ESPN

As a new era continues to unfold for the New York Racing Association, there are several ways to view the impact of the purse enhancements stemming from casino revenue.

Field size can be analyzed and a list of new horsemen can be rattled off, yet for handicappers the key question is simply whether NYRA races now offer better wagering opportunities, a.k.a. value.

That’s a difficult question to answer, since one man’s wagering gold mine might be another’s clunker. Yet a personal review of NYRA’s races since Jan. 1 reveals some positive signs of why a trip to Aqueduct has provided a much better deal than last winter -- and we’re not just talking about the buffet at the Resorts World Casino.

From Jan. 1 through Feb. 10, there have been 28 NYRA cards with 245 races whose cumulative win payoff was $3,050.80.

Meanwhile, the first 28 cards in 2011 featured 243 races with a combined payoff of $2,441.40.

Do the math and the average 2012 winner has been paying $12.45 compared to $10.04 in 2011, a difference that many handicappers may already be seeing in their wallet.

While a huge longshot, like Princess Reyana ($128.50 on Feb. 5), can skewer the results, a price that big does reflect some size and depth in a field which handicappers should relish.

Beyond that, though, there are some other encouraging signs tied to those payoffs. So far, there have been 29 horses that paid $20 or more compared to just 19 a year ago, making handicapping a much more worthwhile proposition.

Now that’s not to say there has not been a steady stream of odds-on winners as well. A year ago there were 51 winners that paid $4 or less and there have been 55 in 2012.

The increase in heavy chalk seems all together logical since the higher purses can induce a trainer to run a horse more often when it is in top form. Trainers are also more willing to drop or keep a sharp horse at the same claiming level because of the bigger purses.

But put it all together and it does paint an encouraging sign for both now and what awaits in the spring when the bigger outfits roll back into town. While there have been some awful races that would have a Belmont or a Whitney rolling in their grave, this winter has at least produced more races that a handicapper can attack in hopes of coming away with something more than a $3.60 winner and an $8.20 exacta.

It’s surely not Saratoga, but for February in the Big Apple it’s not bad. Not bad at all.

Mike Repole’s silks are blue and orange, but the native New Yorker is seeing bright red these days.

Enraged might be a mild way to describe Repole’s reactions to recent decisions by the Breeders’ Cup to stage the 2012 event at Santa Anita Park in California and to ban Lasix, a diuretic, in its 2-year-old races in 2012 and from all of its races in 2013.

One of New York’s largest and most prominent owners, Repole said not only should the Breeders’ Cup reconsider its decisions but “they better reconsider,” adding that unless there’s a change, he would actively promote a fall series in New York to compete with the Breeders’ Cup.

“If I put my heart into it, I’ll turn the Breeders’ Cup into the [now defunct] ABA [American Basketball Association]. … This could be the end of the Breeders’ Cup. … I want an explanation for what they did [in choosing Santa Anita] and they’re not offering any,” said Repole, who first voiced his feelings in a Blood Horse blog post. “I guess that’s because it makes no sense. There’s no reason or justification for it. There should be an investigation over it. It’s just not right.”

The final straw for Repole in his anger with the Breeders’ Cup came earlier this week when Santa Anita was selected over Belmont Park and Churchill Downs as the host site for the 2012 Breeders’ Cup. In awarding the series to Santa Anita, next year will mark the third time in five years that track has been the host site, while Churchill Downs will host the $26 million, two-day series on Nov. 4 and 5 for a second straight year. Belmont Park, meanwhile, has not been awarded the Breeders’ Cup since 2005.

“With each passing day I feel stronger about this, and the feedback I’ve gotten is overwhelming. Everyone I’ve talked to believes this is a travesty. If they gave New York the Breeders’ Cup three out of five years I’d feel it’s unfair. I don’t think the people who created the Breeders’ Cup envisioned this as the Masters at Augusta or the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs. It’s not fair to fans on the East Coast who can’t get to California. The Breeders’ Cup should be thinking about the horses, the fans, the owners and the trainers and they’re not doing that right now. Everybody seems to get it except the Breeders’ Cup.”

While Repole said he has yet to approach anyone at the New York Racing Association about competing with the Breeders’ Cup, the owner of past and perhaps future champions such as Uncle Mo, Stay Thirsty and Overdriven said he would happily skip the Breeders’ Cup if it means shipping to California in 2012.

“If NYRA is willing to move some of their major races and compete with the Breeders’ Cup, I’ll not only support it, I’ll help fund it,” Repole said. “Charlie Hayward [NYRA’s President and CEO] took the high road over this, but it was the biggest slap in the face to New York racing that I’ve ever seen, and the Breeders’ Cup shouldn’t think they can just get away [with] it. That’s not right.”

On the topic of Lasix, Repole believes the Breeders’ Cup and other groups are doing a disservice to horses and horsemen by outlawing the anti-bleeding medication. Earlier this week, the American Graded Stakes Committee joined the Breeders’ Cup in announcing that tracks must ban Lasix in 2-year-old graded stakes -- races in New York like the Hopeful and Champagne -- in 2012 or those races would lose their graded status.

“Lasix is the one medication horses should be allowed to run on. Horses need it. Research shows it’s good for a horse,” Repole said. “No Lasix will mean the end of every small track in America. There are plenty of people on the Breeders’ Cup board who race horses, well, to set an example I think they should stop running their horses on Lasix right now. A group can take a grade away from a stakes, but states like New York and New Jersey will decide if Lasix is allowed. It’s incredible what they’re trying to do.”

As Repole’s anger grows, he says it's his fervent hope for a bright future for racing that diminishes.

“Each time I hope this sport would unite, we go in different directions,” Repole said. "We compete more off the track than we do on it and this is a competitive sport. It’s the worst marketed sport in history and all we’re doing is accelerating its demise. And that’s a shame because it has such a loyal and passionate fan base. I thought this sport had maybe 10 years left the way it was going, but I now I think it’s down to five to six years left before it implodes. It’s mind-boggling how this sport keeps shooting itself in the foot.”

The New York Racing Association has hired Andrew DiNovo for its newly created position as director of account wagering.

DiNovo, 46, will develop, implement and oversee all aspects of NYRA's account wagering programs, including its telephone, online, mobile, and ontrack platforms, along with customer acquisition, development and analysis for NYRA Rewards.

DiNovo, a native of Albany, N.Y. comes to NYRA from Capital District Off-Track Betting Corp. where he was most recently the director of sales and marketing. Before that, DiNovo led the commercial services division of Time Warner Cable in Albany.

"I am extremely excited to join NYRA and be a part of the best Thoroughbred racing in the country, if not the world," DiNovo said. "NYRA is taking great strides as a leader in quality of services and with the creation of this position, demonstrates its commitment to future technologies."

A long-shot measure to re-open the New York City Off-Track Betting Corp. failed to get enough votes to even make it out of a New York state Senate committee on March 8.

“Is there a second?’’ Senate Racing Committee Chairman John Bonacic asked fellow lawmakers to move the bill along in the process. No one answered several of his calls.

Only four lawmakers attended the meeting, and Bonacic’s only other Republican colleague at the session--Senator Roy McDonald, who represents the Saratoga Springs area--balked at the measure.

“It would be an unwise vote on my part,” McDonald said. He added the bill would cut payments to harness tracks like the one he represents in Saratoga, and would not make the New York Racing Association whole for the $25 million or so it is still owed from the shuttered NYCOTB. The NYCOTB closed down in December after its Chapter 9 reorganization bill was rejected in the Senate.

“I want to be a good team player,” McDonald said of the bill sponsored by a fellow Republican, Andrew Lanza of Staten Island.

Bonacic said the effort is to try to pick up the pieces left from NYCOTB. “It’s over. It’s a completed act,” Bonacic said of the NYCOTB.

The Lanza bill would create a competitive bidding process for a private company to take over all or a portion of NYCOTB’s operations. It also cuts certain statutory payments to harness tracks by OTBs and provides health and pension benefit protections to NYCOTB workers who lost their jobs.

Senate Democrats used the stalling of the bill to poke fun at the GOP-led Senate.

“Last December, Senator Lanza gallantly proclaimed, ‘When I’m in the majority in January, we’ll work this out.’ It’s not March and there is still no answer,” said Austin Shafran, a Senate Democratic spokesman. “Those 1,000 workers he let down have not given up hope, and vital services to thousands more are on the chopping block because of lost revenue.”