Saratoga maiden policy...

[Cannon Shell]

http://www.brisnet.com/cgi-bin/edito...e.cgi?id=29896

On turf this is probably a good idea. There are no issues with field size in 2 turn dirt maidens at Saratoga. But limiting 6f and 7f 2 yo maiden races to 8 makes little sense except for the politically correct among us.

Sure it only affects a few races but it furthers a continuing and disturbing trend of negative reinforcement that racing horses is a bad or dangerous activity BY the leaders of the sport. The idea that a 10 horse field going 7f is going to somehow take away from the "quality" that a 7 (there will always be a scratch) horse field provides is bizzare.