SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – New York and Maryland racing officials believe that the racing industries in their states have been put on firm footing due to projects to rebuild racetracks in the state, the officials said during a panel discussion on the second day of the Racing and Gaming Conference in Saratoga Springs. David O’Rourke, the chief executive of the New York Racing Association, and Alan Foreman, the longtime general counsel for the Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen Association, contended that the projects to rebuild Belmont Park on Long Island and Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore would better align the properties with the wants and needs of the modern consumer. Both tracks, which each host Triple Crown races, are being completely torn down and rebuilt and will not reopen for live racing for several years. “What we’re building is not what people would be thinking of for a racetrack 40 years ago,” O’Rourke said. “You’re going to be disappointed if that’s what you are looking for. This is about an integrated sports and entertainment facility.” :: Bet the races with a $200 First Deposit Match + FREE All Access PPs! Join DRF Bets. While designs for the new Belmont have already been completed and work on the project is well underway, the Pimlico Race Course project remains in the design phase. But like Belmont, Pimlico will be downsized from its previous iteration, and the design will seek to give customers more access to horses and a variety of ways to “experience” the facility and its amenities, Foreman said. “People don’t want to sit in seats anymore,” Foreman said. "They want to move around, they want to have an experience. We’re going to attract people to the racetrack. It’s going to be an experience. It’s going to be different.” Belmont Park’s redesign was done by the architecture firm Populous, and the same firm is the leading candidate for the final design of the Pimlico project. Populous has completed a wide variety of racing projects over the past two decades, including multiple renovations at Churchill Downs in Louisville, the home of the Kentucky Derby. Both the New York and Maryland projects were authorized to go forward only after legislators in each state signed off on plans to assist in the funding and redevelopment, even if the ultimate funds for the projects are being repaid with industry money. In New York, getting legislative approval relied on outlining the benefits of the deal to the state and the racing industry, O’Rourke said. Under the plan, the state is taking possession of Aqueduct, a track NYRA operates, which O’Rourke said has a real-estate value of $1 billion. Talking up the advantages of that aspect of the plan to legislators made it far easier to get support for the legislation that guaranteed the project could go ahead, O’Rourke said. Foreman said that garnering legislative support for the Maryland plan was challenging, in part because the current generation of legislators are not necessarily as cognizant of racing as previous generations, due to the sport’s declining market share. But he said that the legislature eventually coalesced around the plan because the industry was able to take ownership of it and put its own skin in the game by being responsible for any cost overruns. “It’s not the taxpayers who are paying for it, and it’s not money coming from the legislature, and it’s the industry doing it for the state,” Foreman said. As a result, Foreman said, “we have preserved and protected the industry at least for the next 30 years, and we get to control our own destiny.” * Jayson Werth, the former Major League Baseball player who is now a horse owner, appeared as the keynote speaker for the conference prior to lunch. Werth introduced himself by listing his numerous accomplishments in baseball and then closing with “and, most importantly, I am the owner of Dornoch.” (Werth later corrected his statement and said he is a “co-owner” of the horse.) Dornoch has won the Belmont Stakes and the Haskell Stakes this year, and he is being pointed to the Travers Stakes at Saratoga. Werth spent much of his address describing his experiences with the horse over the past year, including his appearance in the Kentucky Derby, which he called a combination of appearing in the lineup of a Major League team on opening day and owning one of the football teams appearing in the Super Bowl. Werth also said that he believes racing is on the verge of a resurgence, as long as the industry continues to market ownership shares to the public. “I’m passionate about the sport and the potential it has,” Werth said. “I truly believe this sport is extraordinary.” :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.