Snow May Be Falling …
But NYRA would like your requests for reserved Saratoga seats now, please. NYRA opened the reserved seat auction application period for the 2006 meet in mid-November and is accepting requests until December 23.
Whether NYRA will be in charge of New York racing come next August, though, is a matter of some speculation: New York state Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno is calling for the New York racing franchise to be awarded in the next six months “to ensure the continued viability of racing in the state.” NYRA’s franchise is set to end in 2007. Bruno isn’t ruling out the possibility that the organization could continue to hold the franchise if it was bid out before then:
What exactly the “right way” would be wasn’t defined by the state senator. A state oversight board, which recently blocked NYRA’s attempt to auction equine art with an estimated value of $2 million and is likely to refuse it the right to sell 80 parcels of land near Aqueduct worth up to $20 million, suggested that NYRA raise takeout to stave off its impending insolvency. President Charles Hayward said that if NYRA is forced into bankrupty, possibly by the end of this month, racing would not be affected.
Related: “New York state’s incredibly selfish and short-sighted politicians have really done it this time,” says Bill Heller.
12/7 News: “New York Racing Association executives pleaded to state officials Tuesday to help them avoid taking the 50-year-old operation into bankruptcy, and their pitch didn’t fall on deaf ears.”
