Big A In A Big Mess

The New York Racing Association (NYRA) which operates the state's three thoroughbred racetracks, Aqueduct, Belmont and Saratoga, filed for bankruptcy protection on Thursday, November 2 in order to maintain their current racing schedule while reorganizing.
The franchise to operate the tracks has been owned by the NYRA since 1955, but in recent years there have been a series of scandals and brushes with bankruptcy that culminated in the installation of a new management team two years ago and the appointment of a federal monitor.
Prior to the appointment of the new management, State Comptroller Alan Hevesi call NYRA the &#8220poster child for mismanagement and corruption.”
Five years ago, the state legislature green lighted video-lottery-terminal (VLT) casinos to be built at the state's racetracks. NYRA inked a deal with MGM Mirage to build and operate such a casino at the Big A in Queens, with 4,500 VLTs projected to produce $400 million a year in revenue for education and millions more for the racing industry. They gutted the grandstand at the Big A three years ago and the project has remained unfinished since then.
Under the federal watchdog and reorganization, the NYRA amended the MGM deal and sent it on to the Lottery Division which mysteriously has yet to approve the plan. VLT casinos are in operation at eight non-NYRA tracks around the state.
NYRA's franchise to conduct racing expires at the end of 2007. While NYRA is a non-profit corporation, two for-profit organizations, Empire Racing and Excelsior Racing, are being considered by the Pataki administration.
While the horses will continue to be trumpeted to the NYRA starting gates for the near future, many questions will remain.
Will our newly elected governor continue to consider for-profit companies for the tracks' franchise?
Who owns the land that the tracks sit on?
This issue will probably be determined by the bankruptcy court judge along with other items like who owns the 19 paintings worth an estimated $2 million that were gifted to the tracks by horse owners and which the NYRA tried to unsuccessfully auction.
In their bankruptcy filing, NYRA reported a Seabiscuit of red ink, $3.2 million in losses through August against operating revenues of more than $200 million.
Something is not right with this picture.
Perhaps it is a good time to place the fate of the state's &#8220Thoroughbred Trio” in the hands of a for-profit company that will certainly cut costs and eliminate corruption to make a profit for the state and their own shareholders.
It will be a horse race. We are betting NYRA will still be at the top of the stretch as Empire and Excelsior charge neck-to-neck toward the new racing franchise.