Opinion

Coming for the horse’s head

After some 55 years, it looks like the long-disgraced New York Racing Association is about to be put out of business — for good.

It’s about time.

As Post State Editor Fred Dicker reported last week, NYRA will have run its last race when the current Saratoga season, which started Friday, ends on Sept. 3. After that, a brand-new sheriff’s in town to clean out the stables.

Two months ago, in the wake of the latest NYRA scandal (NYRA officials ripped off bettors to the tune of $8.5 million), Cuomo forced the association’s board to accept de facto state receivership. Lawmakers OK’d the creation of a new 17-person board principally appointed by the governor and legislative leaders.

While the board is supposed to be temporary, Dicker’s reporting makes it clear that the old NYRA will soon be history. NYRA’s president, for example, will be cashiered as soon as the Saratoga season ends.

A source familiar with Cuomo’s plans says a search process for both a new president and board members is soliciting “interest from people around the country, and the selection won’t be limited to New Yorkers.”

That’s particularly refreshing — because it suggests that Cuomo is tackling what is arguably NYRA’s biggest problem: a long-term incestuous culture that’s been a breeding ground for corruption.

Indeed, his team is going as far afield as Kentucky to find new people to help run Empire State horseracing.

So, for all intents and purposes, consider the next six weeks of the Saratoga Race Course season NYRA’s swan song.

The old nag is being prepped for the glue factory.

At long last.