Nobody does grim better than Paul Moran

[Boscar Obarra]

http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/horse/columns/story?columnist=moran_paul&id=5540282

[TGJB]

Moran\'s a good guy and in general knows what he\'s talking about. One night at Siro\'s he uttered the immortal line \"Racing without the DRF is the trotters\". Just before they half carried him out.

Having said that, I disagree with almost everything in this article. Taking NYRA (and Saratoga) out of the context of everything else that is going on in the industry is unfair. He thinks the extra week would be better used at Belmont in July? Or that having less races on Travers day would be a good idea because it would be... what?

\"Every time we say it\'s a business they say it\'s a game, every time we say it\'s a game they say it\'s a business\". (From \"North Dallas Forty\").

[covelj70]

I think this article is nonsense.

First of all, to talk about handle, etc being down without putting any context around that comment is just irresponsible.

The undisputed greatest sports league on earth, the NFL, has season ticket sales down this year for the 3rd year in a row by a few percent despite all of the new stadiums, etc around the league.

The NFL has no big structural problem with its product, it\'s just that, for now, consumers are spending a bit less on discretionary items which is a good thing considering that the saving rate was negative for the last few years before now.  That was unsustainable and the increase in the savings rate will effect horse racing and every other sport, even the NFL.

Are there things we can change about the game to make it better? Absolutely 100% for sure and experiements like the one at Monmouth are absolutely terrific to try different ways to make the game better.

However, to suggest that the Saratoga meet was anything less than spectacular is, in my opinion, totally off base and yet another example of bad writers pining for days in racing that didn\'t exist.  The media thinks it\'s job now is to criticize everything.  If today\'s media was writing about Secretariat in his triple crown run, all we would get from the media was how bad the competition was or how small the fields were, not how spectacular the horse was.  We just saw this with Quality Road in the Woodward.  We saw an awesome display of horse who likely ran another 2 or 3 negative which puts him in an elite category and all we read about the next day was that \"Quality Road has lost a step, etc\"  Total garbage.    

I was at the Spa meet for live racing for about 25% of the meet and played the card at least 75% of the meet and it was a great great product with terrific opportunities for those that know what they are doing.  The idea that the late pick 4\'s were \"unplayable\" is one of the dumbest things I have heard.  On Saturday, you could have played a 2x2x1x2 ticket and taking the 2 horses that had the fastest TG figs in 3 of the legs and singled quality road and you had a $2 pick 4 that paid $2400.  How is an $8 ticket that paid 300 to 1 unplayable?  I went deeper than that to get the pick 4 but my buddy that I was sitting with had that exact $8 ticket.....20x.  He wasn\'t thinking about how \"unplayable\" the pick 4 was on Sat night at Siros, I promise you.

Sorry for the rant but the media drives me nuts.

[FrankD.]

Great rant covel !

We all know that our industry is stale and behind the times.
Do we need more innovative meets like the Monmouth experiment along with some thinking outside the box to attract a younger audience ?
Do we need a stronger drug testing program to assure the game is above board ?
Do we need a decrease in the takeout and for NYRA in particular to work as one with the OTB\'s ?

We can go on and on with the negatives but we have a lot of positives going forward.
The Monmouth less = more equation should turn some heads and create a new methodology of scheduling racing dates.
The success of Churchill\'s Friday night lights is a great positive that drew a younger crowd. A prime time Kentucky Derby is a mere few years away.
All you had to do was be at the Spa for the 2 Fridays with 2:30 posts and see the difference in the crowd. It was younger and had a happy hour type atmosphere. You can argue that they come and don\'t bet but it gets newbies to the track.

I\'ve got news for Mr. Moran and the other Saratoga traditionalists. Were heading for a Fourth of July weekend until Labor Day meet down the road. Hopefully with a 3:00 post time every Friday and maybe running 4 programs a week for the first 4 or 5 weeks.

It still is the preeminent race meet in the world barring none. When is the last time you heard that some one from Minnesota or Chicago came to Belmont or Churchill for the weekend excluding a triple crown or BC event ?

[magicnight]

Could one of our Euro-savvy posters weigh in on how things have been in the UK and Ireland with their evening post times on Fridays? The way I understand it, in the late Spring and early Summer, they take advantage of the 10PM sunsets and have Friday evening cards at places like Newmarket and the Curragh. It sounds great. Anybody?

[Boscar Obarra]

You have to admit , if nothing else, the stuff about Trotter is pretty abysmal.

[TGJB]

Frank-- mostly agree. Bottom line, to quote what someone else said recently (who may very well have ben quoting me, since I\'ve been saying it for maybe 5 years), what\'s wrong with this industry is the people running it.

There are some moves afoot. Specifically, there are people who have come to realize it\'s a gambling industry, not a sport, and that the Kentucky breeders are completely ignorant and worse than useless, and should have no say in what goes on. They are on every freaking board of directors-- producers of product for an industry controlling the industry itself, the tail wagging the dog.

[banditbeau]

Covel - congrats on the scores. That would be nice to be in your buddies shoes.  Help me a bit with your analysis if you would though as I must have misread those sheets a bit?  You said to get the pick 4 only required the top 2 TG runners in each race and a single for Quality Road.  QR was a very clear single on number power no doubt.  But in the 8th, the $38 winner ranks no better than 4th behind the 11(top -3),2(top -5),and 7(top -4) horses. The winner is tied next with the 6 horse with a -6,(That -6 which occurred almost 2 years ago, makes it hard to believe a 6yo is going to come back to that top despite running in the 7 territory his last 2.  Clearly an horse with issues, even with a crafty, longshot trainer in Morrison).  In the 9th, by my read, the winner ranks behind Big Drama, and is then in a 4 way tie with roughly the same ability as the 1, 1A, and 2.  Same thing in the 11th - the 3 horse has run the fastest, followed by again 3 others at roughly the same ability around -11 (#\'s 6,8,10).  So while I could not agree more with your assessment of the meet, help me a bit with how you arrived at your conclusion of the \"top 2 TG runners plus QR\" for $8 wins the pick 4.  I can see how your ticket included many more than a 2x2x1x2 set of combo\'s.  In retrospect, I think the $2400 seems to be quite well earned with all the right calls made if it was with an $8 ticket.Thanks in advance for any insight.

BB

[P.Eckhart]

magicnight Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Could one of our Euro-savvy posters weigh in on
> how things have been in the UK and Ireland with
> their evening post times on Fridays? The way I
> understand it, in the late Spring and early
> Summer, they take advantage of the 10PM sunsets
> and have Friday evening cards at places like
> Newmarket and the Curragh. It sounds great.
> Anybody?


In the UK 2008, there were 916 flat racing cards. 364 of these were evening cards. Evening racing has been standard fare at most tracks for decades.

[covelj70]

BB,

Thanks so much for the message.

I promise to come back to you over the weekend with more detail on how I got to that statement.

2 things very quickly though.

First, my ticket was much much deeper than the 2x2x1x2.  My buddy had the lean ticket.  He\'s an absolutely freak of a handicapper (actually he\'s just kind of a freak but that\'s a story for another post..lol).  I don\'t even belong in the same sentence as him when we are talking about handicapping.  I wouldn\'t have believed that ticket if I hadn\'t seen it myself.

Second, to give you some idea how I think about things.  Here Comes Ben had the same numbers as all but one in the field but he was 10-1 and the others were much much lower.  To me, I throw out the others in that situation and just use him along with the faster horse.  So, I should have been alot more precise in my rant in terms of how I could come up with only using 2 in that race.  Sorry about that.

More to follow over the weekend.

Have a great one.

Second,

[Rick B.]

P.Eckhart Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> In the UK 2008, there were 916 flat racing cards.
> 364 of these were evening cards. Evening racing
> has been standard fare at most tracks for decades.

Music to my ears. I\'ve heard every reason in the world as to why t-breds must run during the day, and most every reason seems to be a mask for inertia (\"we\'ve always done it this way, we don\'t want to change\"). Yet, somehow, 10 - 15 t-bred tracks in North America conduct night racing on full or part-time basis, with no discernable ill effects.

More night racing? Bring it on!