Churchill has the greeters too, Which may appeal to new fans but to me it\'s just a person that they could dedicate to a more needed area.  

Tomorrow West Viginia visits Louisville in college football at 12:00 noon.   The stadium is a 10 minute walk from Churchill Downs.  You would think that CD would want to garner some of the overflow of the 50K fans there for football by moving their post time back.  Wrong.   They keep their post-time at 12:45 and by the time the game is over so is half of CD\'s card.  

They had the same scenario last weekend, noon football game at the stadium, CD running their regular card.   They get maybe a hundred or so fans that did both, myself included.   Just another example of one of the suppossedly bell-weathers of the sport missing an oppurtunity to generate more business.

Yep, the Undercover Boss for CDI struck me as someone who had never made a bet in his life and didn\'t know one end of a horse from the other.  It ain\'t rocket science.

.....so I go to the track today, CD that is.

Smallish crowd since it\'s cold and damp, meet a friend at an inside seating area that is packed, it is in their 2nd floor bar/simulcasting seating area, they have about 4 waitresses waiting on probably 50 tables.   Classic CD

Light on cash so I go to their Twinspires window for a withdrawal from my account.  Man serving the desk enters my info but it will not accept either my new password or old 4 digit PIN in order to make a withdrawal, he says to call Twinspires.   Classic CD

My friend likes to watch the races live so we try to go outside at post time and up to a viewing area, get stopped by a lady working the door since we don\'t have \"stickers.\"  Go to the TS desk to get some comp stickers with my card....they are out.  Classic CD

Finally get outside after explaining to the door people that they are out of stickers.   While watching a race outside notice row after row of box seats empty.  Seats that include Bet Pro machines (machines that allow you to bet and watch all races from your seat) that are usually in their main simulcasting area and always used by the regulars.  Probably 60 to 80 of them that are not being used that would be if only moved inside.  Classic CD

Later my friend orders a beer and after about a 20 minute wait the waitress returns and promptly spills it all over him and his DRF.   She apologizs and starts wiping up the spill saying she will go get him another form.  She goes to the program stand but they will not give her one because they need know who to \"charge it\" to, she sends another guy over and he returns with the \"short\" form with only CD, AQU and CRC in it, instead of the one my friend had spent the day handicapping with tracks like Hawthorne and Woodbine included.  Classic CD

I could go on forever...

TwinSpires is owned by CDI (Churchill Downs, Inc.) so they will always understaff as oppossed to overstaff when the situation presents itself.   I too am a long time user transfrerred over from AmericaTab a number of years ago.   Still the best company I have used.

I knew they were changing some things around but had heard that a lot depended on how long you had been a customer and that not everyone would need to change their login and password info so I waited until they actually would not take my login.   Mistake!

Tried to login one day last week and was locked out, tried calling a bet in instead and waited for two minutes and got shutout, on a winner of course.   Called their customer service and got a message they were not taking calls due to the high volume.   Tried e-mailing and got a \"canned\" reply that they would get back with me within 24 hours.  Finally called again and, after waiting 45 minutes, was put through to evidently only one of a handful of people in their customer service.  They resolved the issue fairly quickly.

Overall, like others have said, TS has been good to use but have been shutout by their lack of understaffing, or just incompetence (see Big Brown Derby when their servers went down), more than once.  

I live in Louisville but will spare you my other comments on Churchill Downs and how they run a racetrack/simulcasting center.  Let\'s just say it\'s not just the casinos that are killing their business.

Boscar Obarra Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
>  Not much different than horses being sent to post
> with zero intention of trying, which happens each
> and every day. But we accept that because it\'s not
> broadcast on ESPN.


True many horses are sent to the gate without, what I would rather call, no chance of winning.   Maybe Life at Ten was a notorious poor warm-up horse that only got going once the bell rang.   Wouldn\'t be the first time a horse ran good when the jockey felt it wasn\'t giving them that sign beforehand.

What if Johnny V had said what he said and the horse, did \"wake up\", did run well, and win?   Just curious what the attitude of the betting public would have been then.   He was in a no win situation imo once his comments were made to Bailey.

imo, the rail on the turf was dead as well, or at least less advantageous than the outer paths on the course.   Winter Memories, Midday and Behkabad all found themselves on inner lanes turning for home inside other horses and all got beat to the wire.   Evidently Garrett Gomez was the only jockey who knew that the crown of the track was the best part of it.

Can\'t explain Shared Account though, except for maybe the soft pace.   I wouldn\'t discount her performance for saving ground though.

Congrats to TG as well for yesterday\'s 6th.  Ex and Tri with a 3 horse box.  

Payoffs were about half what they figured to be so I take it plenty of TG\'ers got well on that one too.

Schrupp not only has to talk more than anyone else, he also has to be louder than everyone else.  Had a talbe beside him at Keeneland one-time, what an obnoxious bore.

Given the history and circumstances just about every jockey has reacted the same way when on a stalking/closing favorite in the Belmont.  I\'m sure Stewart Elliott, and more so Kent Desormeaux, had ridden hundreds of times at Belmont, but it didn\'t prevent them from the same tactical error.

To say someone would have ridden him different also says they would have been willing to risk coming back to Woolley and saying \"sorry boss, I moved too late\", and on a one run, even money favorite that ain\'t happening.

Not the first time in the Belmont that we\'ve seen a beaten favorite take the path of least resistance.  You could have put any NY based jockey on Mine That Bird and he would have had basically an identical trip/ride.  

Speed and rail were good on the dirt Belmont day, unfortunately Borel was able to skim it as much as he does at Churchill.

Wonder what the Betfair odds were on Flying Private or Nowhere to Hide who both went off lower than Mine That Bird, and both who had no business in the Derby either, at least on paper?

Fact of the matter is that there is ton of casual money bet on the Derby, favorite numbers, favorite jockeys, favorite colors, you name it.  I heard one guy say he bet the 8 because of the late Mark \"The Bird\" Fidrytch.

Kent D. rode HMB like he was FuPeg, Big Brown or Real Quiet, which of course he isn\'t.  Those Derby winners all had tactical speed, something HMB doesn\'t have, at least not yet.  He should have been coming from where the winner did.

Most of his previous races he\'s always been put close to or right on the pace.  Watching his Sunland races he has a nice 1/2 mile to 3/4 mile run in him in both  and tires late, but was fairly game in both efforts.  

* Jerry mentioned a new top in his future.
* Borel riding moved him up a copule of extra points immeadiately with the rail skimming ride.
* A change of tactics in his running style, with the same 1/2 mile run that he had previously shown.

Yeah it was possible....I think.

Wasn\'t at the track but I live in Louisville.  The weather was spotty all day, rain, sun and wind.  Repeat.   Doubt they added anything to the surface, just a good maintenance crew and some wind can change Churchill\'s oval more quickly than any traditional dirt track in the country.

The moisture does tend to tighten the track up a bit and speed and the insidie are advantageous.

sekrah Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I saw a Breen quote where he said
> nobody came from behind and did any better than
> 4th that day.
>
> He ran the final 3f in 38.4 in that one.  He ran
> the final 3f in the Wood in 36.1.

Breen is right.  The only other two turn dirt route that day was the Donn and they crawled home in that one too, last 1/8th in 13 3/5.  Interesting that three horses in the Donn were eased in the stretch run of that race.