By Dave Lucas
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wamc/local-wamc-903781.mp3
Saratoga Springs, NY – Despite NYRA's money problems, the racing industry is hopeful that the 2010 Saratoga Racing Season will go on as scheduled... Capital District Bureau Chief Dave Lucas reports.
Over the weekend The New York Racing Association announced that it expected to halt racing operations and begin closing Saratoga Race Course and other tracks on June 9th, and that it had informed 14-hundred employes they'd be without jobs if the agency was unable to secure funding for operations. NYRA officials today made the appropriate notification required prior to a mass layoff. What if NYRA did follow through and cancel its meet? Tom Federlin, who runs Racing City Realty, says the effects would be devastating, and that once lost, it would be difficult for the Empire State to regain its racing prominence. Tracy Egan, executive director of the New York Throroughbred Breeding and Development Fund, likens the possibility of NYRA closing to a horrible storm on the horizon.
The uncertainty surrounding the fate of the Saratoga meet has hung like a dark cloud over the Spa City. Jeff Clark, president of the Downtown Business Association in Saratoga Springs, believes state officials will come through with a short-term funding fix. NYRA officials have repeatedly said that the agency needs $20 million to keep the Saratoga, Belmont and Aqueduct Racetracks open.