Sunday, May 23, 2010

Saratoga in the Year of the New Monmouth

(CHICAGO, IL – May 24, 2010) Students in Texas that read high school history books may buy into the idea that Saratoga’s upcoming 40 days aren’t going to be affected by Monmouth Park’s “Elite Summer Meet.” But realists who see things for what they are may be worried.

“The Shore’s Greatest Stretch” felt the rumble of 231 thoroughbreds this weekend, and many of them might have never left the concrete surroundings of Queens, NY but for purses almost twice those at Belmont. Moreover, horse racing in New Jersey, although far behind New York’s in graded stakes and all-sources wagering, is providing an escapist alternative to people fed up with tunnel vision and politics. It’s going to be an interesting summer.

Monmouth opened Saturday with two minor stakes and 11 other races worth $812,000. In response, at least a dozen trainers ordinarily found placing a saddle on horses at a NYRA venue gave the leg up on jockeys beneath a different stand of shady trees than those to which they’re accustomed. Todd Pletcher, Rick Dutrow, Kiaran McLaughlin, Bill Mott, Nick Zito, Chad Brown and Linda Rice were among the New Yorkers who trekked horses south for the bellwether card. Gary Contessa and Barclay Tagg joined the early adopters on Sunday.

“I don’t think it’ll have any effect on the meet,” P.J. Campo, NYRA’s vice president/director of racing, stressed unconvincingly during a Friday morning telephone interview. But it would seem that there are two types of horses most vulnerable to wanderlust – the promising juvenile who can face softer competition while running for a purse of $75,000 against maidens and the horse finding his current circuit too tough and can jell where the getting is easier. For example, Ibboyee, a New York-bred, failed in four open company tries at other tracks before winning Sunday’s Spend a Buck Stakes at Monmouth.

“Whenever these articles appear, they mean nothing to me,” Campo said about published reports that questioned the quality of his horse colony. He was on form to wish Monmouth luck, but dismissed its experiment off-handedly. “C’mon, these guys have a hundred horses on NYRA property,” he chirped, in referring to Pletcher and Dutrow et al. “People want to race at Saratoga, be at Saratoga and win at Saratoga,” he insisted.

Still, the racing secretary witnessed a mini-exodus from NYRA’s horse dorms this weekend. Pletcher (in fairness, a Monmouth regular) entered four horses Saturday and four more on Sunday in New Jersey. In comparison, he ran only three in New York. Similarly, Dutrow entered five on the first day and two on the next in New Jersey. In the same timeframe, he had only one run at Belmont. Regardless, an erosion of talent seems the least of worries.

Last summer, faced with a deepening economic recession and ideal weather, NYRA officials were elated that Saratoga’s attendance fell only two percent. But the year before – the basis on which the decline was calculated – attendance dropped nearly nine percent. In particular, the first and last weeks of the meet drew crowds of barely 10,000 people - way below the daily average - and Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays were atypically slow.

The legions that did show encountered a building that’s getting shabbier by each pigeon visit. As charming as Saratoga’s historic edifices may be, they’re displaying the cumulative effect of year after cash-strapped year of saving on maintenance costs. The television sets are the kind that you’d find at a homeless shelter. Grime has nested in the crevices of seat hinges, hand railings and floor boards. Each year management tries to spruce things up by slap-dashing some fresh paint in visible places. But the paint is beginning to look like caked-on maquillage on an old Paris street-walker.

“We can’t offer any details now,” Dan Silver, NYRA’s director of communications said when asked about this year’s improvements. “We might have some announcements on that in the next few weeks,” he noted, either unclear of what his response should be or troubled that it wouldn’t be uttered properly. It was clear that any revelation of spending when the Legislature was considering a loan for the struggling franchise was imprudent. But, that aside, it’s improbable that any change of substance will occur for at least another season.

NYRA officials, of course, realize the need to modernize. They have conducted numerous studies for resurrecting entire sections to original status. Substantial money’s been paid think-tanks such as the London-based Turnberry Consulting to scheme how to invest the projected Aqueduct VLT proceeds. Dreamers have mused over adding an air-conditioned structure for dining on the west end of the stadium. At the same time, “If you build it, he will come” may not be the value-prop it was once.

Guilt by association has damaged the Camelot quality of Saratoga. In its attempt to gain the notice of government, the horse racing industry has heaped so much negative publicity on itself in terms of its inability to exist without subsidy that patrons must wonder what is wrong with the sport. Each time an article that addresses the problems appears in The Saratogian newspaper, angry readers come forth like an oil spill. The worm is turning on NYRA despite that its business model was constructed on assumptions that the State created and then failed to deliver. Faith in the franchise is evaporating like a cold pad of butter on a hot cob of sweet corn.

Other options for summer fun are entering the minds of the faithful. It’s too late to create an upbeat impression for this year’s Saratoga meet to match the optimism that’s sweeping over Monmouth. Even if the dithering politicians save the day with the dough they owe NYRA, nothing corrective to the core problems will happen in New York until there’s a comprehensive overhaul. At this point, getting a law passed seems a pipedream.

Vic Zast posts daily on Facebook and Twitter

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