Stumbled across July 16, 1992 edition of NY Post
 

John Swenson in the "Through the Binoculars" column was complaining about the workout times posted by DRF and Post Parade (Program) as being wildly different on the same horses. One particular horse had the same work being recorded as 37.2 handily by the DRF and 40.62 breezing by the Post Parade. So things have gotten better in some areas.

Anyway I glanced at the three cards shown (Entries for 2 days and results of previous day). Hard to believe in 20 years things have changed so much.

Wed Belmont Card
1- 2yo fillies 75000 6 furlongs (9 entries-2 scratches)
2- 4 and up 14000 1 1/8 (11 entries-2 scratches)
3- 3 yo 50000 1 1/16 turf (12-3 scratches)*some scratches are AE's
4- 2yo fillies MSW 5 1/2 (13-4 scr)
5- 2yo fillies MSW 5 1/2 (13-3 scr)
6- 2 yo fillies allowance 5 1/2 (7)
7- 3 yo fillies 50000 1mile turf (12-2 scr)
8- 3 and up $ allowance 6f (5)
9- 3 and up 35000 6f (13)

Thursday
1- 3 and up f/m allowance 1 3/8 (dirt!!) (7)
2- 4 and up 17500 claiming 6f (11-3 scr)
3- 3yo 17500 6f (10)
4- 2yo NYB MSW 5 1/2f (12-2 scratches)
5- 2yo NYB MSW 5 1/2f (11-1)
6- 3 and up F/M MSW 1 1/16 T (20-10 scr-obviously MTO's)
7- 3yo MSW 7f (11-1 scr)
8- 3 and up $allowance 1 1/16 T (11-1 scr)
9- 4 and up F/M 25000 7f (12-1 scr)

Friday (no scratches when printed)
1- 3 and up allowance 6 1/2 furlongs (6)
2- 3yo 25000 6f (9)
3- 2yo fillies MSW 5 furlongs (8)
4- 4 and up 50000 1 3/8 Turf (8)
5- 3 and up allowance 7f (8)
6- 3 and up 35000 1 1/16 T(18)
7- 3 and up F/M allowance 6 furlongs (8)
8- 3 and up F/M Allowance/Hdcp 1 1/16th Turf (8)
9- 2 yo mdn claiming 35000 5 1/2 furlongs (16!)

3 weekday cards 2 weeks before Saratoga
27 races
1 maiden claiming race
2 2yo winners races !
8 allowance races
7 turf races
8 2yo races !!
2 NY bred races !!!
11 open claiming races

20 years...what the hell happened?

I like Swenson. He's a good guy. He's also written a lot of good stuff for Rolling Stone over the years.

Personally I'm glad we have more turf racing now.

Interesting, no turf sprints.

I don't understand the complaints about turf sprints. Never have, never will. What is it?

What is there not to like about turf sprints, especially the stakes. They usually have full fields, and tend to be dominated by turf sprint specialists.

Show me where the complaint was. I pointed out that they didn't exist in the not to distant past.

The problem I think people are having with turf sprints in NY is there are simply too many of them.

:tro:

Compared to what....1 5/8 races?

How is this a problem?

Can one desire too much of a good thing?

I don't think that turf sprints were the intended point of the thread. Where have all the 2yo's and the straight maidens and the allowance runners gone. I will search for a couple of mid summer programs from last summer for comparison.

In terms of tracks, it's Churchill, Monmouth, Delaware. With today's mega-outfits, it's hard to get allowance races to fill when the eligible horses are in the hands of only a few trainers rather than spread around the backstretch.

To have turf sprints or not to have turf sprints, that is the question?

Everything else?

Lots of people dont like them.

Correct. For some reason over the last 20 years it has become taboo to run two year olds "early" and allowance runners arent supposed to run less than every 5 weeks.

True but also there is the attitude that running young horses somehow harms them. There are lots of horses today that are lightly raced that still wind up injured and on the sidelines.

If the racing secretary thought carding turf sprints was hurting entries, I can't imagine they would have become as popular as they've been with horsemen, carryover hunters, etc. Field sizes speak volumes - and if these races fill, and aren't contrary to progressive handle generation, I can't imagine they would keep carding them in greater quantities. Of all the problems racing might have, running more races that fit this bill seems a non-starter.