Saratoga or DelMar...which is the better meet?

marcus · July 20, 2006, 12:51:08 AM

richiebee - everyone knows ny got the west coast beat by a mile . sure la is very nice , but there\'s no comparison to ny .
i\'ve noticed that alot of people who can\'t handle ny seem to either have some kind of issue\'s or don\'t like crowds .

though i won\'t be to hasty to write california off the way some jokers have taken a nit wit view of ny , becouse if i were the racing zar ,
i\'d change the \" triple crown \" to \" thoroughbred championship \" and add a 4th race to the tc crown series at dmr @ 7/8\'s on turf and when the horse\'s come out on to the track they can play \" uncle johns band \" by the gratefull dead on the public address system - if you catch my drift ...

NoCarolinaTony · July 20, 2006, 07:52:07 AM

Richie...

May the patience of 100 Monks be with you (once said to me by a Jesuit up on Rose Hill).

No way in Hell is the Aqueduct Crowd \"the representation\" of the Saratoga Crowd.

Lets give the Del Mar vs SPA gig a rest. The both have their strong points which far out wiegh their weaknesses,and both meets are best of their respective circuits, which are the best our country has to offer. The topic is rather passe\'.

NC Tony

NoCarolinaTony · July 20, 2006, 07:54:13 AM

Hope to See you there.

Opening Weekend and Closing Week!!

NC Tony

richiebee · July 20, 2006, 09:28:14 AM

NCT:

So far my only commitment is for 3 weekdays, Aug 9- 10- 11.

Can not believe its almost 25 years since 1982, the year I had perfect attendance at the Spa (only 28 racing days then). I was working as a night watchman for a Kentucky trainer who trained for a man who was tired of never getting stalls from NYRA, so he built a brand new private barn about two blocks outside the gate near the 7/8s pole.

In 1982, there were a lot of weather cancellations downstate, and they raced for 28 consecutive days at Saratoga. (Thats how sacred the 4 week Spa format was then, they would have never considered making up the lost days by adding a week in July or September). The racing highlight of the meet was a Travers which featured three separate Triple Crown race winners (Gato del Sol, Aloma\'s Ruler and Conquistador Cielo, all left in the wake of longshot Runaway Groom).

The trainer I worked for was known for braiding his animals\' tails and manes on race day and putting pom poms in the animals\' manes. I think he had about 30 starts with 1 or 2 on the board finishes. Steve Crist profiled the trainer in a NY Times article he titled \"Beautiful Losers\". As I recall, a lot of the \"Beautiful Losers\" returned to Keeneland and Churchill in the fall and won at a price off the very poor Spa form.

marcus · July 20, 2006, 11:03:24 AM

\" monks \" and \" patience \" in the same sentence - ? but i get your point nct , the subject is one of the least anticipated topic\'s of disscussion on the tg board . good luck at sar ...

MO · July 20, 2006, 06:21:38 PM

You are dealing with the many of the same employees. They pack up and ship up there and get a stipend to offset the rediculous rent. Sure Saratoga draws bigger crowds and obviously the full Aqueduct crowd can\'t afford to ship up there every day, but a lot of them do. Just get on line at the windows and watch what happens 2 minutes to post time.

It has been my experience living in 3 states and performing in 15 states that the \"New Yorker\" and his attitude is despised everywhere west of the Hudson (which is, BTW, one reason why NY got stiffed on federal terrorism funding.) And while some of that is sheer prejudice, guys like Richiebee are the example I refer to. He never apologised to me. He insulted me and my aunt. He\'s an arrogant bully and when he meets his match he crawls back into his hole with comments like \"I\'ll never open a post by MO again\". How much you wanna bet he opens this one?

Del Mar, on the other hand has a totally different crowd and attitude. Many more novice handicappers there. Any New Yorker will tell you so, because New York \"has the greatest handicappers in the country\".

Personally, I like visiting both places. I am from New York, but I would never live in either state anymore. The cost of living is way to high.

BitPlayer · July 20, 2006, 06:46:12 PM

MO -

In the interest of clearing the air, I\'d like to confirm that, as he says, Richiebee did apologize to you. I\'ve always enjoyed his posts, and I remember that his personal attack on you struck me as unusual. I later saw the apology when he posted it. The following is cut and pasted from a post of his dated May 1:

\"I prefaced the post by relating that I was listening to George Harrison at the time I was posting. Frequent poster MO seemed to be searching for some connection between Jazil and GH; there was none. When MO questioned me about the post, I unleashed an uncharacteristic personal attack, which I now apologize for.\"

NoCarolinaTony · July 20, 2006, 07:06:57 PM

MO

WHO Cares?

NC Tony

gowand · July 20, 2006, 07:21:05 PM

I will be at Saratoga wed.-fri. and DelMar Sunday. I am looking for better racing at the Spa and better sights at DelMar. I expect the amount of money I have when I leave these places will have a lot to do with how I feel about them.

P-Dub · July 20, 2006, 07:29:25 PM

gowand Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I will be at Saratoga wed.-fri. and DelMar Sunday.
> I am looking for better racing at the Spa and
> better sights at DelMar. I expect the amount of
> money I have when I leave these places will have a
> lot to do with how I feel about them.

Believe me, you\'ll LOVE the sights.

MO · July 20, 2006, 07:49:40 PM

I searched for his apology and could not find it. I stand corrected.

richiebee · July 20, 2006, 08:04:36 PM

Bit:

I appreciate your kind words and your attempt at clearing the air.

One time I\'ll have to ask MO how he plays the bugle with his foot in his mouth.

MO · July 20, 2006, 09:26:36 PM

Horribly, but you just proved me correct twice if not thrice with your post. I\'ll play poker with you any time! (BIG SMILEY FACE HERE)

Have a great Saratoga!

Michael D. · July 21, 2006, 04:45:30 PM

might be the year to travel to del mar.

campo decimated ny spring/summer racing with all the state bred and claiming races.

...

opening day card looks decent though. three state breds (but one of them a decent stakes race), only one claimer, three maidens with a lot of promising youngsters, two very good allowance races, and an excellent 2 yr old stakes race. good start, but i worry that the weekday cards are going to be below par this year.