Racing Wants Fans

[Fairmount1]

After a 3-day Saratoga adventure, I took a 5 mile jog upon the return home first hour off the plane.  On a digital billboard here in STL, there was a Cardinals sign that said \"Baseball is Our Love Language\" with a couple dressed in Cardinals gear with a red background and logo, etc.  As a CUBS fan, this is hilarious as STL and the Cardinals fans are not having a great relationship.  

This is who racing wants coming to the track.  FANS.   $18 cocktail drinking fans willing to blow a couple hundred bucks or even just a few twenties at the gambling window.  They have absolutely zero and I mean ZERO concern for the retail gamblers.  They want casual, tourist dollars that will chalk up a loss to bad luck.  They have no concern for retail gamblers that seek to intellectually pursue predicting the outcome of the races, gambling on it with their hard dollars in attempting to make a profit, win a tournament with cash prizes or even be a student of the game.  

If I was that bad at ANY job I\'ve had since age 13 or so, I would have lost my job immediately.  Not in racing.  The starter probably got a raise this morning.  Isn\'t he a new guy from Churchill?  How about those Stewards?  Maybe we can give them a commission-based salary based on how well the CRW\'s do as they run the serious gamblers off?  

Ironically, while they HATE the retail gambler, they adore the CRW teams trying to beat the game.  

I could go on and on.  But long story short, they must absolutely despise the retail gamblers based on what I saw the past few days and what is going on behind the scenes for The Elite CRW(s).  That\'s a touch repetitive from above but I\'m being careful to not say more than I was asked to share.  

At least the Stewards apologized.  That\'s a nice gesture.  Way to go NYRA.

[shanahan]

Richie - could not agree with you more, on all fronts.  If one of the most prestigious tracks in the racing world can\'t be in front of an aggregious oversight (duh-  how long is the race again?), what to make of the \"others\", where it MAY be overlooked (insert local track here) & chalked up to a mistake.  
Hell, in CA they would just back all 4 horses out of the gate and reposition the gate (get the dig here?).  Take 2 mins.
I\'m hearing your comment regarding my hometown and the Cardinals & the fans all too often in the last month.  This is very hard to understand and I can\'t even begin to make an analogy.  I\'m getting back up there in September for 2 games for personal observaton.  But when you allow your city to go to hell, who wants to be downtown?  I used to tell people I\'d been to STL and done all the cultural things - both a day and a night game!  It\'s sad to watch from afar.  It\'s close to becoming DC...
You are dead on regarding the retail gamblers (investors is my personal description).
Thanks for posting.

[Fairmount1]

As much as I \"hate\" the Cardinals since childhood being a CUBS fan in Missouri, I have told all the folks around me that this is pretty awful for the St. Louis Metro area.  

Speaking of cities going downhill a shooting near Pimlico overnight.  Preakness going to be just awesome in 2027 or 2028.  Sheesh...