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Originally Posted by parsixfarms
I don't get all the carping about tomorrow's card. Yes, the Excelsior and Bay Shore did not come up that strong this year, but not all the races are going to measure up every year, especially with trainers wanting big gaps between their charges' races and too many stakes out there for the same horses (in the 3YO sprint division, there was the Swale two weeks ago, the Miracle Wood at Laurel, and with Derby Fever in full bloom, horses like A Little Warm are trying two turns this time of year). The handicap division is a mess, and most of the "top" horses have not made their way back to NY yet. Look at the field Oaklawn drew tomorrow for the Oaklawn Park Handicap with a $500K purse.
As for the Wood, it has a short field, but it has two of the three top horses on the current DRF Derby Watch, plus the runner-ups from the Fountain of Youth and Tampa bay Derby. With a premium on connections trying to secure graded earnings, how many owners are going to run here? Dutrow sent his NY-bred, Yawanna Twist, to the Illinois Derby to avoid this field, and this is NYRA's fault? Would you prefer the Lane's End race won by a horse like Dean's Kitten over this?
And the Carter came up a very strong race, with Munnings, Musket Man and Warrior's Reward. Aside from Wall Street Wonder, are we really missing any active sprinters of significance (especially with the one-mile Gulfstream Park Handicap two weeks ago and the 7F Commonwealth at Keeneland next week for the synthetic set)?
The rest of the card has reasonably full fields, and is reflective of the horse population in NY this time of year. It wasn't that long ago that the Aqueduct spring meet was an excellent meet, but times have changed, now that Keeneland has become a major meet for the big outifits and Gulfstream Park has extended its meet through the third week of April (it used to close the third week of March). Would VLT-inflated purses change that, I guess so, but that's the politicians' fault.
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