Chris Kay Resigns from NYRA

Chris Kay | Coglianese photo

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An abrupt resignation by New York Racing Association (NYRA) chief executive officer and president Chris Kay was shrouded in mystery Wednesday, when no official explanation was given for the unexpected departure and no NYRA board of directors members were willing to speak on the record about it.

A concise, four-paragraph midday press release from NYRA said its board of directors announced the acceptance of Kay's resignation “effective immediately.”

David O'Rourke, NYRA's senior vice president and chief revenue officer, was named interim CEO.

Kay could not be reached for comment.

TDN's attempts to contact individual NYRA board members in the two hours after the release went public resulted primarily in unreturned phone messages. One board member was willing to take a call, but only to say that he could not speak on the record about specifics of Kay's resignation because of its sensitive nature.

The Times Union of Albany cited an unnamed “source familiar with the decision” who said the NYRA board had requested Kay's resignation.

Daily Racing Form's David Grening further reported that multiple sources told him the reason was “Kay had used NYRA employees to do private work for him at the house he owns in Saratoga, considered a breach of company policy.”

Kay joined NYRA July 1, 2013. According to NYRA's Jan. 23 release, under his direction, “NYRA improved the quality and safety of racing operations; enhanced the overall guest experience; and was returned to private control.”

But Kay, who came to NYRA after spending five years as chief operating officer for Toys 'R' Us and a stint as a consultant to Universal Parks & Resorts, was often criticized for his lack of knowledge of the sport, and for the impression that his public comments and presentations often took on a optimistic, superlative-laden tone that championed NYRA while stepping nimbly in corporate-speak around more difficult political and racing industry issues.

Yet at the time of Kay's appointment, the hiring of a “racing outsider” seemed to be exactly what NYRA was looking for when it vetted more than 100 applicants for the CEO position.

The Daily Gazette of upstate New York wrote upon Kay's hiring that “NYRA decided to go outside of the racing industry, board members said, because of the complexities facing the CEO, including returning the board to private hands in less than three years.”

O'Rourke joined NYRA in 2008 as director of financial planning. Since 2011, he has been responsible for NYRA's business development strategies across a range of disciplines including industry relations, simulcast markets and contracts, television and ADW operations, and capital projects.

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