A critical week ahead in Albany

With New Yorkers aglow in the wake of what will undoubtedly be remembered as the most dramatic upset in the history of the Super Bowl and pondering Tuesday’s presidential primaries, those involved in negotiations that will cement the future of the state’s important racetracks returned to work on Monday staring squarely at a Feb. 13 deadline and the alternative to consensus – chaos.

NYRA executives this week will brief employees and horsemen on the situation and the contingencies attached to the absence of consensus in Albany, which will result in a shutdown of racing in Queens.

A cessation of racing at Aqueduct for more than a few days should the deadline not be met would:

Trigger the layoffs of most employees of the New York Racing Association and its on-site contractors. Those in administrative positions would follow no later than month’s end.

Ignite the exodus of horses stabled at Aqueduct and Belmont Park. The NYRA has backstretch support resources that would be exhausted in a matter of days and create daunting hardship for trainers based year-round in New York and owners faced with relocating their horses – many of them bred in New York who would see the economic benefits of the state-bred program evaporate.

Begin a widening ripple effect felt first by those involved in various related businesses dependent upon a population of horses – feed providers, farriers, veterinarians – and eventually decimate the upstate breeding industry.

Bring the state’s six off-track betting entities to their knees and create a sudden interruption in the flow of pari-mutuel tax revenue.

Further delay to development of a video lottery facility at Aqueduct already six years in the waiting

The next three days are crucial in bringing a settlement. In the words of one NYRA executive, “There will be a lot of balls in play.”

The impediment to averting what would be a dire crisis is Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno, who lost the support of a long-time ally last week when Charles Wait, chairman of the Adirondack Trust in Saratoga Springs and an established pillar of the racing community, resigned from the NYRA board of trustees, issued a scathing statement in his company’s annual report and another in the form of a press release citing his former friend’s intransigent, obstructionist and obviously personal position that prevented settlement by the original Jan. 31 deadline and now threatens the future of an industry that supports roughly 40,000 people.

There is a body of opinion that believes Wait’s bold move, a crippling body blow to Bruno and his future, may result in a more cooperative mood in the 79-year-old career power broker. The Saratoga community, in which Bruno must run for re-election, has turned on the senator, viewing any threat the racing there as a threat to the region’s economy.

If Wait’s high-profile condemnation of Bruno is the catalyst for conciliation in what is nothing more than a partisan tug-o-war in that has taken none of the ramifications into consideration, then he will take a place in history as one of the sport’s giant figures.