The New York Racing Association is hosting a job fair this week ahead of the Belmont Stakes, coming to Saratoga Springs in June.
While Belmont Park undergoes $455 million in renovations, NYRA officials are preparing for the third leg of the Triple Crown to come to Saratoga Race Course for the first time.
With the first in a series of job fairs set for Wednesday, spokesman Pat McKenna says NYRA is looking to hire workers for the four-day Belmont Racing Festival, beginning June 6th.
"These job fairs, as we ordinarily hold them, in support of the summer meet, are a crucial piece of the overall hiring that will happen between now and June for this year's Belmont Racing Festival. Just like the summer meet, we'll be hiring roughly 1,000 people who will be performing a wide variety of tasks, to ensure that this year’s Belmont Stakes comes off without a hitch," said McKenna.
McKenna says the regular 40-day racing season that starts in July would not be possible without the employees hired during pre-season job fairs.
“But the long and the short of it is that this will be an incredibly exciting and busy weekend at Saratoga Race Course. We’re fortunate that so many of our seasonal employees make this a summer tradition by working at the annual 40-day summer meet. And we have every expectation that that will extend to the first weekend in June for this year’s Belmont Stakes racing festival,” said McKenna.
Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce President Todd Shimkus says his office has calculated the weekend will bring in upwards of $50 million.
“I think that becomes more and more accurate as we learn that Saturday is essentially sold out for tickets. That we’re in the process of creating events that might actually drive people here Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday as well off-track. And we’re really looking forward to this, it’s a great opportunity for, particularly, our local businesses because where people stay is where they spend money,” said Shimkus.
Tickets for June 8th, the day of the Belmont Stakes, have already sold out. Attendance is capped at 50,000.
Shimkus says the county is preparing for the Belmont to draw crowds who have never been to the region before.
“It’s also a once in a lifetime chance to make a really good first impression so that, hopefully, they want to keep coming back. Because the more demand there is to come to Saratoga, the better pricing hotels can get, and restaurants, the more customers that come into stores. So it’s not just about succeeding this year for us, it’s about using this as a way to really propel our hospitality community going forward for years to come,” said Shimkus.
NYRA partner companies like Union Square Events and All Pro will be among those looking to hire seasonal workers for the festival.
Rebecca Gaitan is a recruiter for Mazzone Hospitality, one of several vendors working with NYRA at Saratoga Race Course.
“It is amazing. We’re super excited for staff to come in. We’re excited to see what it’s about because it’s not the same as the normal one. So, it’ll be interesting. And it’s more business so we’re excited. We’re gonna have some offerings there that we don’t actually normally offer at the normal 40-day event. So, hopefully it’ll bring some extra profit as well which is exciting news. We’re offering picnic baskets to go that are ready so people who are coming up and don’t have a place that they can make food, it is available,” said Gaitan.
Unlike during the regular meet, NYRA banned outside alcohol during the Belmont Stakes weekend, but will allow outside food and non-alcoholic drinks.
The job fair will be held at Saratoga Race Course from 2 to 6 Wednesday.
