Stronach reneges on SA surface change..

[philcski]

Originally Posted by Cannon Shell

The lack of trainers is not an issue, it is the lack of owners. Lots of CA owners will simply get out if their trainers leave or they grow tired of the bs in CA. Those guys are tough to replace.

List of ease of replacement in order of hardest to easiest
1. Real bettors (not the guy who plays $2 in the derby pool)
2. Owners (the reason they are number 2 instead of at least tied for number 1 is that at least they can get some enjoyment out of the social aspect of the sport while losing all their money)
3. Fans (breakdowns, etc. chase them away but most are suckers for a sob story )
4. Good Assistants/Ex riders - (they do grunt work, have terrible hours, get substandard pay and receive little glory and there are fewer and fewer qualified ones to be found every year)
5. Jockeys (In 2010 people are just plain larger overall and if the size issue wasnt so important they would fall down this list dramatically)
6. Trainers (while the standards for getting a license are awful low it is getting increasingly harder to find people to risk the amount of money trainers must to do business. Not to mention the increasingly complicated labor laws to deal with that simply dont take into consideration the dymanics of horseracing. However there will never be a shortage of trainers)
7. Grooms (the level of horsemanship has dropped dramatically over the last 20 years. If a guy shows up on a consistent basis, doesnt freebase crack and can put on a saddle, bridle and bandage they are considered good help. Sadly if they fail one of those three qualifications they are bad help but often still employable)
8. Racing Secretaries (They have been stripped of power in many places and the revolving door of changes at top level tracks like GP have reduced their importance. But there are still lots of eager lower level racing officials that would jump at an opportunity to get the top job)
9. TV Analysts (with a few notable exceptions many of these people are simply not qualified of have a opinion to be shared as "expertise" and are hurting the saps that listen to them as opposed to helping.
10. Announcers (It isnt an easy skill to acquire but i have never heard of an announcer shortage)
11. Racing executives (Magna=revolving door)
12. Jockey Agents (Would be ranked even lower but some of them bet way more than they should which is a net positive)
13. Bloodstock Agents (Has any one group stolen/robbed/chased away so many good/potential clients than these guys? Sure they all arent crooks but enough of them are to drop the whole group. There are no standards to be a bloodstock agent, you dont even have to be licensed)

Where do stoopers and 10 percenters fit on this list?

As for Santa Anita, they are going to be the permanent site starting in 2011 based on what Satish Sanan is saying without saying. Book it. And that is a phucking shame.

[Rudeboyelvis]

Originally Posted by philcski

Where do stoopers and 10 percenters fit on this list?

As for Santa Anita, they are going to be the permanent site starting in 2011 based on what Satish Sanan is saying without saying. Book it. And that is a phucking shame.

Nice job with Satish today, Phil

Very salient with a healthy dose of respect, but unfortunately seemed to fall on deaf ears

Hope that Haileah gets it's act together and writes a new chapter to this...

[philcski]

Originally Posted by Rudeboyelvis

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Nice job with Satish today, Phil

Very salient with a healthy dose of respect, but unfortunately seemed to fall on deaf ears

Hope that Haileah gets it's act together and writes a new chapter to this...

Thanks- last ditch effort to pitch keeping the rotational schedule. I agree that it fell on deaf ears though. It's a done deal on the permanent Santa Anita site.

[The Indomitable DrugS]

Why Santa Anita when Fairplex is available?

The Breeders Cup Turf can be run on the dirt - right?

[pmacdaddy]

Originally Posted by The Indomitable DrugS

Why Santa Anita when Fairplex is available?

The Breeders Cup Turf can be run on the dirt - right?

With a new dirt surface at SA and the right business model, I could live with it as the permanent home (and would go back to having a betting interest).

With the "dirt" races run over synthetic, I will continue to have no interest in the BC. Perhaps they could just have turf racing and the dirt and synthetic horses could compete in a swimming competition to level the playing field...

[Danzig]

at some point in the past, i looked at handle numbers. churchill far outweighs the other tracks when you compare bc's. why they'd have it at a permanent site other than in ky, i don't know. as for the bc in cali, for every euro you draw due to surface, you lose another due to the much warmer weather. add in the firmness of the turf track....you lose anyone who has a horse they don't want to run on syn, who prefers a track with cut in the ground. overall, you'd have to think ky would be the best choice if they're so determined to have one permanent host site.

[GBBob]

Originally Posted by Danzig

at some point in the past, i looked at handle numbers. churchill far outweighs the other tracks when you compare bc's. why they'd have it at a permanent site other than in ky, i don't know. as for the bc in cali, for every euro you draw due to surface, you lose another due to the much warmer weather. add in the firmness of the turf track....you lose anyone who has a horse they don't want to run on syn, who prefers a track with cut in the ground. overall, you'd have to think ky would be the best choice if they're so determined to have one permanent host site.

From a fan's perspective, and not taking into account the surface at all, there really is no better place to attend a BC than SA. The physical plant is designed well, the lines are the shortest of any BC that I know of, the infield is a great viewing alternative and you have the best chance for good weather that time of year outside of GP (where it never will go again) and LS ,where it probably will never go again. Yeah..it's a pain for the East Coast people to get to and that is why I still think a three way geographical rotation is best, but I do see the reasoning behind a single track hosting.

That being said...and I have been on the bottom of the poly hater list, but the need to have a dirt track for BC races is becoming more and more evident and to award SA the permanant rights if they keep an artificial surface is a slap in the face to the Bettor and the Breeders, Trainers and Owners of dirt horses.