“I'll give you my personal impression: Aqueduct is not for sale,” Joseph Bruno, the Republican Senate majority leader, told Albany reporters on Tuesday.
For months, trade publications have carried reports saying that Spitzer was considering selling the track, located in New York City's Borough of Queens, for $1 billion or more.
Spitzer said the track site could be put to other uses, such as a park, a convention center, or some combination of these approaches, according to Tuesday's Daily News.
“Whether or not you have racing at Aqueduct, you have an enormous piece of land there that can and should be used for some other things,” the Democratic governor said. “But some way, those options need to be confronted.”
A gubernatorial spokeswoman had no comment.
For years, New York's horse racing industry has been struggling, partly because competing tracks offer richer purses and partly because casinos have lured away gamblers with video lottery terminals.
The New York Horse Racing Association now runs the states three main tracks but its franchise ends on Dec. 31. Spitzer now is reviewing bids to run the tracks for the next 20 years but he will need the legislature's approval.
Assemblyman Gary Pretlow, a Mt. Vernon Democrat who focuses on wagering and racing, said by telephone that he would oppose selling Aqueduct, calling it “an integral part of the New York state racing program.” He added: “I know my colleagues from Queens are totally against it.”
New York state has two other main tracks: Belmont Park, located in Nassau County on Long Island, and the upstate Saratoga Race Course. Aqueduct was expected to get thousands of video lottery terminals, but this plan has been delayed in the clash over extending the horse racing franchise.
