What does Hookergate mean for racing?

Late news reports on Monday, citing political sources, said that Eliot Spitzer, a.k.a. George Fox, a.k.a. Client Number Nine, would resign the governorship of New York on Tuesday after having all but confessed to an extremely expensive Feb. 13 tryst with a prostitute at a well-known District of Columbia hotel. Under the circumstance, facing prosecution for a number of potential felonies including violation of the Mann Act of 1910, most New Yorkers anticipate a news bulletin sometime during the day, a somber resignation followed by a film clip and sound bites from the ceremony in which David Paterson takes the oath of office.

As the blanks are filled, it comes to light that suspicious movement of funds from accounts belonging to a New York government official to those tied to a high-end New Jersey-based international escort service attracted the attention of federal authorities some time before the dalliance in question. Analysts on Monday speculated that negotiation of a plea bargain were all that delayed Spitzer’s return to the private life and in the manner of a person who can afford a $4,000-an-hour-plus travel expenses courtesan, the governor has lawyered-up in grand style.

While all this delights Spitzer’s political opponents, it raises a number of questions within racing circles in regard to the immediate future of still incomplete legislation that shapes the industry for the next quarter century in a state about to seat its first black, legally blind governor.

The New York Racing Association continues to operate on franchise extensions, the current expiring on April 27, while Albany attends to details agreed upon and passed even as Spitzer, ensconced in the stylish Mayflower Hotel, awaited the arrival of his date. February 13 was the deadline for either an agreement on the future of the vacant franchise, ultimately awarded to NYRA, which was Spitzer’s choice, or a shutdown of Aqueduct,

Also among issues facing a newly seated governor is the matter of selecting an operator for the video-lottery casino at Aqueduct and the question of dealing with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s threatened mid-June shutdown of the city’s off-track betting franchise. While these things may not be on Paterson’s radar screen, they are time-sensitive and of great urgency to those in the racing industry, which may again find itself victim of this state’s bizarre political landscape, lost in the vacuum created by Spitzer’s libido and astounding hubris.

Under the prevailing circumstances, everything not directly necessary to the damage control effort and the gubernatorial transition would almost certainly be moved to the back burner if not the Albany freezer.

Ironically, the shepherding of pending racing legislation through the legislative gauntlet would fall to Sen. Joe Bruno, the senate majority leader who was the principal obstructionist throughout the process and in an ironic twist that almost qualifies as the blackest of humor, would, upon Spitzer’s resignation, become first in line of succession to Paterson.

Scary.


Aqueduct: March 12

Race 4: Skipping Class
Race 8: Dr. W