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Originally Posted by pba1817
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.
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I never miss a point ... when one is there.
However ... though you are correct in what you say ... my point was that the NYRA handicapper had not only an opportunity ... but an obligation ... to the bettors and to the sport ... to assign a weight to Discreet Cat which would have made the race more competitive and more interesting. And the Sheik had an obligation to accept whatever weight was assigned.
What was the point of having Discreet Cat run off by double-digit lengths? He was a brilliant talent running against palookas ... so at least use the one available option ... weight ... to provide some sort of story line for the race.
The headline ... "Discreet Cat Wins By 4 Toting 134 Pounds" ... is a bit more eye-catching and of historic value ... than "Discreet Cat Romps Over Nothing."