Saratoga Racetrack, Inc?

[Indulto]

Saratoga group wants to keep track on course -- Citizens concerned for track's future

http://www.wnyt.com/x6348.xml?ag=x995&sb=x183 (http://www.wnyt.com/x6348.xml?ag=x995&sb=x183)

>"We're fighting for a seat at the table, and there are going to be
>people we don't even know about >looking at bidding on the
>franchise,” Chamber of Commerce President Joe Dalton said.



This raises the possibility that the NYRA tracks might be re-franchised separately. Suppose the tail were to wag the dog and the OTBs joined the bidding for the NYRA franchise or individual racetracks?

[Figman]

Isn't this Joe Dalton person the same one who has already delayed NYRA's introduction of slot machines with his lawsuit on constitutional grounds that set NYRA back in the first place?

[the little guy]

That's probably right Figman.

As a Saratogian I am guessing you believe these people would be better off spending their time trying to come up with a solution to the ongoing traffic problems than further muddying up this quagmire.

Who's next...the ASPCA?

[Figman]

C'mon TLG...don't you walk to the track like the other natives?

By the way, the City police does do a good job of getting the traffic out after the races. No complaint there.

[the little guy]

I meant the problems in town year round as far as traffic and parking. From what I understand that's the major issue.

Walk? Downtown at night maybe, but I got a choice spot to park right by Siro's, and I'm always running late.

[Indulto]

Albany Times-Union editorial:

http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=433995&category=OPINION&newsdate=12/28/2005 (http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=433995&category=OPINION&newsdate=12/28/2005)


". . . the added cost must be weighed against what communities like Saratoga Springs, where racing is a major contributor to the economy, stand to lose. Racing would go on, to be sure, but experts say many of the better trainers and horses would not make the trip to Saratoga. The Capital Region as a whole would lose."



Who are these "experts" and why wouldn't trainers contnue to support Saratoga unless they were suspended?

[fouroneone]

If you break the franchise up, wouldn't saratoga come out as a loser seeing that they would no longer be able to share the NYC market revenue that Belmont and Aqueduct bring in?

I mean, yes Saratoga is a great meet, but can you really run a stakes race every day if your meet is only 2 months a year?

[Figman]

Fouroneone
Don't know about that being accurate. See page 18 of the NYS Racing and Wagering Board 2004 report. For the last two years the live handle at the three NYRA tracks on NYRA races alone was as follows:
Saratoga - 72 days - $233 million
Belmont - 186 days-$231.5 million
Aqueduct - 245 days-$197 million

[Figman]

Sorry forgot the link.
http://www.racing.state.ny.us/pdf/2004%20Annual%20Report.web.pdf

[fouroneone]

Fouroneone
Don't know about that being accurate. See page 18 of the NYS Racing and Wagering Board 2004 report. For the last two years the live handle at the three NYRA tracks on NYRA races alone was as follows:
Saratoga - 72 days - $233 million
Belmont - 186 days-$231.5 million
Aqueduct - 245 days-$197 million


Good point.

I have a feeling that splitting them up would make them Identical to HOL, SA, and DMR, and i'm not sure if thats a good or a bad thing. I still feel that as a whole they have a much better chance of surviving.

I would rather see all three tracks survive and prosper than one or two of them

[Indulto]

Figman,

Thanks for the link. Interestingly, both AQU and BEL show successive live handle declines in 2003 and 2004, while SAR showed a decline in 2004 following a gain in 2003. Simulcast import handle for AQU also declined in successive years while that for BEL declined in 2004 following a gain in 2003. SAR showed a gain in 2004, but the figures are identical for 2003 and 2002, suggesting an error in at least one of them.

In any event, SAR is far and away the most productive of the three tracks suggesting that preserving the traditional aspects of SAR may well preserve its profitability. Maybe Dalton’s opposition to slots has some justification.

[Figman]

Anyone got any idea what the NY Governor is thinking in blaming the former head of the Racing Board for NYRA's decline. I've followed the NY scene pretty closely for decades and know two things that have caused a decline in revenue to the State - many NY players now wager with services outside of NY and secondly, the state tax on wagers (not the takeout but the actual tax imposed by the State) has been constantly adjusted downwards at NYRA's behest over the years. If fact, on at least two occasions the State tax rate was lowered with the cut rate directed to bolster purses. NY OTB pays lower taxes than does NYRA on its ontrack wagers yet most of the money in NY is bet at OTB.

From this story it seems the NY Governor has no idea how the racing world operates and a good man in Hoblock who according to the story writer has an excellent NATIONAL reputation, is being cast aside for an unknown who in another story claims to have "built a horse path" while in the NY Parks Department as her horse regulatory commission qualification. Incredible!
http://tinyurl.com/bvf37

[Indulto]

"Now it begins. Now that your gone ..." (from The Big Hurt)



Tackling the future of racing in New York by Neil V. Getnick
http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=442857&category=OPINION&newsdate=1/24/2006 (http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=442857&category=OPINION&newsdate=1/24/2006)

"It is surprising and disappointing that the committee chose not to invite representatives of either the former monitor or the office of the state comptroller to testify. Under the guidance of the monitor and the comptroller's office, NYRA implemented a comprehensive program of self-reform. In our final report, we recommended, and Comptroller Alan Hevesi endorsed, that the forthcoming requests for proposals include requirements to preserve the reforms achieved and not take us backward to lesser standards and practices that continue to exist elsewhere."


Whitney: Run tracks for profit
http://www.saratogian.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=15987454&BRD=1169&PAG=461&dept_id=17708&rfi=6 (http://www.saratogian.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=15987454&BRD=1169&PAG=461&dept_id=17708&rfi=6)

“Marylou Whitney is expected to testify that New York's racetracks should be run by a private, for-profit firm during hearings slated for today in Albany.

Whitney headlines a group of racing heavyweights addressing a state panel charged with developing a request-for-proposals for parties interested in running Saratoga Race Course, Belmont and Aqueduct.”



Isn't Ms. Whitney a friend/supporter of Mr. Stronach?

[weegee]

Yes, Marylou has been portrayed in the newspapers as being a fan of Frank, which is ironic considering that he likes to pretend he is an iconoclast, opposed to the blue-blooded Turf Club scene. You don't get more blue-blooded than Marylou. (Okay, she's blue-blooded by marriage only, but at this stage, even she's forgotten she wasn't born a Whitney.) I'll say this outright: Marylou has done a lot for Saratoga, but I've never been impressed by what she has had to say.

[Indulto]

Stronach Not Interested in Partnering with NYRA in New York Franchise
http://news.bloodhorse.com/viewstory.asp?id=31890 (http://news.bloodhorse.com/viewstory.asp?id=31890)



“. . . Stronach lashed out at NYRA as being "clubish'' and says he has no interest in partnering "with a club.'' "I want to be in partnership with business people...I don't want to be in partnership with club members,'' Stronach said after he testified before the panel in Albany.
. . .
Questions were also raised at the hearing about breaking up the current three-track franchise into separate franchises for each track. But Hayward said such a plan would "only encourage more'' industry infighting and competition in the state. . . .”

[Indulto]

Splitting NYRA franchise considered at Future of Racing meeting

http://www.thoroughbredtimes.com/todaysnews/newsview.asp?recno=60083&subsec=1 (http://www.thoroughbredtimes.com/todaysnews/newsview.asp?recno=60083&subsec=1)


This article in the The Thoroughbed Times seems much more informative than the Blood Horse article I just posted previously. It might be because Heller is a better writer, but I wonder about the intended audiences of the two publications. Any opinions?

[Figman]

Nothing like a pompous blowhard writing a story. Click on the Albany Times Union link below.
N.V.Getnick, the author of this diatribe, is the "monitor" that a court appointed to "straighten out" NYRA. Instead, he left NYRA in virtual bankruptcy and is crowing like he did a grand job!. Now he's complianing about not being personally invited to speak at the Albany meeting that was open to anyone who wanted to sign-up. What makes him special?
Among his claims in the attached Albany Times Union story:
(1) "A safe, healthy and humane environment in which to work and live for the backstretch workers and their families."
See the link below to a Thoroughbred Times story where on Getnick's watch, a jockey was stabbed to death by an exercise rider at Belmont Park right outside the track kitchen.

(2) "A refusal to send the simulcast signal to rebate shop betting locations that do not provide full and complete information to satisfy the state that they are operating in a lawful manner."
The NYRA simulcast signal to this day goes to many rebate shops even within the continental US including some Native American casinos and account betting services. Not that rebate shops are wrong, just that N.V.Getnick's false claims are ingenuous.

(3) "A strict drug testing program with severe sanctions for violators to guarantee that all races at Aqueduct, Belmont and Saratoga are fairly run and to ensure that bettors are not disadvantaged."
NYRA has nothing to do with drug testing policy or the actual drug testing, the State agency called the Racing and Wagering Board that contracts with Cornell University does.

Don't want to bore you refuting his other alleged achievements. But one other one bears mention. Did he ever fix any of Rudy Giuliani's findings? Rudy's firm did find many things wrong at NYRA. I am sure the answer is he DID NOT, for if the monitor did correct Giuliani's findings, Getnick would have been shouting about it from the highest mountain.

What a big bag of wind is this "monitor."

http://www.thoroughbredtimes.com/todaysnewsarchive/ttodaysnewsviewarchive.asp?ArchiveDate=4/12/2005#54014

http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=442857&category=OPINION&newsdate=1/24/2006

[mainardi]

If you break the franchise up, wouldn't saratoga come out as a loser seeing that they would no longer be able to share the NYC market revenue that Belmont and Aqueduct bring in?

I mean, yes Saratoga is a great meet, but can you really run a stakes race every day if your meet is only 2 months a year?

Del Mar does it on their own... I have no doubt that Saratoga could as well.

[Indulto]

Weighing in on racing’s future
http://www.saratogian.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=15994560&BRD=1169&PAG=461&dept_id=17708&rfi=6 (http://www.saratogian.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=15994560&BRD=1169&PAG=461&dept_id=17708&rfi=6)

‘. . . “Racing consultant Eugene Christiansen was the only speaker who advocated having Saratoga go it alone. He said the next racing operator shouldn't be forced to pay the state a franchise fee. Instead, such money should be used to upgrade Saratoga Race Course.

He said the tracks and Off Track Betting should be run privately by a for-profit firm, with state oversight but no franchise term limits.

'If it was me, I'd sell them to a qualified investor,' he said.” . . .’



Pledge to alter historic track
http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=443270&category=CAPITOL&BCCode=HOME&newsdate=1/25/2006 (http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=443270&category=CAPITOL&BCCode=HOME&newsdate=1/25/2006)

‘. . . Magna Entertainment, a publicly traded company, has invested more than $1 billion in several U.S. tracks it owns in the past seven years and has built training centers, stable facilities, employee dorms, grandstands, slot machine parlors, eateries and other amenities. It has lost millions running the tracks. "There are certainly questions of whether he's improved the quality of racing at his tracks," said Bennett Liebman, an Albany Law School racing professor who testified. Liebman said the committee could consider bidding out each track as a different franchise. . . .’

[Ron]

Leave Saratoga ALONE!

[mainardi]

Leave Saratoga ALONE!
As in "leave it as it is" or "leave them to go out on their own"? :confused: