Empire Racing, one of the contenders for New York’s racing franchise, has called for the placement of the Saratoga Race Course and some other nearby racing properties on the National and State Registers of Historic Places.
Empire Racing CEO Jeff Perlee sent a letter to Saratoga Springs Mayor Valerie Keehn highlighting the need to place the Saratoga Race Course and other historic racing-related buildings on the registers.
Portions of the track property lie within the Union Avenue Historic District, which includes more than 250 buildings and private homes and is listed on both the Federal and State Historic Districts. However, the race course — including the famous Victorian Grandstand, clubhouse and paddock area — is not specifically listed on either Register.
As a former member of the Saratoga-Capitol State Park Commission, I learned that specific historic buildings within a larger historic district should themselves be specifically designated. That’s not been done by the current operator and, frankly, it’s something that should have been done a long time ago, Perlee said.
Empire Racing included this proposal to Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s franchise selection panel in April and has pledged to fund the entire process. Getting placed on the registries requires the successful completion of a complex application process.
Empire’s proposal also calls for the expansion of the Union Avenue Historic District to include properties on the north side of Union Avenue such as the recreation hall, stables and Oklahoma Training Track. Empire details specific renovations to the backstretch buildings, BEST offices and recreation hall to remedy their current disrepair.
`It is shocking that Saratoga’s most historic structure is specifically not listed on either register,` said Kevin Carey, former executive director of the Natural Heritage Trust, a public benefit corporation dedicated to conservation and historic preservation.
Carey works with Empire on historic preservation issues. Failure to specifically list the structures on the registries limits the Saratoga Race Course’s chances for receiving grants that could be used to preserve the property, he said.
Mayoral contender Gordon Boyd weighed in on the issue, using it as a platform to blast Mayor Valerie Keehn for what he sees as her failure to secure the track’s historic status while she was on the Ad Hoc Committee on the Future of Racing.
`I have been pointing this out for months. The Concerned Citizens for Saratoga Racing have had it as a priority for more than a year,` said Boyd in written statement. `We would not be fighting this battle at the 11th hour if Mayor Keehn had delivered on this issue during the nearly 12 months she served on Gov. (George) Pataki’s RFP committee (the Ad Hoc Committee) That committee’s report, which the mayor supported, failed to assure the city of any control over land use on any of the racecourse property. If that report had come out right on this issue, it would have vastly improved our chances of getting it right now. Unfortunately, Mayor Keehn came back empty- handed, and now it is up to others to try to persuade the state to give the city the control it should have had all along.`
Keehn said measures were taken by the committee to address preservation. The committee had the prospective franchises explain how they would ensure preservation and involve the local community, she said. Keehn described Boyd’s assertion as `slanderous` and said it was obviously politically motivated.“