The New York State Gaming Commission (NYSGC) on Friday voted unanimously to allow New York Racing Association (NYRA) tracks and Finger Lakes to increase the maximum ratio of purses to claiming prices from 2.8-to-1 to 3-to-1.In the interest of equine safety, that purse/price ratio has been closely monitored and controlled at the commission level in New York since the 2011-12 meet at Aqueduct Racetrack, when 21 horses suffered catastrophic injuries.After that spike in deaths, a governor's task force on equine safety made the recommendation that (among multiple other factors) the state needed to disincentivize owners and trainers from entering questionably sound or uncompetitive horses in lower-level claiming races that featured gaming-inflated purses, which in some cases at NYRA a decade and a half ago had ratios ranging between 3.9 and 5.3 to 1.“For example, horses entered in a $7,500 claiming race were racing for purses between $30,000 and $40,000, or approximately four to five times the horses' value,” NYSGC Executive Director Robert Williams said during the Oct. 9, 2026, meeting.In the wake of the 2011-12 task force study, the commission initially established a purse/price ratio at 1.65-to-1 for claiming races in New York.But, Williams explained on Friday, “At the time, NYRA claimed that such a policy would put New York at a competitive disadvantage with other racetracks in the mid-Atlantic region that offered higher purses in claiming races than New York.So the commission raised the ratio to 2-to-1. It stayed at that level until 2018, when, after facing similar concerns about being able to compete for entries with other circuits, the NYSGC allowed the ratio to rise to 2.8-to-1.As a condition of the increase, the racing associations were required to perform additional levels of soundness and safety due diligence to check for situations that triggered greater risk, like if a horse was being entered off an extended layoff, dropped precipitously in class, or showed a questionable workout pattern.Now, eight years later, Williams explained, “NYRA and Finger Lakes management have requested consideration of further increase of the purse-to-price ratio of their respective claiming races, arguing that further advances in safety protocols and racing risk management interventions are sufficient to mitigate the risk” of increasing claiming purse/price ratios above 2.8-to-1.Dr. Scott Palmer, equine medical director for the NYSGC, said he went back and looked at safety data in New York's claiming races over the past 16 years to see if increasing the ratio made sense.“The findings of my review did suggest that increasing the current maximum limit of the claiming purse-to-claiming-price ratio from 2.8 to 3.0 is not likely to significantly increase the risk for racing fatalities in New York claiming races, provided the following risk-management interventions are implemented:“Number one: That the number of claiming races carded at NYRA and Finger Lakes remain similar to that of the number of non-claiming races.“Number two: That the enhanced security protocols remain in place at all NYRA and Finger Lakes racetracks.“Number three: Incidence rates and incident-rate ratios for racing fatalities at NYRA and Finger Lakes continue to be monitored annually to guide the commission…”When one commissioner suggested that the numbers be reviewed more frequently than annually, Palmer pointed out that he and commission staffers already do look for trends on a regular basis.“This is a real-time evaluation. And so that any time we see a bump, or an increase in these fatalities, we're going to review it at that point and consider taking away that increase,” Palmer said.The post NYSGC Votes To Allow Increase In Purse-To-Claim Ratios appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.