FG cuts purses
 

http://www.drf.com/news/article/110369.html

Damn polytrack!

They should rip out their turf course and replace it with poly.

Can't decide whether to respond with a "Sharp Post", or "Are You High?":)

You won't get my money with that takeout

How is this possible, they have a dirt course?

And dye it green. Problem solved. Next!

Seriously, growing grass in river silt, 4 feet below sea level and having 1200 lb. horses trample over it 5 times a day is hardly turf racing.

How about pack the whole place up and move it out of state.

Tampa has a fabulous turf course ;) :tro:

And unbelievable, UNBELIEVABLE purses

Tampa wouldnt be a viable racing option IF it the weather wasnt OK.. Racing for 20k in a mdn spl is a joke.

17k.....Gotta be a FL bred.....

17k..You buy a horse for 40k feed it, vet it, train it , and hence have 75k in it and IF you win you get 10 grand give 1000 to the trainer(well deserved) and 100 to the groom(well deserved) 50 to the race day pony and slam the balance..lol

If they would just switch to St. Augustine grass all their problems would be solved.

At least some of the La-bred stakes felt the pain. Cutting the NO Hcp and Muniz to $400,000 won't make much difference, especially in the case of the Muniz. The Muniz could be $350k and attract as good as field.

Hey you forgot to pay the jock!

Funny thing was the year I was third in the Muniz (I think Explosive Bid then) the pot was 700k, and that was pre-slots.

That and not letting the people at Jazz fest wreck it every year.

F the pin head what did he/she do go along for the ride?

For a year or two it was the third or fourth richest turf race in American at nine furlongs or less. I now think it has a bad spot on the calendar as any really good turf horses ready to run in the spring are going to the Kilroe if they are on the West Coast or to the Maker's Mark and then to the Churchill race. The Muniz still attracts a solid field, but I don't think we will see another Lord Smith vs Hawksely Hill or a Sarafan vs Beat Hollow type of top class battle any time soon. FG could probably do just as well by running a $300k turf race at 9 furlongs a few weeks after the Citation and then a $200k turf marathon to close out the meet.

At least they send that crew walking around the course 50 times to pick up all the chicken bones.

Isn't there, or wasn't there, a signal dispute that played a big role in the lower handle?

They forgot to use that

Great point.

Excellent point. You would think the track suits would march that excuse front and center instead of assessing fault for the lower handle to the national economy and the weather. Then again, they have no control over the economy and the weather.

It's tricky but I'm not surprised they didn't bring it up.

St. Augustine looks hearty, but it is not. My 50lb kids ruin my yard with their foot traffic. I can only imagine how many races a St. Augustine turf course would last under half ton horses.

I was half joking about the St. Augustine as it is a common grass in New Orleans. But it gets too clumpy to be raced upon.

But the stuff can be very durable, depending on which variety is used. I resod parts of my yard with the Sapphire variety and once it spread, it held up to human and canine traffic. It held up much better than other varieties, in particular Del Mar. The downside is it gets so thick that it gets a big buildup of thatch when it starts going dormant in the winter.

I can't remember Fair Grounds having as many problems with its turf course 20 years ago. The problems predate Katrina, so that can't be blamed. Who knows what the root of the problem is, but the course looks like a beach for too much of the meet.

I think Turf Paradise has one of the best turf courses in the country right now too.

Beulah's ain't too shabby either.

Gulfstream's turf course if really quite nice, which is quite a change from the prior version, which was awful.

My favorite turf courses are Kentucky Downs and Canterbury Downs--the latter always looked like a pasture, with LONG grass (haven't seen it in years, however)

Tampa's course is great and so's Sam Houston's though they hardly use it.

NT

Colonial's is the absolute best.

River downs??