Spa Condition Book

[FrankD.]

I\'ve been reluctant to stick my head into the first condition book of the nations premier race meet; with good reason. I want to puke, it\'s much worse than I thought was possible.

There was no doubt that with open maiden\'s running for 80 & 85 k & NY Bred slow bred in the backyard rat\'s going after 60 & 65 k pots that the book would be over run with such events. As was mentioned in earlier posts by the Mig & yours truly Oklahoma is jammed packed with babies.

BUT:
40 % of the cards of the first 10 days (as far as I looked) are maiden races and 1 or 2 NY Bred NW1 other than every day. The first 5 race\'s of each day start off with 3 or 4 maidens and a NW1 or NW2L making up the early pick 4.
EVERY DAY !!!!
Now factor in the shorter fields in the maiden sprints and the TAP fastest horse in the world de jour @ 3/5 in every race and we have killed the best bet on race track.

I know Saratoga is about 2 year olds; the next Derby winner may step on the track daily and the Stakes program is as solid as ever.
BUT:
Come on guy\'s where are the races for all the outfits that have shipped here? I know everyone just didn\'t bring their 2 year olds. With all the turf races carded if we get a stretch of rainy days this meet will be toast.

All of this nonsense is further fuel for the politicians to revoke slot money and stick a knife in this game for good. For the life of me I cannot figure out how they cannot put on a better show than this.

It\'s the gambling dollar that drives this engine you clueless clowns.

There you go Top Cat my first Saratoga rant.

Good luck,

Frank D.

[richiebee]

Frank:

The problem is that people apparently keep betting these races. No matter how
strong the NY State \"Greeders\" are politically, if no one was betting these
NYB races, they would disappear.

In the 70s and 80s, Saratoga used to draw stables from california, Canada and
Maryland. Whats the motivation for an outfit from another circuit to ship here
given the preponderence of NYB races in the condition book?

I\'ll try it in bold face type: NO RESTRICTED NYB RACES EXCEPT FOR STAKES.LET
NY BREDS GET 5 POUNDS WHEN THEY RACE V OPEN COMPANY AND ADD 15K TO PURSES FOR
NYBS V OPEN. This would immediately restore the Spa to past glory. When
racing goes back downstate, go back to running NYB maiden and allowance races.

This might also curb the breeding of the quintessential NYB slow rat. You know
the kind -- 14 or 15 races up the track, then comes roaring up for the win to
beat out the even money single in the P4.

I didn\'t look at the condition book, but I would imagine bottom claimers will
run for 14K. The bottom as late as the 1990s was 20K, and I never recall
seeing more than one bottom level claiming race on any card.

We\'ll be seeing plenty of the usual suspects in these cheap races (including
Tricky (into the second year of the lifetime stay of his 10 year suspension)
(yeah we\'re serious about drugs in racing) and Tricky\'s Mini Me, Rudy Rod, but
I am setting the over/ under for number of wins by Team Guyana (Shivmangal,
Persaud and Chatterpaul) at 1/2. I\'m betting under. Having said that, they
will win one among them, probably beating me out of a horizontal wager.

But its not likely, because I will avoid the early races if they are full of
traif (sp?), and hope that the better races are reserved for late in the
card.

Frank you say your NYRA handle is off 60%. Do I need to bring 60% more beer?

[Themig]

The rain comment is exactly what I have been thinking about for the past week or so. There is a little rain possible for Sunday (open house), and Monday but it would not surprise me to see it rain for the first 3-4 days out of opening week and screw everything over. The way that they protect the turf course(s) is just not helping matters either. The Mellon course has been expanded by a few feet for the sake of safety(and I thought larger fields), but they are afraid to race on them early during the meet if it rains just a small amount.  Hey they treat the Oklahoma grass Tr. track like it is made out of thin ice. It has been ready since the end of April and NYRA opened it only a few weeks ago.(I think on Mon and Fri at 10:30am for an hour). With one and a half weeks til the opening bell, this pre meet feeling I am getting is not as enthusiastic as any past years.

[Michael D.]

It will be a tragedy if the opening Saturday card is what the condition book currently shows. Looks like a deplorable NY bred maiden, a decent maiden turfer, an unbettable 5 1/2 f maiden, a potentially decent 6 1/2 f maiden, a pitiful 6f state bred, a despicable 6f claimer, another state bred race, a good looking 7f allowance, a brutally placed 5 1/2 f turfer, a tragically shortened CCA Oaks (which should still be a good race), and a wretched 5 1/2 maiden claimer.

[Themig]

But here is the good news.....Beer is $12, Hot dogs $8, and the chance that NYRA wont screw anyone out of money this year is 50-50. 9 days ....

[PapaChach]

And if this year is like last few, at least one of the decent-looking races in the book will wind up replaced with some craptastic, formless, chaotic 20k claimer with a 14-horse field that Campo will put as the last leg of the pick 4, just to make it unplayable.

But hey, at least the condition books are available online. Given this is NYRA we\'re dealing with, even that\'s a pleasant surprise, and very helpful to have before entering SALT II (Saturday Afternoons Lounging Trackside) negotiations with the wife; without access to the book I may have tragically bargained for the first Saturday rather than Jim Dandy/Diana Day.

Well, as sad as it is that even the temporarily inflated by slots pools can\'t get us even an inch closer to Saratoga circa 1988 rather than the 21st century NYB-fests iteration, I\'m sure I will be feeling like a hundred bucks as my eldest and I ride the escalator up to the clubhouse on 7/28. (Maybe that\'s the problem; they know there\'s a million suckers such as myself who\'ll keep coming back no matter how many bad races they card...)

[miff]

Think there are quite a few who do not really know the story of the condition book and how it is made.Blaming the racing secretary is way off. If you would like to know more about why the condition book reads as it does and why the cards are what they are,send an e-mail to PJ.He\'s been very forthcoming in answering questions.Don\'t know how busy he is but assume it\'s very, good guy,so be polite.

All players want the best quality races but it\'s only possible to the extent of the inventory.


PCampo@nyrainc.com

[PapaChach]

Who is responsible for the inventory, then? Isn\'t the inventory at least partly a response to what\'s in the book? I\'m not as conversant as some others here with every aspect of this but off the top of my head these purses have to be as high as it gets right now in US racing, and they are noticably higher than last year\'s meet, yet the book is pretty much a carbon copy of the last few years; tons of NYB\'s, tons of maidens. Exhibit A, the first Sunday of the meet at the what\'s supposed to be the best meet in the country, one featuring very generous purses: eight of ten races either claimers, maiden claimers, or NY-breds.  Seems like they should be able to do a little better than that with the slots money, no?

[miff]

Thought it would be the best SPA quality in many moons. They are giving away big purses, dont know why book looks weak!

[magicnight]

Given that NYRA does not have any friends in the Governor\'s office, is it possible they are sucking up to some of of the other parties who are likely to populate the other seats on the new board? A sincere question. No snark intended.

[richiebee]

To me, this one is simple.

No Whitney, no Mellon, no Vanderbilt, nobody who really cares about maintaining
New York and especially Saratoga as the venue for the best racing in America.

The really sad thing to me is that as far as Saratoga racing has fallen due to the
proliferation of NYB racing (and in part due to the reliance on turf racing,
which is like rolling the dice given the Capital region weather) it is still the
best 6 weeks of racing in NA.

PapaChach makes an excellent point: PJ Campo is responsible for the \"inventory\"
as Miff calls it, and he has failed miserably over the last four or five years.
And as horseplayers, we are all to blame, being part of the problem for
continuing to support (wager on) these backyard breds.

[FrankD.]

Mike,

Totally agreed that you have to write for what you have on the grounds.
BUT:::::::
To a certain extent you can control as to who and what will come to your grounds based on the book!

Richie continually makes the point as to why an out of town trainer would ship to the Spa.

Given the purse boost via slot machines I\'m extremely disappointed in what we have to wager on for 40 days and 40 nights.

Frank D.