NYRA Chairman Steps down

What's worse is the Vice Chair who supposedly will be taking over. Not exactly racing savvy LOL

Michael J. Del Giudice, Vice Chairman

Mr. Del Giudice has been Chairman and Senior Managing Director of Rockland Capital, LLC, New York, NY, a private equity company focusing on power and energy infrastructure markets, since 2003 and Senior Managing Director at Millennium Capital Markets LLC, New York, NY, an investment banking firm, since 1996. Previously, Mr. Del Giudice was a General Partner at Lazard Frères & Co. LLC, and also served as Secretary to the New York State Governor Mario Cuomo, Director of State Operations to Governor Hugh Carey, and Chief of Staff to the New York State Assembly Speaker. Mr. Del Giudice serves as Lead Director of Con Edison, Inc., and also serves as a Director of Fusion Telecommunications International, Inc., Reis, Inc., and FNBNY Bancorp, Inc.

Here's the Bloodhorse article:
NYRA Chairman Bonomo Takes Leave of Absence
By Tom Precious

The new chairman of the New York Racing Association is taking a leave of absence from his post, just days after it was revealed his company allegedly gave a no-show job to the son of a former state Senate majority leader who is fighting federal corruption charges.

Anthony Bonomo, in a letter June 2 to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who tapped him for the NYRA post, said he did not want to have "recent events distract" from the work of NYRA.

Bonomo's leave of absence, effective immediately, comes as NYRA is trying to showcase this weekend's Belmont Stakes (gr. I), a task made more difficult in the swirl of controversy that has erupted around Bonomo, who heads a malpractice health insurance company based on Long Island.

On Monday, John Hendrickson, a special adviser to the NYRA board and a former NYRA board member, called on Bonomo to step down, according to the Daily Gazette newspaper in Schenectady, N.Y. and the Saratogian in Saratoga Springs.

The vice chairman of NYRA is Michael Del Giudice, who is a longtime Cuomo family adviser going back to the days of the late Gov. Mario Cuomo. He is expected, at least temporarily, to take over the board duties of Bonomo, although NYRA and state officials June 2 did not confirm his ascension.

Bonomo has not returned calls for comment, but a spokesman for his company last week told Blood-Horse that Bonomo's firm was cooperating with the investigation being led by U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara of the Southern District of New York.

Bharara's most recent Albany investigation led to charges against state Sen. Dean Skelos, who was the powerful Senate majority leader before resigning last month following his arrest on corruption charges. In an indictment last week, prosecutors alleged an unnamed medical malpractice company gave a $100,000 a year no-show job to Adam Skelos, the son of the senator who has also been charged in the case.

Skelos, who was arraigned this week with his son in federal court and pleaded not guilty, has been accused of getting companies with business before the state to hire his son.

Bonomo heads a company that operates Physicians' Reciprocal Insurers, a Long Island-based company that provides malpractice insurance coverage for thousands of physicians and health care institutions in New York. Bonomo, in the grand jury indictment of Skelos last week, has not been accused of any wrongdoing, and his spokesman last week said no company officials engaged in any inappropriate activities.

NYRA is under the operation of New York state under a three-year-old arrangement in which the racing company is being run under a reorganization board led by state appointees. Bonomo is tight with a number of New York politicians, including Skelos and Cuomo, and he is a major campaign contributor on both sides of the aisle.

NYRA was to emerge from its state oversight period later this year, but a provision in a March fiscal bill extended the state's control for another year.

Bonomo was tapped only this past April to run the NYRA board. He also owns Brooklyn Boyz Stables.

Do love the racing. Hate the politics and that includes the NYRA. They are too stupid to manage Belmont Day so they limit the attendees. LMAO Yet they card big races that would increase handle - if they would let people attend. But this is all part of Andy's plan to have bad racing stats and find a way to divert the $ to casinos or whomever else he owes. Damn - he must really owe a lot of people - especially those casino companies. Between the idiot Mayor and this "to hell with the people, it's all about me!" Gov., NY is a mess. Someone talk Clinton into running for Gov - hell - even Spitzer! Andy's gotta go!

lmao - he best support the NYRA since he controls it - andy is so clueless about horse racing it's downright embarrassing since it's a big industry in ny - gee - sounds like last year he didn't have "an enhanced experience"!

Cuomo Supports NYRA's Bonomo Taking Leave
Bloodhorse

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo supports the decision by Anthony Bonomo to take a leave of absence as chairman of the New York Racing Association.

The comments by Cuomo, who earlier this spring tapped Bonomo for the top racing post, came June 3, a day after Bonomo stepped down from the NYRA board after allegations that his medical malpractice company provided a no-show job to the son of former Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, who is facing federal corruption charges.

Asked if Bonomo should have fully resigned instead of taking a leave of absence, Cuomo told reporters this afternoon on Long Island, "I support NYRA's decision and his decision.''

The latest cloud over NYRA, which is under the control of the Cuomo administration during a now four-year state reorganization period, comes as NYRA prepares for the June 6 Belmont Stakes (gr. I).

NYRA came under criticism for its handling of the crowd, from concession operations to jammed trains, at last year's Belmont Stakes. Officials have promised a smoother operation this year. One solution has been to limit the crowd size to 90,000 people.

Cuomo, who is not sure if he'll attend Saturday's race, said NYRA and the state-run transit agency has been working on plans for a better operation this weekend.

"Hopefully, we have a different result," Cuomo said. "I was there (last year) and it was wholly unacceptable."

That's right blame their inept performance on other inept fools. And it looks like Bonomo and the Gaming Commission may have their own corruption
scandal over drug testing coming down the road. The only answer is a privately owned run organization free of political hacks.

lolol c'mon George - these are guys owed political favors - honest not a chance! the truth will come out when andy is gone - think the upstate casino deals are also "honest"? nope! agree with lt

jon, theres always property for sale in ca.!!

Correct - that's from 2005, but it is true and it is one of the major reasons why the NYRA board was disbanded and replaced. Even after that happened, there was a second scandal which sealed the deal. Not sure of the year, but that was the final straw in ousting the previous NYRA board.

Read the linked document - MUCH worse than not having enough trains (which are not under their control) or "bottled water" or WIFI, etc., at last year's Belmont Stakes. That wasn't a crime, money laundering and tax evasion is.

I'd much rather have an "inept" board that has improved NYRA overall than a corrupt group of criminals.

I don't agree with everything they've done (they've made a lot of mistakes) but they're so much better than the corrupt board they replaced.

The Bill Mott court case against NY not allowing split testing is starting to uncover some interesting things between the Gaming Commission and Bonomo. Seems there is a nice little conflict of interest with the lab doing the testing and maybe something more. Look for another scandal to rear its' ugly head with Bonomo and the Gaming Commission right in the middle of it.

Read it on Paulick seems Bonomo has ties whereby the testing lab just happens to get its' testing equipment from another company Bonomo happens to have a vested interest in. Can you say kick back. Paulick crew is investigating. The way I read looks like a conflict of interest at the very least. You are right so far as to not being charge so far but his company provided a no show job for Skelos' son to curry favor with the Speaker. Not very ethical and very possibility illegal, and where's there smoke there's fire. And I think you know how deals are cut by DAS. They wanted Skelos Because of the Mott case people like Paulick are asking questions and starting to find things. Like I said don't be surprised. See correction in next post.