On Sunday, March 20th, New York horseplayers and racing fans will be able to join the rest of the country and indulge in a little wagering, following the signing into law of Assembly bill 6949 and Senate bill 4934, which “permits racing or licensing race meetings on Palm Sunday.”

That a law prohibiting New Yorkers from wagering on horse racing–in the state or outside it–is absurd enough; the level of absurdity increased in recent years when the casino adjoining Aqueduct could legally blithely carry on its business, while the racetrack was forced to shutter.

Hamilton asked me whether there would be much of an appetite for horse racing on Palm Sunday. We’ll find out on March 20th, when finally an archaic law with uncomfortable religiously hegemonic overtones is put to bed.