OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Despite being shut down for 11 weeks, losing 43 racing dates, and operating the last seven months of the year without fans ontrack, the New York Racing Association appeared to weather the economic storm from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and end up in decent shape for 2020. Though COVID remains a factor as 2021 is about to begin, NYRA president and CEO Dave O’Rourke is hoping the organization can start mapping out its future. Among the plans is a redevelopment of Belmont Park that would include a new building O’Rourke envisions to be “about a third the size” of the current one, if NYRA can get approval from the state. The ultimate goal would be to consolidate downstate racing at Belmont. “We think it’s a really good project,” O’Rourke said in a recent interview. “One, we can fund it off VLTs. It’ll create jobs. It also might create some other opportunities for the state with what it could free up at Aqueduct. Our anticipation is that those conversations with the state are going to pick up literally within the next few weeks.” The NYRA has discussed redeveloping Belmont Park for the last several years, but has not yet presented plans to the state for approval. The options have been to refurbish the current Belmont or do a complete rebuild of the existing building. O’Rourke favors a rebuild. “You’re talking about a new building or a retrofit; there’s a lot of challenges with a retrofit,” O’Rourke said. “It sounds easier; it’s not necessarily easier, actually.” Plans that would have been presented in 2020 were put on hold after the breakout of COVID in March. O’Rourke said NYRA has not yet gone “into detailed design” of the project “because that’s when you really start to spend money and when you spend money you’re committing to a direction. We’ve got enough to articulate the project in detail. If we can get approvals then we’ll go into deep design.” In addition to a smaller building, O’Rourke said all three Belmont surfaces – the two turf courses and the main track –need to be renovated. O’Rourke said the main track would remain at its current 1 1/2-mile circumference. O’Rourke also envisions the project including opening up the infield for fans. Of course, NYRA needs state approval to move forward with any redevelopment of Belmont as the state is now the land owner. Currently, the major redevelopment project going on at Belmont is a new arena for the National Hockey League’s New York Islanders. Construction has been ongoing since September 2019 and it is expected the arena will be completed in the fall of 2021 in time for the start of the 2021-22 NHL season. The arena utilizes a sizeable portion of the Belmont backyard. O’Rourke said he hopes in 2021 that there could be capital improvements made to NYRA’s side of the backyard that would be open for racing fans. On that front, O’Rourke is hopeful that NYRA would be able to welcome back fans to its facilities at Belmont this spring. “Our guesstimate – and it could only be a guesstimate – is some point in the spring, Belmont spring,” O’Rourke said. “We’ll keep monitoring that so we could always pivot.” Without fans ontrack, the vast majority of handle on NYRA’s races in 2020 came via advance-deposit wagering accounts. During the pandemic, NYRA’s handle was strong. Since NYRA reopened on June 3, wagering through Dec. 20 was $1,577,528,951 on 117 cards, up 17.4 percent over the same period of 2019, when $1,550,476,918 was handled on 132 cards. The average daily handle was $13,483,153, up 14.8 percent compared to 2019. “They’re on the far end of the high side of the projections,” O’Rourke said. “We thought there would be pent-up demand when we came back. We also understood that some of these other sports might start back up and who knows what the impact would be on the betting and the TV availability.” NYRA was able to showcase almost all of its races on Fox Sports and regional cable networks throughout the country from June through November. “There was an influx of more casual sports betting customers early in the summer and they stuck around, which is a very, very good sign for racing,” O’Rourke said. “I think racing got more exposure than normal on television and even the shift of hours from Fox Sports 2 to Fox Sports 1 helps us a lot in terms of a broader audience.” It is estimated that FS 1 is available in 30 million more homes than is FS 2. The NYRA had to cancel 43 racing dates due to the shutdown and a there was a further trimming of racing dates in the fall at Belmont and Aqueduct. NYRA will finish 2020 with 157 racing programs compared to 217 in 2019. All-sources handle will be down by approximately $300 million. Though O’Rourke does not envision cutting 60 days from the racing schedule, he does see some reduction moving forward. O’Rourke anticipates the four-day race week to be a staple in the future. The exceptions will be in March, when racing is conducted three days a week at Aqueduct, and during the Saratoga meet, when racing is conducted five days a week. O’Rourke said he expects the week-and-a-half break between Saratoga and the Belmont fall meet that was implemented in 2020 will remain in place. A similar, or somewhat smaller, break between the Belmont summer meet and Saratoga will be contemplated. Through its solid handle numbers and an earlier-than-anticipated reopening of the Resorts World casino at Aqueduct, NYRA was able to raise purses toward the end of the Belmont fall meet. The purses at the current winter meet are the highest they’ve been and O’Rourke said it’s a good test for the sustainability of winter racing. “It’s going to be an interesting winter,” O’Rourke said. “So far, so good. The last few years the Aqueduct fall meet has really been strong. It’s actually improved. Can we start to move that momentum through the first quarter [of 2021]?” All-sources handle on the first seven cards of the Aqueduct winter meet was $53.6 million, up 27.3 percent from $42.1 million handled on the first seven days of the 2019-20 winter meet. Field size from 65 races – which included seven turf races – was 9.06 horses per race, compared to 7.84 during the same period last winter. With New York state looking to close a $15 billion budget shortfall created by the pandemic, O’Rourke is hopeful that online sports betting will be legalized in 2021 and that horse racing could be part of that implementation. “In the simplest view, you have a sports book with fixed odds and the traditional offerings, and then you have horse racing as a tab within that book and in that tab there’s parimutuel,” O’Rourke said. “At that point we’d be open to discussing fixed odds as a crossover product in racing, but our main focus is we want to have parimutuel in that menu first.” While a rebuild of Belmont is a longer-term project, a more immediate capital improvement is a renovation to the surface and a widening of the Oklahoma training track at Saratoga, including a safety rail. NYRA received positive reviews of the new surface on the main track in 2020 and would like to do the same with the training track. Thompson appointed to board Najja Thompson recently was named executive director of the New York Thoroughbred Breeders, and has been appointed as that organization’s representative to the New York Racing Association board of directors as well as the New York Breeding and Development Fund board of directors, it was announced Monday. Thompson’s appointment fills the vacancies on both boards created by the resignation of Jeffrey Cannizzo, who left the New York breeders to join NYRA as its senior director of government affairs. Cannizzo begins that role on Friday. Thompson spent the last several years at NYRA working in the marketing department, communications office and, most recently, the human resources department. “I feel very fortunate to represent the interests of breeders in New York with this opportunity,” Thompson said in a press release issued by the NYTB. “The state of New York plays an integral part as a leader in our industry, and I’m honored to play a direct role in continuing to better our sport as a member of both the NYRA and the New York Breeding and Development Fund Board of Directors.” Thomas Gallo, president of the NYTB, made the motion to appoint Thompson to both boards. “With his background, experience, and expertise he will be able to be an innovative force in synergizing the accomplished members of all boards to forward the interests of breeding and racing in New York,” Gallo said in a release. “I am confident he will usher us into a new era of strength through unity in building a bigger and better Thoroughbred Horse industry in New York.”