They Said It

[richiebee]

...while we wait for CTC to narrow the FOY field down to 7 or 8 likely winners..


   \"A wholesale loss of top- class bloodstock to European and Arab interests
    may have been beyond NYRA\'s control. The loss of the old/ breeder owner
    families did not help matters, but the legalization of raceday medication
    and the cave-in to an inferior statebred program to replace the top quality
    Kentucky breds that were drifting away to Europe has led to a situation
    where more than 40 percent of the horses on NYRA grounds are now New York
    breds. And virtually all of them-- New York breds and otherwise-- run on
    Lasix and steroids every time they set foot on a racetrack.\"

   \"In fact, outside of Saratoga and the Belmont Stakes, every effort NYRA has
    made to promote racing in New York has been a failure\"

   \"Since 1980 there has been a concomitant decline of racing\'s market share
    in the media, not only in New York, but nationwide. Americans will not
    support a second rate sport which, given raceday medication and statebred
    racing, is what the American game has become. Nor will they support a sport
    that does not appear with regularity on network television. As evidence
    witness the success of the NFL, the NBA and Major League Baseball, or even
    the PGA and NASCAR, all of which have outpaced racing for market share in
    recent decades.\"

   \"Getting the public\'s attention is the biggest problem NYRA faces over the
    next quarter century. Success is a longshot.\"

    --- Alan Shuback in DRF 2/19/2008

   \"A 25 year [agreement with]a nonprofit corporation that is in bankruptcy and
    has some of its people convicted of fraud would not be my first choice in
    terms of picking a partner to work with.\"

    --- New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg on the NYRA extension, NY Post 2/20

End of an Era is not just the name of a 6/5 favorite who got beat in the final
strides of the 6th race at Aq on Saturday. End of an era might also be used to
describe the closing, after Sunday\'s races, of the New Dorp OTB branch on Staten
Island, home to some astute handicappers and real characters.

Heard in the New Dorp OTB Saturday, a man describing his courtship of, and 30
year marriage to, his wife. \"I\'m drunk one Saturday night with this woman and I
say \'I will\'. In 2 weeks I\'m in front of the judge and I say \'I do\'. This
morning I get mad at my wife and tell her \'If I murdered you 30 years ago
instead of married you, at least I would have been free by now.\'\"

[purplemike]

that joke was in maxim magazine 15 years ago

[miff]

Bee,

It\'s a conspiracy against us Staten Islanders.In Staten Island, First, Water Street OTB branch closed, then Sand Lane branch OTB, now New Dorp branch OTB. Where are the \"conspiracy idiots\" when you need them?


Mike

[girly]

Don\'t you think the great State of New York is just looking to push consolidation of all the OTBs to save money?

[richiebee]

Girly:

Mayor Mike intends for the City of New York to make it easy for this
consolidation to take place. He plans to close the City OTBs as their
leases expire.

Bloomberg\'s allowing OTBs to close is fiscally driven, but the end result
is that racing is less and less accessible. Bloomberg has made it clear
that the preservation of horse racing is not a high priority for him.

The great thing about Mayor Mike is that he is beholden to no one, so the
loss of sacred cow patronage jobs from past regimes is not a concern to
him

[NoCarolinaTony]

Richiebee,

Don\'t you think racing is even more accessible then less? With on line wagering services etc, wouldn\'t you rather keep the 5% you give to OTB?

I know OTB\'s have some character and \"character\'s\"  but I would think you\'d rather have the 5% over time. Plus why not It sounds like LRD (LIVING ROOM DOWNS)  can be fun over at your place?

NC Tony

[richiebee]

Tony:

I made the point on Crist\'s DRF blog awhile back that IMO there is a great
dichotomy in Racing and Wagering right now-- the wagering menu has expanded,
there is all sorts of handicapping information available on line, it is possible
(in theory)to wager from the comfort of home, there are on site and online
capping contests every weekend,being able to easily transfer funds from a bank
to a wagering account etc.

We\'ve come a long way from the days when the phone booths at racetracks were
padlocked 30 minutes before post time for the first race.

The dichotomy (if that is the proper word) is that for all the great new
advances,the quality of Racing is not what it used to be. The reason I
reproduced part of Shuback\'s article is because he painted a great picture of
what has happened in NY-- we\'ve gone from having the greatest Racing in the
world to having a circuit which is dominated by state bred Racing-- four
restricted races a day at Saratoga day after day is a travesty.

Racing could get to the point where the truly important racing is held in Dubai,
Hong Kong and Europe, and American racing is secondary in quality and importance

Accessibility: Good, but could be great. There should be one TV network, lets
say its sponsored by NTRA, devoted to Racing 24/7. Live races shown whenever
possible or on short term tape delay. Racing news, racing analysis, historical
pieces about racing, features. This TV network would not have any ties to
account wagering; its sole purpose would be to show races from all over the
world, emphasizing racing on the larger circuits. This network would be aimed
at the racing junkies and the whales, who would pay dearly for such programming,
but wouldn\'t have to because such a network would be underwritten by all major
racing organizations (which of course might create some editorial problems).

Beyer recently wrote an article in DRF commenting on the effect that the CD/
Magna/HRTV/TVG conflicts have had on the accessibility of racing. Why have to
set up multiple accounts and sign up with multiple cable providers?

Racing is a microcosm of sorts of some of the problems we are facing in the US
every day-- the future is here, and we should have been addressing it 20 years
ago.

[miff]

Bee,


The NY Racing problems mainly come from Albany.The NY State breeding program has been a giant score for the upstaters.Cheap garbage mares are being bred upstate by anyone with a back yard,those folks are called breeders.The upstate locals took advantage of the upstate power base at the expense of NY racing, once the best, now very common, except the SPA.

The clueless upstate politicians have mandated too many racing dates to satisfy their needs for racing revenue to support some of their local pet projects. Ever see an upstate highway in need of repair? Compare the upstate roads to the Gowanus(under construction for 50 years, most of my life) Small outfits are now forced to point for the winter Aqueduct meet to survive as a direct result of too many dates.There is no doubt that racing in NY should close for 6-8 weeks in winter, even though some small outfits may not survive.It will never happen, though.

Check out todays nice carryover in NY and the disgraceful card we will have to deal with to try to hit the pick 6, it\'s shameful for NY racing

Mike