Hidden Lake Farm and Rockridge Stud. The five-year-old is out of a stakes-winning mare and is priced at $8,500 LFSN. Mind Control won the GI Hopeful S. as a 2-year-old and the...

The Under 20's Challenge, which is open to New York Racing Association trainers with fewer than 20 horses, will be split into two divisions for the upcoming winter and spring meets at Aqueduct. Division A will include trainers with 11-20 stalls and Division B will be limited to trainers with 1-10 stalls. The competition will begin Jan. 1 and will conclude with the end of the Spring meet Apr. 30 The top-six trainers in Division A will share a prize pool of $60,000 with the winner receiving $16,000. The top-five...

The New York Gaming Commission has made so many bad decisions of late that it would be laughable if not for the fact they keep going after good people who have done nothing wrong. The latest chapter is the story of NYRA clocker Richie Gazer. Back in May, Gazer was handed a 30-day suspension and fined $2,500 "for altering a published work of a horse to make the horse eligible to race." The horse in question, Papi On Ice (Keen Ice) was originally credited for a five-furlong workout on May...

The writing is on the wall for Aqueduct Racetrack. There has been no official announcement, but the New York Racing Association has made clear with its plans to 'winterize' Belmont Park that Aqueduct, New York's stalwart winter racing home for decades, is on borrowed time. And while the logic of continuing to operate two racetracks just nine miles apart is undeniably questionable, don't let anyone fool you into thinking that nothing of value will be lost or that no one will mourn when Aqueduct becomes the latest American racing staple...

by T.D. Thornton & Bill Finley The New York State Gaming Commission (NYSGC) on Monday adjudicated two unrelated penalty appeals by a clocker and a trainer by flat-out rejecting two separate hearing officers' recommendations that those cases be dismissed without penalization. In both instances, the commissioners voted unanimously to impose the original penalties that had been handed down by Braulio Baeza, Jr., the NYSGC state steward at the three New York Racing Association (NYRA) tracks. Monday's vote means trainer Orlando Noda now must pay a fine of $5,000, serve a...

The Belmont Child Care Association, Inc. (BCCA) annually hosts a Holiday Shopping Day for all of the families of backstretch workers at Belmont Park and Aqueduct Race Track. This year, BCCA held its event on Saturday, Dec. 3 in the clubhouse at Belmont Park. The Belmont Cafe was transformed into a Winter Wonderland which included a Sugar Plum Cafe and Holiday Shop. Thanks to the New York Racing Association (NYRA), BCCA was provided with a beautiful venue to host its event and NYRA's facilities and security departments provided much needed...

NYRA Bets Holding, LLC, a subsidiary of NYRA Bets, LLC, the official online wagering platform of the New York Racing Association, Inc., and Game of Silks, the online game connected to the real world of Thoroughbred horse racing, announced Wednesday a new partnership resulting in NYRA Bets Holding, LLC acquiring a minority equity ownership position in Game of Silks. In addition to this strategic investment, the partnership establishes Game of Silks as the Official Blockchain Game and Metaverse Partner of NYRA. The agreement will enable the global horse racing industry...

The New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA) and the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association (NYTHA) announced that a team led by Brendan Kumagai has been selected as the winner of the inaugural Big Data Derby competition, beating out 105 other submissions for first prize. Kumagai, together with Gurashish Bagga, Kimberly Kroetch, Tyrel Stokes, and Liam Welsh, took the $20,000 first prize with the submission, "Bayesian Velocity Models for Horse Race Simulation." Kumagai's team created a dynamic model that focused on horses' forward versus lateral speed and examined the results of...

The New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA) has installed a Tapeta Footings synthetic surface at Belmont's pony track, located just to the northeast of Belmont's training track. The quarter-mile pony track, which is used mostly for jogging horses, will be open seven days a week from 5:30-10:30 a.m. beginning Tuesday, Dec. 6. "Modern synthetic surfaces have a wide range of applications for horsemen and track operators alike, and we look forward to working with the product every day and in all seasons at Belmont Park," said Glen Kozak, NYRA Senior...