NY Claiming Rules Revision Would Keep Horses In-State for 60 Days

A proposed change to claiming rules in New York would double the time that a claimed horse must refrain from racing outside the state, from 30 to 60 days.

In addition, in an effort to make it easier to acquire Thoroughbreds via claims, another proposed change would extend time periods for owners to be eligible to claim horses.

Those measures, plus several other tweaks to the “Who may make claim” rule 4038.1, were advanced by the New York State Gaming Commission (NYSGC) at Thursday's monthly meeting.

There was zero discussion among commissioners prior to the unanimous voice vote.

The proposed changes must first be published in the state register and then go through a public commentary period before the NYSGC takes a final vote on them at a future commission meeting.

According to a brief written by NYSGC general counsel Edmund Burns that was included in the informational packet for the Aug. 3 meeting, some horse owners and their representatives have communicated to the commission staff that the current claiming rules “need revisions.”

Commission staff met with personnel from the New York Racing Association (NYRA), Finger Lakes, the New York Thoroughbred Breeders (NYTB), and the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association (NYTHA) in crafting the language changes, Burns wrote.

With respect to the time that a claimed horse must remain in-state, Burns wrote that “current rules prohibit a claimed horse from running outside New York for a period of 30 days. The proposal would extend that general prohibition to 60 days, which would mitigate entry shortages that have been experienced at New York tracks. An exception is proposed for horses claimed at Finger Lakes Racetrack toward the end of the Finger Lakes racing season, in which case the prohibition would be limited to 30 days from the end of the Finger Lakes racing season.”

On the time extensions for owners to be eligible to claim, the current version of the rule states that an owner must have “nominated a starter in the previous or current race meet.”

The proposed rewording would change the requirement to owners who have “started a horse: (1) within the previous 120 days, including the race in which such horse started, in a race meeting of the licensed or franchised association; or (2) in the current or previous race meeting.”

New owners who have not previously been licensed would also get a time extension.

Currently, a newly licensed owner “may apply to the stewards for a certificate authorizing him or her to claim one horse during the next 30 racing days following the issuance of the certificate.” The existing version of that rule also states that the stewards “may grant an extension” to that time period “if deemed appropriate.”

The proposed new language would change the “if deemed appropriate” part to an extension of “30 racing days if the certificate holder had entered a claim but had lost” the shake.

“NYRA conducts race meetings of varying lengths and horse populations,” Burns wrote in the brief. “Consequently, the current rule, which requires an owner, in order to be eligible to claim, to have entered a starter in the previous race meeting, precludes some otherwise active owners from claiming horses.

“Some owners may not have participated in a previous meeting because of the meeting's short duration or because racing opportunities had been incompatible with the owner's stable of horses. The proposed rule would address these concerns by allowing claimants who have raced on a circuit within 120 days, which would increase the number of owners qualified to make claims,” Burns wrote.

“Additionally, due to the frequency of multiple claims on a single horse, it is possible that someone actively trying to claim may not succeed in acquiring a horse within 30 racing days, which the current rule requires,” Burns wrote.

“Allowing 30 additional days for holders of a certificate of eligibility would provide an owner with an opportunity to claim when the owner has not been successful within the first 30 days of a race meeting, because the owner has lost the opportunity to claim to another claimant when multiple claims had been made on the same horse. Creating an opportunity to extend claiming eligibility for unsuccessful claimants would allow these owners additional chances to claim a horse,” Burns wrote.

Additionally, current NYSGC regulations provide that when a horse is claimed from a particular value class, the horses is ineligible to start in the same value class for 30 days.

According to the brief written by Burns, “A review of recent data, however, indicates that horses generally run on a 28-day schedule and condition books generally schedule a value class every 28 days. Under current regulations, a claimant who wants to start a horse again in the same class may be effectively forced to wait 56 days from the date of the claim. The position has been advanced that such period is unnecessarily long and causes issues for owners, trainers and the racetrack, which seeks to fill competitive races.”

The solution, according to the proposed rewording, will be to make the regulation state that, “If a horse is claimed the horse shall not start in a claiming race for a period of 20 days from the date of the claim for less than 25 percent more than the amount for which such horse was claimed.”

A new clause would be inserted that further states, “For a period of 10 days thereafter, a horse is eligible to start for a claiming price equal to or greater than the price at which the horse had been claimed. On the 31st day, the horse may start in a claiming race for any price.”

Burns wrote that “By reducing the requisite waiting period, owners will have a greater opportunity to start a horse for the price at which the horse had been claimed, given that the owners would be able to gain access to races that had already been written in the track's condition book 28 days in advance.”

Rice penalty revision on target for Sept.

Separately, NYSGC Executive Director Robert Williams detailed the expected timeline for commissioners to revisit a possible penalty for trainer Linda Rice, who on June 8 had a New York Supreme Court Appellate Division rule that a three-year banishment imposed by the NYSGC was “entirely unwarranted.”

Linda Rice | Sarah Andrew

As TDN reported back in June, the Gaming Commission fined Rice $50,000 and revoked her license for three years in 2021 after investigating claims that Rice received favorable treatment from the NYRA racing office and that the racing office was releasing to her the names and past performances of horses that had already been entered in races, giving her an unfair advantage. It was further alleged that Rice had paid racing officials in exchange for the information, a charge she denied. She did admit to routinely giving members of the racing department, as well as the gate crew, Christmas presents.

Williams said that the court ruling upheld the commission's determination that the “improper practices” rule had been violated and that the court rejected Rice's constitutional claim. But the court overturned the three-year revocation, and sent the matter back to the commission to reassess the penalty “with the constraint that any reassessed penalty cannot contain a license revocation.”

Williams said the case materials will be recirculated to each of the commissioners, and that both the commission's counsel and Rice's legal team have been asked to update their post-hearing briefs with respect to penalty recommendations.

“The matter should be set for consideration at the commission's September meeting,” Williams said.

Brian O'Dwyer, the NYSGC chairman, said, “I urge the commissioners that, obviously, the Rice matter is something that we need to look at. In particular, three of the commissioners are new to the matter, having been appointed after the penalty had been assessed. Obviously, we're under court mandate to reassess that penalty, and I know that we'll all take that very seriously.”

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Suspended NYRA Clocker Denied Stay, Claims Absence Will ‘Harm’ Horsemen

Richie Gazer, the longtime NYRA head clocker who is set to begin a 30-day suspension and pay a $2,500 fine for “altering a published work of a horse to make the horse eligible to race,” has been denied a stay of his penalties by the New York State Gaming Commission (NYSGC) while he seeks to elevate the case to the state court level.

Gazer's attorney, Karen Murphy, confirmed the NYSGC's denial to TDN on Friday afternoon, shortly after the commission emailed her the decision stating the stay would not be granted. She said at this point, Gazer has exhausted all his commission-level appeals.

“This is a purely vindictive response. I am actually shocked by the whole thing,” Murphy said.

In making the case for a stay to be granted, Murphy had written to the commission that Gazer's “absence from his duties as the Head Clocker for the significant suspension imposed will be harmful to all NY horsemen and horsewomen whose horses rely on his daily services.”

On Dec. 12, the NYSGC voted unanimously to uphold Gazer's commission-level appeal of penalties by rejecting a hearing officer's recommendation that the case be dismissed.

Instead, the commissioners imposed the original penalties that had been handed down earlier in the year by Braulio Baeza, Jr., the NYSGC state steward at the three New York Racing Association (NYRA) tracks.

Gazer's penalty stems from a May 19, 2022, stewards' ruling in which he changed a published five-furlong work by subsequently substituting the correct four-furlong split from within that longer work.

The purpose of providing the half-mile timing was to make a horse eligible to come off NYRA's “poor performance” list, which is governed by a seldom-triggered rule that does not allow for a workout farther than four furlongs.

“The decision to issue the penalty [is] without precedent and lacking strong basis to affirm the decision…” hearing officer Dayrel Sewell wrote in his Oct. 21 report that recommended vacating Gazer's penalty. “Respondent has a spotless 40-year track record, and there is no evidence of corruption or favoritism towards a trainer(s) during his employment as head clocker.

“Although there is no regulation [specific to what Gazer was accused of doing], the Stewards have discretion on how to handle this, but the discretion must be proportionate to the harm and there must be boundaries to the practice of discretion,” the hearing officer summed up.

The commissioners' outright rejection of the hearing officer's months of work in conducting the hearing and writing up the report is somewhat unusual. But in most state jurisdictions, racing commissioners are not bound to accept the opinions of the hearing officers, who are often attorneys, that they hire to hear appeals.

An exasperated Gazer has called the entire ordeal “a joke.” On Dec. 18, TDN's Bill Finley editorialized that the decision by the NYSGC to penalize the clocker was a “disgrace” that bucked common sense.

Murphy told TDN on Dec. 30 that Gazer is still clocking horses, and that he has yet to be informed when his suspension is supposed to start.

“He's at work and he'll be able work until [Baeza] sets the [dates for the] suspension down,” Murphy said. “But am I going to be able to get into court and get an injunction to stop that suspension? I think that's probably a hope that is beyond our reach at this point.”

Murphy explained that Gazer's court appeal involves a type of filing known as Article 78, which is a New York law by which a petitioner asks a court to review a decision or action of a state official or administrative agency to determine whether such action was unlawful.

Murphy added though, that petitioners have to weigh whether going through the courts is worth it, because Article 78 cases are expensive to litigate and often languish in the court system for months or even years.

TDN asked Patrick McKenna, NYRA's vice president of communications, if there was anything trainers needed to know about the morning clocking routine given Gazer's pending suspension and the in-limbo court appeal.

“Richie Gazer is a deeply experienced professional whose presence and skills as a clocker would absolutely be missed at Belmont Park should the NYSGC suspension take effect,” McKenna wrote in an email. “That said, NYRA does have the necessary staff in place to adequately cover his duties.”

Back on Dec. 12, NYSGC chairman Brian O'Dwyer said during the meeting that, “The commission reviewed the entire record [and] established the violation as a matter of fact…. And in particular, found that the conduct was improper in relation to commission rule 4042.1(f).”

That rule prohibits “improper, corrupt or fraudulent” acts or practices in relation to racing or conspiring or assisting others in such acts or practices.

Along with O'Dwyer, NYSGC commissioners John Crotty, Peter Moschetti, Jr., Christopher Riano, Marissa Shorenstein and Jerry Skurnik all voted in favor of rejecting the hearing officer's recommendations not to penalize Gazer.

The outcome of their vote, which had taken place at some point prior to the open, public meeting, was simply read into the record, and the commissioners did not debate any specifics or discuss findings during the Dec. 12 meeting itself.

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