as to andrew cuomo who thinks he is Pope sue him to see that Nassau OTB. et al are open whenever there is great racing running without the state of new York
Claude Solnik
Long Island Business News
2150 Smithtown Ave.
Ronkonkoma, NY 11779-7348
Home > LI Confidential > Stop scratching on holidays
Stop scratching on holidays
Published: June 1, 2012
Off Track Betting in New York State has been racing into a crisis called shrinking revenue. Some people have spitballed a solution: Don’t close on holidays.
New York State Racing Law bars racing on Christmas, Easter and Palm Sunday, and the state has ruled OTBs can’t handle action on those days, even though they could easily broadcast races from out of state.
“You should be able to bet whenever you want,” said Jackson Leeds, a Nassau OTB employee who makes an occasional bet. He added some irrefutable logic: “How is the business going to make money if you’re not open to take people’s bets?”
Elias Tsekerides, president of the Federation of Hellenic Societies of Greater New York, said OTB is open on Greek Orthodox Easter and Palm Sunday.
“I don’t want discrimination,” Tsekerides said. “They close for the Catholics, but open for the Greek Orthodox? It’s either open for all or not open.”
OTB officials have said they lose millions by closing on Palm Sunday alone, with tracks such as Gulfstream, Santa Anita, Turf Paradise and Hawthorne running.
One option: OTBs could just stay open and face the consequences. New York City OTB did just that back in 2003. The handle was about $1.5 million – and OTB was fined $5,000.
Easy money.
as to Suffolk county legislator kevin mccaffrey who wants the skim tell your federal friends that the books of the local 707 pension fund and related documents will show breach of his fiduciary duty etc
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Of Saudi Arabia, at a launch event in Saratoga Aug. 7.
The race will be run on Saturday February 29th, 2020 over a distance of nine furlongs (1800 metres) on dirt and have a maximum field of 14 starters. The race will be free to enter and free to run in.
The prize for the winning horse will be US$10,000,000 with horses down to 10th place sharing another US$10,000,000 between them.
Announcing the creation of the Saudi Cup, His Royal Highness Prince Bandar bin Khalid Al Faisal, said: “The introduction of the Saudi Cup as an international race is without doubt the most significant event in the history of horseracing in Saudi Arabia, and demonstrates our resolve to develop this great sport in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and also our ambition to become a leading player on horse racing's world stage.
“We look forward to welcoming international horsemen and women, the media, racing enthusiasts and the public to Riyadh in 2020.”
The Saudi Cup will take its place in the international calendar at the end of February and will be run four weeks after the Pegasus World Cup at Gulfstream Park, and four weeks prior the Dubai World Cup at Meydan, meaning that the top horses in training have the opportunity to compete in all three of the most valuable dirt races in the world.
The prize money of the Saudi Cup places it in esteemed company. The Pegasus World Cup had a peak value of US$16 million in 2018 while the Dubai World Cup is currently worth US$12 million. In terms of turf races, the richest is in Australia (the Everest) and is worth US$9.8 million, in Japan the mark is US$6 million for the Japan Cup and Europe's most lucrative event (the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe) has a prize fund of US$5.6 million.
HRH Prince Bandar's connection to horses is an emotional one as less than a century ago, his great grandfather, King Abdulaziz Ibn Saud, a renowned rider and the founding father of modern Saudi Arabia, was leading his army into battle on horseback, earning himself the title 'The Last Horseman'.
In 1932 King Abdulaziz unified the kingdoms of Nejd and Hijaz in creating the new sovereign state of Saudia Arabia. Horse racing soon became an important cultural event within the young nation and its status was enhanced in 2003 with the opening of a new racecourse in Riyadh, King Abdulaziz Racetrack, with a mile and a quarter circumference, a three-furlong chute and a state-of-the-art dirt racing surface.
Many of the world's leading jockeys have ridden regularly at King Abdulaziz Racetrack over the past few years and been impressed with its facilities.
Europe's jockey of the moment Frankie Dettori said: “I've been going to King Abdulaziz Racetrack ever since it opened. It's based on Belmont, in that it's a one turn mile and a quarter. Of all the dirt tracks I've ridden, it's the one I like best, as you can win from the front, and you can win from behind – it's a fair track.
“The other thing I like is that the kickback is so much less than on other dirt tracks. I don't know why, but the sand seems finer and doesn't stick. You only need a couple of pairs of goggles, where on other tracks you need four or five.
“It's a kinder track that I can see turf horses handling.”
US jockey Edgar Prado was also enthusiastic: “In my experience, all the time I rode at King Abdulaziz Racetrack I've found the track good and safe with a nice stretch run. Horses handle it very well.”
France's four-time Champion jockey Olivier Peslier added: “King Abdulaziz Racetrack is one of the best dirt tracks in the world. A wonderful track and I know that the American jockeys like it very much because it really suits the American horses.
“It has a long straight and there is not much kickback.”
The Jockey Club of Saudi Arabia will arrange and fund the shipment of all invited horses, and arrange and pay for the flights and hotel accommodation of the horses' connections. In addition to the Saudi Cup, there will be further international races on the undercard ahead of the showcase race. Further details of these supporting races and the full race program will be announced at a later date.
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Copyright © 2019 Paulick Report.
Copyright © 2019 Paulick Report.
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At $20 million, inaugural Saudi Cup would be world's richest race
Matt HegartyAug 07, 2019
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Saudi Arabia will host a $20 million race in February next year on the dirt course at King Abdul Aziz racetrack in Riyadh, the country’s racing authority and members of the ruling family announced on Wednesday, instantly making the country a player on the international racing stage with the promise of the richest purse in the world.
The race, called the Saudi Cup, is scheduled for Feb. 29 next year, sandwiched between the late January
Pegasus World Cup in Florida and the late March $12 million Dubai World Cup in the nearby United Arab
Emirates. The Saudi Cup will be run at 1,800 meters, or about 1 1/8 miles, and will be open to 4-year-olds and up (Southern Hemisphere 3-year-olds will also be eligible, with a weight allowance).
Pegasus World Cup in Florida and the late March $12 million Dubai World Cup in the nearby United Arab
Emirates. The Saudi Cup will be run at 1,800 meters, or about 1 1/8 miles, and will be open to 4-year-olds and up (Southern Hemisphere 3-year-olds will also be eligible, with a weight allowance).
“This is an event that we plan on lasting for decades, beyond my lifetime, and what we hope is for this race to be on the international calendar, to be one of the main races sought after [in the world],” said Prince Bandar bin Khalid al Faisal, a member of the Saudi ruling family, who was on hand at an elaborately staged media event at the Fasig-Tipton sales pavilion on Wednesday night to announce the race.
The audacious plan to host the world’s richest race will vault Saudi Arabia from a minor player in Thoroughbred racing to a major attraction on the international racing circuit. Because of restrictions limiting ownership of racehorses to Saudi citizens, none of the races currently held at the country’s two racetracks qualify for the international cataloging standards that determine the world’s best races, but the new race – and a soon to be announced undercard – will likely end that distinction, with all of the races open to all comers.
“It is an opportunity for us to showcase horse racing in Saudi Arabia,” Prince Bandar said. “We are very keen to transform [our racing] into an industry, one that is sustainable, that can grow to a level that is on par with the best out there.”
The strategy of vaulting on to the world stage by creating a major international race with a lucrative purse harkens to that taken by Dubai in the mid-1990s to build its own domestic Thoroughbred racing industry. In 1996, Dubai inaugurated the World Cup, with a purse of $4 million, attracting some of the best horses in the world, including 1995 Horse of the Year Cigar, who won the race.
The World Cup that year was held at Nad al Sheba, a track that was eventually replaced by a sprawling equine, residential, and commercial complex known as Meydan in 2010. The construction of Meydan followed the rapid rise of Dubai not only as an international economic powerhouse but also as a destination for top-class horses, and, 23 years after the Dubai World Cup was first run as a listed race, the country now hosts 32 group races.
Also like Dubai in the mid-1990s, members of Saudi’s ruling family are attempting to diversify its economy amid local and international upheaval, including intense criticism of its human-rights record and a war in neighboring Yemen that has been called the world’s worst humanitarian crisis by the United Nations.
The location of the Saudi Cup, King Abdul Aziz racetrack, has a small grandstand, though officials at the media event Wednesday praised its “sight lines” and amenities. The dirt course at the track has a circumference of 2,400 meters, or about 1 1/2 miles, and the 1,800-meter Saudi Cup will be run out of a backstretch chute around one turn, the organizers said.
At the media event, the organizers of the race broadcast a television clip of Frankie Dettori, the famous jockey, comparing the course’s circumference to Belmont Park and stating that “the kickback is not too harsh,” in answer to a question as to whether European turf specialists would find the dirt surface welcoming.
The field will be capped at 14 horses, according to a fact sheet distributed by the organizers. The winner of the race will get $10 million, while second place will get $3.5 million and third place will get $2 million. Fourth will receive $1.5 million, and fifth $1 million. Horses finishing through 10th place will get a portion of the purse.
The organizers have not yet determined how the field will be set, but there will be no entry or starting fees, they said, and all expenses for the runners will be paid, including transportation, feed, and veterinary services. Representatives of the organizers said they expected wagering to be offered on the Saudi Cup and its undercard in racing jurisdictions around the world, including the U.S. Betting is not allowed in Saudi Arabia.
The announcement of the $20 million purse escalates a recent arms race among Gulfstream Park and the racing authorities in Dubai to lay claim to the richest race in the world. In 2017 and 2018, the Pegasus World Cup advertised its purse as $12 million and $16 million, respectively (though the actual distributions were $9 million and $8.5 million, due to a unique structure that refunded entry money to runners), while the Dubai World Cup raised its purse to $12 million this year, up from $10 million.
The placement of the race between the Pegasus World Cup and the Dubai World Cup introduces the possibility that a horse could run and win all three races, clearly an aim of the Saudi authorities.
“We chose the timing very carefully,” said Prince Bandar. “We think it fits in nicely between those two races. It’s close enough to the Dubai Cup that those people who do come to that part of the world [Saudi Arabia] can stay, since it’s a wonderful area to train. I think it’s very lucky we had that opening between the two races, and we’re going to own it.”
“This is a new Triple Crown that is starting right now,” said Gary Stevens, the retired Hall of Fame jockey, who was on hand for the event.
