NYRA may trim winter meet

A bill that would allow the New York Racing Association to trim 12 days off its winter meet at Aqueduct has been passed in the state Senate and is expected to be passed in the Assembly.

The bill would require NYRA to run 95 days of racing instead of 107 in order to qualify for lower tax rates. NYRA officials said Wednesday that they support the bill, sponsored in the Senate by Sen. William Larkin. The New York Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association also supports it.

"The legislators realize that more is not necessarily better, and we're not trying to do anything bad or cheat someone out of something," said Terry Meyocks, the president of NYRA.

If the bill passes, Meyocks said, NYRA would likely trim some days around the winter holidays and also lop off racing days in March and April, when horsemen are beginning to ship more horses crosstown to Belmont in preparation for that track's opening in early May.