Another example of the state of racing

[Linny]

DRF's Steven Crist wrote in Sunday's paper about the BC deceision re:2009 at Santa Anita and uses it to touch on several issues in racing. Well here's my bitch.

For as long as Churchill has offered this Future Pool Wager the SoCal tracks have, every year decided to run a significant 3yo race AFTER the close of betting. There was no reason to run the San Vicente (G2) at 7:13 eastern time, 1 hour and 13 minutes after the Future Pool 1 closed.
The Churchill folks have not always chosen the best weeks to hold the wager. One year Pool 3 was on Easter (or Palm Sunday) weekend when NY is dark on Sunday. They have tried to tweak it to generate interest and hanle. I am not convinced that pari-mutual futures are ideal and agree that there should be betting on at least all nominees, but why can't one of the biggest racing venues in the country, the first ever host of consecutive Breeders' Cups, get on board and help the player out?