7/19 (PHA): Inaugural Greenwood Cup ($250k)
 

8th (3:22) Greenwood Cup S.

1 1/2 Miles | Open | 3 Year Olds And Up Stakes | Purse: $250,000

1 Barcola Carmouche K 122 L
2 Bureaucratic Bridgmohan S X 114 L
3 Three in the Bag Pino M G 117 L
4 Solemn Promise Carmouche K 114 L
5 Phil the Power Black A S 114 L
6 Evening Attire Espinoza J L 114 L

Good luck, Attire. :)

6 horses? That's a poor entertainment product. Doesn't this money come from the juice that the players have to pay? We don't want this 6 horse field bullshit.When will they finally get that through their stubborn heads? Are they this out of touch with the people paying for this? I shouldn't have to even write this. I don't get it. What do we have to do to wake these idiots up? Don't want that ****.

It's an inaugural race designed as part of the BC Dirt 'Marathon' Series and was only conceived and added to the schedule about 6 weeks ago. Tough for trainers to plan for this 'spot' in that scenario. Sal Sinatra was actually lucky to get the six. It looked like 5 a day before he took entries.

Short fields for dirt stakes is a common facet of the game these days, even in races at shorter distances. How many ran in the Mother Goose? (4) How many in the Jersey Shore? (6) How many in the Triple Bend? (6). Don't see how you can beat up on this race for a short field and not on those others.

Don't run races unless it's good entertainment. If you give out money for beating very few horses, then you can't expect people to be attracted to a boring sport. Customers don't like to have to wait a long time for their food, and they shouldn't have to wait 45 minutes for this stupid 6 horse race to be done. Give us a 8-12 horse allowance race. We are paying these purses, and it's about time they think about putting on a competitive event. Don't be giving out 250k for an event the majority of fans don't find appealing. The point you made has to do with making management, owners, and trainers happy. So, don't ever be surprised that we don't have the fan support they have in Japan or Hong Kong. In no way shape or manor is the same effort made to give the fans the same entertainment value as they give their fans. Most of us want nothing to do with the 4-betting-interest race today, or the 6 horse race today. I have no idea why they think fans give a crap about these situations. Most of us despise them for allowing people to get paid our money this easily. All we ask is full competitive fields. You could run 6 races a day, but make them competitive races with 8-12 horses. All of them(No exceptions.) How many times we gotta tell people this? It's important. It needs to be a friggin' top priority. They are too busy looking out for other people's interests. You wonder why people don't go to the track? It's pretty obvious they gotta stay home to piece together some way to get competitive entertainment value. Single tracks just can't get it done.

While I agree that racing has not adapted well to the fact that its primary competition are other gambling venues, comments like this neglect the fact that racing is not solely a gambling enterprise. There are days/races where the sport should be appreciated; one of my favorite races of all time was the 1994 Travers (Holy Bull has cause for Concern), but it was not a good betting affair.

Furthermore, there are many conditions at the track where they simply don't have enough horses to fill races with the "big" fields you want; refuse to write those races or not let them go with only 6 or 7 entrants, and you will be putting a lot of owners out of business.

I played....
 

Phil The Power when he won at Momnmouth, maybe he can do it again stepping up, with Tony Black up.:)

You are a 100% correct.
It is a crying shame to see a Grade I 10 furlong race with 4 entries. 10 furlong GradeI's are the highlight of American classic distance dirt racing.
4 horses, 6horses for a Stakes race SUCKS.

For some reason fans give ownership a million EXCUSES. The truth is that ownership is doing a lousy job. Don't make excuses for them. It's a lie that they can't roundup allowance level horses to at least get the number of entries up to 8. They just are not good at rounding up extra horses for these events. They aren't good at it. They do not set it as a priority.
The big owners are HAPPY with some easy grade I's.
I don't want to hear how hard it is to get hroses to run for a hundred thousand dollars.

Plain and simple the ownership sucks at rounding up extra allowance horses to fill out these cards. They do not understand the importance of at least 8 horses.

What is the basis for saying this, and what exactly do you propose is the solution to the problem?? There are many things that go into this. Some examples are too many tracks running at the same time; and in this era of the high-profile, mega-stables with outfits in numerous jurisdictions, there just aren't that many allowance horses to go around in each jurisdiction (but the racing industry as a whole can't limit the number of horses of trainers has, even if, as I believe, it would be a good thing that would likely increase field size).

It's hard to say that the tracks don't get it. Look at what NYRA just did with purse supplements for added betting interests in distance races. Maryland has tried "full field" supplements. Almost every track is focused on average field size.

I usually read the comments about how we have too many state-bred races, but aren't they the ones with full fields. Do the tracks always do a "perfect" job at writing a card? No, but the fact is that the tracks can't win no matter what they do: either have full fields with cheaper horses, and people complain about the quality of the racing, or card higher level races with smaller fields, and then people complain about the number of betting interests.

They need to have fewer races....Period. Fewer races,but good races. Don't be giving anybody money for beating 3-5 horses. That needs to simply stop. Don't have the race. Have fewer stakes races. Give the money to alowance horses who are willing to run in big fields. Increase their purses, and forget about catering to the stakes horses with 4-6 horse betting interests. If somebody else was paying these purses, then fine, but the bettors are paying it. You get that? The gamblers are paying for these purses, and for the most part, we hate these short fields. All we read on here is how the Gov't is inefficient etc. They pay Gov't workers too much for too little work etc. Well, what do you think about giving out 250k for competing against just 3-5 horses? ....GOV'T RACING?....They think they can do with the fans money as they see fit, but we hate them for running these short fields. I want these suits to know I despise them for giving out 200k-300k for competing against 3-5 horses. There is no excuse for giving Bobby Frankel 20k (his part) for beating 3-4 horses. It's asanine. Make them compete,or don't give them the money. This is bullshit. Give the money to allowance horses in full fields.

Hire Scuds

that was cool, Evening Attire in a romp.

Awsome Performance by the old gray guy!!!!!!!!!:D :D He actually broke pretty well today also. Congrats to his connections!!

great horse and good ride by t black for 2nd

Old guys rule! :cool: :tro: :{>:

Congrats to Mr. Evening Attire, Esquire, and his connections.

FANTASTIC!!!! Congrats to the connections.. What a warrior!!!

Woo-Hoo! The Old Man finally gets the sort of distance he needs and shows them how its done! And he came out of the gate with his field!

Congrats 'Norfolk'.. Attire with 12f NTR.. Cup berth..
 

Congrats to DTer 'Norfolk' (Joe Grant), wife Mary, partner and Hall of Fame trainer T.J. Kelly, trainer Pat Kelly and the whole team on Evening Attire's huge effort today earning a BC Dirt Marathon berth and setting a PHA track record for 12f in winning the first Greenwood Cup... Unbelievable! And to Jose Espinoza on a superb ride!

Also to John Perrotta on Phil the Power's excellent 2nd!

He got......
 

Away pretty good for him, didn't sleepwalk out of the gate as usual! It's a great win, I caught half the exacta with Phil The Power 2nd at 30-1!:D

Many congratulations Joe and all connections, excellent run!!!
Very exciting, got all my dogs barking as I cheered him home!!
I just love that old gray boy!!!!!!
He looked great!

:tro: :tro: :tro: :tro:

EDIT: Apparently I'm an idiot that can't add a sig, but that's Evening Attire at Belmont after the Brooklyn looking just great, he's a really cool horse.

Congratulations!

Thrilled for you all and for your grand old gentleman. :)

Great race! Congrats on winning AND the BC berth...wow.
He actually broke..um..."well"..

A spectacular performance. That 12F distance suits EA. He can get into his stride and then has time to turn it on when it counts.

Way to go EA and all his connections!!! Awesome stuff. :tro:

FTFY...:)
Yahoooooo Evening Attire.
:{>: :{>: :{>:

Congrats from here as well. He ran a great race, and it was a kick to see him closing up the rail!

Some have said that the BC Marathon will simply involve a bunch of mediocre horses . . . I don't see it that way. They'll be horses who are good at doing a long route! And isn't that what everybody's complaining we don't have any more?

It is refreshing to see a race set up without the intense explosion out of the gate that shorter distances require. At 12F the field does not run away from EA right out of the gate because they are pacing themselves for the longer test.

edit: good catch cmorioles. 12 F it is.

It is 12f, not 10.

Way to go EA:D glad I made the trip to see him run in person

congrats, huge win!!!

You must be very excited.

Super horse!

Spyder

Congrats to all the connections...great to see Evening Attire in the winner's circle and setting a track record along the way.

Totally nuts that they let Phil the Power go off at 30-1...

GREAT JOB !! CONGRATS!:tro:

That was maybe the most excited I've gotten over a race in months (and I hit the 60 minute 6 today.) WHAT A PERFORMANCE BY EA!!!!!!!!!!!

Nice hit Phil. Congrats.

I can't tell you how stoked I was for EA and the connections. Was watching at Keeneland and halfway through the race the entire place starting screaming for EA. I'd venture to guess less than 10% of the joint actually bet the race so it's simply for the sport of it.

EA in the Breeders Cup Marathon will be a lot of fun, even if the poly isn't necessarily to his liking.

Thanks, a little extra change for Saratoga next week. Thought it was a much tougher sequence than it turned out to be. We'll definitely play that wager up at the Spa, I love it... but I honestly was more excited about Evening Attire, and I seriously only had $25 to win on him.

CONGRATS!