view raw text
Governor Signs Jockey Club Bills No Positive Action Likely for 10 Days First Must Get Commission Approval, and Then File for Papers of Incorporation By BOB HORWOOD Staff Correspondent NEW YORK, N. Y., May 2.— No positive action on The Jockey Club plan for merging the four New York race tracks, rebuilding Belmont Park and Saratoga and improving either Aqueduct or Jamaica will be taken for at least 10 days, it was learned today. The first step, following the signing by Gov. Averell Harriman on Sunday of three bills authorizing the construction of the "dream track," according to chairman Ashley T. Cole, of the New York State Racing Commission, is the filing of a certificate of incorporation, which must be accompanied by a "petition," requesting commission approval. Ordinarily, certificates of incorporation are filed with the secretary of state for New York, but in the case of race tracks they must be first submitted to the racing commission, which must give a certificate of approval before the plans can go forward. William W. Dulles, attorney for The Jockey Club, said today that he did not believe that either the certificate of incorporation or the "petition" would be filed before the end of next week, or following a meeting of The Jockey Club, which is scheduled for a week from Thursday. Dulles and commissioner Cole both said that plans had been advanced to a point where a certificate of incorporation had been prepared some two weeks before The Jockey Club bills were submitted to the state legislature, but both pointed out that the bills finally approved had included many amendments, necessitating changes in the original plans. Jockey Club Attorney Makes Statement Discussing the present status of The Jockey Club plan, Dulles said: "We have been working steadily and you might say that at the moment we have a great deal of program and not sufficient documentation." Attempting to translate this legal verbiage, the writer learned that what The Jockey Club attorney meant was that there are many details of financing, incorporation and blueprinting of the actual improvements not yet completed. In this connection, Dulles said that, so far as he knew, no specific offer had yet been -made to the stockholders of Aqueduct and, consequently, no one could specifically predict whether or not the property of the Queens County Jockey Club could be obtained at a price acceptable either to The Jockey Club or to the racing commission. No such offer, he said, could be made until the governor had signed the authorizing bills. The bills signed by Gov. Harriman on Sunday authorize the creation of a single non-profit organization, to be known as the Greater New York Racing Association, which would acquire the outstanding stock of existing tracks and embark on a rehabilitation program to be financed by a bond issue estimated at 5,000,000. 25-Year Franchise for Association They would next authorize the racing commission to give the new non-profit racing association a 25 -year franchise to conduct thoroughbred racing meets in New York State. The new association would also be permitted to retain the first ,000,000 of pari -mutuel take at its tracks in any year, to make its bonds more saleable, with the condition that the states full share be repaid in the same year. Other provisions of the bills were that they would provide for the payment to the state, as an additional franchise tax, of any profits over and above those required to meet the obligations of the association, that the state racing commission would have the right to pass on all directors of the new association and also the right to dismiss any officers and employees of which it disapproved. These measures all had bi-partisan sponsorship, but nevertheless passed the two houses of the state legislature by narrow margins on the closing day of the session. Two bills designed to aid the harness tracks in a rebuilding program were defeated the same day. Actually, Gov. Harriman signed the bills without comment last Friday, but withheld announcement of his approval until Sunday. Under the present program, one of the Long Island tracks, Aqueduct or Jamaica, will be closed. It was learned authoritatively that there is a strong possibility that Aqueduct will be the first track to be completely rebuilt, while Belmont Park may be "rebuilt" on its present site, with the racing strip reduced to a mile and a furlong, de-Continued om Pag* Thirty-Thre* Governor Harriman Signs Bills For New York Super Track Continued from Page Three spite the strong opposition of some members of The Jockey Club. It is understood that the racing commission strongly approves the reduction in size of the racing strip. Such a program would enable New York to have the two major race tracks it needs, since the cost of rebuilding the present Belmont Park stands under plans already in existence would be far less than a complete rebuilding, with the track facing in a reverse direction as was outlined at Albany. Because of its location and the availability of land now a part of Idlewild Airport, Aqueduct is considered a far better site for rebuilding than Jamaica.
