A hearing on Tuesday held by the New York Gaming Commission to discuss a rule that requires married jockeys in New York to be coupled for wagering purposes evolved into advocacy for eliminating all coupling requirements in the state. Although a string of speakers specifically advocated for the married-rider rule to be eliminated, representatives of trainers, owners, breeders, and racetracks took the discussion a step farther by contending that New York should drop all of its requirements for coupled entries, in the interest of increasing handle. Jeffrey Cannizzo, the senior director of government affairs for the New York Racing Association, told the gaming commission that New York has relaxed its coupling requirements twice over the past 12 years, and both changes resulted in gains to handle and more flexibility for the racing office. The first change allowed trainers to enter multiple horses without coupling as long as the horses did not have shared ownership, and the second, approved in 2015, did not require coupling in any stakes races with a purse of $50,000 or more. “Most importantly, racing and wagering integrity has not been affected by either of those changes,” Cannizzo said. He estimated that if no coupling rules were in place last year, NYRA would have seen an increase of $25 million in handle. :: Bet the races with confidence on DRF Bets. You're one click away from the only top-rated betting platform fully integrated with exclusive data, analytics, and expert picks. Supporters of eliminating coupling requirements also noted that several major racing jurisdictions, including California, Florida, and Illinois, have dropped coupling requirements. The rules requiring coupling were initially put into place in all major racing jurisdictions to keep trainers, owners, or jockeys from using one horse in a race to improve the chances of another horse in a race, to the detriment of the bettors who wagered on the exploited horse. William Alempijevic, the executive director of the New York Thoroughbred Associations, said that he did not believe that bettors on New York’s racing product would object to the elimination of coupling requirements because “we know people in New York are currently betting races in other racing jurisdictions where there is no coupling at all.” The hearing was called after New York Gov. Kathy Hochul vetoed a bill last year that would have eliminated the married-rider rule. The issue came to a head in New York in 2021 when the riders Trevor McCarthy and Katie Davis began riding in the state shortly after being married late in 2020. :: Get Daily Racing Form Past Performances – the exclusive home of Beyer Speed Figures.  Hochul’s veto of the bill requested that the state gaming commission reconsider the rule. Racing officials in New York have said that Hochul supports rescinding the rule, but that she was made aware that allowing the legislature to write racing regulations could create a risky precedent. The hearing opened with a presentation by Bennett Liebman, a former racing commissioner in New York and legal expert on racing issues, outlining the myriad difficulties in justifying the married-rider rule given the enormous number of conflicts of a similar nature in the racing industry, such as related trainers and jockeys. Representatives of the Jockeys’ Guild urged the commission to drop the married-rider rule, with Mindy Coleman, the general counsel for the guild, contending that the rule “resulted in financial harm” to both McCarthy and Davis and that it “prevented them from fully and fairly engaging in their careers.” William Gotimer, a lawyer who represented Katie Davis, called the married-rider rule “discriminatory, outdated, and particularly harmful to my client.” Robert Williams, the executive director of the NYGC, said at the end of the hearing that the commission staff would issue a recommendation to its commissioners sometime this year.