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Reduced Hours For Backstretch Clinic At Saratoga Cause Concern

Lucas Willard
/
WAMC

An on-site medical clinic for backstretch workers at Saratoga Race Course has cut back its services due to reductions in funding from the organizations that pay for the program.

While Saratoga Race Course draws daily crowds in the thousands eager to spend and wager during the summer racing season, the facility is also open for training during the spring and fall.

It’s during these so-called “shoulder seasons” that the Backstretch Employees Service Team, or BEST, has reduced services at an on-site health clinic.

BEST operates the clinic in collaboration with the Saratoga Community Health Center, part of the Saratoga Hospital Medical Group.

Because many foreign workers are employed on the backstretch, the cutbacks have caught the attention of the Saratoga Immigration Coalition. Terry Diggory is a member…

“It goes against the spirit of welcome, of hospitality but also it’s a community health issue,” said Diggory.

An off-site clinic is still available and transportation is available for those in need of medical help during the training seasons. But Diggory said a change in political climate means many workers are reluctant to leave the backstretch.

“As the anti-immigrant sentiment is spread throughout the country and filters into our community, backstretch workers have been increasingly reluctant to come off of the race track grounds,” said Diggory.

BEST receives funding from the New York Racing Association, which operates Saratoga Race Course as well as tracks at Belmont and Aqueduct, and the New York Thoroughbred Horseman’s Association.

NYRA has reduced its funding over the years. Last year, about $800,000 was budgeted for BEST. This year, approximately $600,000.

In a meeting with the New York State Franchise Oversight Board last week, NYRA CEO and President Chris Kay said the organization has reduced funding to BEST because it has historically paid more into the program than NYTHA.

“When you go over an 8- or 10-year period, there’s a substantial difference between the amount NYRA was paying and the amount NYTHA was paying, so we have reduced that amount over time,” said Kay.

Kay said the $600,000 set aside for BEST in 2018 was paid to the organization last year, along with the $800,000 budgeted for 2017.

“In 2018 we say we’re going to drop that to $600,000, however we’re going to give them the whole $600,000 in 2017. So they have, if you will, 14 months notice and they have the cash. And our people are working with them to help them to find ways to raise money,” said Kay.

Kay said at the meeting he did not know much NYTHA was planning to pay BEST this year. NYRA claims that since 2013, it has invested more than $50 million for projects that “have resulted in safer racetracks and backstretch facilities.”

NYTHA President Joe Applebaum said the organization paid $670,000 to BEST in 2017. In 2018, NYTHA has budgeted $712,000 for the program. 

Applebaum says he hopes a solution can be found for the reduced hours at the walk-in clinic.

“We’re going to try to remedy it. We don’t have a solution at this second but we’d sure like to have one in the future,” said Applebaum.

He adds BEST is just one of the programs that NYTHA supports, at Saratoga and New York’s other thoroughbred tracks.

Meantime, local officials are taking notice. Assemblywoman Carrie Woerner, a Democrat from the 113th District that includes Saratoga Springs, is hoping for a solution.

“From an economic perspective, having the training track operating from the spring until late fall is a really important part of our economic engine,” said Woerner. “So I would hate to see something like this limit the number of horse owners and trainers and ultimately workers who will come and make use of the training track. I can’t predict that that will happen but I would hate to think that it could.”

A spokesperson for Saratoga Community Health Center did not respond to a request for comment in time for broadcast.

Lucas Willard is a reporter and host at WAMC Northeast Public Radio, which he joined in 2011.
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