Among horseplayers, cynics abound. Rose-colored glasses are rarely found among those who read the Daily Racing Form, the trade magazines and Internet sites devoted the most battered of sports but in New York healthy cynicism has been cloaked in a pervasive melancholy and occasional anxiety. Racing in the nation's most important market teeters on the precipice on extinction, crushed beneath the overwhelming weight of political ignorance, incompetence and corruption.
At a time of year when the attention should be focused upon the upcoming Kentucky Derby, Triple Crown and the delicious potential of an eventual meeting between Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta, New Yorkers, uncertain even of who will occupy the governor's office on the first Saturday of May, are wondering — and with good reason — whether or not the racing season at hand will be completed. In March, no one in the New York racing community is looking beyond summer.
Make no mistake. Regardless of what you may think of the New York Racing Association, which has almost dutifully cultivated many critics and alienated many horseplayers over the years, the desperate situation it now faces is the fault of a state government that is an embarrassment to democracy.
If the besieged Gov. David Paterson answers the absolutely reasonable call to step down in the face of mounting charges of corruption and impropriety, the Empire State will have its third governor in as many years. Eliot Spitzer, the last elected governor before his exposure as client number nine, not long after his inauguration resigned apologetically after admission to having consorted with high-priced ladies of the evening. Paterson's tenure has kept to the politics noir theme. Former senator Joe Bruno, once viewed as a friend of the racing industry, unapologetically awaits sentencing after his conviction on charges of abusing his office for personal gain and it is almost certain that the ninth anniversary of the original enabling legislation will pass without a single video lottery terminal at Aqueduct, which stands in moldy disrepair.
While politics and racing in New York have never been comfortable bedfellows in their shotgun marriage, Paterson, whose long-delayed and somewhat questionable selection of an enterprise known as the Aqueduct Entertainment Group to operate the video lottery terminal facility envisioned with great if repeatedly disappointed anticipation since 2001 was met immediately by charges of cronyism and while not yet overturned, is under investigation by the State Inspector General, who has pulled back a thin veil.
The embattled governor raised a red flag in the faces of those still hoping blithely for the best when he said this month that a $300-million franchise fee requited of the successful bidder is no longer a part of the yet-incomplete state budget. This was bad news for both taxpayers, who face Draconian cuts in services, educational funds and health care coupled with tax increases, and the New York Racing Association, which was to receive part of that fee to continue operation until the casino became operational. NYRA claims that it may run out of money by June unless funds promised by the state, which faces an $8-billion deficit and, according to the governor, will be broke by April, actually materialize. Meanwhile, Paterson's staff is fleeing in a flurry of resignation letters and what few horseplayers actually show up at shabby Aqueduct, are met by leaky roofs and dark rumors.
What appeared to be a glimmer of light at the end of a long, cold tunnel when Paterson and the leaders of the state's assembly and senate agreed on AEG to operate the Aqueduct casino appears now no more than an illusion. Since the self-destructive Paterson announced recently that he will not run for office this year after the latest scandal piled upon the tragedy of his administration rumors have surfaced that some officials involved in the negotiations are inclined to delay the project until after January, when a new governor is installed. While this is costing the taxpayers $1 million-a-day as it has every day since 2002, it imperils not only NYRA but the state's breeders, owners and many other providers of goods and services required to maintain horses.
Barry Ostrager, a NYRA board member and president of New York Thoroughbred Breeders Inc., told the Saratogian newspaper: "Farms are closing, mare owners are not breeding their mares in New York, people are losing their jobs and the state economy and tax rolls are taking a tremendous hit."
This is the tip of an iceberg of undetermined breadth and depth.
Also trapped in the legislative gridlock is the issue of the New York City Off Track Betting Corp., which owes NYRA $15 million. OTB and the legislature, however, are at loggerheads despite the imminent prospect closing the nation's largest off-track betting enterprise. NYCOTB handles about $1 billion annually and generates tens of millions for NYRA and breeders, but has failed to make statutory payments to many racing providers of its product. Legislative approval is required for any kind of restructuring but like anything that requires thought and action in Albany, the issue languishes in a stagnant morass.
NYRA, which abandoned it claim to ownership of the real estate beneath Belmont Park, Aqueduct and Saratoga Race Course — worth more than $1 billion — in the interest of retaining its franchise for the next quarter-century, advancing the video lottery terminal project and its emergence from bankruptcy last year, is considering elimination training at Aqueduct and ending its widely criticized pre-race detention barn program introduced in 2005. These measures, at least one welcomed by trainers and owners, would save about $5 million. The association has also trimmed stakes purses by $4.3 million for 2010, $1.4 million of which will evaporate from stakes purses at the upcoming Belmont spring meeting and the summer meeting at Saratoga, where the community if very nervous despite assurances from NYRA officials that the summer meeting to which the local economy is anchored is safe — unless, of course, NYCOTB is forced to shut down.
Traditional stakes rich in history such as the Peter Pan, Tom Fool, Nassau County, and Poker have been eliminated from the 2010 schedule. Purses for the prestigious Metropolitan, Suburban, and New York handicaps have been slashed by $100,000. The Ogden Phipps, Mother Goose, and Prioress were cut by $50,000.
Saratoga generates more betting handle than any race meeting run in the United States. The spring and autumn meetings run at Belmont Park are hugely popular with horseplayers nationwide. The state's breeding program, when funded, is the most lucrative anywhere. New York should be racing's Promised Land yet the sport and the people involved, horseplayers and fans included, suffer needlessly beneath the weight of political nonsense — a cavalier, ruinous abdication of responsibility. What became of government FOR the people?
More history has been made on these racetracks than any in North America, the legacy of great horses and horsemen. The history is written. It is unclear whether the present is reason for panic or an example of it being darkest before the dawn. The future, since the past performance of this legislative body is one of insufficient, temporary action in the face of dire crisis, may bring a shallow sigh of uneasy relief. Or, the rest of this story will be tragic both for New York and for thoroughbred racing in America.
Originally Posted on ESPN