Crazy Ideas

[PPerfectfan]

How bout making a rule that to run in the BC, you have to run in atleast 4-5 Grade 1 or 2 races? All of these phantom injuries would be a thing of the past.

[Bobby Fischer]

stuff like this is good for the sport.
Attracting Grade 1 winners is big.
Even controversial ideas like appearance fees...

A comprehensive effort is needed if the sport of racing is to get serious. Management, Planning Group(ideas), Media Group(national television),Wager Service Group(phone/internet/rebates),Marketing Group

[rocknrowl]

Originally Posted by PPerfectfan

How bout making a rule that to run in the BC, you have to run in atleast 4-5 Grade 1 or 2 races? All of these phantom injuries would be a thing of the past.

Why not make all of the BC races like the Derby. You get in on graded Stakes earnings or maybe even narrow it down to earnings from either Grade/Group 1 and 2 races or only select Grade/Group 1 and 2 races.

[whodey17]

I have to agree with Bob Baffert and say that appearance fees is a good idea. If you throw $50k or $100k to the owner of a horse just to race then you may entice some runners.

[blackthroatedwind]

Originally Posted by whodey17

I have to agree with Bob Baffert and say that appearance fees is a good idea. If you throw $50k or $100k to the owner of a horse just to race then you may entice some runners.

I thought Bob was an advocate of the trainer get a fee.....and keeping it quiet.

[whodey17]

Originally Posted by blackthroatedwind

I thought Bob was an advocate of the trainer get a fee.....and keeping it quiet.

Ok, that made me laugh. But you do have a point.

[Cannon Shell]

Originally Posted by PPerfectfan

How bout making a rule that to run in the BC, you have to run in atleast 4-5 Grade 1 or 2 races? All of these phantom injuries would be a thing of the past.

What would you do about the 2 yo races and Sprint?
I would love to know how many horses have skipped a BC race that they had a good chance of winning because of a "phantom "injury?

[hoovesupsideyourhead]

how about just ran in grade 1s ..the perfect drift series...

Tracks actually talking to each other might be nice.

Spacing their graded races and stakes races so they could all make money. I think the syn. has made bigger pools in general, but I am a bit tired of looking up races and see they have 5 horse fields in graded races. Drought conditions predominate when I am off in the summer and ready to get down to business. Thats why I am putting Saratoga down on my Calendar.

Originally Posted by Cannon Shell

What would you do about the 2 yo races and Sprint?
I would love to know how many horses have skipped a BC race that they had a good chance of winning because of a "phantom "injury?

The 2 yo races should be done away with for other reasons that are apparent.

[Cannon Shell]

Originally Posted by pgardn

The 2 yo races should be done away with for other reasons that are apparent.

Because I finally bet the winner of one of them?

[Linny]

The fact is that with horses making fewer starts per season, racing is just far less competitive than it once was. From the fans point of view, it's great to see good horses knocking heads over and over but those days are GONE.

I'm not sure if monetary incentives are enough because they cannot compete with the extraordinary values of colts as breeding prospects. Protection of the investment has become the watchword. When horses races 10-15 times a year, losing 5 or more times per season was not unexpected or a tragedy. Now it seems that one loss is cause for retirement to "protect the investment" from losing any more value.

The exceptions are horses like Tiznow or Albert the Great, very talented colts with moderate pedigrees for which the breeders are not screaming.

[blackthroatedwind]

Originally Posted by pgardn

The 2 yo races should be done away with for other reasons that are apparent.

Apparent to whom?

Originally Posted by blackthroatedwind

Apparent to whom?

To people that understand its like asking a teenage pitcher to throw 90 curveballs in a little league game.

I like watching them run also. But ultimately, its just not good for the animals. They are too young to be run this hard. It is apparent to me.

[blackthroatedwind]

Originally Posted by pgardn

To people that understand its like asking a teenage pitcher to throw 90 curveballs in a little league game.

I like watching them run also. But ultimately, its just not good for the animals. They are too young to be run this hard. It is apparent to me.

The entire game is then bad for the horses.

Originally Posted by blackthroatedwind

The entire game is then bad for the horses.

Yes it is.
But its worse for two year olds.

[Cannon Shell]

Originally Posted by pgardn

To people that understand its like asking a teenage pitcher to throw 90 curveballs in a little league game.

I like watching them run also. But ultimately, its just not good for the animals. They are too young to be run this hard. It is apparent to me.

Asking any pitcher on any level at any age to throw 90 curveballs in a given game is a bad idea but I have yet to understand what we are supposed to do with 2 year olds if we cant race them? Send them to prep school for a year?

Originally Posted by Cannon Shell

Asking any pitcher on any level at any age to throw 90 curveballs in a given game is a bad idea but I have yet to understand what we are supposed to do with 2 year olds if we cant race them? Send them to prep school for a year?

Train them.
Because you know most of the animals, if trained properly, will give you everything they have in a race. Enough to hurt themselves at this age. And the rider cant slow them down when there is money on them.

[PPerfectfan]

Originally Posted by Cannon Shell

What would you do about the 2 yo races and Sprint?
I would love to know how many horses have skipped a BC race that they had a good chance of winning because of a "phantom "injury?

I wasnt talking about missing the BC because of a "phantom" injury but not running in the other races during the year. I think that by getting horses running more during the year more people may actually get interested in them. Give them time to acutally get a fan base.

[Honu]

Originally Posted by PPerfectfan

How bout making a rule that to run in the BC, you have to run in atleast 4-5 Grade 1 or 2 races? All of these phantom injuries would be a thing of the past.

Problem with that is how are you going to run your 2 yr old in 4 or 5 grade one's or two's? That would have eliminated Action This Day and Halfbridled and a bunch of others and Pleasantly Perfect , because he only had one graded prep before he won the breeders cup.