Do-Over No Silver Lining for NYRA

- One might think that NYRA would welcome Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver's suggestion to have a "do-over" for the franchise selection process considering that they finished third in the voting. But VP Bill Nader, noting that "everything expires at the end of the year," told the Saratogian that there's not enough time.

New contracts must be reached with a variety of parties such as employee unions, food-and-beverage concessionaires, simulcast and television operations. At the same time, NYRA must take care of the day-to-day duties of running its three racetracks.

"These are big, big tasks," Nader said. "If you wait too long it's going to be very difficult to do it properly. To negotiate all of these contracts in a way that's most efficient in running the business, with proper bidding, we've got to do this quickly."

A spokesperson for the persistent Capital Play Ltd said that they're ready to take over now; Excelsior expressed its usual confidence that the committee's recommendation will hold sway.

As for Empire, reporter Paul Post writes:

Empire Racing Associates agrees with Silver's assessment that integrity should have been given more weight under the ad hoc committee's scoring system.

Obviously, Empire would be happy if Silver's suggestion to start over became a reality. But do they really want ethics to be given more weight? Considering the suspicions surrounding Friends of New York's morphing into the group, as well as the deepening investigation into the relationship between Jared Abbruzzese and Senator Bruno, one might think that Empire would prefer that the writer rephrase that statement.