The horses are at the gate – or at least they will be on Saturday.
A top official of the union representing Belmont Park maintenance workers said Saturday’s Belmont Stakes will go off as planned despite the union’s threat to walk off the job Friday.
“There’s no way in hell the Belmont Stakes won’t be run,” Vincent McElroen, financial secretary for the IBEW Local 3, told The Post today. “That race is going to run. No matter what the guys do, that race is going to run.”
That means I’ll Have Another will still have a chance to make history by becoming the first horse to win thoroughbred racing’s coveted Triple Crown in 30 years.
McElroen said the union, which has been working without a contract since february 2011, has been willing to negotiate concessions with the New York Racing Authority.
“This could have been resolved any time within the past 18 to 24 months,” he said.
Even if the 150 maintenance and gate workers did walk out, the NYRA has a contingency plan in place, he claimed, to ensure the race will go on as planned before a live audience expected to top 100,000 and millions more watching on TV.
Meanwhile, a mediator was trying to settle the dispute yesterday and
was meeting Tuesday morning with the New York Racing Association and union leaders.
NYRA spokesman Dan Silver would not confirm that a contingency plan is in place but predicted the race would go on.
“We are planning for and expecting to race on Saturday,” Silver said.