Winter Racing at the Big A

[richiebee]

This from a DRF article about Gary Gullo, who is having an outstanding Inner
Course meet this Winter.

\"Gullo said having a viable winter product in New York is important to not just
him, but also his brethren who try to make a living year-round here. Though
none of his horses have suffered injuries, Gullo believes there is an issue
with the racetrack, and it needs to be addressed.

\'I think they should have winter racing. I think they need to get the racetrack
straightened out -- that\'s just my opinion\' [Gullo] said. \'I think once this
racetrack is straightened out, [NYRA] can recruit trainers. They need to
step up and try to entice the right people to come here and race their
horses and I think you will have better quality racing.\'\" (emphasis mine)

I think I have posted on this topic once each winter for the last couple of
winters. I brought up the notion of the importance of bringing in new blood for
winter racing to PJ \"Turf Sprints\" Campo at a NYRA town hall meeting held a
couple of years ago.

Because of the recent spate of catastrophic breakdowns on the IDT, the crash
dummies at NYRA initiated some regulations aimed at reducing the equine
mortality rate. The 14 day rule has been widely discussed and almost
universally criticized, although, to be fair, I think four of the 13 afternoon
catastrophic breakdowns were suffered by horses who were coming back on less
than 14 days rest.

The rule that piqued my interest concerns what I call the \"25/53\" rule. This
rule says that runners beaten 25 lengths or more must come back and work faster
than 53 seconds for a half mile before they can be re-entered at NYRA. Some
observations:

(a)Horses can get beat by more than 25 lengths for any number of reasons.

(b)Almost any thoroughbred can work faster than 53 seconds for a half mile. If
they can not work that fast, they should probably have \"Lobell\" or \"Hanover\"
somewhere in their name.

Even if the numbers are seemingly arbitrary, what piqued my interest is that
someone in administration or management is looking at the quality of horseflesh
and trying to weed out the non- competitive horses. (Just as an aside, horses
who are consistently beaten 20+ lengths are probably not going to injure
themselves badly because they are not extending themselves in any way.)

Someone in the Racing Office needs to be tasked with identifying horses who are
repeatedly entered in NYRA races, have consistently not performed well, and
probably will never be competitive at NYRA tracks. Once these horses are
identified, they need to be removed from the backside. They need to be replaced
with horses who can fill the kind of races that both the Whales and the Minnows
will bet on. This will be bad for trainers who never mind collecting day money
($90 - 100 per day now, from what I\'ve heard) no matter how fast a horse can
run, but in the end better for the owners of these horses (who will be forced
to enter these not NYRA - worthy horses somewhere where they are competitive).

I thought when Panza replaced Campo there would be new faces in the barn area;
not so much that Panza would bring barns from California, but rather that
Campo, who had lifelong connections with many NYRA trainers, was gone and that
some non performing trainers who had stalls only through PJ\'s good graces would
no longer be welcome.

The whole notion of recruiting trainers is very viable (to me) now, given
uncertainty in both Massachusetts and Virginia, and to a lesser extent, New
Jersey. (In a recent quote, Dennis Drazin mentioned (a) the Monmouth group
might be interested in purchasing Atlantic City Race Course and (b) Monmouth
Park operated at a significant loss in 2014). These are potential sources of
replacement horses. If Panza was able to clear some of the dead weight off the
backstretch, the non competitive horses, the infrequently entered horses, the
four and five year old unraced maidens, there would be room for some new
shooters, some of whom would only be coming in for the winter racing months,
others who might fit the year round NYRA program.

Gullo mentioned \"recruiting\". That means offering enticements and incentives.
In the early 1980s, Fair Grounds paid Doc Harthill $100K each winter to use his
connections to bring out - of - state trainers down to New Orleans. One of the
big trainers Harthill recruited was Bud Delp, who had a barn full of stakes
runners and a string of well bred young horses for Windfields Farm. Allegedly,
part of the enticement to Delp by Harthill was that Harthill would rent a house
for Bud\'s son Gerald, Ronnie Franklin and some of Delp\'s exercise riders. The
house became known for wild parties and might I observe from the couple times I
stumbled by, this place made \"Delta House\" look like a Christian Science
Reading Room (and that was on weeknights).

No NYRA post from me would would be complete without noting that the key to any
future success for NYRA, an important factor in the return of NYRA as a home of
quality year round racing, is the curtailment or modification of the NYB
restricted racing program.

Bullet Points

1) Identify runners who are not and will not be competitive at NYRA tracks.

2) Identify runners from other circuits (ie Mass, Va, NJ, Canada (for trainers
who want to race in Winter but can not/do not want to go South for Winter))
which might fit an improved winter racing program.

3) Remove non- competitive runners from NYRA.

4) Recruit, entice and incentivize the new shooters from other circuits to
participate in winter racing.

[miff]

NYRA winter racing product horrific,many races and whole cards unplayable.Huge number of stalwart players not gambling much there. Will be interesting to see NYRA winter handle after allowing for cancellations.

Gullo\'s comments on breakdowns re Aqu inner surface substantially refuted by Dr.Mick Peterson who believes unsoundness to be main culprit, not the surface. Trainers did not like that and made a suckers holler to bring in \"another\" surface expert notwithstanding Dr. Mick by far the leader in the field.

NYRA/trainers under pressure from Cuomo appointees at NYSGC and Dr.Scott Palmer, Chief NY racing \"vet\", re breakdowns.NYRA/trainers shake when NYSGC/Palmer involved as they hold huge power/credibility with Cuomo who will clean house at NYRA in a heart beat if he loses political capital over breakdowns.That could include abandoning/curtailing NYRA winter racing.

Could go on but, the short is it\'s NOT all about the horses that much, that\'s just public relations, its mainly about the money. Greedy trainers, small outfits trying to survive with garbage winter stock, NYRA management trying to hang on to their jobs.