Important News From the New York State Breeding and Development Fund:
“New York City Off-Track Betting Corporation (NYC OTB) recently announced that it would “defer” its statutorily required payments to the Breeding Fund that relate to out-of-state handle and breakage. This “deferment” will result in a shortfall in payments to the Breeding Fund of more than $200,000 per month, or roughly 64% of the Breeding Fund’s monthly payments from NYC OTB. In response to this unexpected action by NYC OTB, the Fund’s Board of Directors was left with the difficult decision to initiate a “Special Holdback” in order to ensure a more equitable distribution of awards for the remainder of 2010. Subsequently, the Fund Board members adopted a resolution at the June 24 meeting providing for the establishment of the Special Holdback.
Due to this temporary decline in Fund revenues, effective for all awards earned on or after July 1, 2010, in addition to the 30% Regular Holdback (the “Regular Holdback”), the Breeding Fund shall apply a Special Holdback of up to 20% on the payment of awards (a “Special Holdback”), provided that to the extent the Breeding Fund has monies on hand at the end of the year to make distributions, and consistent with applicable statutory caps, all Breeding Fund participants who are adversely affected by the application of the Special Holdback shall be paid first, up to the amount of the Special Holdback, before any portion of the Regular Holdback is distributed.”
Click here to see the full letter from the Fund, or visit www.nybredfund.com
Also responding to this situation, NYTB Executive Director Jeffrey Cannizzo sent out a special letter to NYTB members further explaining this new development, and putting it in the context of other activity important to breeders, namely the passage of the Breeding Fund bill by both houses of the state legislature, progress in the selection process for the Aqueduct VLT operator, and the upcoming Annual Members Meeting on August 15th in Saratoga, where representatives of NYRA, the Fund and NYTHA will join the NYTB Board and membership to address all of these issues and more.
Click here to see the full letter from NYTB Executive Director Jeffrey Cannizzo.
Wow. I am glad my computer is away from the sharp knifes in the kitchen.