Aqueduct Card

[Cannon Shell]

Originally Posted by Rudeboyelvis

I don't know that raising the claiming price can improve the product - As Chuck points out, look at the mess in LA. They breed crap to crap, just so they can cash a slot-juiced state-bred MSW check with a 37 bsf.

The horses cannot compete anywhere else in the country, and you're stuck with a program that unbetable and unentertaining.

What do you do with all of the uncompetitive NY breds already there? The glut poorly bred horses will continue to increase as breeders get incented on these purses too. Will be interesting to see the ratio on NY Breds going through the Ocala ring relative to recent years past.

I don't think making them run for 15k instead of 7500 is an answer.

Without some strict controls, they're going to need to build another lower rung facility to race these things, or only pay the owner /breeder awards in open-company contests and remove the state bred restriction all together.

They have a facility for cheap NYbreds, Finger Lakes.

I'm not suggesting that people simply run $7500 horses for $15000. I'm suggesting that they get rid of them if they want to race at NYRA tracks.

We aren't that far removed from NY breds having 4 types of races at NYRA. MSW, NW1x allowance, NW2x allowance and stakes. Because of the expansion of the NY bred program more classes will be needed than 4 but not that many more. Maybe a NYB $25000 claiming race, a NYB $35000 maiden claimer and starter handicap series for NYB's?

The need to raise the bottom is really the easiest thing to do. The NY breeders will scream about any roll back of NY bred races even if you up the purses enough in the other NYB races to cover the mandatory payout and number of races required are met. Getting rid of most of the conditioned claiming races and starter allowances will be met with resistance from horsemen. The stall thing will have the biggest (and most connected for the most part) trainers going crazy. But what are they going to do? Send a string to Colonial or Suffolk? Try Ellis Park? Most already have horses in KY(at CD or Kee) and Delaware or Woodbine or Monmouth. There isn't anywhere else for them to go. Are owners really going to let their trainer talk them into running for a far cheaper purse somewhere else if they can win in NY? This is the least likely thing to happen and yet it is probably the most important. It will take a lot of balls to try out of the box stuff because pretty much no one in the industry does and there will be a lot of influential people that will be killing you and hoping that it fails (mostly because they like the status quo in which they are part of the machine that has a stranglehold on horseracing at the upper levels). But it would work and in the end would mean a better product at our most important circuit. How it affects the other tracks is a mystery as there are a million factors but it could provide a template that other tracks with casino money and poorly designed racing programs (like most all of them) could try to follow. Or it might even serve to kill off some of them as they are stripped of their quality horses and have nothing but low level races to offer and the politicians finally get wise that the money is being squandered (oh wait that already happening...)