Belmont Seminar?

[rossi3839]

Is there going to be a Belmont seminar?  TIA

[TGJB]

We usually don\'t but thinking about it. Might do the graded stakes, problem is they don\'t pre-enter which makes it tough on time.

[rossi3839]

Loved the Derby seminar the last two years. Thanks for considering the Belmont.

[TGJB]

Lots of time to handicap, write and produce the one for the Derby.

[rossi3839]

Understood. Even an abbreviated version would be appreciated and worth it!

[johnnym]

I\'d purchase it

[pizzalove]

Me too.

[miff]

Churchill is 115 acres,170,513 at Derby

Pimlico is 125 acres,131,680 at Preakness

Belmont is 430 acres,90,000 cap for possible Triple Crown

[alydar61]

As one who already has a seat I am kind of grateful for the cap.

NYRA has proven over and over again that they cannot handle a larger crowd. I\'m guessing they\'ll figure out a way to muck it up with 90k as well. Probably the safest bet of the day.

[Topcat]

They made their prevailing deal with the prevailing (borderline-incompetent) food/drink purveyor.   It\'s NYRA\'s fault.  They never should have gotten into bed with those clowns.   There\'s NO excuse to EVER run out of bottled water or beer -- EVER.

[RICH]

just got back from the preakness, man that place knows how to put on a show, the people were great, staff as friendly and accomodating as can be. I spent several hours in the infeild on Friday, 10 bucks admission, 2 concerts, 3 dollar drafts, and perfect weather, it was heaven. Preakness day,Clubhouse turn tent seats and all the beer and wine you can drink for free, the perfect day, plenty of winners, truly a social event. My wife especially enjoyed the fella who put together a pool for every race on what horse hit our clubhouse turn line returning AFTER the race, people screaming to win that 80-120 every race, on horses just galloping back. New york has never come close to pulling something like this off.

[richiebee]

miff Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Churchill is 115 acres,170,513 at Derby
>
> Pimlico is 125 acres,131,680 at Preakness
>
> Belmont is 430 acres,90,000 cap for possible
> Triple Crown


Record attendance at Ky Oaks, Ky Derby and Preakness.

The Belmont attendance cap is especially egregious because after last year\'s
Belmont disaster, NYRA hired a \"Chief Experience Officer\". I believe this
woman, who has no previous \"experience\" in the Racing industry, is paid
$300,000 per year.

I think the Chief Experience Officer could have justified her compensation
(and earned a bonus) if she had spent months game planning a \"Triple Crown
Contingency\" plan, a plan which would allow Belmont to accommodate between
120,000 and 150,000 racing fans hoping to see history being made.

To reiterate the easy part of the plan: Assuring adequate food, beverage,
comfort facilities, live mutuel tellers, SAM machines, crowd control.

Difficult (but not impossible) part of the plan: transportation logistics, the
main components of which would involve limiting on track parking and reducing
reliance on the inadequate LIRR platform, while utilizing the area\'s extensive
network of arterial highways and mass transit hubs.

Bottom line: NYRA hires a Chief Experience Officer at 300K per annum, and she
is at least partially responsible for devising a plan which will cost NYRA
tens of millions of dollars of lost revenue and tens of millions of dollars in
lost on track handle.

If NYRA had established this contingency plan, and 135,000 or so folks showed
up, would everyone be comfortable? Probably not, but folks seem willing to
sacrifice some creature comforts to be part of an Event

NYRA. Expect Mediocrity. BRILLIANT!!!

[TGJB]

It\'s looking like we\'re going to try to do this. Probably won\'t be up until the Thursday, day after the draw.

[toppled]

Will it be included in that day\'s sheets like the Derby & Oaks are for those race days?

[TGJB]

Don\'t know yet exactly what we\'ll do, we\'ve only done these for Derby/Oaks and Breeders Cup. Going to do some number of stakes from the Saturday card, racing office thinks they can get us pretty solid probables a week out. Without that we couldn\'t pull it off.

But given this is pretty labor intensive-- and my labor-- we\'re not giving it away with the data for the day. There will be some extra cost.