THE BIG DEAL THE BIG DEAL THE BIG DEAL THE BIG DEAL THE

Jeff Gural and
ELIZABETH BICK
The Big Deal
in focus
by Elizabeth Bick
History
Entwined
The famed Flatiron Building is
as important to Jeff Gural and
his family as it is to New York
City. Built in 1902, the Flatiron
Building is not only one of the
city’s first skyscrapers, it has
become an architectural treasure. The landmark structure
located at the intersection of
Broadway and 5th Avenue has
long been in the Gural family,
so to speak. Jeff’s great
uncles Aaron, Maurice and
Leon Rabinowitz operated the
Spear company, which later
merged with Harry Helmsley to
form Helmsley-Spear, which
owned the Flatiron Building
starting in 1946. Jeff’s father,
Aaron Gural, worked for his
uncles at the Spear company
before joining Newmark and
Company in 1953. Under the
leadership of Jeff Gural,
Newmark Knight Frank
purchased the Flatiron building
in 1997, selling a majority interest in it to the Italian company
Sorgente Group in 2009. The
building is a National Historic
Landmark (bestowed in 1989),
on the National Register of
Historic Places (1979) and is
recognized as a New York City
landmark (1966).
4
THE CANADIAN SPORTSMAN
MARCH 17, 2011
The
Accidental Saviour
As the deadline looms for JEFF GURAL to complete
a deal to acquire the Meadowlands Racetrack from the state
of New Jersey, a day in the life of the Manhattan real estate mogul
reveals who he is and why the hell he’s bothering.
by Dave Briggs
he corner office with the ostentatious Manhattan address says less
about Jeff Gural than the trinkets lining the walls and filling virtually every inch of the wide windowsills. Here in this pragmatic space
overlooking the heady juncture of Park Avenue and 42nd Street, the personal effects are a testament to Gural’s deepest passions: children, horses,
charity, skyscrapers and politics, mostly, with a little bit of Mets and Jets
thrown in for good measure.
Gural takes periodic swigs from a bottle of water as Jules FelixCoutan’s huge clock sculpture looms at eye level to his right across 42nd
St. on the facade of the Grand Central Terminal. The 50-foot sculpture features the Roman Gods of strength, speed and wisdom. Gural could use all
three in his quest to acquire the Meadowlands Racetrack from the state of
New Jersey.
The 68-year-old bearded mogul calls the venture the biggest challenge
of his life. That’s saying plenty given the headaches Gural’s had owning
Vernon Downs, leading the successful charge to bring slot machines to racetracks in New York and being at the forefront of the growth of Newmark
Knight Frank into one of New York’s elite real estate powers.
It is the morning after the Super Bowl and Gural is already quarterbacking
a two-minute drill with the better part of two months to go until March 31
when his rights to negotiate a deal to lease the Meadowlands from the state
of New Jersey are set to expire.
“It’s really the first time I’ve ever tackled something where I didn’t know
what the end result was going to be,” Gural said. “In the past, I pretty much
knew I would get to the finish line, because I’d find a way to borrow the
money or I’d sign personally. But this, I’m not signing personally. I don’t have
$75 million (later upped to $100 million) of my own money to put into this.
I would have to sell buildings and my wife is not letting me do that. It’s a
real challenge.”
Gural is the chairman of Newmark Knight Frank, reportedly the
largest property manager and/or leasing agent in New York City with nearly
50 million square feet in its portfolio. In New York, the company manages
T
22
THE CANADIAN SPORTSMAN
MARCH 17, 2011
On the roof of the famed
Flatiron Building.
some 150 buildings, owning about 40 of them. Worldwide, Newmark Knight
Frank employs over 7,000.
A world-class multi-tasker, Gural deftly juggles business, philanthropy,
politics and — more than anything else in his inbox these days — harness
racing. His schedule would make many younger men cry “no mas.”
But he couldn’t do it without Theresa Marino and Marianne Marcucci,
his two personal assistants a short bellow away from his open office door
or in constant communication via cell phone when he’s on the move.
Beyond virtually scheduling Gural’s every move, Marino and Marcucci
print out the emails and steadily place them on Gural’s desk throughout the
day. Despite the deluge, he’s a stickler for trying to return every phone call
and answer every email by either jotting down a quick response on each
printout, or dictating longer ones to be fired back. In the midst of a moderately-hectic day of meetings, appointments, phone calls and fires to put
out — Marino insists it’s “a slow day” — Gural has the presence of mind
to dictate a frank message to the industry. The point of the memo is to
encourage horsepeople to make their Feb. 15 stakes payments despite also
mentioning the sobering fact the Meadowlands handle was off 20 per cent
at that point (it’s been much better, of late).
The docket on this day includes: meeting with a group wishing to be hired
to help Gural lobby the New York State legislature, a meeting with representatives of a tote company Gural is hoping will invest in the Meadowlands,
a brief meeting with a real estate partner, playing peacemaker in an intraoffice squabble over which employee gets which office and a number of
phone calls, including one with a U.S. Senator from Florida.
For lunch, Gural dashes off to a restaurant in a swanky New York hotel
to meet with Democratic Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, the Minority Leader
of the House. Until the Republicans regained control of the House in the
November 2010 elections, Pelosi was the Speaker of the House, second in
line to the presidency and the highest ranking female politician in U.S. history. After lunch, Pelosi, a Baltimore native, even spends a moment
spinning warm memories of her father’s fondness for going to Rosecroft and
Ocean Downs in his later years despite deploring gambling as a younger man.
Her father, Thomas D’Alesandro, Jr., was a U.S. Congressman and then mayor
of Baltimore from 1947 to 1959.
Gural, a Democrat, is something of a political junkie. In his office are
pictures of him with Pelosi, him with President Barrack Obama, him with
former President Bill Clinton. A photo of New York Governor Andrew
Cuomo is one of a few indications Gural is a friend, making the idea of hiring lobbyists to work the government halls in Albany seem unnecessary.
“This is my favourite picture in the whole office,” Gural said with a glint
in his eye, beckoning his visitor to look closely at a small frame on the wall
near his desk. It’s a shot of Gural seated behind the desk in the Oval Office.
Such photos are a big no-no, Gural said.
“Which administration?” he’s asked.
“Clinton.”
Until very recently, Gural was much less connected in New Jersey.
When he contacted Governor Chris Christie’s office in hopes of helping the Standardbred Breeders and Owners Association of New Jersey
(SBOANJ) secure the rights to the Meadowlands, Gural was told he could
indeed talk about a possible deal, so long as he could get to Trenton, NJ
immediately with a cheque for $3 million to cover potential losses at the
track until March 31. Otherwise, he was told, the closure of the track would
be announced that night. A short time later, an embarrassed staffer who obviously checked into Gural’s background, called back to apologize and tell
Gural that Governor Christie would be delighted to meet with him the next
morning. No cheque was necessary. The next day, not long after they met,
Gural and Christie held a joint press conference to announce Gural’s intention to work with the SBOANJ to secure the rights to the track.
Just like that, Jeff Gural became what he calls “an accidental saviour.”
His son, Eric Gural, the executive managing director at Newmark Knight
Frank, said his father’s interest in politics has a practical and noble goal.
“He wants to help the world... He wants to be bigger than his one vote,”
Eric said. “He has a lot of contact with people who aren’t as fortunate as
him. He understands their lives are harder than his. He tries his best to help
them. I think that’s how he sees it.”
hen Jeff Gural was asked to be the vice-president of the Starlight
Foundation of New York, he was told the president was fully
entrenched as the head of the charity that aids seriously ill children. Fine by Jeff. He was happy to help, but he had plenty on his plate
already. A few months later, the president resigned. “I think that’s over 20
years ago,” Eric Gural said. Jeff has been president ever since.
“Starlight has really become a passion for him... That organization has
grown substantially and their mission has developed even further. The scope
of what they do is much better. It’s really been incredibly successful. I remember when there used to be maybe 20 tables or 40 tables (at fundraisers). Now,
you’re talking about 1,000 people in the room. It’s really an amazing event.”
Many of the photos in Jeff’s office are of him with children from the
Starlight Foundation. “It’s not just financial. He personally gets involved
in a lot of charity work that he does. That really says a lot about him,” Eric
said.
Through the I Have A Dream Foundation, Jeff has sponsored not one,
but two groups of underprivileged children — mentoring, tutoring, counseling and supporting them from elementary school through college. Beyond
contributing nearly half of the $3.2 million needed to help steer the current crop of some 80 Grade 7 and 8 students to a college education, Jeff gets
personally involved with the kids’ lives.
He’s involved with about 20 other philanthropic efforts, including The
Broadway Association — Jeff’s a theatre lover — and The New School, a liberal arts university in New York. On the day he’s being shadowed by a
reporter, Jeff attends a board of governor’s meeting at the university located
in Greenwich Village. The mandate of the school is to bring “positive change
to the world,” which is in line with Jeff’s thinking.
Walking out of the school, stepping over snow banks on the way to his
car as dusk envelops the city, Jeff speaks passionately of the responsibility
and moral obligation people with wealth have to help others.
Eric said his father has established an incredible climate of giving at
Newmark Knight Frank.
“He gets right into it,” Eric said. “He shows up and gives back. I think
that’s something that’s very important. He’s instilled that in a lot of the people here. We continue to rent space to charities and participate in some of
their fundraising. That’s very important to him.”
Philanthropy is a running theme in Jeff’s life that also speaks to his other
passions.
“A lot of it has to do with kids and education and helping kids. I think
that’s a very important thing to him,” Eric said. “He certainly doesn’t do it
to be well known. That’s not his goal. You’ll never see him hiring a PR agency
to do any kind of promotions on him personally, obviously, outside of promoting harness racing. He certainly does that, but he doesn’t really do
anything to promote himself.”
W
24
THE CANADIAN SPORTSMAN
MARCH 17, 2011
MICHAEL LISA PHOTO
eff Gural may hobnob with the political and business elite, but that’s
more a function of the job. The man carries few pretensions. People in
harness racing know this best, where Jeff can be lovably scruffy.
“He may have tremendous stature and political clout in Manhattan, but
when he takes the suit and tie off, he’s just a regular guy,” said Bob Marks,
marketing director for Perretti Farms in New Jersey and a man who has
known Jeff for about 25 years. “Just the other day I saw Jeff Gural walking
around Sunshine Meadows (training centre in Florida) in a pair of shorts
just the way he always is. He’s very unassuming.”
Dave Stolz was in Grade 7 when he moved from the Bronx to Long Island
and met Jeff Gural. That was nearly 60 years ago and the two are still close
friends. Stolz said Jeff hasn’t changed at all in that time. It’s a statement confirmed by another close friend, Art Geiger, and just about anyone who has
known Jeff for even a modest amount of time.
“Jeff Gural has always been the same person no matter who talks to him.
He’s never changed,” said Anthony Perretti, manager of his father’s Perretti
Farms and a man who has seen Jeff in action a lot lately in conjunction with
the SBOANJ. “When he walks in the governor’s office, it’s the same directness as if he’s talking to the horsemen or talking as a breeder or sitting down
in the OTW... Everybody can always rely on the fact that he’ll tell you how
he feels, he’ll tell you directly and he’ll absorb the information and try to
get a collaborative effort with everybody in the industry.”
Jeff surrounds himself with people with an abundance of character.
Conversely, he abhors cheaters, bullcrap artists, the selfish or greedy. It doesn’t take much to get him ranting about those exhibiting some or all of those
qualities in the harness racing game.
Yet, “he’s very fair and his word is his bond,” said son Eric. “The wonderful thing is those are things people can count on... He’s accountable. When
he tells you he’s going to do something, he does it.”
It is one of many lessons Jeff learned from his father, Aaron, who joined
Newmark and Company in 1953 and worked his way to the top (the company merged with London, UK-based Knight Frank in 2006). Aaron Gural
died in March of 2009. He was 92.
On the beam that intersects the windows fittingly overlooking the prime
real estate of Park Avenue and 42nd Street in Jeff’s office, Aaron’s lengthy
J
obituary in the New York Times hangs in a simple black frame facing north
down Park Avenue.
Jason Settlemoir can attest to Jeff being true to his word. When he was
hired five years ago at the age of 28 to run Jeff’s two New York racetracks
— Vernon Downs and Tioga Downs — he asked if Jeff would sign a contract. Jeff, who seldom signs for anything personally — it’s another lesson
he learned from his father — declined.
“He said, ‘I’m not going to sign a contract, but I’ll promise you something, If you come to work for me and things work out, you’ll never have
to worry about anything. I came to work for Jeff in January of 2006 and from
that point forward, Jeff has been true to his word in shaking my hand and
saying this to me,” Settlemoir said. “He’s taken great care of my family and
I. Jeff is one of those people that you can trust and there’s not too many people that you find like that.”
Jeff is also tremendously loyal, said a long string of friends and associates.
“I tell you what kind of a guy he is: He’s had one trainer (Bob Bencal)
for 35 years,” said Hall of Famer Bill O’Donnell. “That’s pretty rare in this
day and age.”
Jeff used to own horses with famed New York restaurateur Arthur Cutler.
In 1997, Cutler died in his sleep of a heart attack at age 53. About three weeks
later, a two-year-old trotting filly Cutler owned with Jeff and Geiger named
Cyclone Annie pulled off a 9-1 upset in a $100,000 New Jersey Sires Stakes
final at the Meadowlands. It was the only race Cyclone Annie ever won. Many
of Cutler’s family and friends were at the race that night. “That was such
a weird moment because everybody was standing there crying. Everybody
was upset, but happy. It was just a very powerful moment,” Geiger said.
“From that moment on, Arty (Cutler’s) wife, Alice, and Jeff decided to make
a race for Arty at the Meadowlands, which is the Arthur Cutler. It was a very,
very poignant moment in all of our lives.”
Jeff even helped fund the race. Fourteen years later, it’s an annual can’tmiss event for Jeff, Geiger, the Cutler family and many friends.
“Jeff has been a wonderful friend,” Geiger said. “He’d do anything in the
world for you and he’s just a straight up guy that cares about his friends and
the things he’s after.”
MARCH 17, 2011
THE CANADIAN SPORTSMAN
25
ost people break in their license by going on a date. Jeff Gural
loaded seven friends into a 1955 Chrysler and went to Roosevelt
Racetrack. Dave Stolz was one of them. “The Chrysler was a big
car, but there wasn’t enough room for eight guys. At any rate, we went there
and we immediately lost all of our money,” Stolz said.
They had just enough money left to buy pretzels on the way out.
Invariably, the group was losers much more than they were winners at the
windows. From that first night on, the parting pretzel became known as the
eat-your-heart-out pretzel.
“They’d let you in for the last two races for free, if you didn’t want to
pay the $2. Someone would give you a program for free,” Jeff said. “So, we
were guys that were going to the track with $10. We saved the $2 to get in,
the $2 to park and we saved the $2 for a program. So, to us, by going for
just two races, we were $6 ahead. I would bet a $4 combo. If I won, I bet
a $10 combo in the last race and we’d go home. We would have nothing
but fun. We would have a ball. We’d sit in the car, bulls_ _ _, eat our hearts
out on a pretzel.”
Perretti Farms’ Bob Marks didn’t know Jeff Gural then, but he has no
doubt they unknowingly crossed paths in the days when harness racing
played to massive crowds nightly in New York City. “Jeff comes from our
school, if you want to use the term. The old Roosevelt and Yonkers school...
He knows precisely what racing should be,” Marks said.
Geiger was from the old Roosevelt and Yonkers school, too, but he became
a friend of Stolz and Jeff’s later when he met Jeff in the late-1960s in a bungalow colony in the Catskills when Monticello Raceway had become the
M
their track of choice.
Sadly, their wives and children didn’t take to the races with the same
enthusiasm. “Our wives have had more than enough of harness racing, as
have our kids,” Geiger said.
Eric Gural doesn’t argue. “One of the best things that ever happened to
me as a kid is when they put a playground in at Monticello, because that
meant I didn’t have to watch all 10 races. I got a chance to go on the swings,”
Eric said, despite insisting he has much more interest in harness racing than
his brother Roger and sister Aileen.
Yet, to this day, Jeff, Stolz and Geiger still frequently meet up at Tioga
Downs — “It’s like you’re at summer camp,” Stolz said — and make an
annual trip to the Little Brown Jug. They stay with Stolz, who lives in
Columbus, OH. As much as anything, the Jug trip is a commemoration of
their endearingly-degenerate youths.
“When we went to Yonkers and Roosevelt as kids, it was mobbed. If you
wanted to get a good seat in the dining room as we got older, you had to
have reservations a week in advance and a big tip for the maitre d’. Now
you can walk into any of these places any time and no one’s there,” Geiger
said. “So, the Jug sort of preserves the crowd. Just the idea of going around
and enjoying the atmosphere and eating food that our wives would kill us
if they knew what we were eating.”
Though they had all moved on in life by the time Roosevelt closed in 1988
and insist the death of one of harness racing’s greatest venues wasn’t the least
bit traumatic, Jeff Gural, Dave Stolz and Art Geiger are adamant about one
thing: “We certainly don’t want to see it happen again,” Geiger said.
eff Gural hasn’t changed his personality or his tune. He still insists, as
he has for many moons, that harness racing is going to die unless there’s
a radical change to how business is done, which is extremely unlikely.
How could one conclude otherwise given the sharp decline in handle, attendance and the dearth of young people at the track?
“Maybe our customers are really dying off fast. It’s entirely possible when
you read these statistics that a thousand World War II veterans die every
day,” Jeff said.
Perhaps harness racing has 20 years left as things stand, he reasons. But
take the Meadowlands out of the equation and Jeff believes the industry dies
much, much faster. What’s to stop other governors and premiers from following Governor Chris Christie’s lead or the example of Quebec premier
Jean Charest? Saving the Meadowlands is the one issue that has galvanized
the industry and reached nearly-unanimous consensus.
“Everybody agrees we’ve got to try to save it. There’s no question about
that. It’s probably the only thing the industry does agree on,” Jeff said,
explaining the Meadowlands is basically the only track left with large enough
pools to attract big bettors.
Can he pull it off? He honestly doesn’t know, especially with no guarantee of expanded gaming at the site, or a cut of the revenue if the state ever
did decide to build a casino there. His assumptions are all being made on
the track having to stand on its own, though his hunch is slots will come
to the Meadowlands at some point, especially if table games end up in racinos in New York, which is likely.
Regardless, he’ll have to make good on his plan to tear down the existing grandstand and build a smaller, modern facility on the opposite side of
the mile track.
The cost, so far, is around $100 million. On March 9, he issued a mildlyoptimistic press release saying there were interested investors, yet, “we would
still have to raise $40-$50 million in debt over and above the same amount
of equity which I think may be doable. Any deal we make, however, is subject to obtaining concessions from the unions, as well as concessions from the
state and I expect to have those discussions sometime (the week of March 14).”
Those who know Jeff best won’t bet against him in his quest to acquire
the track.
“If there’s one person in our industry that can get the job done at the
Meadowlands it’s Jeffrey Gural,” Jason Settlemoir said.
“I know what he went through with the legislation in New York State,”
Geiger said. He saved all the tracks in New York State. They wouldn’t be
there right now. The Batavias of the world and Buffalo, they were out of business. As long as they had (slots), they were able to survive. He’s got a shot
(to get the Meadowlands), because I know what he went through putting
that together. I think if anybody can do it, it’s Jeff.”
“I think he’s the right guy to steer this ship,” said Perretti’s Bob Marks,
who, like Jeff, is a realist about harness racing’s long-term prospects. “I don’t
have much confidence we’re going to be able to turn this tide. Basically, there’s
no other track that can make any money except maybe the Meadowlands
on a much more streamlined budget, a smaller grandstand. Maybe it could
actually be profitable. I don’t know. Unless the industry changes, I don’t see
why new people are suddenly going to embrace this. The major problems
are still there. Basically, thank God that a guy like Jeff Gural seems to be willing to accept the challenge. I certainly have every confidence that he’s
probably as good a guy as you could possibly have and is well-versed in so
many facets of the industry.”
Beyond being a track owner, Jeff is a horse owner, breeder and, most of
all, fan of the sport. When asked whether he wanted to take a crack at acquiring thoroughbred’s Monmouth Park, too, Jeff replied, “Nah, I’m a harness guy.”
“He’s one of the guys that can speak on the horsemen’s end and the breeders’ end and the owner’s end and bridge the gap, so to speak, and
understand all aspects of it,” Anthony Perretti said. “The governor’s office,
if they turn this guy down then they’re not legitimately interested in making this work.”
If Jeff does make it work, expect some big changes at the Big M (see Last
Call, p. 56.) Though, he insists he has no interest in micromanaging operations at the Meadowlands.
“The truth of the matter is, I really enjoy going to Tioga. The horsemen
are great and the people are great. I have a beautiful house there,” said Jeff,
admitting he was, at first, against his wife Paula’s ambitions for the house
on a hill, which came in at almost three times the original budget.
Though, despite appearances, owning two tracks with slot machines has
not proven to be the financial windfall many assume.
“I’ve lost a fortune in Vernon and Tioga, mainly Vernon, but I’ve learned
from my mistakes... I’ve probably lost $25 million of real money,” Jeff said.
J
26
THE CANADIAN SPORTSMAN
MARCH 17, 2011
CLAUS ANDERSEN
iven all that, why on earth would Jeff Gural want to add the
Meadowlands to his long list of holdings and projects?
G
He’s not a young man and it’s not like he needs a hobby.
Sure, the closure of the Meadowlands would have a negative impact on
Tioga and Vernon — along with every harness track in North America. But
it goes much, much deeper than self-interest.
The project absorbs at least 50 per cent of his time in a schedule that was
already busier than most. That’s unlikely to change even if his bid is successful and he turns the daily operations over to others.
“I can tell you that we made a little wager when he got into Tioga and
Vernon. I bet him that within a year he was going to be spending almost
every weekend at one of them and operating it. He told me I was crazy. Let’s
just say I won the bet,” Eric Gural said, laughing.
Jeff said his involvement in the Meadowlands truly is accidental.
“It was a total fluke. It wasn’t like I was saying to myself, ‘Gee, I should
get involved in the Meadowlands. It looks like a great opportunity.’ It was
the furthest thing from my mind. I just assumed like most people that it was
just going to open,” Jeff said. “Truthfully, I think it’s a challenge to see if I
could come up with a model that gets people to come to a racetrack, because
the assumption is, you can’t. I’ve succeeded at Tioga, but I haven’t succeeded
in getting them to bet.”
Making money is not the prime motivator, especially in a depressed
market.
“I don’t think Jeff is doing it for monetary reasons,” Anthony Perretti said.
“He’s really doing it for the business.”
“He truly does love this business,” Settlemoir confirmed. “It’s not about
money to him. It’s about the passion he has for the horse racing industry.
He doesn’t have to be doing any of this to help the industry.”
“He wants to save the things he loves and harness racing is one of them,”
Geiger said.
In many ways, perhaps this is what Jeff Gural was born to do, said son Eric.
“This is what he has always wanted to do. He’s watched harness racing’s
popularity dwindle. His interest in it and his love for it has never changed.
It’s probably gotten stronger,” Eric said. “I think he’s always wanted to see
it come back to the forefront and be a sustainable and popular sport.”
As much as anything, the Meadowlands venture goes straight to Jeff’s
altruistic heart, encompassing a lifetime of his deepest passions.
“His personality definitely changes around horses and around the track
and around kids,” Eric said.
“Those who are influential have a moral obligation to try to save the sport
and not let it just go down the drain. There are young people who devoted
five or 10 years of their lives to this, they’re 30 years old and they have no
future,” Jeff said. “I feel an obligation to try to do the right thing for these
young people. Tim Tetrick and Yannick (Gingras), they’re screwed, and they
sort of know it.”
What’s the biggest message he’d like to send to the industry? “That I’m
really working hard at this, because I’m really working hard at it,” Jeff said.
“You saw who I met with... You saw all the emails dealing with this.”
Beyond garnering as much industry support as can be mustered, he has
only one request: “If it fails, I don’t want to be criticized, ‘Ah, Gural, big white
knight. He was full of s_ _ _.’
“It’s very difficult.”
No matter where your office is and how many presidents you know.
MARCH 17, 2011
THE CANADIAN SPORTSMAN
27
last call
by Dave Briggs
Imagining a new Meadowlands
with Gural at the helm
In the power of positive thinking
department, it’s a useful exercise to
imagine what a new Meadowlands
Racetrack would look like with Jeff
Gural in control.
With two weeks left on the clock
for Gural to orchestrate a deal to
lease the track from the state of New
Jersey, it’s a long way from a lock. But
I shudder to think of the alternative,
which is, most likely, the death of the
most important harness racing track
in North America and the resulting
dominos that would fall.
Changes at the Big M under
Gural would go far beyond a new,
smaller, high-tech grandstand
located on the opposite of where the
current behemoth stands today.
Perretti Farms’ marketing director Bob Marks believes Gural would
take a page from the successful playbook Gural and Jason Settlemoir
have employed at Tioga Downs in
Nichols, NY.
“I think Jeff Gural represents the
interests of the fan. He knows what
it should be and I think he represents
the interests of the industry. I’m not
so sure he represents the interest of
the status quo,” Marks said. “I think
that’s wonderful.”
Higher integrity would be at the
forefront. As a state-owned facility,
the Meadowlands cannot evoke private property rights to ban undesired
participants. Gural said he is trying
to negotiate the right of refusal into
any Meadowlands lease deal with the
state of New Jersey and Governor
Chris Christie.
“The good thing about Christie,
I think, is he’s a law and order guy.”
Gural said. “If I come to him and say,
‘You’ve got to help me. You’ve got
guys here that are clearly using
drugs.’ The only way we’re going to
catch them is through surveillance
— 24-hour surveillance. You put
cameras in. You just set it up so that
anybody that walks into that barn
has to have their picture taken and
they’re not allowed in a stall that
doesn’t have a camera on it.”
Sharply critical of some of har-
56
ness racing’s perceived cheaters, Jeff
shakes his head in disbelief as he lists
a string of some of the sport’s more
celebrated names, many of whom he
believes should be exposed and
ostracized, not feted.
“You would see integrity built
back into the racetrack,” Settlemoir
said with conviction, adding you’d
also see almost an obsessive level of
customer service.
As for marketing the Meadowlands,
Gural believes one can’t do any worse.
“One of the good things is it’s not
hard to improve much on the marketing of a racetrack. When I first got
into Tioga, I really got involved
because I said, ‘I can’t believe you
can’t get people to come to a racetrack, if you race 57 days.’ Make it
fun,” Jeff said.
Also, appeal to younger people.
“There are ideas out there like this
Betfair and I’ve talked to the people
at Cantor Gaming. They have some
ideas. There are people that believe
that you can get young people into
it if you did it their way,” Gural said.
On the track, Gural promises
you’d see the end of the country
club, the return of the long-gone
Meadowlands shuffle where drivers
are more aggressive and punish others’ mistakes. You’d also see an
emphasis on keeping the sport’s
star horses racing longer. It’s an initiative Gural has pushed strongly in
recent years, mostly in vain.
Gural has pulled his hair out
watching a string of the sport’s
biggest stars and drawing cards —
Somebeachsomewhere,
Deweycheatumnhowe, Donato
Hanover, Muscle Hill — head for
stud careers at the end of their
three-year-old campaigns.
“I begged the people who own
Muscle Hill to race this horse. I literally begged them. I owned a share.
You get an answer of, ‘You’re 100 per
cent right. It would be good for the
sport to race Muscle Hill. I’m not
going to do it, but you’re 100 per
cent right, Jeff. We should do it.’ I’m
not that kind of person. I just wish
THE CANADIAN SPORTSMAN
MARCH 17, 2011
that I had a good horse. I wouldn’t
even think twice. It’s just the stupidest thing. These people take the
money and buy 10 yearlings that are
all pieces of s_ _ _,” Gural said.
In 2009, Gural proposed eligibility for major stakes be limited to
stallions five or older at the time of
a horse’s conception, thus making it
a disincentive for stars to rush off to
the breeding shed at the end of
their three-year-old year.
“The truth of the matter is, it was
WEG (the Woodbine Entertainment
Group) that really dropped the ball,
because I had the Meadowlands on
board. Had I gotten WEG, that was
it. WEG’s board wouldn’t do it,”
Gural said. “Somebeachsomewhere,
every time this horse appeared at a
WEG track, attendance was triple. I
said to them, ‘I need you to do this.
We’ll force Somebeach to race next
year.’ They said, ‘No.’”
Though he’s also a horse owner
and breeder, Gural said track operators need to focus on what’s best for
their business, not other segments of
the industry.
“Why would a racetrack owner
have any interest in worrying about
the breeders? That’s not their business. The breeder isn’t worried about
me,” Gural said.
At Tioga Downs, Gural did what
he could to keep the stars racing
longer by establishing the Bettors
Delight stakes event for older pacers.
Above all, after a lifetime in New
York’s competitive real estate business, Gural has proven to be at his
best managing a facility.
“One thing about us, is we’re
operators,” said Gural’s son, Eric,
who works with his father at
Newmark Frank Knight. “A lot of
times people look at real estate people and call them investors. That’s
not what we are. Certainly, we invest
in our own ability to operate, but at
the end of the day, we’re good at
what happens in the game.”
For everyone’s sake, let’s hope Jeff
Gural gets to the plate.
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Fashion Farms ____________21, 31
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Walnut Hall Ltd. ________inside front
Winbak Farm ______________17, 37
Winning Key Farms ____________39