:tro: Except for the crime part. Backstretches can get rowdy at times.

Honula lies.


She lies.

Choctaw?

If you took one of the dorms and put it on Saratoga Lake they would be calling it rustic. They aren't luxury apartments but are hardly squalor. People camping around lake george pay good money for similar.

Thank you for weighing in. There are also measures in place on behalf of NYRA to improve the backstretch, notably the BEST, which was handed a check for 20k on Monday. That's certainly not enough to get things up to many people's standards, but it's a start.

The comments made earlier in this thread regarding the media at large having an agenda pertain more to dealings with NYRA. When in a three day period you have Ed Fountaine making negative remarks about a 2YO race not being split and mocking a "new and improved NYRA" then Paul Moran writing about how the racing should be cut back (he's clearly a terrific businessman) then read a piece about backstretch dormitory conditions, it's easy to think "What the hell else is there to b.itch about?"

If one were to actually believe much of what's written by "respected" journalists regarding NYRA, they'd adopt a very dim view because the alternative is never portrayed.

well if any of you have seen how most people live in mexico you would think they 'made it'. many of us started out on the bottom and had to work our way up.if they are any good they will make more than min wage.even if you gave half of them more money they would just send it home to mexico and stay where its free with their friends.the argument about toga putting in sky boxes with ac vs making the backstrech look like holiday in is comical.work hard you will move up..thats the american way.

Couldn't agree more. 14 horse 2YO race or two 8 horse races...duh. The other one who just sticks nothing but negativity out there is Vic Zast in the Bloodhorse blog about Saratoga. Virtually every single piece of his had some volume of negativity about something happening, more often that not...claiming races.

The overall quality of racing at Saratoga is very good. But people criticizing the volume of racing because of the quality is beyond me. It's a question of whether they run at Belmont or Saratoga...one way or another, the horses will run. Considering the great business NYRA does up there, it's a simple decision.

Anyone will agree...a NY-bred turf sprint claimer at Saratoga is just inherently more enjoyable than the race being run at Belmont. People just complain too much about things that simply shouldn't be complained about!

thankyou. not to mention that many of these workers (and don't get me wrong , I'm not discounting their value) are illegal....and have better health care and childcare benefits than I do.

It doesn't help any of the participants in the sport that NYCOTB owes around $100,000,000 in unpaid billls to NY racing .