Colonial's future in real doubt..

[philcski]

Originally Posted by GPK

The Golf Club at Brickshire (Blue Green Management) and Royal New Kent (Tradition Clubs) are the two courses there. Brickshire is the one with the housing community attached to it. Neither course is doing that great. If memory serves me, Brickshire had between 1,400-1,600 lots for sale when they first opened....and they sold all the developer lots. Anything for sale in there now are strictly resales...and Im not real sure how those are performing (slow, I would imagine)

Royal New Kent opened with a lot of fanfare. We played a college tournament there- WAYYYYYY too hard. Toughest course I've ever played, to the point where I was like "this is ridiculous". And this coming from an accomplished player, I can't imagine how un-fun and unfair it would be for an "average" player.

Colonial Downs will find a way to survive, I agree with Chuck that they are bluffing. It's doing much better than it's sister tracks in MD.

[Cannon Shell]

Originally Posted by philcski

Royal New Kent opened with a lot of fanfare. We played a college tournament there- WAYYYYYY too hard. Toughest course I've ever played, to the point where I was like "this is ridiculous". And this coming from an accomplished player, I can't imagine how un-fun and unfair it would be for an "average" player.

Colonial Downs will find a way to survive, I agree with Chuck that they are bluffing. It's doing much better than it's sister tracks in MD.

It is too good of a setup to give up. They dont race that many days, control the OTB system, have no competition in most of the state, and would be selling into the worst real estate market in years. If they could get some kind of slots/quasi slots system in place and include the OTB's with them it will be a gold mine. To just sell to unknown developers seems unlikely but leverage is always nice to have.

[GPK]

Originally Posted by philcski

Royal New Kent opened with a lot of fanfare. We played a college tournament there- WAYYYYYY too hard. Toughest course I've ever played, to the point where I was like "this is ridiculous". And this coming from an accomplished player, I can't imagine how un-fun and unfair it would be for an "average" player.

Colonial Downs will find a way to survive, I agree with Chuck that they are bluffing. It's doing much better than it's sister tracks in MD.

Not only is it hard...it is a maintanence nightmare. I have played alot of Mike Stranz's (RIP) designed courses. Most are very visually intimidating.

[philcski]

Originally Posted by GPK

Not only is it hard...it is a maintanence nightmare. I have played alot of Mike Stranz's (RIP) designed courses. Most are very visually intimidating.

I think after Caledonia, which is a GREAT course (tough but not ridiculous), he decided that a course had to be absurdly difficult to be "great". He should have taken a lesson from the top 10 in the nation list... none of those are murderously difficult.

[saratogabrit]

For me the the potential loss of Hollywood Park and 1 Bay Area track within 2 years are bad enough but this closure is possibly even worse, even without much history, because it would take away a track from a region of the country that needs more racetracks not less.

[phystech]

I, for one, would love to see Colonial sell and close. It is a beautiful track that, as we all are well aware, is in a terrible location.

They run a couple nice grass races there, but the rest of them really aren't much. I don't get very excited about cheap claimers on the turf, unless I own one that I can't figure out so I send him to Colonial in one last desperate attempt.

Their daily purses are crap. They hurt racing at Delpark, and soon will hurt MD if they start their season too early.

I say close Colonial, then close Laurel during the winter and replace those days with a summer turf meet. I mean, that's why Laurel re-did their turf course - to run turf races, right? Can't run the turf in the dead of winter.....

[-BT-]

Originally Posted by phystech

I, for one, would love to see Colonial sell and close. It is a beautiful track that, as we all are well aware, is in a terrible location.

They run a couple nice grass races there, but the rest of them really aren't much. I don't get very excited about cheap claimers on the turf, unless I own one that I can't figure out so I send him to Colonial in one last desperate attempt.

Their daily purses are crap. They hurt racing at Delpark, and soon will hurt MD if they start their season too early.

I say close Colonial, then close Laurel during the winter and replace those days with a summer turf meet. I mean, that's why Laurel re-did their turf course - to run turf races, right? Can't run the turf in the dead of winter.....

I don't know how Colonial hurts Delware Park, most of the low end horses from CT, LRL, PHL end up at colonial in the summer. It's not like they're taking away awsome OCN1X type horses, the horses racing down there are going after MD10K or 15K claimers. Plus, Delaware Park is on a roll as it is with all those slots.
I also find it hard to believe that they would sell to someone who plans on putting up housing on that land given the fact of where this country is at in foreclosure rates.

Just give them what they need, let them turn a little coin and leave them be, their 1-2 month season doesn't affect ANY of the major tracks

-bt-

[ddthetide]

could colonial go to a split calendar, like march or april and sept or oct? march -april would catch the horses coming back north and sept- oct would catch horses heading south. that would get the meet out of the dead of summer.
springs like this year would have made march tough.

[phystech]

Originally Posted by -BT-

I don't know how Colonial hurts Delware Park, most of the low end horses from CT, LRL, PHL end up at colonial in the summer. It's not like they're taking away awsome OCN1X type horses, the horses racing down there are going after MD10K or 15K claimers. Plus, Delaware Park is on a roll as it is with all those slots.

I'll agree with part of your post, and disagree with other parts.

Delpark is far from on a roll - and I'll assume you were being sarcastic without the smiley. They have trouble filling their fields because a lot of the horses that should be running there are being sucked away by ill-advised turf tries at CNL. And yet, I agree that at certain levels CNL had no affect on Delpark.

In the Mid-Atlantic, I'd say that more than 70% of the horses making turf tries, shouldn't be racing on the grass and are doing so only as a last resort. The old "...well, we've tried him short, long, with blinks, without blinks, - what's left. Hey, how about putting him on the lawn". And I'm guilty of this myself. Those horse would fill fields at Delpark if they stayed on the dirt and ran at a level they should be run at.

Close it and sell it!!