Disgraceful race
 

I'm sorry, I love horse racing as much as the next person, but this might be the most disgraceful stakes race ever.

Why even fn card this thing? Congrats to the owners though, easiest money they will ever make.

$150,000 Swaps Stakes (gr. II, Race 3, 2:01 p.m.), 3YOs, 1 1/8 Miles (All Weather)
PP. Horse, Jockey, Weight, Trainer
1. Dice Flavor (KY), M E Smith, 120, P Gallagher
2. Tiz a Minister (CA), C S Nakatani, 120, P G Aguirre
3. Chief Havoc (KY), R Bejarano, 114, P Miller
4. Java's War (KY), J R Leparoux, 122, K G McPeek

Read more on BloodHorse.com: http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-raci...#ixzz2XfD0P0tg

I guess it isn't any different than the races that get 6 or 7 entered and allow them to scratch down to 4. Have to at least appreciate the honesty.

Can it be that easy? Chief Havoc should roll over that field if no one tries anything out of the ordinary, and he might not even be the favorite.

Purse is pretty embarrassing too, didn't they used to run for double that ?:$::confused:

all the purses have been cut back there in recent years.

So much for Zenyatta being such a boon to SoCal racing.

Mostly follow NY, but IMHO, major graded stakes races should never be cut like that. When an OC 14000 at Belmont runs for 67K, I have to say Cal Racing is broken, what a shame :(

probably has more to do with the 13% state income tax

I assume you don't pay attention to business things in California but it is in the crapper, racing is and its decline is just a small offshoot of that.

No I don't ,sorry to hear that, I am an East Coast guy and always loved the left coast.

New York's is no bargain either. NY State is the most business unfriendly state in the nation.

How about the famous 1941 Travers Stakes. Best known for Whirlaway, the only TC winner, winning the race against two other horses that had won only a handful of races between them. Was that race disgraceful or is it just now that things are disgraceful?

I don't think any of these four will be confused with Whirlaway.

No, but the statement was about the race, not particular horses in it. Is it more disgraceful to have a four horse race that may be competitive or a three horse race that is a glorified workout?

The fact that this race is void of any real stakes horses is bad enough.
What makes it disgraceful is that this race couldn't round up more horses even when there is no standout horses that can win this in a workout.

Think it has a few stakes quality horses. Java's War was well thought of by some not so long ago if I recall. I do agree though that it is odd others aren't giving it a shot with allowance level horses. My real curiosity is where the blame is to be laid. Owners? Trainers? Racing office? A statement was made without any explanation. Didn't consider the implications of just not running it either. Matter of fact, didn't do a thing but complain, so I presented a historical example that seems even worse. But it also happened to be a historic race from the good ole days. Not every race is going to be a classic, but I don't let it bother me.

Owners, trainers, AND the racing office are to blame. And I don't means to speak dor scavs, but I doubt he's going to lose sleep over the matter. He just knows it sucks.

There were 14 nominations. Baffert had 6 of them. He entered none.