Future of Delaware Park?
 

Delaware Park wrapped up their 79th season yesterday. I played the card for the first time all season yesterday. (12 races, full fields). On most racing days this year their cards were unplayable with small field and seven or eight races. Laurel Park is now running in July and August which doesn't help at all. A few years back Ritvo said that he wanted some sort of coordination between the two in regards to racing dates. That does not look like the case moving forward. Gulfstream swallowed up Calder and Laurel will do the same to Delaware Park. Delaware Park must change their thinking in order to survive. Nobody playing at home on a Saturday in the summer is booting up Delaware Park on their ADW. What's the answer? Lights I tell you. Lights. Forget the Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday stuff. Put in the lights and run a 7:30 post Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Build a nice hotel right on site in that huge, unused parking lot by the first turn. Make it a weekend destination venue. Horseplayers, I believe, are looking for a good quality thoroughbred track to plunk their money down at night. Lights are the answer!

Excellent food at the track kitchen on the backside :)

Visited DP for the first time this summer and enjoyed it immensely. Lovely paddock and relaxed atmosphere. But to Dew's point, the grandstands were sparsely populated.

From a wagering perspective, I think DP provides interesting opportunities on Mondays/Tuesdays with some decent turf races. Delacour and the other Fair Hill trainers tend to use it quite often and you sometimes see some "project horses" hit their stride there.

As long as we are talking DP, I have been impressed with the emergence of Carol Cedeno as a jockey of high reliability and talent. She had a fantastic meet.

Cheers,

O

Carol has always been o good rider, glad to see her get a meet title.

Sunday has been the biggest dissapointment with DP. I've been going there since the 1960's and Sunday was always a good day. We could bring coolers and grills in and have a big picnic. Not anymore. Banned all that stuff and nixed Sundays.

Sundays are now for NFL betting. Still a lovely track. I'd reccommend it to anyone to at least go there. As far as them collaborating with Laurel, don't hold your breath. DP has consistently asked for less racing days for years. They are a casino. Racing, like at Parx, is a necessary evil.

Just when you've thought you'd seen it all on the internet...

Agree. I think she's below average at best. I'd prefer Doyle if comparing female jockeys.

I don't know what the jockey colony there looks like as I haven't played DP in about 10 years but can tell you from first hand experience playing virtually every day of the 90+ day meeting at Tampa year in and year out, that reliability and talent are two words that will never be confused with Carol Cedeno.

She is probably a terrific person and a great mom, but she is also an auto-toss on roughly 95% of her mounts at TBD.

Put her on good horses in good places and she'll probably win for you.

Isn't that true of every jockey?

Paul