NYRA

In collaboration with Northwell Health, the New York Racing Association and the Backstretch Employee Service Team, a new health clinic will open for Belmont Park workers, it was announced Wednesday. The $200,000, 1,000-square-foot health clinic will provide a continuum of care and offer wellness programs for the thousands of backstretch workers at Belmont Park. The free program is part of Northwell's commitment to providing equitable care to all New Yorkers. "Clinics like this one are important because they allow quick access to care, before health issues become health care emergencies,"...

Edited Press Release The New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA) announced Saturday that NYRA Bets, LLC (NYRA Bets), is now available in the state of Michigan for residents ages 21 and older. "NYRA Bets is the best way to bet the races, and we are thrilled that horseplayers in Michigan can download the app today to access NYRA Bets," said Matt Feig, General Manager of NYRA Bets. New users who sign up for NYRA Bets today are eligible to earn up to $200 in a deposit match with a $25...

The New York Racing Association released its 2022 racing calendar with 202 live race days at Belmont Park, Aqueduct Racetrack and Saratoga Race Course. The 2021-22 Aqueduct winter meet will run from Thursday, Dec. 9 through Sunday, Mar. 27 with live racing generally conducted four days per week in January and February and three days per week in March. The 15-day Aqueduct spring meet will open Thursday Mar. 31 and conclude on Sunday, Apr. 24. Live racing will be conducted Thursday-Sunday. Highlighted by the 154th running of the GI Belmont...

Joi L. Garner has been named Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of the New York Racing Association, NYRA announced Wednesday. Garner succeeds Joe Lambert, who is retiring, and will assume her responsibilities on Oct. 15. Garner previously served as Executive Vice President and General Counsel at THINK450, the marketing and licensing subsidiary of the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA). At THINK450, Garner was the lead negotiator in several of the NBPA's most significant licensing deals, including agreements with Take-Two Interactive (NBA2K), Fanatics and Dapper Labs. Garner was...

Both plaintiff Bob Baffert and defendant the New York Racing Association (NYRA) traded volleys of legal filings that were posted electronically just before 6 p.m. Tuesday. They all relate to Baffert's ongoing quest to fight NYRA's attempts to either banish him outright or to give him a hearing that would adjudicate the "detrimental conduct" charges NYRA has levied against Baffert over the repeated equine drug positives in his trainees. NYRA on Oct. 12 filed a memorandum of law in support of its earlier motion to dismiss Counts I, III, IV...

The Belmont fall meet, originally scheduled to conclude Oct. 31, will be extended to include three additional dates from Friday, Nov. 5 through Sunday, Nov. 7, it was announced Saturday. These dates were originally scheduled to be run at Aqueduct Racetrack as opening weekend of the Aqueduct fall meet. New York State is continuing to operate a COVID-19 mass vaccination site throughout the first floor of Aqueduct. As a result, the facility remains closed to the public. "NYRA is committed to supporting the ongoing effort to vaccinate New York, and...

BROOKLYN, NY--Judge Carol Bagley Amon dismissed Bob Baffert's charge of contempt against the New York Racing Association Tuesday morning in federal court, saying that her previous injunction of NYRA's attempted suspension of Baffert in May applied only to enforcing that suspension, and not the issue at hand of NYRA scheduling a hearing and issuing official charges against Baffert in a Sept. 10 statement. The ruling clears the way for NYRA to proceed with its proposed hearing process, which is scheduled to begin Oct. 11 and may result in Baffert once...

After a year lost to the COVID-19 pandemic, the FDNY Stair Climb returns to Belmont Park on Sunday, October 17. This year's 7th annual event is part of the nationwide 9/11 stair climb program that pays tribute to the FDNY firefighters who died more than 20 years ago on 9/11. The climb benefits the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation (NFFF), which supports the families of fallen firefighters and the FDNY Counseling Service Unit. "Twenty years later, I still remember what trauma looked like etched on the faces of firefighters at the...

The matter of whether or not the New York Racing Association should be held in contempt and whether it can go ahead with a hearing that could lead to the suspension of Bob Baffert landed once again Friday on the desk of Judge Carol Bagley Amon. The latest twist in the Baffert-NYRA saga began last week when Baffert's attorneys charged that NYRA should be held in contempt because of its announced plans to afford Baffert a hearing. The two sides have been at odds over the interpretation of a July...

The New York Racing Association (NYRA) told a federal judge Wednesday that it shouldn't face "contempt of court" allegations initiated last week by trainer Bob Baffert because NYRA has been fully compliant with a July court order that--by NYRA's interpretation--should allow its scheduled hearing on Baffert's exclusion from its tracks to proceed. NYRA is already defending itself in a federal lawsuit initiated by the Hall of Fame trainer with the well-publicized history of equine drug positives over whether or not NYRA violated Baffert's constitutional rights by trying to ban him...

The New York Racing Association (NYRA) fired back in court Monday against Bob Baffert's attempt to collect $162,086 in legal fees and expenses from NYRA that have resulted from the Hall of Fame trainer's lawsuit against NYRA. Calling his request "premature" while claiming that the $450 to $975 hourly fees charged by his lawyers are "disproportionately high," NYRA also alleged that Baffert is attempting to twist a legal provision "intended to incentivize attorneys to represent individual civil rights plaintiffs that might otherwise be unrepresented" to his own financial benefit when...

Arguments on the motion by Bob Baffert's attorneys to hold the New York Racing Association in contempt of court for organizing hearings to suspend him will be heard in the United States District Court Oct. 5, according to a document filed by Judge Carol Bagley Amon. On July 14, Bagley Amon granted Baffert a preliminary injunction against NYRA that will allow him to race at New York's three major tracks, after they suspended him in May, pending the resolution of the case. "Defendant NYRA is directed to respond by 9/29/21,"...