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Originally Posted by BellamyRd.
Jeanine Rees had a good piece in this Sunday's C-J profiling trainer, Larry Jones, a local KY boy, who has moved his operation to Delaware. Jones grew up in KY, has family here, and there's probably no place he'd rather be training thoroughbreds. But, with the influx of purse money being what is it in Delaware, the grass is greener over there, promting a relocation. Also being on the east coast it gives LJ an easier option of shipping to nearby Maryland or New York. He won the G1 Prioress at Belmont and a stakes race at Saratoga with Wildcat Betty B, and also had X Star in the recent Spinaway. The point is that losing a trainer like Jones is becoming more of a trend and will delude the quality of racing in KY over the long haul, if it hasn't already. While I personally don't like to see slot machines acessible on every corner, you would think KY with it's rich horse racing tradition will have to do something eventually in order to keep up with the Joneses (no pun intended).
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Bellamy,
Thats not the real problem with KY racing. The real problem is the lack on continuity on the racing schedule and constant schlepping around that you have to do.
NY, Cali, Florida, and illinois all have continuous racing within proximity of a small distance geographically. True NY and Cali require trainers to head to Del Mar and the Spa, but only 6 or 7 weeks respectively and the trainers cant wait to go.
Kentucky's schedule makes it life on the run. In the spring you get Keeneland in April and then Churchill until very early July. But after that, you get the Pea Patch down at Ellis with miniscule purses and noplace to run good horses. So many have to head to Arlington or even NY. Then you have to decide how long you wanna stay in those places, or whether to head to Turfway which is in a totally different part of he state altogether.
Then its back to Keeneland for 3 weeks, back to CD for 4 weeks, then back to Turfway or shipping out to another jurisdiction altogether from December until April.
Mike, these are folks with families. Its also very hard to find or ship good help on the road all year long. And if you set up shop at CD as a home base, you have the privilige of traveling an hour and back to lexington each day for 7 weeks a year, or even farther to Turfway.
Its a grind buddy. I mean regular people will gripe about a 45 minute commute to work and back each day. Try vanning horses even longer all the time and driving it yourself.
Life out of a hotel room orrented rooms isnt that much fun either.
Jones took off to Delaware because it made sense. Big purses, proximity to ship to NY or NJ easily. And he can put down roots from April until November. Then he can ship to KY or Fla until Oaklawn opens and then back home to Delaware.
Purses alone won't fix KY. They need a continuous racing circuit that makes sense and allows horseman to live a semi normal life as far as travel goes.
Horsemen in Ny are basically ok. AQu and Bel are right near each other, and its just one ship down to Florida in the winter and up to Spa in the summer when the kids are off from school and the whole family enjoys the 6 weeks. Same with horseman in Cali with regards to SA and Hollywood, and identical scenario with Del Mar.