Editor’s Note: The following is a letter from Empire City Casino general manager Ed Domingo related to the circumstances that have caused the cancellation of some racing dates at Yonkers in 2022. A pdf version of the letter can be viewed here.

Dear Yonkers Raceway Horsemen & Industry Stakeholders,

It is regrettable that a series of circumstances have led to an increase of race day cancellations at Yonkers Raceway. We strive to make assessments of weather and track conditions early in the day to ensure any cancellation announcements are made before participants expend time and incur the expense of traveling to Yonkers Raceway. Recently, there has been a breakdown in that process. We are committed to limiting cancellations and have hired new personnel to assess and advise on the improvement of track maintenance with a view toward implementing meaningful recommendations.

We know how important the operations at Yonkers Raceway are to the harness racing industry and the significant investments horsemen make in their business. We understand that by offering the richest purses in the sport, there is tremendous reliance on those purse funds to support your business investments. Though recent race day cancellations will be rescheduled, and those purse funds will be available on those rescheduled race dates, we realize horse owners incur expenses to ship in horses for races.

Therefore, MGM Resorts will be distributing over $60,000 of its own funds to affected horse owners who shipped horses to Yonkers Raceway on Friday, February 4, Monday, February 7, and Tuesday, February 8, with the expectation of racing full cards but were unable to do so because of cancellations.

Moving forward, we are committed to ensuring more timely notifications of any necessary cancellations and are working to remediate and resolve track surface issues that have come to light after the $500,000 track regrading and reconstruction project. To accomplish that, we will soon be welcoming Gerry Rocco to our team as new track superintendent and have retained well-respected track consultant and former driver and trainer, Jim Shelton, who will lend his experience and expertise to our remediation efforts. We anticipate that Jim will be on-site at Yonkers before the end of the week.

The safety of all participants, both equine and human, will always be our priority and we are committed to taking all steps necessary to keep Yonkers Raceway safe and racing.

Sincerely,
Ed Domingo