Spitzer Sets Timeline
New York governor announces he’ll make recommendation on which group should get the New York racing franchise by September 4 (Blood-Horse).
Not the Real Racing Sheet
Fortunately, this ignorant editorial on the New York inspector general’s integrity report on the racing franchise bidders appears in the New York Times’ Sunday city/regional section where it will likely little influence any decision-makers with its misplaced innuendo and alarmist conclusion.
NY Bidders Will Have Options
All nine members of the Committee on the Future of Racing in New York met on Monday to discuss the recent testimony given by more than 50 racing industry executives, NYRA officials, and interested members of the public and to consider how best to proceed with the bidding for the state’s racing franchise. The committee members agreed that the land NYRA’s three tracks sit on is owned by the state (a contention that NYRA strongly disputes), and will likely offer bidders multiple options for submitting proposals:
Bids would be based on three scenarios — that the system of racing stays as it is; changes moderately; or undergoes a drastic change.
“You could bid on whichever one you prefer,” said Commissioner Bernadette Castro. She said bidders also should have the option to include OTBs in their proposal.
They’ll need that option because NYRA and the OTBs are separate entities, competing against each other, and New York racing law may or may not be overhauled in the next couple of years to reform this dysfunctional system. At least one lawmaker is warning potential bidders that it won’t. “I wouldn’t count on any sweeping changes in racing law. That doesn’t happen here,” said Racing & Wagering Committee chairman Gary Pretlow.
More from Alan at Left at the Gate:”The upcoming bidding process for the New York racing franchise took on the feel of a Chinese restaurant menu …”
No Races = More Money
Anyone who wants to know how truly messed up New York racing is must read this New York Times article on Yonkers Raceway, which
Despite running no races since June, when it closed to install video lottery terminals and make some renovations … continues to be paid millions of dollars a year from four Off Track Betting Corporations in the state, including $3 million from the corporation operated by New York City alone.
This arrangement makes, as readers might expect, no sense from any angle.
Friends of New York Racing is out with its final report that calls for just this sort of nonsense to disappear. The organization, headed by former NTRA commissioner Tim Smith, proposes a complete restructuring:
FONYR wants the state to completely rewrite its racing law to not only make it less complex and burdensome, but also to permit any entity — for profit, not-for-profit, and joint ventures that could include off-track betting corporations — to bid on the franchise. Smith said the law should make the bidding “permissive and wide open.”
The group said the 2006 changes in the law should also expand account wagering to include Internet wagering; some sort of customer loyalty programs, such as rebates; and to cut the pari-mutuel industry’s tax burden. Additionally, the group said the state should legalize video lottery terminals at Belmont. (A 2001 law forbids VLTs at Belmont and Saratoga.) The report also calls for consolidation into a single state agency to do the work of several agencies that now oversee lotteries, casinos, and racing.
In the longer term, which the group defines as much as two years out, Smith said the competing parties must come to a resolution after several decades of the “OTB situation” –the OTB parlors and racetracks are separate entities. The state, FNYR concluded, needs to restructure the current law that has led to fierce infighting between the tracks and OTB corporations.
It will be interesting to see what influence FONYR has in the coming year. I’m skeptical, but a correspondent quite knowledgeable about New York racing has written to say, “I believe Tim Smith is working magic behind closed doors. I am convinced he’s showing how useless the OTB system is, and that even though they generate a lot of money, it’s operated in a defeating manner.” Maybe …
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Jessica Chapel writes and edits in Massachusetts. Railbird is a Thoroughbred horse racing blog published from June 2004 to July 2019. More / Contact
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