Get ready for smaller field sizes

[joeydb]

I gotta read it when I get home - DRF blocked here at work. I hope it turns around since it seems that some tracks had a good year this year. If attendance and/or handle creeps up even locally it might give some hope to the horsemen.

[10 pnt move up]

Originally Posted by joeydb

I gotta read it when I get home - DRF blocked here at work. I hope it turns around since it seems that some tracks had a good year this year. If attendance and/or handle creeps up even locally it might give some hope to the horsemen.

Yea but you cant create a race horse overnight, good years now would only affect future crops of horses.

[joeydb]

Originally Posted by 10 pnt move up

Yea but you cant create a race horse overnight, good years now would only affect future crops of horses.

Of course you are right - I guess I should say I hope that this downturn is a local minimum from which we can progressively rise.

[randallscott35]

Inevitable.

[Cannon Shell]

I am always amazed at the lack of detail in virtually everything racing does. Yeah there are a lot fewer foals being born and it will certainly impact racing but everyone acts as though this will affect all circuits the same and this just isn't so. Taken as a whole the foal crop has huge disparities within in regards to quality and regional makeup. If the state of Washington loses 50% of its foal crop it isn't going to affect racing in NY at all because no horses racing in NY come from there and any horses imported to Washington from other areas to make up the difference would be of a lesser quality. The foal crop reduction should in theory affect the smaller tracks worst because there isn't that much of a reduction in the top of the line stock, no one stopped breeding quality mares to good stallions. However it is far easier to find cheap stock and lower quality horses race more often and horses from the top part of the food chain that aren't breeding caliber (virtually all male horses) eventually make their way down the ladder. So the top tier tracks shouldn't take that big of a hit (though they should address the other reasons why fields are smaller and in a lot of cases crappy-too many stakes, too few trainer with too many horses, etc) and the bottom level tracks should be ok too. The real danger is the middle tier tracks like Monmouth and Arlington and Delaware whose purses aren't nearly as good as the upper crust but who don't offer a steady stream of 5000 claimers like the lower tier tracks.

One sentiment that is always given that puts horsemen in a negative light is that most groups resist a reduction in dates and on the face of it, it seems like logical reasoning. However life doesn't operate in a vacuum and far too often date reductions come with a catch especially at tracks that are already hinting at hopes of eliminating racing even if the general public doesn't interpret those hints correctly.

[joeydb]

Originally Posted by Cannon Shell

However life doesn't operate in a vacuum and far too often date reductions come with a catch especially at tracks that are already hinting at hopes of eliminating racing even if the general public doesn't interpret those hints correctly.

Truer words were never spoken. And that really gets me pissed.

[Frost King]

Just out of curiosity, anybody know what percentage of the annual foal crop makes it too the races? The only thing I see happening, is that animals that would have been culls for racing, are going to end up in training to feed the racing shortage. In turn diluting the quality of racing even more.