could someone remind me that Jan Rushton is an incompetant

[richiebee]

JMA:

One of the only things that people seem to agree on in Racing is that Racing
would benefit from some manner of centralization/unification. Agreed that
logistically it would be a nightmare to bring about this unification.

As to the maiden races. In August, 37% of all the races run at the Spa were for
maidens, and a majority of the cards featured 4 or 5 maiden races. My oft
stated opinion is that each year there are fewer and fewer outfits shipping in
to Saratoga from other states. The reason: the Saratoga and Belmont condition
books are filled with races written for horses bred in New York and \"approved
by the Registry\" as they say. If there weren\'t so many stalls allocated to
animals produced by the NY \"Greeders\", I think a lot of owners and trainers
would embrace the Spa as they had in the past and we would see a return of
quality racing.

One encouraging sign -- and I am only being slightly facetious-- is that as the
roster of racetracks continues to dwindle by attrition, it will be that much
easier to bring about unification.

[Flighted Iron]

The upside of this is the commentator\'s remarks could possibly enhance the odds
of the eventual winner.When Kent D. was establishing himself in Maryland he
dominated and every horse he rode was slightly overbet. A few days prior to
the Fritchie handicap he stated for the press that his mount(kathleen the queen)
would beat Safely Kept.Laughable at best,but the majority of the crowd bought it
and not only was SK odds greater so was the horse who ran second.Who btw was NOT
Kent\'s mount.To make the best possible decision as a handicapper,I feel I must
sift through ALL the info I can obtain.I don\'t know Jan Rushton and I don\'t recall
tuning in to her comments,but \"to err is human\".From what I\'ve heard she sounds
like a good person and very educated and trying to do a very arduous task.The great Ben Hogan became great by listening to all the advice,but not necessarily
adhering to it all.

  With Respect,
   Flighted Iron

[Boscar Obarra]

1) I despise Battaglia and have for decades

 2) No, I can\'t stop listening.

[richiebee]

jma11473 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

 
> Also, as far as whey they run all those maiden
> races...those are the ones that fill. The
> high-level dirt races get 5-horse fields, the
> maidens get 10 or 12 horses. Simple as that.


JMA:

Points well taken, though I think that turf races will always fill, all conditions, all distances.

Sunday\'s Saratoga card has a split personality. The first 6 races show what has been wrong with Saratoga for the last couple of years. The first 6 include 2 5-1/2 furlong turf sprints, 4 MSWs, and 2 NYB races.

I like the late P4 better-- an overnight stake, 2 graded stakes and a claiming race on the turf-- no NYBs, no maidens, no turf sprints.

For 46 weeks of the year, the SS NYRAtanic (currently on their seventh extension) has every right and every reason to card the races with the biggest fields.

For 6 weeks of the year, NYRA has an obligation that comes with the privilege of operating what is arguably the premier racing meet in NA-- that obligation is to present the best racing possible, to showcase the best runners in all divisions, to present racing cards which have some diversity in terms of surface, gender, class level and distance.

The first step to this is to tell the NY Greeders that NYB racing will be put on the back burner for 6 weeks. Tell the NYGs to go back to the farm for the summer and breed some more slow rats or find some more underqualified stallions.

As I have said before, if you are going to fill good races, you have to write good races and have the horses stabled on the backside that are eligible for these races. If you write a lot of turf sprints for NYB maidens, and fill the stable areas with this sort of runner, that is the sort of race which will be run in the afternoon.