I have been the trackman at Penn and Mountaineer (winter)  for the past few years and each year - consistantly - my income is cut due to track cancellations. I would much rather plan on a few weeks of no income and take a well deserved vacation than to endure track managments futile carding of races at these tracks in December when most cards are cancelled anyway. Makes more sense to run 5 days a week and shut down during December, at Penn at least. They have not run a complete month of December racing in ages. Anyone care to chime in?

Easy Goer:

[size=20]Track Management May Have No Comment,[/size]

but EZ thinks they\'ve got you by the short hairs.

spa: It\'s nice to have a little money to pay the help.....everybody can\'t be a snow bird.

MO: Ain\'t about getting to Florida - I\'m there with my band for 6 dates Jan thru April!! It\'s just that in the past 4 years, 50 % of the racing dates from Dec thru Feb have been cancelled. These tracks run 4 days a week. It just makes more sense to shut down mid December thru mid Feb  and run 5 days the rest of the year. One good thing is that Penn has added something like 30 more days to the 2006 calender, perhaps in anticipation of 30 cancelled cards............LOL