Enough already; get to work

“The Assembly doesn’t seem to be engaged at all in the racing issue or minimally at best. Here we are in February. In my mind it’s just ridiculous that there haven’t been ongoing meetings the past few weeks to get this resolved. I don’t think it’s a priority for the governor, either. Unfortunately, I think it has become somewhat of a political football.”

 Jack Knowlton, in the Thoroughbred Times

“We’ve made it clear that the old racing model does not work and that significant changes are necessary to make racing even better.”

 Sen. Joe Bruno, in the Twilight Zone

Both statements are alarming. Knowlton, whose political connections in Albany stem from past affiliations and political appointments, owns horses, notably Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Funny Cide, the most famous New York-bred ever. Bruno, of course, holds the key to settlement of an impasse over the structure of racing in the coming decades and appears bent upon playing chicken with the fate of thousands.

New York Racing Association officials have informed horsemen that without an agreement by the current deadline, Feb. 13, the Aqueduct backstretch would be closed. Most NYRA staff will be furloughed to unemployment insurance. The Saratogian newspaper, in an alarmed editorial this week, gives voice to concern for the region’s economy and has begun what amounts to a death watch while urging the expression of public frustration over an impotent political process.

Bruno is correct about one thing. The old model does not work but the old model is no longer in place. All concerned parties have been on that page since the beginning of this process.

No one in the NYRA hierarchy remains from the operatives involved in the “old model” and all agree that a new course is necessary. The old-line powerbrokers have been on the sidelines for a long time now.

One wonders what voices have been speaking to Bruno for the past several years. NYRA’s board of trustees, now absent the considerable expertise of Charles Wait, long-time Bruno supporter turned advocate for sanity, an obviously unpopular stance in Albany, is already heavy with political appointees. Hello, Joe! No model is now in place and the structure of the board is largely in the hands of the same politicians who have created this mess.

If Aqueduct is dark on Feb. 14 and vans are removing horses from the backstretch trailing disrupted lives and unemployed people, the smoldering remains of racing in New York will be at the feet of the Senate Majority Leader, long considered a supporter of the racing industry, from which he has benefitted both politically and financially during a long tenure as a professional politician, a term intended here in a purely pejorative sense not to be confused with one engaged in intelligent public service.

The Saratogian encouraged its readers to urge the state’s most powerful elected officials to settle this issue before Feb. 13 -- to do their jobs. Good idea.

Governor Eliot Spitzer
Executive Chamber
State Capitol
Albany, NY 12224
(518) 474-8390

Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno
New York State Senate
Room 909, Legislative Office Building
Albany, NY 12247
(518) 455-2181

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver
New York State Assembly
Room 932, Legislative Office Building
Albany, NY 12248
(518) 455-3791