Today in Albany: Philistines at impasse

philistine, noun
1.(sometimes initial capital letter ) a person who is lacking in or hostile or smugly indifferent to cultural values, intellectual pursuits, aesthetic refinement, etc., or is contentedly commonplace in ideas and tastes.
2.(sometimes initial capital letter ) lacking in or hostile to culture.
3.smugly commonplace or conventional.
4.(initial capital letter ) of or belonging to the ancient Philistines.


It may be time to assemble the horseplayers of New York, the horsemen, owners, trainers, breeders, grooms, hotwalkers, admission and betting clerks, parking lot attendants the peanut vendor at the Aqueduct clubhouse, take up torches and march on the State Capital, surround it with an angry mob and remain until the politicians inside clear up the matter of the racing franchise. We are indeed in the hands of philistines.

If there was naïve hope that our elected (okay, so maybe we deserve this since they were in fact elected. Jeez. Who did that?) officials, members of two legislative bodies that lack only a character who would be played by an evil Jack Nicholson, would accomplish in 23 days, counting weekends, what they failed to accomplish in three years of posturing, it is all but dashed as reports from Albany on Friday said that the Republican and Democratic philistines – being a philistine is bi-partisan -- are at impasse and considering yet another extension of the extension already attached to the expired franchise held and certain to be retained by the New York Racing Association.

I’ve checked. Being a philistine is not grounds for impeachment. Think torches. Think angry mob brandishing the Daily Racing Form.

Representatives of the New York City Off-Track Betting Corporation, which has elected to play chicken with the government by threatening to shut down its operations in mid June unless its demands are met, were also reportedly in attendance on Friday at the circus in Albany. This recent development adds another layer of gelatinous fuel – remember napalm? -- to the franchise fire and forces the philistines to thing about two things at once. Too complicated.

These issues will soon be overwhelmed by the annual budget free-for-all, or as some refer to it the Albany Pork Festival. It would not be a surprise were the budget go pass – well beyond deadline – with a franchise provision attached.

Not a bad year at NYRA

Growth in key areas showed up at NYRA’s generally red bottom line of the 2007. Purses increased 6.9 percent, from $110.17 million in 2006 to $117.8 million. On-track betting handle on both NYRA and simulcast races increased by 2.7 percent to $429.41 million while on-track wagering on NYRA races reached $310.57 million a 2.8 percent increase. The daily average on-track handle, $1.76 million up from $1.68 million and daily average total handle reached $10.9 million up from $10.33 million.

All-source wagering declined by 1.1 percent, which was less than the decline of 1.6 percent in racing days, from 248 to 244. Bucking national trends, attendance held up well, totaling 1.82 million a drop of just 0.9 percent in a year with four fewer racing days.


Evening Attire returns at age 10 – with a shot

Evening Attire makes his first start at age 10 in the Aqueduct Handicap on Saturday. In an age of brief careers, the gelding is an iron horse, still competitive, still productive and very much current. Evening Attire, in fact, has a website: www.eveningattire.net dedicated to “one of the toughest racehorses that ever lived,” an inarguable observation.

His connections, Joe and Mary Grant, of Boston, and retired trainer Tommy Kelly have enjoyed a sweet ride that, as Joe Grant recalls, began on a January morning at Hialeah Park in Florida, exactly eight years to the day before his first start at age 10.

“I remember walking across the barn area at Hialeah with my wife and T.J. [Kelly],” Grant recalled. “It was the morning of his first published workout and before Evening Attire got on the track, T.J. turned to me and said, ‘We’ve got something special.’ Watching him come down the stretch, you could see he was such a long-striding horse. Eight years later, he’s still putting smiles on our faces.”

Evening Attire has taken the Grants and Kellys to the Breeders’ Cup twice, earned more than $2.7 million and produced 10 stakes wins, including the Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup in 2002. His best days have passed but the hugely popular gelding still loves to race and comes off a win in the Queens County Handicap last month.

Grant: “Back when he was doing exceptionally well, we were getting offers to sell him that probably would have made us better off financially now, but that’s not why we’re in this game. I really believe he keeps T.J. [age 88] young. T.J. was crying after he won the Queens County.”

In Friday’s Daily Racing Form, Pat Kelly, T.J.’s son and the trainer of Evening Attire, was asked to rank the gelding’s career achievements from one to 10. Pat chose the Jockey Club Gold Cup victory as his favorite moment, but Grant had a different view. : “The most excited I’ve been through his career was when he won the Discovery Handicap [2001, at odds of 65-1]. I remember watching TVG and listening to them saying he didn’t deserve to be in the race against Street Cry. My second-favorite moment was when he broke his maiden at Saratoga. It was so close, we couldn’t tell if he won or not.”


Commentator sharp in record return

Seven-year-old gelding Commentator returned to competition with a vengeance on Thursday at Gulfstream Park, a 14-lengths allowance victory under jockey John Velazquez that produced a track record of 1:33:71 for a mile. The gelding has clear distance limitations despite having won a Grade I [the 2005 Whitney Handicap] over a route of ground in his younger days, but when in good form, he remains capable of a Grade I-caliber effort at distances up to a mile. The win was his 10th in 16 starts during a career often interrupted by injury.

Trainer Nick Zito: “God Bless America. Only in America can you do things like this: Take a seven-year-old and have him come back running like a two-year-old. I was talking with a friend of mine the other day and I said he was going to break the track record. I looked at what they had in the program and I knew that was out of here. It would be wonderful to have some fun with him this year. If we can keep him like this, he can beat any horse in the world.”

Commentator salved some of the sting left from the loss of Heasanoldsalt on Wednesday, when the five-year-old was euthanized after a freak accident at Palm Meadows.

Zito: “He went out one end of the barn and headed down the dirt road. Michael Matz’s barn is two barns down from mine, and one of his workers tried to get in the way of Hesanoldsalt and stop him. Luckily for the kid, he didn’t run into him, but unluckily for us the horse ducked and hit a tree.”

Hesanoldsalt, who had just returned to training after a five-month layoff, broke a shoulder and forearm.