Classic

[SCUDSBROTHER]

"I'm not concerned about the track at all," Passero said Tuesday afternoon. "I feel very good and comfortable with it."

Trainer Richard Dutrow Jr., who breezed several horses over the track on Tuesday, was not in agreement with Passero.

"It ain't right, it's too hard," Dutrow said. "They done [messed] this thing up. This had been the best track to train on and race on since I've come to New York 25 years ago and now it's not.'"

[saucon17]

For years Passero did a great at Maryland Tracks with the track conditions
and the trainers always praised his work with the racing surface,
it now seems his crew has totally messed up the main track.

[blackthroatedwind]

I could be totally wrong about this but I wonder if Passero's obsession with sealing tracks is not always great for the surface. I've had a couple trainers complain to me about this over the last year or so but, on the other hand, you can't please everyone all the time.

I do think Passero has done a good job but the Aqueduct main track, which as Dutrow said has always been great, has been a problem for the last year. And, I'm not sure I buy some of Passero's comments from a couple weeks ago about the base, because at the same time Rick Violette, one of the most reliable trainers, said the surface was fine.

The other problem is the jockeys seem to use any possible excuse now to cancel. Perception equals reality.

[SCUDSBROTHER]

I once heard Violette call one of his own horses "a punk." LOL...A NY bred late closing sprinter. I could come up with the name (because he broke his maiden about mid Nov to mid Dec. of '04.) I really liked the horse.He had a good little kick,but he tried to stretch him out,and the horse seemed to go bad on him.

[KirisClown]

Originally Posted by SCUDSBROTHER

I once heard Violette call one of his own horses "a punk." LOL...A NY bred late closing sprinter. I could come up with the name (because he broke his maiden about mid Nov to mid Dec. of '04.) I really liked the horse.He had a good little kick,but he tried to stretch him out,and the horse seemed to go bad on him.

Sounds like Qualified Opinion...

[SCUDSBROTHER]

Originally Posted by KirisClown

Sounds like Qualified Opinion...

That's the one.

[Star of the North]

Met Passero at the first running of the Colonial Downs meeting in 1997.

During the course of the meet, the track went from a conveyor belt that spaced them 15 lengths apart to a dead rail surface that saw the top five five finishers finish within two lengths of each other. Watched this pattern shift between extremes the remainder of the meet.

Confronted in the pressbox one day and asked what he had been doing to the surface, Passero responded that he didn't know because he had been home in Maryland the last few days but I got the distinct impression he didn't think anyone in the pressbox had the right to question him about what he was doing to the track - An attitude seemingly shared universally by other track maintenance supervisors. (Acknowledging that a track maintenance supervisor has to stay on budget and keep the backstretch critics happy before worrying about what some weenie in the pressbox thinks.)

There certainly is a reason Passero isn't working for the MJC anymore. I always wondered why I never read a Beyer rant about the constantly changing profile of the surfaces at Laurel and Pimlico. I do not play Maryland regularly but I would think a player who kept track of the bias shifts during Passero's tenure could have profited handsomely.

Watching the Belmont meet this summer made me think of that meeting at Colonial ten years ago. I thought the main track surface at Belmont this summer was more biased to front speed than I can ever remember. There were certainly some rumblings from the backstretch that suggested I am not the only one who thinks Passero is not doing a good job.

DMM