Quote:
Originally Posted by Cannon Shell
One of the biggest problems that high end racing at the major tracks faces is the accumulation of the vast majority of the elite stock in a few barns. I know I have harped on this to no end but it is something that is never discussed (at least publicly) in any meeting or forum that talks about the problems of racing. I have no idea what the solution is (at least a realistic one) but I find it hard to believe that no one in the industry even thinks it worthy of discusion. A lot of horses that used to be allowance horses in NY (or NJ under these circumstances) are racing at Woodbine or CD or Delaware where their trainers maintain different divisions. So Todd Pletcher for example may have 6 nw1 sprint horses of varying ability. He will split his best two between a race at Bel and Mth, the other 4 will be raced at Delaware or CD or even a place like Woodbine. If the 6 horses were in training in NY with different trainers they would probably all run in NY with the horses that arent quite as good eventually dropping into higher priced claimers. The destruction of the mid to upper level claiming ranks is perhaps a greater tragedy than just the thinning of the allowance races. What those claiming races did was give the racing secretary good solid races every few weeks with familar horses running up and down the ladder as opposed to what they have to offer now like a 25000 nw2 6 furlongs on the turf race or worse.
Racing was a much better sport when there was a clear division among its tracks. And as the lines blurred because of slots purses and other alternate revenue sources, racing secretaries needed to expand their conditions to keep up with these other tracks. Obviously in 20/20 hindsight that was a mistake but it is easy fo me to say when I am not sitting behind the counter with three races made and needing to make 7 more.
What can happen to begin to right the ship is NYRA to finally get their own slots deal cooking and to raise it pots back to the premier levels again and for the monmouth experiment to be continued at a slightly lower level. This will put NY racing back in its place as king with monmouth and its shorter meets a second alternatitive. Doing so would make PHA and Delaware atractive pursewise but far less so than the other two. Clear lines would be drawn through the divisions
NYRA
Mth
Del/Pha
MD racing/Penn
Of course that does not address the original issue that i brought up which is a few trainers controlling all the stock. But it would be much harder to convince an owner to go run at Delaware in a 37k pot when NY was offering an 80k race or Mth was offering 60k. Of course this wouldnt solve the problem or bring back the claiming ladder but it would be better than what we have now.
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Chuck, do you think that changing the way conditions are done would help at all such as how harness does their conditions, i.e. non-winners of X amount in the last 6 starts?