Has anyone noticed the number of claims being made daily? There\'s a whole lot of shakin going on in the racing secretaries office!
One of Richiebee\'s long time race track buddies an assistant trainer spent some time with us when Richie was here was putting in claims daily for new owners and coming back saying he lost a 4 or 5 way shake. David Jacobson has been claiming 2-3 a day, the Rice\'s Linda and the neophyte\'s Kevin and Adam, Mike Maker, Joe Sharp and Steve Assmussen have all been very active.
The Spa has always been a place for the big outfits to get rid of their non stakes performers finding willing takers with an eye on easier down state spots or taking them back to the mid-west or mid-Atlantic circuits.
The Parx Fall Festival and 20 million in purse distribution has taken this to a whole new level. It seems to be no great secret that David Jacobson is planning an all out assault on the Philly casino\'s promotion where 20K stock will be racing for 50K purses.
The Martin Panza condition books have seemed to go back in time and revive actual claiming prices as opposed to the helter skelter conditions of the NY bred turf sprints his predecessor was so found of and punters hated!
All this leads to today\'s dart throwing:
4th:
Jason Servis is 40% first off the claim, draws the rail for Irad and Concealedwithakiss is partly owned by the Plesa\'s, she won a maiden 30 and a small stake last year, a 40B claimer at the shore, they can lose her for 25 here and take home a 30K pot for winning. A win bet with Rosario gunning from the outside and an exacta box.
5th:
Enchanted River @ 8/1 ML for Brad Cox 25% of the claim, Cox has spotted his stock well at this meet and just about all have been competitive. A fresh ouchie with competitive back numbers is always dangerous at this meet.
8th:
Ziggy the Great @ 20/1 ML may have you say Frank D. has lost it!
Carlos Figueroa was basically put out of business by Suffolk closing. He did ok there over the years and had his 15 minutes of fame back in the 90\'s when Bill Finley was doing his exposes on the NE fair circuit. Carlos was dubbed the king of the fairs. He routinely bought horses for $500 off the farm or was given a broken down plug by someone, they ran and won around the bull rings of Great Barrington, Northampton and Marshfield.
A certain deceased Boston investment banker who had a summer home up here was Carlos\'s main squeeze back in the day and trust me this gentlemen BET and not just horses!!!!
They had a 1st time starter running at Belmont one day, well prepped and 15/1 ML. The owner had a heart attack and ended up at Ellis Hospital in Schenectady as the doctors were stabilizing him he pulled an envelope out of his pocket with 5K in it and asked if anyone in the ER bet horses. One of the nurses chimed in my husband goes to OTB everyday, he handed her the envelope and an additional $200 for her husband to make a bet on his firster. He survived the heart attack and lived 20 more years the firster ran off the board.
This one is slow but has a win over the Spa course, Carlos has been claiming a few lately and is up here for the meet. This one might pay the rent!!!
RIP JB, This one has you written all over it.
Frank D.
\"The Parx Fall Festival and 20 million in purse distribution has taken this to a whole new level. It seems to be no great secret that David Jacobson is planning an all out assault on the Philly casino\'s promotion where 20K stock will be racing for 50K purses\'
Frank,
NYRA sent written notice to horsemen warning that shipping out (to Parx I\'d guess)could lead to NYRA refusing to allow those shippers back in.Hear several prominent claiming owners told Panza to go \"f\" himself.
...interesting days ahead.
Mike