http://www.drf.com/news/article/110982.html

NYRA defends its executives' pay
By Matt Hegarty
Responding to a request made two weeks ago by a state oversight panel, the New York Racing Association disclosed on Sunday the salaries of its top officials, including its chief executive officer, Charles Hayward, who was paid $460,000 in 2009.

The salaries were disclosed in a response to a request by Robert Megna, the chairman of the New York State Franchise Oversight Board, which has broad supervisory powers over NYRA after a reorganization of racing regulation following NYRA's emergence from bankruptcy in 2008. Megna requested the data two weeks ago as part of the board's analysis of NYRA's financial position. The board released the documents supplied by NYRA.

In a statement accompanying the salary data, NYRA chairman Steven Duncker said Hayward and other NYRA executives are paid at "levels on par with the industry as a whole." The salary data was listed in a chart showing what NYRA considered to be comparable data from other racing companies and analyses of executive salaries at companies similar in size to the association, a not-for-profit organization that operates Aqueduct, Belmont, and Saratoga under a 25-year lease with the state.

The chart shows that Hal Handel, NYRA's chief operating officer, was paid $440,000 in 2009. NYRA's chief financial officer, Ellen McClain, was paid $325,000 in 2009, according to the document. The association's legal counsel, Patrick Kehoe, who also conducts lobbying for NYRA, was paid $413,000.

In a chart detailing salary data, NYRA said chief executives of other major racing companies, such as Churchill Downs Inc. and Magna Entertainment Corp., received much higher salaries. For example, NYRA said that Robert Evans, the chief executive officer of Churchill, received $4.1 million in total compensation in 2008, and that Michael Neuman, the most recent paid chief executive of Magna, would have received $1 million in guaranteed compensation for the 2007 fiscal year. Neuman left after only four months, and received $835,000 in total compensation.

The compensation figures were independently verified by Daily Racing Form from financial reports filed by the companies with the SEC.

NYRA at first resisted Megna's request to provide the salary data, claiming that release of the information would put the company at a disadvantage when attempting to hire and retain employees. Duncker said in the statement that NYRA agreed to release the data to the board "because we recognize the political pressure you are under to make this information available to the press and the public, regardless of the propriety of doing so given NYRA's status as a private corporation."

NYRA is facing significant political pressure because of its claim that the state is obliged to provide financial assistance to the organization until a long-delayed casino at Aqueduct is up and running. The state is trying to close a budget deficit of $5 billion, and politicians are reluctant to extend the assistance at a time when most state agencies are facing significant cuts.

Duncker said in the statement that NYRA executives do not benefit from stock options and other compensation tools used by publicly traded companies. NYRA reorganized as a private not-for-profit company after emerging from bankruptcy in 2008.

The comparisons also included data from a study of executive salaries by Economic Research Institute and a widely used salary tool called the Watson Wyatt Executive Compensation Calculator. The study by the institute indicated that the average chief-executive compensation for a company of NYRA's size was $695,000 in 2008. The calculator indicated that the average salary of a chief executive was $692,000 in 2008.

For chief operating officers such as Handel, the institute average was $466,000. The calculator's average was $481,000. Churchill's chief development officer, William Carstanjen, received $741,000 in compensation in 2008, according to NYRA and Churchill financial statements. Magna, which filed for bankruptcy in March 2009, paid two vice presidents of operations $337,000 and $265,000 in 2007, the latest figures that are available, one year after paying compensation at the two positions of $490,000 and $436,000.

Hayward began issuing warnings late in 2009 that the association would run out of cash in mid-2010 without state assistance. The association had included revenues from the casino in its 2010 budget. An operator for the casino - which will likely be the most lucrative on the East Coast, according to gambling analysts - was selected by state political leaders nearly three weeks ago, but the selection has been targeted for criticism by other politicians and losing bidders.

Gov. Paterson, who made the selection of the casino operator with assembly speaker Sheldon Silver and senate democratic conference Leader John Sampson, has said that criticism of the deal will not affect the state's negotiations with the company selected to run the casino. The company, Aqueduct Entertainment Group, is a sprawling partnership of politically connected real-estate and casino companies.

NYRA filed for bankruptcy late in 2006. Under an agreement with the state reached in 2008 that allowed the association to emerge from bankruptcy, NYRA received $105 million in debt forgiveness and cash in exchange for ceding the deeds to its three tracks.

The salaries are NOT exorbitant and nobody would be concerned except for the fact that they rely on taxpayer handouts from a broke state that is billions in the hole.

New York's credit cards are already maxed out to pay the interest on the old maxed out credit cards.

I live in a county, state and nation that all run on enormous budget deficits.

I don't know what the future holds for NYRA but more importantly the Sightless Wonder and the corrupt legislature up in Albany haven't a clue either. All I can do this weekend and next week is blow my March pension check into the NYRA pools and hope for the best.

The year 2010 is going to be one of wildest of my life, I can feel it in my shorts.

Don't forget the State Parks Patterson intends to close. He is more interested in losing jobs then keeping them.

http://www.wten.com/Global/story.asp?S=12012419&nav=menu30_7

Let's not forget that the bums, slackers, and breeders on the dole got a 10% welfare "raise" last year and are scheduled for another 5% boost in 2010 for simply being a non-taxpaying burden. Meanwhile, the people who support this collapsing state as working people and taxpayers stand by as they lose their parks and face drastic transit cuts.

I'm still trying to figure out where NYRA will stand amidst all the wreckage. They're saying they could go belly up before spring runs out and spring is less than a month away.

New York Breeds will be transfered to the new Penn or Ohio Breeds. Races for NY breeds will be far in the distant in 2 years. McMahon of Saratoga Thoroughbreds has already layed off half his help this year. Owners are bringing their horses where the bigger purses are. It will take at least 2 years to even get back where they were, and that's if they had slots today. I see racing in NY going back to the 80's very soon, if we have any racing.

Well, you won't have any more "ny slowbreds" criticize.
It will now be Pa and Ohio slowbreds racing in NY

We had some cash on an Ohio Oh-Oh-Bred today that won a SNW1X allowance off the maiden score.

[quote="1/4 Pole"]We had some cash on an Ohio Oh-Oh-Bred today that won a SNW1X allowance off the maiden score.[/quote]

So what.
That isn't the issue here which is how "slow" the alleged "slow nybreds run".
Where/what was the race ? What was the time?

The Ohio state-bred, GOLD RUSH CASEY, got home for the 6 furlongs in 1:13.80 in the 6th race at Beulah over the mud.

When told he could be as fast as a New York Slow Bred the horse bit, kicked, and trampled 9 people in the winners circle before he could be calmed down.

You know how stupid this statement is? You can't ship in to run in a race for New York Breeds, you would have to run in open company. Beside, the reason you left New York was for better purses. There will be New York breeds, but about half of what it is today.