nyra

[gales0678]

Originally Posted by jms62

If there wasn't a carryover would you feel the same way?

yes

nyra runs on sunday after the travers . it is a successful day , they have a grade 1 , there is no reason they can't run at belmont , or we supposed to believe that if they run on sunday they would lose money ??? i find that hard to believe

todd pletcher won 6 races in a row a few years ago on a sunday after the belmont , i think it was the year after smarty jones won , if i remember correct they had a pretty good size crowd there that day

[ateamstupid]

Originally Posted by gales0678

yes

nyra runs on sunday after the travers . it is a successful day , they have a grade 1 , there is no reason they can't run at belmont , or we supposed to believe that if they run on sunday they would lose money ??? i find that hard to believe

todd pletcher won 6 races in a row a few years ago on a sunday after the belmont , i think it was the year after smarty jones won , if i remember correct they had a pretty good size crowd there that day

Based on what measure? Saratoga is a freaking ghost town the day after Travers.

[Cannon Shell]

Originally Posted by ateamstupid

Based on what measure? Saratoga is a freaking ghost town the day after Travers.

Yeah and there are still 5 times more people there than there would be at Belmont on Sunday. LOL!

[gales0678]

Originally Posted by ateamstupid

Based on what measure? Saratoga is a freaking ghost town the day after Travers.

joey , are you going to tell me that don't make money the sunday after the travers? you don't think steve , et al, vendors want NYRA to be open every sunday during the meet ?

isn't making money the point of the operation?

outside of travers day , my guess is the best days at the spa are the 1st 2 weeks, in genreal after the travers my guess is that those weeks don't do as well as the 1st 2 weeks

[Danzig]

Originally Posted by gales0678

yes

nyra runs on sunday after the travers . it is a successful day , they have a grade 1 , there is no reason they can't run at belmont , or we supposed to believe that if they run on sunday they would lose money ??? i find that hard to believe

todd pletcher won 6 races in a row a few years ago on a sunday after the belmont , i think it was the year after smarty jones won , if i remember correct they had a pretty good size crowd there that day

there is no way that travers day and it's undercard matches up to what belmont park just provided on saturday. and if nyra used to run the day after, and now they don't, one would have to think they had a very, very good reason to make the change.

[Travis Stone]

Having a major race day on a Saturday has no direct correlation to handle performance on Sunday.

Here are the Sunday handles for Sunday's in May on a national level...

5/2/10 - 45,330,842
5/9/10 - 42,532,055
5/16/10 - 44,348,464
5/23/10 - 44,039,399
5/30/10 - 48,772,526

Sunday's typically handle less than Friday's believe it or not. Handle on Sunday is less than the corresponding Thursday more than you might think as well.

The point is Sunday is a quiet day reserved for hardcore players, die hards and the regulars.

The only Sunday after a big race day where I've seen a busier than usual on-track crowd is the day after Derby. In that case, the Derby serves as a good marketing vehicle the day before and creates added interest.

Belmont closing is no where close to the wrong move. They're not passing-up any unusual chance for a big day. And when you factor in employee morale after a big day and long week, it makes more sense.

Besides, who has any money left after Champagne d'Oro, Winchester and Drosselmeyer all win?

[Cannon Shell]

Originally Posted by Danzig

there is no way that travers day and it's undercard matches up to what belmont park just provided on saturday. and if nyra used to run the day after, and now they don't, one would have to think they had a very, very good reason to make the change.

Of course this is all just a matter of opinion but Travers day and its undercard usually matchup pretty well to Belmont day's card. The difference is that Saratoga averages upwards of 25k people on Sundays and Belmont averages about 5k.

[Danzig]

Originally Posted by Cannon Shell

Of course this is all just a matter of opinion but Travers day and its undercard usually matchup pretty well to Belmont day's card. The difference is that Saratoga averages upwards of 25k people on Sundays and Belmont averages about 5k.

no doubt it's a nice card, but is it 13 races? at any rate, i can understand taking off the day after an undertaking like that. and between spring and fall, belmont won't miss a sunday card, whereas i'd think saratoga would.

[Cannon Shell]

Originally Posted by Danzig

no doubt it's a nice card, but is it 13 races? at any rate, i can understand taking off the day after an undertaking like that. and between spring and fall, belmont won't miss a sunday card, whereas i'd think saratoga would.

They usually have at least 12.

[Antitrust32]

Originally Posted by Danzig

no doubt it's a nice card, but is it 13 races? at any rate, i can understand taking off the day after an undertaking like that. and between spring and fall, belmont won't miss a sunday card, whereas i'd think saratoga would.

yes its 12 - 13 races of equal or better quality

but I dont think people can compare Saratoga's attendance to anywhere else.. simply a different (and better) breed!

[Cannon Shell]

Originally Posted by HomerS

As far as running so many days, why woudlnt they not run on Thursday then? And run Sunday? If concerned about horse shortage? Cmon this isnt that complicated. If you run a business you have to look at these things.

Compare your average Thursday attendance and handle with average Sunday attendance and handle.

Does someone really want to make the case that Thursday is higher?

Look at May 20 versus May 23

Mind you this isnt scientific but feel very comfortable in saying if you looked at this longer term you would see same results

Do you think that the people who run NYRA didn't take these things into consideration? That someone just flippantly said "hey i'm having a big post Belmont party so we shouln't run on Sunday"?

Or are you just playing the contrarian card in an attempt to make yourself look smarter than everyone else?

[Cannon Shell]

Originally Posted by HomerS

I'm not posting to play games or be "contrary". I'm also not going to assume that racetrack management thinks long and hard about everything. Especially when you look at state of the game and fans frustration.

I actually like NYRA- think they are better then most.

Just discussing the issue. Dont think its crazy to wonder why they would close on Sunday compared to another day. Or at all. There could be good reasons. Not sure have seen them yet.

There were several reasons given.
1. Cleanup after the big event
2. NYRA having run 10 cards in 11 days.
3. Employees worked unusually long hours on Saturday
4. Hangover effect after big days that other venues have chosen to skip
5. Travis showed that there was no handle bump after the derby or preakness showing that they weren't missing out on an unusually good day of racing.

other potential reasons
6. union wages are cheaper on weekdays
7. potential of a carryover is greater due to the nature of the belmont card and only Gales will argue that leadup time isn't better in these situations

Perhaps these reasons arent good enough for you guys but i find it hard to believe that anyone thinks that taking Sunday off wasn't a good idea.

[MaTH716]

I just don't think that anyone is giving consideration to the people that work at the track either. This is their biggest day of the year. Gates opened at (I believe 8:30) for a 11:35 first post. The last race went off at 7:50. It's not like they shut the lights off and go home at 8 o'clock after the last race goes official. I'm thinking that many people were there very late that night, cleaning up after such a big day. Most likely after working there for the entire day. All this coming in a span where they raced 10 times in 11 days.

But then again if they did put together a card for Sunday for the sake of just racing for a 11th time in 12 days and it came up below par, people would have chastised NYRA for not anticipating a carryover. Then they would have bitched and moaned about the crappy card that they would be looking at for such a big carryover.

It just seems like some people like to bitch and moan reguardless of what goes on there.