The Real Championship Meet

[Dahoss]

Originally Posted by welltakethat

A lot of good points made by 'parsix' First off, why run the Kelso and the Vosburgh on the same day when they draw the same horses. Second, why move two year old stakes to the week before you run the 'premier' two year old stakes of the fall. It dilutes all fields involved. Saratoga does the same thing with their Friday / Saturday stakes carded on the same conditions. Combined with the 50% maiden cardings with many firsters or state breds there is not much to enjoy from a betting perspective.

If you want to bet on 2-5's and 4-5's and tell your friends that you had ten bucks on Harve De Grace then that's a different type of player than where many would align themselves on this form i'd think. And if you want to crown champions (ie Zenyatta) for running on their home tracks against inferior fields then that's on those who decide. To me a win by Gio Ponti against that Shadwell Mile field is 10x more impressive than Harve De Grace because he had to beat 7 quality horses not one overmatched 3yo. And that's the shortest field of any of their stakes.

I'm not sure how anyone could wrip keeneland from a betting perspective. In terms of easy slam dunk handicapping I'm pretty sure that is what a 250 dollar pk4 across the 4 stakes at Belmont on Saturday says to me. Today there are some nice opportunities in that Jamaica field but last Saturday was unbettable on a race by race basis save pounding low priced favorites, I'm not sure how that could be argued.

No one is saying betting on Havre De Grace last weekend was fun and I can't imagine anyone in this thread did. But when there are so many options for connections to duck and dodge, for big, big money, what are racing organizations supposed to do?

Last Saturday was ruined because of the weather. Not really fair to compare it. And while my Saratoga meet was one of the worst ever, there were plenty of wagering opportunities everyday.