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Originally Posted by the_fat_man
What's wrong is that MUCHO time of handicappers (particularly those focusing almost exclusively on turf) has been wasted with all the OFF the TURF races. This would be excusable IF there were only ONE turf course. As there are TWO turf courses, NYRA needs to shelve the old way of doing things and sacrifice one of those courses for wet days. It's not like they'll need BOTH turf courses for the entire year. Same applies to BEL.
And, the distance incentive has been a BUST, IMO. Do we really need $70k maiden route races? How about we use that EXTRA cash in writing some BETTER races for BETTER horses. Seems to me, the quality of horses is down this year as there are other options for them (at comparable purses).
While the quality of the fields doesn't really affect my handicapping, as I know the turf horses well and I've pretty much accepted that there just won't be as many quality turf races in NY anymore, I do, every so often, want to see a nice competitive turf race. If I wanted CLAIMERS, I'd focus on DEL, CNL, Maryland, and (in a lesser sense) AP and MTH.
I realize that SAR offers a nice ON TRACK experience. For the OFF track player, however, it's very much an ordinary (even subpar) one.
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You're out of your mind. Sacrifice one of the turf courses?? Even if they did, how is handicapping running in a bog any fun? Do you realize how much rain there has been up there over the past three weeks?
The distance incentive has NOT been a bust, IMO. How many would have been in the Unbridled's Heart race a couple Saturdays ago if the purse incentive was not there? It would have been a 5-6 horse field with a heavy favorite, not exactly a fun gambling experience.
There's a couple things I've had an issue with. (1) Writing races that cannabalize their own feature events (i.e., the race before the Jim Dandy and the 3YO filly sprint stake on Test day.) (2) Going to the California-style layout of the races, putting the shorter fields in the beginning of the day, in an attempt to induce pick-6 carryovers (which given the moderate size of the pick 6 pools relative to CA, isn't worth it).
As for the quality horses thing... they're just not out there. Find me a horse that is running at another meet that would normally be running in NY.