New York Laws
Article 2 - Thoroughbred Racing and Breeding
228 - Pension Plans for Backstretch Employees.

§ 228. Pension plans for backstretch employees. 1. The commission may,
as a condition of racing, require all trainers and owners engaged in
racing at meetings of any corporation subject to its jurisdiction to
participate in a pension plan or trust established, or which may be
established, by trainers and owners for the benefit of stable employees
(backstretch workers) regularly employed at such meetings; if the
commission finds that participation in the plan by all such owners and
trainers is in the best interests of racing and further finds, based
upon certification by the trustees of such plan, that at least eighty
percent of such trainers and owners have agreed in writing to
participate, or are, in fact, participating therein.

2. The commission shall, as a condition of racing, require any
franchised corporation and every other corporation subject to its
jurisdiction to withhold one percent of all purses, except that for the
franchised corporation, starting on September first, two thousand seven
and continuing through August thirty-first, two thousand twenty-four,
two percent of all purses shall be withheld, and, in the case of the
franchised corporation, to pay such sum to the horsemen's organization
or its successor that was first entitled to receive payments pursuant to
this section in accordance with rules of the commission adopted
effective November third, nineteen hundred eighty-three representing at
least fifty-one percent of the owners and trainers using the facilities
of such franchised corporation, on the condition that such horsemen's
organization shall expend as much as is necessary, but not to exceed
one-half of one percent of such total sum, to acquire and maintain the
equipment required to establish a program at a state college within this
state with an approved equine science program to test for the presence
of steroids in horses, provided further that the qualified organization
shall also, in an amount to be determined by its board of directors,
annually include in its expenditures for benevolence programs, funds to
support an organization providing services necessary to backstretch
employees, and, in the case of every other corporation, to pay such one
percent sum of purses to the horsemen's organization or its successor
that was first entitled to receive payments pursuant to this section in
accordance with rules of the commission adopted effective May
twenty-third, nineteen hundred eighty-six representing at least
fifty-one percent of the owners and trainers using the facilities of
such corporation.

In either case, any other horsemen's organization may apply to the
commission to be approved as the qualified organization to receive
payment of the one percent of all purses by submitting to the commission
proof of both, that (i) it represents more than fifty-one percent of all
the owners and trainers using the same facilities and (ii) the
horsemen's organization previously approved as qualified by the
commission does not represent fifty-one percent of all the owners and
trainers using the same facilities. If the commission is satisfied that
the documentation submitted with the application of any other horsemen's
organization is conclusive with respect to subparagraphs (i) and (ii) of
this paragraph, the commission may approve the applicant as the
qualified recipient organization.

In the best interests of racing, upon receipt of such an application,
the commission may direct the payments to the previously qualified
horsemen's organization to continue uninterrupted, or it may direct the
payments to be withheld and placed in interest-bearing accounts for a
period not to exceed ninety days, during which time the commission shall
review and approve or disapprove the application. Funds held in such
manner shall be paid to the organization approved by the commission. In

no event shall the commission accept more than one such application in
any calendar year from the same horsemen's organization.

The funds authorized to be paid by the commission are to be used
exclusively for the benefit of those horsemen racing in New York state
through the administrative purposes of such qualified organization,
benevolent activities on behalf of backstretch employees, and for the
promotion of equine research.

Structure New York Laws