Charles Hayward, the chief executive of the embattled New York Racing Association, said Wednesday that he was "encouraged" by a meeting with officials from a state oversight board on Tuesday to discuss options for NYRA to avert bankruptcy.

TUCSON, Ariz. - For clues to the direction of racing today, look no further than the new title of the University of Arizona Race Track Industry Program's annual conclave, "The Symposium on Racing and Gaming." The reference to "gaming" - a term adopted by the casino industry 10 years ago - was added this year.

William Levin, the former chairman of the New York Capital Investment Fund and the New York State Thoroughbred Breeding and Development Fund, pleaded guilty on Friday in New York State Supreme Court to a felony grand larceny charge, the New York county District Attorney, Robert Morgenthau, said Monday.

Levin, 83, will pay restitution of $180,000 and a fine of $25,000, according to the district attorney's office, which brought the charges, but will not serve jail time.

The University of Arizona Race Track Industry Program's Symposium on Racing, the largest parimutuel conference in the United States, began Tuesday at Loew's Ventana Canyon Resort in Tucson, Ariz., with panels examining casino demographics and marketing, racehorse ownership issues, state breeding programs, and the use of microchips to identify horses. The following is the schedule of panels for Wednesday:

8 to 9:15 a.m.: "Racino Design." Theory and application integrating casino gambling into a parimutuel racetrack.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - If the New York Racing Association does not get approval to sell 80 parcels of land adjacent to Aqueduct, it will most likely file for bankruptcy by the end of the month, NYRA president Charles Hayward said Saturday.

Hayward said, however, that he believes a bankruptcy filing would actually enable NYRA to continue racing uninterrupted into 2006. Hayward said that stopping racing "is not an option for us."

The American Graded Stakes Committee announced on Friday that it has upgraded 23 stakes for 2006, including four races from Grade 2 to Grade 1, while downgrading seven races.

The committee, which is a component of the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association, met on Thursday for its annual review of stakes races in the U.S. with a purse of at least $75,000. As a result of the review, eight more graded races will be run in 2006 than in 2005.

A committee of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association will present a final business plan for a proposed Office of Wagering Security by the time of an NTRA board meeting in January, an NTRA official said Thursday.

The Jockeys' Guild has relocated its offices from a space shared with a company owned by its former chief executive officer to a new location in Duarte, Calif., officials for the Guild said Thursday.

After state authorities nixed his plan to sell 19 paintings at auction, the head of the cash-strapped New York Racing Association said Thursday that he would concentrate instead on getting state approval to sell 80 parcels of land near Aqueduct.

Representatives of the Jockeys' Guild met with racing officials Thursday for the first time since the guild replaced its management last month, beginning an effort to open a dialogue between the two sides, officials said.