Things That Make You Go Hmmmm (8)

re: Things That Make You Go Hmmmm (8)

Criminal Type — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 16:21:23 GMT

Philly, Horses break down everywhere. On dirt, on grass, on Polytrack/Tapeta. Santa Anita, Churchill, Pimlico, Penn, Delaware, Gulfstream. I could go on but you get the point.

Is it sad, even disgusting?? Hell yes, it is, but sadly, it happens. It is a terrible thing to see or read about. People have been trying for years to figure out a way to limit the number of catastrophic breakdowns in horse racing, without much success. A horses cannon bone is relatively the same density as concrete. Can you imagine the amount of stress it takes to actually break one? It must be incredible. I read somewhere that the weekend Barbaro was injured in the Preakness, 8 other horses broke down and where euthanized at different tracks around the country and no one ever heard anything about them. Whats your point ? How many horse's have raced on that downhill turf course at SA and not been injured?

re: Things That Make You Go Hmmmm (8)

philly — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 16:35:03 GMT

I am shocked and angry with the recent breakdowns at SA. Stakes, allowance, maidens, claimers, turf or dir. t... Who will step up and address these issues?When will they change that insane downhill course to eliminate crossing the main track? Can't count how many in the past few weeks "vanned off." Did they live or die?

re: Things That Make You Go Hmmmm (8)

trackjack — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 22:06:28 GMT

Any state that allows smoking at indoor events should be invited out of their caves and into the 21st Century.

I used to have to put up with it, but since Ohio entered the 21st Century, NEVER AGAIN will I go into a racetrack/simulcast area that allows smoking.

Darren J Fish,

You are right on and I hope someone is listening.

re: Things That Make You Go Hmmmm (8)

Greg — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 21:27:54 GMT

Back in the old days I went to a bookstore in Houston to buy a form for Delta Downs and they tacked on $2 extra. I asked the cashier if there is any other publication in the store that they sell for more than the printed price. He said 'If you can't afford it you shouldn't be betting on horses.' So I said 'well then why not charge a hundred dollars'? The clerk said nothing. This was 30 years ago. By the time we bought a form, gas, admission and parking we were about $25 in the hole without even making a bet.

re: Things That Make You Go Hmmmm (8)

Lava'sstilltheMan — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 16:09:22 GMT

DRF prices PP data very reasonably online. TwinSpires gives free Brisnet PPs if you use their betting platform. Data can be had at a moderate price if you go outside traditional "newspaper" format. Making me go hmmm... are the ongoing small field sizes and unreliably fast times in conjunction with higher takeout in CA. I used to play every weekend. No longer.

re: Things That Make You Go Hmmmm (8)

ESS128 — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 14:03:36 GMT

Back when Great Lakes Downs was open, they sold individual simulcast track programs for $1. Might be the best (only?) horseplayer-friendly thing I've ever witnessed at a Magna track.

re: Things That Make You Go Hmmmm (8)

The_Knight_Sky racing blog — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 06:07:16 GMT

palace place wrote: also calif. horsemen got their higher purses, now what?

___________

They get to inject more medication into the 2,400 horses so their owners get to watch them stand on four legs at Clocker's Corner. :(

Starting in January The Meadowlands racetrack raised the simulcast program from $3 to $4 and the live harness program from $1 to $2.

So in addition to my regular handicapping data, I am shelling out $8 minimum for my day/evening double-headers which include tracks that I have no interest in playing: Plainridge - Buffalo raceway - PARX - Louisiana Downs etc.

Yes - $8 bucks would buy how many bottles of Yuengling? Think about that for a minute. :P

It is colossal waste of paper and ink. Surely someone out there can offer an alternative such as single-track's race with bare-bones past performance data for a nominal 50 cents, can they not?

re: Things That Make You Go Hmmmm (8)

Fred — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 01:36:51 GMT

If the Industry would give the Past Performances away this would create thousands (tens) of new horseplayers.

re: Things That Make You Go Hmmmm (8)

Carl — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 01:00:02 GMT

Here's a topic I don't see being discussed anywhere: the Santa Anita dirt track!

many fans and writers lauded the return of a dirt surface to Santa Anita and west coast racing. Now we've got milk-wagon horses breaking track records every other day out there! Six furlongs in 1:06 and change. Freakin' Tapizar runs a :19 quarter and a :42 half!?! Are you freakin' kidding me?

My point is: where are the comments celebrating the great return to dirt on the west coast? Come on, don't be shy. Speak up. You got what you wanted. Oh wait: Tapizar did get injured in that race, so dirt racing is still safer, right? MAKES YOU WANT TO GO HMMMMMM!?

re: Things That Make You Go Hmmmm (8)

Jason Shandler — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 22:15:02 GMT

That guy selling the DRF program in Miami Beach for $8.95 should be fined, possibly jailed. That's absurd.

re: Things That Make You Go Hmmmm (8)

palaceplace — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 20:30:21 GMT

brilliant idea.

sell weed at the track.

will definitely increase ontrack attendance, not handle.

also calif. horsemen got their higher purses, now what?

re: Things That Make You Go Hmmmm (8)

Darren J Fish — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 19:11:15 GMT

I am waiting. Every problem that horse racing has has a marketing solution. Each track and every track must market to the locals to come out once or twice per year. If everyone came to the races annually there would be no problems. I have 39 years horse and people (marketing) skills. Bring the people in the doors and you will have a successful business. Like all business. Bring in and service the customer and the customer will bring the dollars.

How do you get the people to come??? I know how? I have a direct mail marketing plan as well as many many other marketing plans that will work at every single track racing horses today. We need 2011 marketing. I can be reached at 780-935-7257.

re: Things That Make You Go Hmmmm (8)

June Moon — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 17:45:21 GMT

I did hear some criticism of the Monmouth meet on TVG (Michelle Yu) about top jockeys not making enough money. MP will also not have as much "hush money" from Atlantic City to keep slots out of the tracks for purses. It may not only be in NJ but unfortunately we lead the list :(

re: Things That Make You Go Hmmmm (8)

needler in Virginia — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 17:42:45 GMT

Bill Daly, I AM a smoker, but the thought of an enclosed poker room filled with smoke puts me off, TOO! YUCK! I'm also a very small horseplayer (the horses aren't that small, but the budget IS) and hate what's happening at the tracks, as well.

PNG seems to be the worst at this moment, Gulfstream really stinks and no one seems to give a damn. If I remember my history correctly, states all over the country "RE- discovered" racing in the 30s when ANY way of making money sounded good. After the years of racing being "immoral", the income it produced suddenly became not so immoral after all. It seems to me (THAT and a buck will get you ............. whatever a buck gets you these days) that a way to offer entertainment, the chance for visitors to make an extra buck here and there, spend an afternoon in the April sunshine, see the most amazing equine AND human athletes around, and present an attractive alternative to video games would be a POPULAR idea rather than one that's being shuffled into a smoke-filled poker room.

SAD, SAD, SAD. I don't pretend to have the answers, but what's happening in racing literally breaks my heart..............

Cheers and safe trips.

re: Things That Make You Go Hmmmm (8)

Bill Daly — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 17:11:13 GMT

Any track that PNG owns outright or a piece of is living in austerity. I was at Charles Town the other day and they have the worst simulcast facility I've seen. Hardly any seating, no real separation from smokers, TV monitors that should have been replaced years ago, extremely cramped quarters including pathways from the seats to the mutuel windows that are more congested than I-495 at rush hour.

The second floor used to have a scattering of chairs and tables along with wagering machines. That has been replaced by a poker room. Not a fun experience for a non-smoking horseplayer.