While I was away...

[jerry]

What happened to Monday racing at the spa?

[jerry]

Wow. Dark. It used to be such a special place.

[bluechip21]

Would you rather have been wagering at Belmont over the last weekend? There have been decent fields (after Friday that is) and decent handle, and many opportunities, especially for sheets players. Why the long face?

[jerry]

Actually, I’m not that aware of many betting opportunities as the field sizes have been small except for the maiden races and the presence of Chad B. which pretty much makes a race unplayable. I’m sure stretching the meet into July has been a boon for the local economy but, for what I had been used to up at Spa, the wagering opportunities pretty much suck.

[richiebee]

Simple math as to dark Monday’s: duration of meet extended due to construction at Belmont, number of racing days still 40. Query however whether dark Wednesdays might have been a better choice then dark Mondays?

Would the Diana have been a better race if the Racing Office had hustled in four tomato cans who had very little chance of even cracking into the gimmicks? While the all Chad trifecta was hard to monetize, the multiple race/horizontal sequences including the Diana were rather lucrative, even with the “free square” in feature.

Field size will never be what it was at the Spa, what with more spacing between races and the improvement of purse structures at Ellis, Woodbine and to a lesser extent Laurel. Harder to rationalize shipping/stabling at the Spa when there is money to be made close to home.

Fun fact: winner of Saturday’s 10th race, Ruler of the Nile, had been claimed six weeks ago for $8,000. In March of 2017, he sold at a 2YO in training sale for $1,000,000.

[jerry]

Question: Would wider spreads in the weight assignments make for larger fields? I’m perfectly happy wagering on tomato cans as long as it’s a competitive race with some value. NYRA can’t be happy with the Chad effect.

[jerry]

And using all 4 Chads in the Diana had to sap most of the value out of the horizontals. Mott’s horse had a chance on paper too.

[richiebee]

Bordering on redboarding here, but the Chads which ran 1-2 were Multiple Grade 1 winners, the rest of the field did not have a Gr 1 among them. As to the weights, the Gr 1 winners were spotting the other four 6-8 pounds.

I play horizontal wagers almost exclusively. If I can not go “skinny” in a least one leg, I skip the wager. The Diana, to me, looked like a great opportunity to go skinny, and I basically had the race wrong, not seeing Thais as a rabbit and thinking Sistercharlie might need a race.

Shorter fields, Bots, Chad Brown dominating NYRA turf, the shift away from handicap racing, PETAphiles .... all part of the current racing landscape, adjustments by horseplayers must be made.

[jbelfior]

Anyone else think the Motion horse runs second if not for Trevor McCarthy getting her stopped?

Good Luck,
Joe B

[jerry]

I’ll mostly leave PETA out of this. They have their say and a growing legion of supporters. Ignore them at your own peril.

As for the competitive nature of racing these days, a 6-8 pound weight shift just isn’t going to cut it. I’m asking for 10-15 pound weight shifts like in the olden day’s. That’ll bring G3 winners into the mix in G1s and allowance company into lower graded stakes races. Let’s face it, the best value these days isn’t found in G1 races anymore. Maybe G3s but I’ll take my stabs in two turn full field claimers on the turf first.

[jma11473]

jerry Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I’ll mostly leave PETA out of this. They have
> their say and a growing legion of supporters.
> Ignore them at your own peril.
>
> As for the competitive nature of racing these
> days, a 6-8 pound weight shift just isn’t going
> to cut it. I’m asking for 10-15 pound weight
> shifts like in the olden day’s. That’ll bring
> G3 winners into the mix in G1s and allowance
> company into lower graded stakes races. Let’s
> face it, the best value these days isn’t found
> in G1 races anymore. Maybe G3s but I’ll take my
> stabs in two turn full field claimers on the turf
> first.


This would make very little difference, because there\'s almost no weight allowance that is going to make this work. There just aren\'t enough horses being bred these days because it\'s not profitable to do so. The foal crop is under 20,000, and even with declining number of races each year, between the foal crop and horses running less frequently, few places can fill races with horses that don\'t exist.

[richiebee]

Olden Days:

The problem is on the lower end, I’m not sure there are many “naturally light” riders around today. But I do recall a rider named Daryl Montoya, who could tack 112 and as such picked up many low weighted mounts back when there was a large handicap weight spread. I also seem to recall Jose Amy (later banned 20 years for alleged race fixing) winning a handicap race with his mount carrying 108 pounds. Seems like today’s top NY riders can do no better than 118, and I am not sure how low NYRA’s other journeymen can go.

On the top end, with kinder and gentler racing the days of runners carrying Forego like weights, or anything near that, are likely long gone. Ok, I will not mention how animal rights folks could have so much fun with the medieval notion of adding lead to whatever weight a horse is asked to carry.

Also with regard to high weight, there seem to be more highly funded graded stakes opportunities at various tracks, so an owner or trainer has the option to “just say no” to an unfavorable weight assignment.

Recently(?), NYRA seems to have nudged the scale up a couple of pounds so that the top weight in overnight races is 125 or 124, where it used to be 122. For years H. Allen Jerkens was a vocal opponent of any adjustment of this sort (kind of surprising in that “The Chief” employed some legendary plus sized exercise riders).

[jerry]

Answer seems to be to book fewer races then.

[bluechip21]

Friday and Saturday’s p5 both paid out >8K. That’s not all that bad. 40 days is 40 days and I welcome that extra week or so, and I also welcome having a couple days off in between.

What’s wrong with something new? Seems like it’s always taking flack (not just here, generally speaking)? Just like the hate for the new 1863 club. I didn’t want to like it, really didn’t. And aside from the glass windows (a necessity), I don’t think it’s all that off taste.

[dglass2232]

That Michelle Nevin Horse almost got me out yesterday after being down significant money going into the last race. Paid almost $21 to win. That last fig at Parx towered over the entire field yesterday, even the odds on Weaver dropper.