Pletcher going to California

Originally Posted by Gander

I agree. The day after Christmas is now what I look forward to the most in winter racing, not when Gulfstream opens. What use to be one of my favorite meets is now something I could care less about (except for a few Saturdays in the course of 4 months). It started going downhill that year all those horses were breaking down towards the very end of the meet. When they actually had a hole in the track. I think its way too long of a meet. They ought to cut it down to 5 days a week and 3 months max.

Santa Anita has become by far the premier winter meet in the USA. They run nice races with nice purses and have some nice stakes races that arent all at the graded stakes commitee's minimum purse requirements, imagine that?
Gulf used to rule the winter months but I now find myself eagerly awaiting Oaklawn's opening day far more than Gulf's.