The general trend in racing over the last 10 years or so has been to cut expenses, cut expenses, cut expenses, which most certainly has to do with so many tracks now being publicly held and beholden to shareholders. The big 2 (Magna and CD) are increasingly using the "bottom line/shareholder" excuse as the reason to raise prices, cut services, lay off competent employees in favor of cheaper, inexperienced (and sometimes moronic) replacements. CD charges horsemen for paint if we want our barns painted and we have to do it ourselves. The days of real track execs running racetracks are sadly ending. Lou Rafetto is a perfect example of a guy who gets it on both the frontside and backside who winds up unemployed in favor of a far less qualified replacement who will be willing to follow the company mandate without regard of the side effects. Churchill has changed almost all of it's executive staff twice since I've stabled there in 1999. Evans public statements have been less than encouraging for both horsemen and players since he took over. They hired a guy from the Marine Corps to run Arlington. A Thistledown guy and former steward are running racing at Gulfstream with a guy who doesn't like racing as their boss. Stronach changes CEO's like some people change their underwear. It is only a matter of time before one of them decide that takeout is too low and do a Hialeah.

The fact that someone is blaming the track composition for the problems at SA is laughable even if it is true. They could have at least used the seismic activity shifted the base or something like that. They dont even know how to shift blame properly.

Makes NYRA sound pretty great. Their top people love horse racing, own horses, and like to bet.

the problem at SA is strictly one of mismanagement. the events of the past week or so reek of incompetence, and it doesn't surprise me one bit.

whats funny is, I work in a different industry, manufacturing, and we do business with this company, and another large Canadian automotive parts supplier. Both of them have eastern europeans at the helm, and they act in a similar way. They're aggressive, they bid really low to get projects, they contract to start up the projects in ridiculously short periods of time. Then when the crap hits the fan they pummell their suppliers to no end. They waste tremendous amounts of money using expediting services, premium charges etc. Then to top it off, the projects that they won are often ones that they do not even understand or have the expertise to run. In short, everything is in chaos all the time, so even though they are large customers its business that you almost regret having because to service them is such a drain on your resources. I'm sure the folks at the Cushion track company are experiencing this same situation.

thats why I say this looks all too familar. that somebody felt it was a reasonable alternative to offer the all 5 1/2 furlong card today with all the scratches, is a complete embarrassment.

Chuck is MORE than a decent guy, he's a great guy. I think you might have missed the humor in the bobsledding thing (is that really a sport in Belgium??)