Quote:
Originally Posted by The Indomitable DrugS
I've heard it said before by racing officals there years ago that people who come to the track "like the two-turn dirt races the most" because they start right in front of the crowd.
Obviously, it's the total opposite for handicappers. You hate seeing a single isolated stand-alone race because they're a pain in the ass to gauge when you review them after the race is over.
I don't think you can ask them to try and stack days up where they run 3 or 4 of these races a day - and than have long gaps where they go several days without running any.... but, if they're going to keep up this one-a-day dirt route trend ... having wind direction information becomes even more useful.
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I'm probably not going to get much agreement on the issue, but I don't like the stretched out meet. 3 or 4 years ago they seemed to run more routes and the Stakes were grouped. You always read complaints how they would be running a route for 3 year olds the same day as a 3 year old stake and some felt that took away from the stake, but you had a comparision afterwards. The allowance horses were probably not going to run in the Stake if they didn't have another option anyway. (though they could even card consistent claimers at the distance)
Good example here, where they intended to run two routes on the same day, though we got a good rain between them and the track was later sealed:
http://www.equibase.com/premium/eqbP...try=USA&race=3
http://www.equibase.com/premium/eqbP...try=USA&race=9
Corinthian was coming off a decent lay-off so it is very doubtful that if there was no other option that day he would have gone in the Stake. People are pretty happy to sit on their horses until the easiest spot comes up.