BEYER: Crown thriving but tinkering could be in order

[parsixfarms]

Originally Posted by NTamm1215

Did you read what he wrote? If MID is willing to pay the insurance premiums on a potential $5.5 million bonus they could divert those funds to the purses on Preakness day.

There's always going to be a "red headed step child" factor to the Preakness undercard because there's more to winning the Churchill Downs than the Maryland Sprint Handicap. The problem that the Preakness undercard has is that the races are rarely competitive and lead to the parade of favorites that has occurred each of the last two years.

I doubt that putting the money spent on the insurance premium (I'm guessing $100K) would meaningfully change the purses offered for the undercard.

The relative weakness of the Preakness undercard is a reflection of the frequency with which horses are raced, the fact that Maryland is generally not a stop on the "good horse" circuit (Gulfstream/Keeneland-Churchill/Belmont-Saratoga), and the weakness of Maryland racing to the extent that Pimlico cannot round up enough competitive local horses to take on the limited number the "stand out" shippers (like a Ventana) to make for good betting races.