Quote:
Originally Posted by parsixfarms
I agree that the "final" product that NYRA put out yesterday was embarrassing. That said, you do realize that many of the scratches on Sunday were the result of confusion on the application on the 14-day rule.
For all the bashing of Aqueduct, my impression is that the maiden, allowance and stakes racing so far at the meet has been pretty good. The upper level claiming races have also been competitive. The "problem area," if you will, has been the bottom-level claimers; that's where the vast majority of the break-downs have occurred. I don't understand why NYRA was unwilling to acknowledge this fact (rather, stating that there was no factor linking a majority of the breakdowns). Had the decision been mine, I would have raised the bottom claiming level to $20,000 and then do the best you can in terms of filling races (and this would be partially contrary to self-interest, as our partnership owns one horse that my proposed rule would likely result in us having to ship out of town to run). If you only run six or seven races a day, or cut back the number of race days per week, that's the price you have to pay in this political environment.
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Like most tracks, the majority of stock is cheap claimers and maidens. by raising the minimal claiming price to 20K, you would not be eliminating the cheap claimers-the 10K horse would just run, virtually protected, for 20k instead.
No track can possibly do what they are trying here and expect to live.
Particularly when you are competing with Gulfstream, Tampa, FG, Oaklawn, etc. this time of year.
In my opinion, the only way to work this (and this will be an extremely unpopular opinion) is to run a 3 day week, running two of those days on industry dark days to limit the exposure to competition. That way you will get attention to 5 horse fields when it's the only game going.
Save the best fields/stake races for Saturday, and run live with what you can fill on Monday and Tuesday. And pray like a bandit for the Main Track to open early.