SARATOGA SPRINGS - John Mishoe has spent the better part of 21 years patrolling the narrow aisles inside Dehn’s Flowers, where 50,000 square feet of greenhouse space takes up a chunk of the city’s west side.
Dehn’s has been doing business on Beekman Street since 1892. Thoroughbred races have been held on Union Avenue since 1863, and the two have been doing business with one another longer than anyone can remember.
“I’ve been here 21 years, and we’ve been doing business with them at least as long as I’ve been here,” said Mishoe, co-owner of the shop.
This year, white petunias and dusty miller plants from Dehn’s will highlight the racecourse’s grandstand, and tall, red salvia plants will grace the paddock area. Mishoe also custom designs window boxes for trainers’ barns on the backstretch.
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Some of the work is secured by a bidding process with the New York Racing Association. Some, such as work done on the backstretch, is by special contract directly with the trainers.
Mishoe estimates his shop delivers 20,000 to 30,000 plants during the summer racing season. They used to do more; this year, NYRA will grow its own begonias and impatiens, Mishoe said.
With the future of the city’s racing industry uncertain, business owners like Mishoe who do business with the track are becoming concerned. Mishoe said if racing went away, it would have a “moderate to big impact” on his year-round business and the 20 or so workers he employs.
Others are worried, too.
“It has an impact,” said Jeff Ostrander, of Little Falls Lumber, whose business recently delivered building materials to the racecourse that were used to build fencing on the backstretch. “It varies from year to year, but some years it’s substantial.”
Several dozen NYRA workers and maintenance workers began to arrive at the track last week to clear out a winter’s worth of tree limbs and other debris, and to clean more than 1,000 horse stalls and prepare the Oklahoma Training Track for Thursday’s arrival of horses.
Despite the activity — and NYRA’s announcement that four racing days and an extra weekend will be added to the 2010 season — there is concern that this year’s meet and future racing seasons are in jeopardy.
Competing tracks in New Jersey are hoping to increase purse sizes this year, which could lure horse owners away from New York.
And NYRA is losing an estimated $1 million a day because video lottery terminals are not yet operational at
Aqueduct.
“Governor Paterson needs to quickly select a new VLT operator to stop NYRA’s continued losses and to prevent NYRA from laying off more workers or shutting down the entire Saratoga meet,” said U.S. Rep. Scott Murphy, D-Glens Falls.
Murphy said any disruption in the racing season at Saratoga would be “catastrophic to the local economy.”
A 2006 study commissioned by the Saratoga County Industrial Development Agency estimated the economic impact of Saratoga racing on nine neighboring counties at between $186 million and $213 million annually.
Were the racecourse to close, thousands of jobs and millions of dollars in tourism revenue would be lost, according to the report.
“It would be greatly missed if it was not here,” said Andy Brindisi, who runs two restaurants on Broadway and one of five on-track vendor eateries. “This will be our third year on restaurant row, and it’s been doing well for me.
“You can make a little nest egg for the winter. It’s kind of like having another restaurant, and it also helps you to promote your business downtown.”
The food court space is small but busy and requires extra employees for the six-days-a-week, 10-hour shifts. It also affects his orders for everything from food to tableware, such as disposable cups, napkins, and plates, Brindisi said.
The Broadway-based Putnam Market will have an eatery along restaurant row for the first time this year.
Cathy Hamilton, co-owner of the market, said the bulk of the store’s business comes during the winter holiday season, although the month of August — the height of the racing meet — brings more people into the store than at any other time.
Hamilton is planning to hire extra staff to work the track location and will monitor the summer traffic flow, given the expected narrow profit margin. Seven cents on every dollar goes to taxes, and another 30 percent goes to NYRA and Centerplate as a fee to use the space, Hamilton said.
Centerplate, which provides food service at the racecourse, is one of the largest hospitality companies in the world, serving 250 sports, entertainment and convention venues in North America.
