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Originally Posted by Bold Brooklynite
No horse's record today is all that accomplished ... because they spend most of their time standing in a stall ... instead of giving the fans the excitement they crave.
The Jerome was Bold Ruler's 11th start as a 3YO and 21st overall. Wouldn't you have liked to have seen Discreet Cat run 21 times by now?
Regardless ... it's the track handicapper's job to use weight to make the race into a sporting (and betting) contest. No effort whatsoever was made to accomplish that.
Why call it a "handicap" when anyone who understands racing knows that it isn't? What an insult to our intelligence and knowledge.
Just call it the Jerome Public Workout ... and show a little honesty.
Disgraceful.
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Well in defense of the racing secretary, its not their job to make the horses run more often. They have to handicap the races off of the horses prior performances.
My explanation would be simply to make the purses increase considerably for each grade of stakes races, maybe making it more enticing for owners and trainers to enter horses in races to at least try to catch a decent check. Currently there are too many equal pursed stakes races across the country with a lack of decent or qualified horses to run in them. What this allows is for trainers and owners to pick their spots, if a owner/trainer feels their horse isn't a stand out or at least a legit threat to win a certain stakes race, they simply do not enter and wait for an easier spot down the road.
This is why horses only run a few times a year in comparison to years past, and why the horses continue to be more fragile in each generation.