EXTENSIONS/OPENINGS: Lone Star still on hold

[ScottJ]

... Martin Panza, senior vice president of racing for NYRA, said the proposal seeks racing to start-up at Belmont Park on Long Island, then move up to Saratoga in upstate for the scheduled July 16 opening. Belmont's scheduled April 24 opening has been delayed indefinitely.

Even without fans on-site, Panza said, the Saratoga meet is extremely important to NYRA's bottom line and to horsemen's purses, of which 35 or 40 percent are subsidized by slots revenue from the currently shuttered casino at Aqueduct.

“Those protocols are pretty extensive,” Panza told the Thoroughbred Daily News. “If given the opportunity to race, we're going to be extremely careful. There has been a lot of thought going into how we open and how we do it in the safest possible manner.”

Apparently, a meeting at Saratoga this year is very much still on the table without fans on-site according to Panza.