Agreed,and so the longer hours per day can\'t be a plus - at least customer service wise. And don\'t forget the horsemen who already work a long day. And the people who are responsible for the product - horse ID, track maintainence, everyone works an extra 90 minutes per day at the same daily rate of pay under the new program.
IMO, The idea of a 50 day meet at Monmouth with $1M in daily purses is ideal and this is the direction racing must go. Monmouth may surpass Saratoga as the summer place to be and perhaps it should. Saratoga has raped NYRA employees for years with exhorbitant seasonal rental rates and its customer service has never been it\'s brightest attribute, but who can blame them? (I can recall Bill Finley doing a piece on Saratoga back when I was employed there in 1988 or 1989, using each letter in S.A.R.A.T.O.G.A.to describe how over rated it is). While customer service has IMO always been much better at Monmouth, the longer day is definately going to affect it. Most Americans by nature tend to rebel (or quit) when they get a pay cut, or have to work longer hours with no increase. That\'s been my experience as both an employee and an employer. A reasonable daily increase in pay for myself ($15.00), for example, still amounts to a savings of nearly $3,000.00 for Monmouth over the course of the meet. And remember, there have been NO SALARY INCREASES in 3 years. Economy is bad, but you still have to treat your help in a way in which they will produce the best product for you. Longer hours with no increase in pay while cutting 2 days a week is going to have negative repercussions.
