Originally posted by batt33
1. 1st cancellation in recent memory?
For lack of entries, I do not recall that happening unless it snuck in when I was gone.
2. Go up against the Va. Derby?
Big overlook to run on Va. Derby day. They share horses so everyone will go there for the bigger pots.
I cannot imagine that will take place next year. Make it a dark day or even weekend. Make Friday a real solid card. An honest mistake this year. No problem. But I would learn from it moving forward. The Va. Derby is points towards the Kent. Derby. Enough said.
3. Inclement weather had horses not ready to run?
Nonsense. Guess he had to say something . Like it didn't snow 3 feet at Bowie back in the day. Heck, the Florida Air plane hit the bridge on Jan,. 13th in DC. leaving National( Reagan) airport. We ran a full card that day. My wife was very pregnant with our first child. Never forget it.
4. . A steady shift towards turf racing ? Well Jerry ( John) Robb will get mad at me if he sees this, and we are good friends. I will be talking with him soon as well as others. Never met Jamie Ness and look forward to it. I have been talking to many trainers and the racing office the last few weeks. Really trying to do my part to bridge the gap in Md. racing. It's deep right now but it is not hard to fix. Need to convince the horsemen, not the racing office. Already spoke with them.
Here's the deal in simple terms:
The races are not filling with offering 11 or 12 races a day. So... They have to put up extras. The racing Sec. job is to get as full a group of fields as possible. That is her job. She's paid by management. Turf races always draw a ton of horses. Meanwhile she has trainers coming to her saying can she please write a 5 1/2 F. race 10K INSTEAD OF 6, 6 1/2, 7, OR A MILE. Why? The trainers answer is the horse can't go 6F. Um,... bullshi* ! Run it for the right number and it will go 6F. And if it is winded, Charlestown goes 4 1/2 and leave the horse there. But if she is nice and tries for that trainer, well, then 5 1/2 is too short for 3 other trainers.
Trainers don't want to try and support the sec. office because in the summer, that same race going 6 or 7 might get 7 or 8 horses in it but the racing Sec. decides to use sub 9, the extra race which is a turf race for 10k and it gets 14 in it. So the sprinters are screwed because management puts the heat onto use the big field to help the handle and the sprint trainers get pissed and run out of town and then are not ready for the race when it comes back in 11 days. See the problem??
IT'S A TWO WAY STREET ! BOTH HAVE TO UNDERSTAND THAT, respect that, and work together. PERIOD !
Any other result will spell disaster for Md. Racing.
It is not incumbent to acquire turf horses. They can only run in Md. from very late April until October and not at Timonium in August. Four months, maybe 5. That's it. Laurel is in a 100 year flood plain. That turf course cannot be run on when it is wet AND, it is slow to dry because of the water table. Anyone that wants to challenge the flood plain issue is hoping you don't really know. Unfortunately, I do. Lived here since I was 18.
Bottom line: I am doing what I can to bring the horsemen and management together to have this discussion. John Robb does know this. He's been there since I was 18 and before then. Think they just need to cool off and have a mediator that knows both sides of it and can't be Bullshi**ed. Well that's me. Hopefully cooler heads will prevail. The racing office will have to dance first because we are still in winter. But it won't be too long before management will have to concede some of those 12 horse fields to accommodate the horses that support the off season racing. Work together or fight each other? Which will occur ? I'm going to try. We'll see.
