Fuel Prices hurt racing???

[Storm Cadet]

Beside the obvious of racing fans staying home instead of driving to tracks, how else will these high fuel prices hurt racing? The projection tonight on CNBC is $200/barrel by the fall. That translates they said to $7.00 per gallon of gas and $10.00 for diesel/home heating oil.

Here's a few that I spoke to a racing ownership company today regarding impediments trying to get new investors into the sport:

1. Less tristate people driving to Saratoga on day or weekend trips as well as less owners driving interstate to NY to watch their horses run live. They'll stay home and watch TV. NJ/CT based owners won't drive to Belmont. NY owners won't drive to Monmouth.

2. NYRA possibly charging owners/trainers to transport their horses between Bel/Big A/Sar. I believe NYRA transportation is free now. Additional fees for owners.

3.Feed prices for trainers and barns for horses are going way up with corn going to ethanol production. Day rates have got to go higher for trainers and owners.

4. With airlines cutting out reduced fares and today announcing $15 per checked bag as well as fuel surcharges, how many people will now not travel to Saratoga and DelMar from out of state now?

5. Heating oil prices-how they going to heat those inefficient winter facilities like Aqueduct?

6. Fly horses on those charter flights to stakes races across country will drastically be reduced. Only the Arabs will be able to fly their horses across the pond for Breeders Cup. The Frenchies and Brits will stay home?

7. OTB's might benefit as people will go to teletheaters to watch/bet instead of driving to tracks.

8. and most of all: what are we going to have to pay for a Carolina BBQ sandwich this summer? Seriously, I'm sure Steve has already had discussions with his food suppliers regarding food/drink prices for this summer!

What else?

This all could've been prevented if the god damn lobbyists were subject to public hangings.

[ArlJim78]

everythings fine, just ask justindew.

[geeker2]

Originally Posted by ArlJim78

everythings fine, just ask justindew.

lol...now that's funny!

[GBBob]

wow..this thread shrunk?

[Storm Cadet]

Sure did but as they said in Godfather 1:


Clemenza: You know, Mike, you're gonna turn out all right. You take a long vacation, nobody knows where, and we'll catch the hell.
Michael: How bad do you think it's gonna be?
Clemenza: Pretty goddam bad. Probably all the other Families will line up against us. That's all right. These things gotta happen every five years or so, ten years. Helps to get rid of the bad blood. Been ten years since the last one. You know, you gotta stop them at the beginning.

Gotta get rid of all the bad blood on this site!

[jwkniska]

Originally Posted by Coach Pants

This all could've been prevented if the god damn lobbyists were subject to public hangings.

it's not the lobbyists, but the hedge fund owners that over the last year have BOUGHT MORE OIL THAN CHINA! I hope they all go bankrupt.

[jwkniska]

Originally Posted by cmfhb411

I say we all decide to take a five day weekend and stay home until Tuesday
morning. That'll teach those f**kers.

that won't do it..... a day or two, or even a week won't matter to them. They'll just hold it until demand comes back.

Now... if we could get OPEC to raise production... or Venezuela, or drill Anwar.... then... they'd lose their shorts.

[jwkniska]

I knew that the speculators were the ones driving up the price, but until I heard the numbers today on CNBC, had no idea that those crooked, unregulated hedge fund operators bought more oil than China.

I wish they'd ban those guys from being in any publicly traded investment at all.... they're in it to line their own pockets and have no regard for anyone that puts up their $$ to invest in the hedge funds.... and absolutely no regard for anyone investing lawfully at all (like all of us with any of our retirement accounts in mutual funds.... which I hope don't all get a FORTY PERCENT reduction, which will happen if Obama gets elected... he thinks that capital gains are only a tax on the rich, instead of the working class).

[Danzig]

i thought it was all bushies fault??

[pick4]

Originally Posted by jwkniska

I knew that the speculators were the ones driving up the price, but until I heard the numbers today on CNBC, had no idea that those crooked, unregulated hedge fund operators bought more oil than China.

I wish they'd ban those guys from being in any publicly traded investment at all.... they're in it to line their own pockets and have no regard for anyone that puts up their $$ to invest in the hedge funds.... and absolutely no regard for anyone investing lawfully at all (like all of us with any of our retirement accounts in mutual funds.... which I hope don't all get a FORTY PERCENT reduction, which will happen if Obama gets elected... he thinks that capital gains are only a tax on the rich, instead of the working class).

Crude Light Sweet contracts are easy money for Money management firms to park their cash in at this time. The market as a whole has been flat. Crude Light Sweet is priced in dollars and the dollar is cheap these days. I think the shorts were squeezed out today which caused the spike. The July contract is at $134.66 as I type and this is not a good thing.

Horsemen are not the only ones who are feeling the effects of this surge in energy prices. I think we're in the midst of a rocky run. Do not look for politicians to correct the situation. They will only make matters worse.

[GenuineRisk]

Originally Posted by jwkniska

I knew that the speculators were the ones driving up the price, but until I heard the numbers today on CNBC, had no idea that those crooked, unregulated hedge fund operators bought more oil than China.

I wish they'd ban those guys from being in any publicly traded investment at all.... they're in it to line their own pockets and have no regard for anyone that puts up their $$ to invest in the hedge funds.... and absolutely no regard for anyone investing lawfully at all (like all of us with any of our retirement accounts in mutual funds.... which I hope don't all get a FORTY PERCENT reduction, which will happen if Obama gets elected... he thinks that capital gains are only a tax on the rich, instead of the working class).

You're wrong- Obama's proposed increase on capital gains is from 15 percent to 20 percent, not to 40 percent. It took me exactly 90 seconds of Googling to find that out. I don't know where you get your news from. FOX, I'm presuming? I think where you are confused is his proposed raising of tax on dividends to 39.5 percent. Dividends are not the same thing as capital gains. I don't know of any middle-class people who live entirely on dividends. Plus, retirement accounts aren't taxed the same way regular dividends are. Raising the taxes on what is primarily an income source for the wealthy is not going to trash the middle class or retirees.

And these aren't new tax levels; they are pre-Dubya tax levels. Because Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy have worked out so well for the economy.

I can't even begin to deal with the "ban speculators" rant. Sure, everyone wants government out of their lives/business, and then they start yelling when people take advantage of gov't staying out of their lives/businesses.

[ShadowRoll]

Don't they use some kind of oil in some of the artificial surfaces? Maybe this means a moratorium on tracks changing over to the junk.