Al Stall unleashed!
 

http://www.theneworleansadvocate.com...uces-purses-by

FG/CDI is not alone in this "style" of management. Good for Al for standing up and telling the truth.

any chance these opinions could be used to influence improvements there if he can rally the other trainers?

I think the problem as is mentioned in the article, is so few alternatives for winter racing, that they're stuck with what FG provides them for better or worse

Damn! Way to go Al !!!!!

No. As he said CDI can't be embarrassed because they dont care. They did the same thing at Calder. They are similar to corporate raiders as they come in with great PR saying how much they are going to do and systematically start destroying the racing end, cutting and cutting while maintaining a public face that everything is great or if things start to sour, blame the horsemen.

The irony of the Finley piece is that tracks for the most part have been cutting track maintenance budgets while putting out press releases saying that they are committed to horse safety.

There is a great misconception that everyone is getting fat at racinos except for the bettors when that is far from the truth. For instance one of the east coast racinos is one of the biggest grossing casino parlors in the country yet on the racing side they have cut staff and cut services, dragging their feet on projects that are required to do by law. Most of the racing staff never got a penny raise when the casino came in and in some cases are actually making less because they are required to pay more of their health care costs. CDI renovates the Mansion at a cost of what 40 million for use on 2 days and puts up a new video screen that cost 12 million yet cuts purses at the drop of a hat. Tracks are cutting training time, some tracks having a mandatory no training day to cut expenses. Others do little things like stop giving out comp programs which cost them a pittance to horsemen. They cut starting gate schooling days to save money. They get cheaper track materials to save money because in the illustrious words of a racing exec a few years back, "Its just dirt after all, why do we need 'special dirt'". They charge the grooms $5 to cash their checks. They charge them for rooms which are worse than prison cells in some cases. They charge us for cleaning out our stalls at the end of the meet despite not always even doing it. As Al said they have scaled back maintenance, the barns at many tracks are in poor shape.

To think that this is only done to try to maximize some corporate bottom line is naive and far too easy for them to use as a crutch. As I have said before the idea that there is going to be some wildly successful model with only a handful of tracks left that will simulcast to each other is bunk because no one is going to want to be the tracks left open, everyone will want to be the ones that close up live racing and just take the other signals.

They do have an option, albeit dirt only, eight hours to the north in Hot Springs. Many trainers keep coming back to Fair Grounds because they like training and racing over the main track. In addition, for some like Amoss, Stall, and Dallas Stewart, it is home for them.

All CDI cares about at FG is the slots operation. That is why they bought the track in the first place and "saved" the day after Krantz was found accountable to the horsemen for additional millions in video poker money. CDI may not care about being embarrassed, but they don't want to risk damaging their slots golden goose.

It is an option but opens 7 weeks after FG does and as you say has no grass. Purses keep growing in one place and contracting in the other.

While your assertion is surely correct letting the racing product deteriorate to the point it has isnt good business. Why not having two thriving business models under the same umbrella? Because they are disingenuous and want racing to fail. They look to pick fights with horsemen to use against us when crying to politicians that we are unreasonable and not deserving of our slice of "their" pie.
They arent alone in incorporating this strategy.

Far too many people in this industry and I'm including bettors in this group are just plain naive in understanding what is going on behind the scenes in upper management at many tracks throughout the country. They scratch their heads and wonder why tracks dont do this or do that. They get lured into believing that regulatory issues are somehow holding the sport down. They fall in line behind stupid movements that sound logical to them on the surface but fail to see the underlying doom that movement will cause. In the end the giant pink elephant in the room is that a lot of tracks want live racing to fail at their facility. They figure that even in the case of a track w/o a casino that ending live racing but continuing simulcasting (assuming the state wont want to lose those revenues and if there are no horsemen left who will fight them?) will be profitable as the cost of running a backside is not small. Why do you think management at the tracks in PA have left takeout at such ridiculous level? People blame the horsemen and in fact the horsemen are stupid in not demanding change but these groups are dysfunctional organizations of mostly volunteers and people looking for be on the "inside". They have little to offer outside of fighting for horsemen on issues they understand. Penn National Gaming is a multi-billion dollar gambling company. Do people really think they aren't aware of the issues involving high takeout levels? Really? They DONT WANT you to bet Penn National. They'd rather see racing deteriorate so eventually they can look to pull the plug and just have a casino. CDI looks like they are pretty much going don the same path.

Sorry for the rant so early in the AM