Cornell's equine hospital opens in Elmont

Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine, which late last year signed a 20-year lease-buy agreement with Racebrook to occupy a two-story 22,000 square-foot vacant building on Plainfield Avenue in Elmont, has announced that the horse hospital it had planned for the site is officially open.

The building that was Ruffian Equine Medical Center near the Belmont Racetrack backstretch opened on April 1, with full emergency and critical care services that will be in place before the summer.

Cornell’s lease signing with Racebrook Capital Advisors LLC last year came nearly one year after the previous inhabitants of the building, International Equine Acquisition Holdings, failed to make a $21,000 semi-annual payment on the building lease and was forced to shut down. The building had been vacant since December 2012.

Cornell is providing specialty services to horses referred by their attending veterinarians. Cornell Equine Specialists is partnering with referring veterinarians to meet state racing needs, university officials said. It provides surgical, imaging, diagnostic and rehabilitation services to horses.

Dr. Alan Nixon, an equine orthopedic surgeon and director of the comparative orthopedics laboratory, is serving as the chief medical officer of Cornell Ruffian Equine Specialists. The hospital is staffed with Cornell veterinarians and technicians.

“This is an exciting initiative for Cornell,” Nixon said in December. “Through the establishment of Cornell Ruffian Equine Specialists, Cornell will honor Ruffian’s legacy.”