Boy George,
Lemme see if I can explain this so as not to offend you and your delicate views.
The arrival of the Gulfstream meet used to be one of the most anticipated happenings in the racing world for trainers, owners, jockeys, and bettors.
The weather was quite pleasant for those who were actually there, and for those who weren't, the racing quality and races for freshly turned 3YO's as well as the grass racing made for a nice change from the last two dreary months of the racing year.
Then things changed. The racing has been destroyed at Gulf, plain and simple. The incredible amount of claiming races, VERY cheap horses and non2 life claimers(which are even worse than the regular ones) have left most gamblers unhappy, and horsemen even unhappier.
This past year Valenzuela, Gomez, and Espinoza were millions and millions ahead of their East counterparts Velazquez, Prado, and Bejarano at March's end. The reason? Very simple, they were competing for purses which dwarfed their Gulf rivals.
When you offer primarily cheap purses and cheap claimers you ruin your whole product. Horses are stabled in South Florida at Gulf, Calder, Palm Beach Downs, Payson Park, Palm Meadows, and quite a few private training farms. The racing secretary has more horses to draw from than any racing secretary in the country at any place at any time of the year. Grass horses abound as do 3YO's looking to break their maidens and advance through allowance conditions.
Thats what makes the situation so inexcusable. Allowance races and Maiden Special Weights are as rare as unicorns and it impacts everyone there. Just this past winter trainers such as Mott and Albertrani were shipping to Tampa Bay with regularity so as to get their horses into a grass MSW race. Think about that!! Trainers with expensive horses willing to ship a great distance of ground and run for tiny purses simply because Gulf left them no options. Jockey agents, jockeys, trainers, and owners take a huge hit in income and revenue because there simply is a lack of purse money. Did Gulf think that there would never be a reaction to this? They do have a powerful Eats Coast winter time monopoly on grass racing and because of the weather, trainers with powerful barns want to be there so training doesn't get interrupted. So what does Gulf do? They take advantage of the monoploly at their expense. Just this past meet a 30 grand allowance race had both Bandini and Wanderin Boy in it!!! The few allowances and miaden races that they do run have small purses and you get the "joy" of catching fields that look like graded stakes races. Perhaps you don't realize this but trainers are trying to make payroll and not all owners are sheikhs who don't care about getting money back on their investments so long as they win.
The graded stakes races are to a large extent a joke. You may not realize this but the graded stakes committee has rules as far as purses go on graded races. 100 grand for grade 3, and 150 grand for grade 2. This doesnt mean that the tracks can't offer more money. And in most cases Gulf certainly chooses not to. This past winter a grade two was run(150 grand purse) which contained: Bushfire(future 3 time grade one winner), Wait A While(future grade one placed and grade one winner), Wonder Lady Anne l(future grade one winner) and Teammate(future twice grade one placed). The purse was a measly 150 grand, geez that just swell. There are also grade 3 grass races with 100 grand purses that contain Breeders Cup type fields. It's deplorable.
Bettors have come to make grass races, allowance races, MSW's and high priced claiming races their bread and butter for gambling. Some players may like cheap claimers but they are definitely outnumbered by those who don't.
Noone wins here, are you getting the point?
Everyone wants Gulf to return to its former glory, myself included. But when I posted this past summer that I had had conversations with a couple of major trainers, owners, and one jockey agent who all said they were considering going west with horses this winter, I wasn't making it up. WHy would I? I certainly didn't speak to Todd about that and found his move shocking at first glance.
But I can tell you to expect at least one major jockey and his agent to announce that they are heading west this year. These guys(owners, tariners, and jocks and their agents) simply cannot afford to give a three month head start to their counterparts and wait for Keeneland to come around in order to run for real purses and have opportunities to race in real races. Just last year Eibar Coa shockingly decided to stay up north at Aqueduct's inner track and he and his agent made a fortune and were near the top of the East coast jocks as far as money won at the end of March. Expect some more guys to stay up here in the winter this year as well and for trainers to keep large strings up at Aqueduct in addition to the the Gulf runners.
What Gulfstream has done is to exploit a monopoly at everyone elses expense. People will only take that so long, at some point they will react with changing venues to a partial or full extent.
When Round Pen countered that things would be different by posting a vague article about 1000 slot machines going in, I scoffed at the notion that there would be an immediate change at Gulfstream in substantial purse raising and quality of races being written. I find it hard to believe that the addition of 1000 machines this winter is going to have a very big impact, or any at all.
Fair Grounds will be open again this year and many guys will head there. Oaklawn's meets just keep getting better and better and California's Santa Anita meet has become the winter jewel by such a large margin over Gulf that its not even comparable.
Its going to take lots more than 1000 slot machines to change this and nowhere have I read(and I asked Round Pen to provide it if he could) any articles or statements by Gulfstream Park or its management that provide a statement that they will be raising purses or the quality of the condition book being written.