Arlington Breakdown Info - The truth

[Scav]

Originally Posted by JJP

I'm not talking about it being speed favoring, which it isn't. I'm talking about the dead rail; its been gone now for about a month but will likely resurface (no pun intended) at some point; it was prevalent for the first month of the meet and was prevalent for virtually the entire 2004 and 2005 meets. One thing about AP, it is definitely NOT like every other track.

Like Habersham said, Mike's Pride, the 3-5 ultra chalk in the 3rd on Friday was a Catalano trainee who broke down. Is Catalano that different from Rivelli? Both claim lots of horses and both will be aggressive in dropping horses. I'd be hesitant to claim a horse of EITHER of them.

I guess I am wrong about the Catalano not having one that broke down. I will say that Rivelli and Catalano ARE different. Catalano trains for one guy, who all he cares about it getting the owners title. Rivelli, while from all accounts a decent guy, runs horses that shouldn't be running...I understand that it is part of the game to run a horse with minor aliments, and to try and 'get' them off your hands, but if you would see what some of his horses look like when they come out of the paddock, at short odds, you would be amazed.

[Kasept]

If you'd listen to the show last week you could hear Christine discuss the situation. I've had her on 3 times now and she's terrific. When I saw her article in the Sun-Times, where it appeared a week ago Friday, I reached out to her knowing she was anxious to get the topic into the public eye.

Here's the link to the archives.. Christine was on Thursday..

http://www.attheracesandbeyond.com/s...2006_July.html

[sumitas]

2 Year Old Easy Strider broke down in the first race on Saturday at Arlington. Anyone know his status ?

Mikes Pride was vanned off Friday. Status ?

[Scav]

Originally Posted by sumitas

2 Year Old Easy Strider broke down in the first race on Saturday at Arlington. Anyone know his status ?

Mikes Pride was vanned off Friday. Status ?

Both euthusized. Easy Strider was on-track, tarp and everything

[JJP]

Easy Strider was a first time starter, so that shoots holes in the "overraced" theory. Also trained by Williamson, who's never been known as a butcher.

I'm not crazy about Kee or SA putting in Polytrack or an artificial surface but it looks like it would be the logical thing for Arlington to do.

[Scav]

Originally Posted by JJP

Easy Strider was a first time starter, so that shoots holes in the "overraced" theory. Also trained by Williamson, who's never been known as a butcher.

I'm not crazy about Kee or SA putting in Polytrack or an artificial surface but it looks like it would be the logical thing for Arlington to do.

The arlington surface is SAFE, Christine wouldn't be saying that if it wasn't, she could train on ANY circuit out there. Illinois racing is garbage because of legislation, point blank....Here is another thing, do you think riders like all those churchill riders would be coming here if the surface wasn't safe? Guidry would have NONE of that.....

[JJP]

Where else are they gonna go? Ellis Park? No, the purses are too small. Saratoga? Too much competition. Besides the regular NYers, you'll have Leparoux, Bejarano, Bridgmohan and probably Dominguez there. If Douglas didn't have a falling out with Romans, he'd be at Saratoga, not Arlington. Guidry and Douglas have great reputations in Chicago. They will have no problem lining up great mounts. Guidry arrived after CD last year and won over 25%. Even if the surface is bad, it doesn't mean that EVERY single horse is going to break down.

I'd like to see a who's who of all the trainers who've had horses that have broken down at the meet. I guarantee you its not all Alnaz Ali's horses.

[Habersham000]

Mike's Pride is fine but won't race again according to Catalano and Easy Strider was euthusized....for both of these horses I don't think it was the track that broke these horses down....Mike's Pride reinjured a ligament and Easy Strider back leg broke really high up, I haven't ever seen anything like it...

Originally Posted by sumitas

2 Year Old Easy Strider broke down in the first race on Saturday at Arlington. Anyone know his status ?

Mikes Pride was vanned off Friday. Status ?

[JJP]

As a bettor, I don't like seeing any bad publicity for racing. It just gives ammunition for our non-racing friends/family members to fuel the anti- racing fire. And like Janks said, the Tribune is the paper that has really run with this topic, which is ironic since they basically do not cover horse racing.

Only one problem: the attention is warranted. As one who has owned horses before, this definitely is a concern and certainly appears more than a bad random sampling. Who/what are we going to believe? There's a good trainer who says there's no problem because she hasn't had any horses break down. Isn't that a bit close-minded? BTW, being a horse trainer does not make one qualified to be a track surface maintenance chief. So do you believe: Christine Janks or your own eyes?

[Scav]

Originally Posted by JJP

As a bettor, I don't like seeing any bad publicity for racing. It just gives ammunition for our non-racing friends/family members to fuel the anti- racing fire. And like Janks said, the Tribune is the paper that has really run with this topic, which is ironic since they basically do not cover horse racing.

Only one problem: the attention is warranted. As one who has owned horses before, this definitely is a concern and certainly appears more than a bad random sampling. Who/what are we going to believe? There's a good trainer who says there's no problem because she hasn't had any horses break down. Isn't that a bit close-minded? BTW, being a horse trainer does not make one qualified to be a track surface maintenance chief. So do you believe: Christine Janks or your own eyes?

Christine Janks has been around the game a long time and has a great reputation on the Arlington grounds, when she talks, I listen....Being a trainer you come to understand things like a track surface so I am guessing she can talk intelligently about the race surface.

Originally Posted by Kasept

If you'd listen to the show last week you could hear Christine discuss the situation. I've had her on 3 times now and she's terrific. When I saw her article in the Sun-Times, where it appeared a week ago Friday, I reached out to her knowing she was anxious to get the topic into the public eye.

Here's the link to the archives.. Christine was on Thursday..

http://www.attheracesandbeyond.com/s...2006_July.html

She is excellent. She is truly concerned about the horses. However, polytrack needs to be put down at these types of tracks and we need more grass racing and more horses bred to run on grass. I would love to get rid of dirt racing entirely. It is boring to watch and grass is much better for the horses. We should atleast have 50-50 dirt/grass racing.