The news coming out of upper New York state today about the uncertain future of Finger Lakes Race Track is disturbing, to say the least. Once again, as he has so many times in the past, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has thrown the fortunes of thoroughbred racing into the back seat in order to further his own personal agenda.

      Cuomo has allowed a full-blown casino to be put on the table, just 25 miles from the Finger Lakes VLTs, and track officials estimate that it will cut the revenue at the track by up to one-half. They could be wrong, it could be more than one-half.

    The purses at Finger Lakes are already among the worst in the country, despite the influx of the VLT money. I checked one program at random from a couple of months ago and six of the nine races on the card had purses of $9,000. Officials say that two-thirds of the purses allotted come from the casino money. Imagine if that money were cut in half.

    In the New York fiscal year (2014-2015) that ended the last week of March, the "net win" for the casino was $122,330,799. I don't know what percentage of that goes to purses, but if we use the Aqueduct casino as a base, the percentage is 7.5. That means more than $9.1 million goes from the casino to Finger Lakes purses. Since the purse structure is already stinko with the VLT money, imagine what it would be with half.

    Cuomo has never been known as a thoroughbred enthusiast, like his do-nothing governor father before him, and this stupid move only serves to reinforce the fact. Officials at the new casino, Lago, have said that it will create 1,800 permanent jobs in an area of the state that has been economically hard hit. They conveniently failed to mention the number of jobs that will be lost if Finger Lakes closes, certainly many more than 1,800.

    WOEFUL FROSH OUTLOOK FOR 2016 - As the season comes to a close, I took a look at the last Florida Horse Stallion Register to see what kind of freshman sire competition we can expect in 2016. It looks dismal. This year was intriguing from the beginning with First Dude, Big Drama and Gone Astray in the forefront with respect to progeny earnings, number of winners and stakes horses.

    Based on the Stallion Register, unless several new names pop up from out of nowhere, as happened this year with Brooks n' Down and Iqbaal, there will be just four stallions making a run for the title. They are Biondetti, a son of Bernardini from Woodford Thoroughbreds; Overdriven, by Tale of the Cat, at Ocala Stud; Revolving, by A P Indy, at Stonehedge Farm South, and Reward the Cat, by Good Reward, at Buena Vista Farm. Here's hoping there are a few others hiding in the bushes.  

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