[Linny]

I tend to think this card is below par for a holiday weekend Saturday. I also think that by not having a dark day on Wed. they are spread even more thin.

Steve, I agree with your points about the politics but there is more than that. The game has changed dramatically over the last decade or so. The trend toward fewer races has tricked down from the graded stakes horses to listed stakes and allowance horses. The only horses running 10-15 times a year now are the cheap ones. That is what PJ and other racing secretaries have to contend with.

There was a time when they simply wouldn't run MDCL on grass so trainers with those horses went elsewhere. They didn't run $15kMDCLNYB so those horses went to Finger Lakes. There are alot of horses running at BEL this meet that 5-10 years ago would have been at the Lakes beating up horses that had just come out of a pasture in Genesseo, because they had recency. Now they stay in NY and win bad races. There have been races at BEL this year won by horses who will never break 50 on the Beyers, EVER. NY racing used to be elite, the pinnacle of racing on the east coast. Now, it is no different, day in and day out from any other venue.

NY has also handed over 2yo racing to KY. They will run the first 2yo's of the year today. They used to run 2yo stakes on Belmont weekend. Babies used to ease some of the stress of filling allowances and take the pressure off horses that had run all winter. If it were not for NYBreds, they might not be able to fill 2yo races 'til after July 4th. I'm not sure why this is since many of the KY baby races are overfilled and ames like Pletcher and Asmussen and others who run in NY are in them.

I am sure that PJ would love to fill Memorial Day weekend with allowances and stakes but any horse that ran in the last 2 weeks in those levels probablywon't be back for another 2-3 weeks. Presuming that Belmont day purses get the usual bump, many trainers will be pointing for next weekend.

While the handle at MON isn't level with that at BEL, they are up significanly from last year and it's fair to guess that some of that bump, is a loss to Belmont. Most players have a limited budget and wagers made and MON are wagers not made elsewhere.