I'd guess most of these horses are simply entered to earn a date with no intention, or hope, of actually running in the race. See it all the time......

Why do Tampa purses still suck, bigtime? They brag about handle and then chump out on their purses......

My guess is so they can brag about handle.... Jus' sayin'.... they can pass that back to the gambler in lowered takeout and the Owners/Trainers still show up - what exactly is the complaint?

Earn a date? Wouldn't it have been easier just to have put the papers in the racing office to earn a date? Scratching a horse usually gives a horse a scratch date which is worse then a run date or putting your papers in the office at most tracks and might be put on a list for a certain amount of days and can't run anywhere...don't see any good or heard of anyone ever just putting a horse in a race just to scratch to get a date.

Yo, things are run differently down there. Its very unique. They have all sorts of dates and that is why turf races especially are a pain in the ass to get into, especially if there is an off the turf race because if you run in an off the turf race, you get a special date which trumps all.

All in all, it is a fun track to go and bs with the Don of Tampa and Exacta Bob, but running there is cost prohibitive

Not to mention that the condition book is nothing more than a vague suggestion after the first two weeks - pretty much everything thereafter is written off the overnights...

Well any track with a turf course that takes the race off the turf will either give you a super date or your old date back, which will more than likely get you back into the race the next time around...and if you get your papers in before the first day of the meet you should get a Zero Dirt and a Zero Turf date...whats different about that then at Tampa?

There was no point for anyone to put a horse in a race just to scratch to get a date when you already have a zero date in the case for the Del Castillo horse. A zero date is the best possible date you can have.

Its such a crap shoot to get in a race like that the first couple times it goes because its a popular race and everyone is going to have a zero date who wants to go in...you have to hope the racing gods help you out and get your entry pulled out of the box into the body of the race.

Dude, I hear ya, but we are probably entering The Magic Bus in the first MSW down there on the dirt just to get a date, and the horse is at Philly Park for the winter.

Tampa is like no other, there is no rhyme or reason why their office does what they do or how they do it

Janet's horse would have lost that head to head by almost 30 lengths. Offically, last beaten 50 lengths today.

http://www1.drf.com/drfPDFChartRaces...=20101211&RN=5

lol The 4 in finishing 2nd to last looks good by comparison. Will the 4 actually get a Beyer figure >0?

yeah, but he had an excuse, he stopped
banked $170 in purse