Breeder's Cup Rep on ATR

[mik9872]

Pete Rotondo championed rhe reason for the Breeder's Cup being at Santa Anita was the safety of the horse. This is just a convenient excuse. The reason is MAKETING, MARKETING, and more MARKETING.

[dellinger63]

Maybe they just wanted 'to spread out' after the 'straight jacket' like confinement of Monmouth Park.

Personally I'd like to see it at CD every year but that's a 6hr drive instead of a 3 and 1/2 hr plane ride. They sure can handle the crowd with ease though.

[mes5107]

Loved how he played the tradition card when asked about changing the saddle cloths from purple to the standard color designations.

[mik9872]

Originally Posted by mes5107

Loved how he played the tradition card when asked about changing the saddle cloths from purple to the standard color designations.

If they can sell rights to sponsor's for each saddle cloth , they would use individual ones. For example #1, Mc Donald's, # 2 Budweiser, etc.

[blackthroatedwind]

I'm no fan of the BC, and I am pleased to see them marginalizing themselves, but Peter Rotundo works for them and it's his job to give the company line. Horse racing is better for having Peter working in the game.

[mes5107]

I'm sure he's a nice guy and all. It just seems that the Breeder's Cup has these purple cloths up on a pedastal, when the vast majority of the horseracing fans don't like them. Let me rephrase:

Loved how the Breeder's Cup sent out a guy to play the tradition card when asked about changing the saddle cloths from purple to the standard color designations.

[Monarchos1]

It was rather absurd for him to cite synthetic track stats when the yet-to-be completed Santa Anita surface has no history whatsoever. One can only hope it will be safe and I don't blame Jess Jackson or any other owner that chooses not to race a horse over it.

[Holland Hacker]

After hearing the interview I'm curious to find out what makes Randy Moss and "Expert" on horse safety?

I was also thinking that the statsitic he threw out "that there was a 42% reduction in fatalities in California as a result of the installation of the Synthetic surfaces" is probably GREATLY Skewed by the fact that the year before they installed Synthetics Del Mar had an unusually high number of breakdowns. It would be interesting to see what the statistics were if that year was excluded. Clearly there were issues with both the track and the sub-surface (Base) of the track that needed to be addressed regardless of the installation of a synthetic surface.

Anybody else have any thoughts?