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Originally Posted by Bold Brooklynite
How wrong you are.
It is precisely the racing secretary's job to do his best to make sure that the horses who occupy the barn space also make regular appearances on the track.
Full fields in competitive races are the very essence of being a racing secretary.
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You missed my point, the final decision upon racing any horse falls with the owner/trainer.
The Secretary can book many races in which large amount of horses fit the conditions, but it still doesn't mean owners/trainers will enter. They book races in hopes to have large fields, obviously meaning larger pools, but when you have limited horses that fit conditions, which is what racing is facing in NY and CA, your hands are tied.
We often see Secretaries book stakes races with a purses of $150k to 500k and they are regularly getting 4-7 horses entered, that is a huge problem. There are too many stakes races in this country with too few of qualified horses to run in them. Hence, leaving it easy for owners/trainers of the decent horses to pick and choose their spots avoiding the tougher races for easier ones, padding their earnings, and stealing purses just about all year long. We cannot blame them, they are not breaking any rules, but this is something that needs to be addressed in the US or the quality of stakes racing will continue to dwindle.
A perfect example is the Super Derby. Not usually regarded as a great stakes race, but still offers a late season Grade II $500k purse for 3yo's only. They basically got no one of note to enter besides 3 suspect comeback horses and 5 tin cans.