Examiner's Schwab assails Bay Meadows 'Development' Co.

[DerbyCat]

Freddy -

Your argument would be more convincing if you didn't speak in such uninformed extremes:

"Bay Meadows is no more is because there product sucked" It may have "sucked" for you, a gambler who wants large fields for a higher payoff but for those of us in the Bay Area who loved horse racing and own horses it was just fine. Hundreds of folks were employed at the track, thousands came every week to watch the horses run and it may have not have been the same caliber of horses as Kentucky or New York tracks but it was still better than may tracks across America (Fonner Park, Emerald Downs, Arapahoe Park, etc.). Not every town can have a track that has multiple graded stakes races each week (and how many do?).

"California has NO horses so why do you need so many tracks?" Another extreme and a horribly Eastern biases statement, I won't even begin to list the great horses to come out of California. As I'm sure you know, approximately 35,000 thoroughbred foals are registered each year in the U.S. The largest number of foals are born in Kentucky, Florida, and California - where are all of the horses born in California going to race at?

Yes, we all want the "product" to be good but please understand that there is more to this sport and tracks like Bay Meadows than just the handle and what's good for the gambler. Many people made a living working at Bay Meadows, many horses were cared for by professional trainers at this track, and many, many people enjoyed their time spent attending races at this track (some more than others and unfortunately not enough) and now they miss it. This article (and some of Steve's ire, I believe) was meant to make folks that don't care, or people that only care about how much they could make betting it, aware of just how significant this loss is. People care that it died, and they don't understand why others don't care as well.

OK, I'll get off the soapbox now... and get ready to be attacked