Peter Berube, vice president and general manager of Tampa Bay Downs, and Hal Handel, executive vice president and chief operating officer of the New York Racing Association (NYRA), have been appointed by the Thoroughbred Racing Associations of North America (TRA) to serve on the management committee of Equibase Company LLC, it was announced today by Equibase Chairman Alan Marzelli following the Equibase Management Committee meeting in Tucson, Ariz.

“Both of these gentlemen are exceptional additions to our management committee and we look forward to working with them,” said Marzelli. “In Hal’s case, we are actually welcoming him back because he served on the Equibase Management Committee in the late 1990s during his tenure as TRA president. He provided invaluable leadership during an important time in Equibase’s history and we are thrilled to welcome him back.”

Berube joined Tampa Bay Downs in 1995 as controller and served as vice president of finance and assistant general manager before being named vice president and general manager in 2001.

Handel served as chief executive officer of Greenwood Racing, owner of Philadelphia Park and Atlantic City Race Course, from 1998 until he joined the NYRA staff in September 2007. He also spent more than a decade with the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, owner of Monmouth Park and Meadowlands, where he was general manager from 1986 to 1991 and executive vice president and chief operating officer from 1991 to 1998.

In addition to Berube and Handel, other members of the committee are Craig Fravel, Jim McAlpine, Steve Sexton and Mike Weiss representing the TRA; Sherwood Chillingworth, C. Steven Duncker, James L. Gagliano, Alan Marzelli, Nick Nicholson and Ogden Mills Phipps representing The Jockey Club.

In addition to naming the two new members of the management committee, Equibase also announced it is distributing a record $3.3 million in dividends to its partners in 2007. The distribution for 2007 represents a 22% increase against the 2006 dividend distribution of $2.7 million, and brings the total amount of dividends distributed to Equibase’s partners since 1998 to $21 million.