Bearing the whips and scorns of time

[Cannon Shell]

Your question is a good one but the issue with these scenario's is we don't really know the thinking behind the scenes of the real power brokers here, Genting and Cuomo. Obviously most pro racing people see the relevance of Aqueduct for the NYRA circuit and IMO most would support wholesale renovations and money being spent there. However in the real world if the plans for Aqueduct are it's eventual elimination as a racing venue than why would NYRA put any significant money into it? The one improvement that everyone seemed on board with, the new simulcast center/sports bar. supposedly is not close to being finished or even being worked on.

A big problem that NYRA faces right now outside of the opportunist NYC media which never fails to take a shot, cheap or otherwise, is that as we enter year 2 under the leadership of Mr Cuomo, no clear plan publicly exists. That is troubling for not only does a lack of a plan signal that they are either making it up as they go along which of course rarely is successful, or they have plans that are going to be extremely unpopular with racing interests.

We arent far from the end of the supposed 3 year state stewardship yet not a peep on how the process to return to "private" hands has been floated. While the board reshuffles the deck chairs with distractions like Belmont day changes and price increases the real issue of the future of Aqueduct, the improvements to Belmont that will be needed in the case of the elimination of Aqueduct and who is going to be in charge as we head into the next few years are questions that arent even being posed let alone answered.

As for what I would do to Aqueduct, the answer is probably not much until I knew how much longer the people in charge planned on keeping it open. If your town/state sent you a letter saying that a new highway was going to be put in and your house was in the path and would be torn down, would you put in a new deck?