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Originally Posted by eurobounce
I have read a couple of articles today about the abundance of small fields. Not only are the stakes races having short fields, but claiming races are suffering as well. The solutiuon I am hearing (from industry people) is to decrease the number of races per card and to decrease the number of races days during the week. Here are some interesting numbers. The average horse makes 6.45 starts per year. This is the lowest number ever recorded by the Jockeys Club. In 1995, horses made an average of 7.94 per year. The average number of starts per horse has decreased in each year since 1995. To compare different eras, in 1960 the average number of starts was 11.31. To me decreasing the number of racing days per week coupled with a decrease in the number of races per card is a start. But I think the problem is much more complex. I think breeding unsound horses contributes to the small fields, as well as trainers being able to pick their spots. But one factor that I think is the new medication laws. This point is very well made in the courier journal today and I agree 100%. It used to be that a trainer could make a last minute decision to run a horse in a race that might have come up weak, but now with the new medication laws they dont have that luxury. I do think racing needs to do something about the problem of small fields, but decreasing the number of race days and number of races on a card isnt going to solve the problem.
This is just my opinion--anyone else care to chime in!!!
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I'll tell you one thing. I know I'm in the minority, but I don't have any problem with small fields. Don't get me wrong. Those two races at Hollywood this weekend are a joke. I don't like 4 and 5 horse fields but I have no problem with 7-8 horse fields and occasionally even 6 horse fields. There is way less chance of my horse getting into trouble in smaller fields. I'm always looking for a price and believe it or not I find them all the time in those small fields. Over the last year, excluding the last 6 weeks where I've been ice-cold, I can't even tell you all the great price horses I've had in small fileds. A few that come to mind are Your Tent or Mine who went off at 6-1 in a 6 horse field. Wanna Runner who went off at 7-1 in a 6 horse field was another one. Don't get me wrong, you need to be selective. If every race was a 6 or 7 horse field, I wouldn't find a ton of bets but I may find 1-2 bets on a card. That's fine since I am often times handicapping multiple tracks. Big fields are often times too tough. I don't play exotics. I'm happy if I can find a 4-1 shot that I like in a 7 horse field. That's the kind of bet I'm looking for. Too many things can go wrong in 12 horse fields.