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Originally Posted by eurobounce
You guys are way off base regarding a synthetic surface. Again, some tracks need it and some don't. Turfway, Woodbine are two tracks who needed. Handle was up at Turfway and so was the field size. So far, field size and handle is up at Woodbine. Winter tracks that are C tracks need the stuff. Those type of tracks get the cheap claimers. The owners and trainers cannot afford top notch vet care or to have the horse not race. In this theory, a synthetic surface is good. Saratoga, Churchill, Santa Anita etc etc do not need a synthetic surface. I really feel those surfaces are top notch. Heck, Churchill puts silk in their surface to keep is softer. A synthetic surface is an alternative to dirt racing, just like turf is an alternative. It isnt going to replace dirt. Breeding will be fine. Handle will be fine and field size will be fine.
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Euro,
Earlier in the thread I stated that I don't care what they want the cheap horses to run on. It doesn't bother me that the surface is at Turfway per se.
What concerns me is the possibility of it moving to the larger circuits that hold Grade One races and attract genuine stakes performers. I don't think this business model will work if that is the plan.
If I didn't make that clear earlier, I apologize. For Turfway's sake, I hope the rubber track does help their business.
But in a perfect world, I wouldn't mind seeing the numbers of races go down and the bottom level claimers and bad horses phased out of the game.
Less races, higher quality, higher purses, healthier horses, better and accountable trainers.
Just because some guy
wants to be a trainer, and some other guy
wants to be an owner, doesn't mean that it should be so. A cheap, sore, and slow horse shouldn't have an arena where he is allowed to run in my opinion.
While it may not be the most popular opinion to have, I believe that American Racing suffers from four major problems.
1. Too many races
2. Too many racetracks
3. Too little money to go around
4. Too many Shi tty horses
I think there needs to be a solution to these problems, and when the money runs out the smaller tracks will go out of business and get out of the way.
Slots and state-bred incentive programs are like a life-support system, the brain is dead but the body keeps pumping along.
Let racing stand on its own merits, I say.
And separate the wheat from the chaff.