Originally Posted by Cannon Shell (Post 963539)

How is it controversial? The shmuck they quoted is crying because NJ bred races arent included.

Originally Posted by Benny (Post 963686)

" the programs have sometimes drawn criticism for providing incentives for horsemen to start unfit horses in races and for rewarding mediocrity or worse," per DRF Hegarty article 1/30/14

Look what happened in NY when the claiming purses skyrocketed when slot money came in. with so many fatalities on track. No ?

Originally Posted by Cannon Shell (Post 963690)

lol everything in racing has drawn criticism. The idea that unfit or injured horses will suddenly start appearing in the entries because of 600 bonus is stupid and not related to reality.

What happened in NY had very little to do with purses or incentives in almost every case. It was simply random occurrence as most breakdown spats or lack thereof are. There was a bad year for breakdowns 10 or 11 years ago in NY with numbers exceeding last years with little to no purse raises/incentives or publicity. The chances that a sore horse can win because a purse is higher is laughably sad.

People who criticize how horsemen divvy up their money should buy a horse and get back to us. The idea that a horse running 5th or worse is due to "incompetence" as quoted in the story is exactly why we see fields scratched down to 5 all the time. That logic doesnt elude trainers who would rather not be labeled as incompetent for taking a shot in a race where they wont be one of the top 3 choices.

Originally Posted by Cannon Shell (Post 963690)

lol everything in racing has drawn criticism. The idea that unfit or injured horses will suddenly start appearing in the entries because of 600 bonus is stupid and not related to reality


- While i highly respect you as a horseman,, is it not possible that this will encourage some trainers/owners to enter more horses in races rather than a workout to get paid for it , while using the race as a work ?


What happened in NY had very little to do with purses or incentives in almost every case. It was simply random occurrence as most breakdown spats or lack thereof are. There was a bad year for breakdowns 10 or 11 years ago in NY with numbers exceeding last years with little to no purse raises/incentives or publicity. The chances that a sore horse can win because a purse is higher is laughably sad.

- . It might be that some are willing to take more of a chance to hit the board with enough of an incentive in cheap claiming races where it reqlly needs more of a rest but is entered ? Conjecturing here.

People who criticize how horsemen divvy up their money should buy a horse and get back to us. The idea that a horse running 5th or worse is due to "incompetence" as quoted in the story is exactly why we see fields scratched down to 5 all the time.

] Maybe we can call this dirtying up a horses form ? and not incompetence

That logic doesnt elude trainers who would rather not be labeled as incompetent for taking a shot in a race where they wont be one of the top 3 choices.

Originally Posted by Benny (Post 963694)

??? I also reread the NJ breeders quote and his point as i read it, is that at least NJ breds are paid for accomplishing something in coming in 1,2,3 in open company while the new payment for 5th to last are paid for not being competitive but merely making it gate to wire in one piece .?

Originally Posted by Danzig (Post 963709)

benny, why would a trainer run a horse above his class, when there will be races for the horse at the class in which he belongs?
monmouth is trying to build fields, and having a bit more money on the table is an enticement.
not sure, tho, that it's an inducement to run horses where they don't belong, or when they're sore or injured. it's money, but it's not a lot of money.

Originally Posted by Cannon Shell (Post 963698)

The breeders comment is stupid. NJ breds maidens run for a 50k purse. About 4 NJ breds total are worth more than 50k. The reason that they can have a large bonus % for NJ breds is few of them are competitive at the open level. This is an entirely different program.

I believe that this past year more NJ breds placed in oopen, probably due to short fields though. Would be interesting to see some stats on this from Monmou



The payment is a competition bonus to help defray the costs of owing a horse in training. If you ship in from another track the bonus pays for your shipping, lasix charge (which the track collects which is big reason they want to add a few bucks to owners purse accounts so they dont have to bill and chase people) and jockey fee.

If for example you have a 16 claimer that runs on grass stabled at Parx and they dont have any options there, perhaps the 700 is the difference between deciding to ship to Delaware or Monmouth to run because at least you wont lose money going to MTH.

Paying horsemen a small stipend to compete is hardly some nefarious or morally challenged idea despite what the uninformed believe. This isnt going to make field size double or cause any huge uptick in entries. However if it helps just a little while distributing a small % of the purse account a little more widely among the backside it will be a success. Especially if Parx decides to close for a portion of the Summer as the rumors are pointing to
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Makes sense, perhaps you should pen an op ed at DRF to balance it out

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