Del Mar opens Wed. Racing hurting all over the place

[10 pnt move up]

Originally Posted by Cannon Shell

Seems like anything the Indians want, they get.

Well had the purses been as high as they could have been, there probably would not have been a owner exodus and surely the 2% takeout increase would have never been implemented.

Is it a purse issue? Of course. Last year there were races at Penn National that were running for the same money or more money as the same class at Hollywood Park. I know a lot of KY breeders who send their horses where the money is highest. They have good horses and a steady supply of them. They now run in NY, Monmouth and Woodbine as opposed to CA. There are several traditionally CA based owners that fill the barns of guys like Phil Aristone and others at Parx.

Between low purses, polytrack, Stronach's issues, the CHRB's ineptness and general malaise the racing product has slipped quite a bit and handle has followed. Had they played nice with the Indians and came up with some sort of agreement years ago not only would have the monetary situation been better the atmosphere of desperation that now exists probably wouldn't have reached the levels that it is now at. Sure the general economic downturn would have still hurt somewhat but the timing in which it hit seems to simply accelerated the downward trend CA racing was already in.

The only segment this can be argued is the low level claiming races from 10k to 25k. The horses at this level have been raided by the Indian casino sponsered tracks. No doubt they could not keep the horses given the purse competition.

But losing those, did that really matter. Is that the market California is after to fill their races? They used to run 2 of those a day.

Nope, not buying that argument.

When Mdn specials are going for 60k and you are getting 5 horses I think you got other issues that are a bigger problem.

Its two fold, regulation by the State has made it very expensive to race horses, to the point that 60k maidens still make it hard. Tax codes have also made it harder to make it.

The other issue is the guy who had a small to medium sized business and maybe had 5-10 decent bred horses has all but vanished because his business has been squeezed out by over regulation and taxation by the state. I really think purses have had nothing to do with this, 100k maidens, maybe?