UPDATE: State meets obligation to NYRA; Legislature OK's advance

[parsixfarms]

Originally Posted by pointman

If the State does not give NYRA the money, they really have nowhere to get the money from. Hence, their only real option is to shut down. I can assure you owners and trainers will not race their horses with the promise that they will be paid in the next 6 months to 1 year. I fail to see where you think NYRA can drum up the money to continue operating when they are not receiving money they are entitled to from NYC OTB which would float their operations.

I guess I find it hard to believe that shutting down is their only option.

Purse levels are contractually dictated by agreements between NYRA and the horsemen; they are a function of handle and the amount of money that flows from handle into the purse account. Horsemen would not be "running for nothing" unless NYRA were using such funds, as they did about 7-8 years go, to cover operating expenses (and on this point, I believe that there is now complete segregation of accounts because of this prior episode).

As large as NYCOTB is, it still generates only a percentage of NYRA's total handle on a given day, so it's not as if the organization has no revenue coming in.