Horseman's Associations

[phystech]

Do we have many licensed horsemen in this forum. If so, have any of you had much interaction with your state thoroughbred horseman's association?

First, I'll readily admit that I have never been to a horseman's meeting because they hold them in the middle of a weekday afternoon and I can't attend at that time due that that pesky thing I have called a job. So the first person that wants to call me out on my whine, I deserve it...

Here's the reason I'm ranting:

I've just read that the Maryland Racing Commission has approved an emergency claiming rule for the Pimlico spring meet.

http://www.thoroughbredtimes.com/nat...lico-meet.aspx

“We’re a little tired of guys coming in from West Virginia and Pennsylvania at the end of the Pimlico meeting and taking horses out of state,” Raffetto said.

“They [have the rule] in Delaware and do it in New York,” agreed Wayne Wright, executive secretary of the Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association. “It’s to protect our horse population.”

Essentially, unless you have stalls in MD, you can't come in and claim at Pimlico this spring.

Excuse me Mr. Wright, but the last time I checked, I owned and pay all of the bills on MY horse yet you seem to think it belongs to you! When you make a statement that you are protecting "our" horse population, you are including my horse in your statement. And to disrupt the flow of the free enterprise system that is claiming, by not allowing someone to come in and claim my horse, the one I might NEED to be claimed - well, something seems inherently wrong with that.

Granted, MJC and MTHA (MD T-Bred Horsemans Assoc.) have taken the tremendously helpful step of including a new condition in the Pimlico cond. book - a $C5k nw2 lifetime race - so I guess they figured as a horseman, I owed them one. That $C5k nw2 should be a REAL classy field......

My whole point is - when was the last time a horseman's association did something that the majority of the horsemen wanted? I've never been polled on any question or a policy the MTHA/MJC wants to enact so, do they only end up representing just those horsemen in attendance at the meetings? Or do they only represent the best interests of those horsemen serving on the board?

I could go on........

[Storm Cadet]

I'm a NYRA owner and we ARE NOT allowed to the NY Horsemans meeting. I have requested several times to attend. It's ironic that we vote each year for the board members but are not allowed to attend their meetings and just watch and listen to the proceedings.

I explained to them that corporations with stock holders allow stock holders to attend, Board of Education meeting are open to the public, even Little League parents are welcome at their Board meetings. But NOT NYRA!

I wanted to go last year and listen to their drug testing meetings as well as the "Future Of NYRA" meetings. The staff there was pleasant on the phone...they send out a nice 4-6 page NY Horsemens flyer every so often. But try to get minutes from a meeting...NYRA means NADA.