Well, this isn't good...

[parsixfarms]

Given politics here in NYS, I think today's report on the NYRA takeout snafu (http://www.saratogian.com/articles/2...2647033739.txt), may be far more damaging to the sport in New York.

[Calzone Lord]

The week of the Derby -- and NY Times are doing features that tail-spin into rehashing Mike Gill and about the hopelessly incompetent 1% trainer George Iacovacci?

As brilliantly as they handed the article about Hansen's skin color...this was a laughably botched piece.

[cmorioles]

Originally Posted by Calzone Lord

The week of the Derby -- and NY Times are doing features that tail-spin into rehashing Mike Gill and about the hopelessly incompetent 1% trainer George Iacovacci?

As brilliantly as they handed the article about Hansen's skin color...this was a laughably botched piece.

I would agree, if it wasn't true and things had changed. Don't you think the very idea that an ass clown like Iacovacci is making a living in the sport says a lot?

[Calzone Lord]

Originally Posted by cmorioles

I would agree, if it wasn't true and things had changed. Don't you think the very idea that an ass clown like Iacovacci is making a living in the sport says a lot?

If Iacovacci and a guy like Rodeny Moyers really are making a living ... I sure would like to know how. Moyer claims horses left and right for $5,000 and they almost always regress 10 lengths or more in a matter of a week or two.

They can't be making a living. Moyers has to be taken an absolute bath.

I agree with you that Slots have done a whole lot to make the game worse off...but that feature is another poor effort imo and the timing of it makes it look like they have a vandetta against horse racing.

[cmorioles]

They must be making a living somehow. They seemed to be sucking up those $1000 last place checks. They get stalls for nothing, pay nobody, and collect low checks. I'd have to do the math, but I don't think they are starving.

Of course the timing was done for a reason. That is always a consideration on these types of reports. Regardless of how you feel about that and whether everything in there is exaggerated, it is still pretty damn accurate at portraying what goes on at racinos at the lower end of the claiming ladder. Purses are too high, and the "jail" rule needs to come back. The elimination of it was a slap in the face to bettors...and of course horses.

[Calzone Lord]

Originally Posted by cmorioles

They must be making a living somehow. They seemed to be sucking up those $1000 last place checks. They get stalls for nothing, pay nobody, and collect low checks. I'd have to do the math, but I don't think they are starving.

If they're not...maybe their horses are. I'm sure they're gyping on food and medications.

I'm sure I'm going to be asked to write something about this by an editor when the meet opens here in about 10 days.

They ran 800 races with 6,600 starters at PID last year -- and only had two horses breakdown the entire meet.

It will basically pivot into a piece about how Slots have been welfare for horsemen and racetracks and how none of it anywhere has ever gone to improve the sport and lower takeout rates and rarely does anything ever even go to seriously improve the racing product.

I don't agree on points like the jail rule and the claiming price levels. For the small-fry horse owner...the jail rule is a bitch and the higher claiming levels are raised the worse off you are. I don't think bettors or the racing product benefit much from the jail rule or higher claiming levels either. It just makes it much harder on someone who wants to take a gamble and claim a $5,000 horse in good ole tax free PA. The jail rule is still in play here anyway.

[cmorioles]

Surely you understand why the jail rule would be good for horses and bettors? First, horses won't be bought for $15 or $20k and run back for $10k to steal a purse, whether they are healthy or not...and really, how many of them are? Second, when that is done, the races are often unbettable. It used to be you could bet against these kind, but not so much any longer. Trainers aren't trying to cash bets any more, they are just trying to suck up slots tokens.

Trying to cater to small time owners is helping to make things worse, not better, because guys like Jacobsen and the Eclipse award winning owner Gill just take advantage of it.