Peter Pan GRII

May 7, 2015 12:52:23 GMT -5 george said:

wiz, good to see you!

This stuff happens everywhere these days, not just in California or New York. Trainers don't run their horses as often as they used to, so there are less horses available for stakes races and even overnight or claiming races. Even some of the cheap $5K claiming tracks are cutting back on dates and races/day to beef up their field sizes. Some are even filling their cards with state-bred races.

Not an east/west thing, but I just read that Beholder is out of Saturday's Grade 1 Vanity. That leaves only four entrants.

and thats what belmont should be doing also. i hear people in hear bragging about how belmont still runs 5 or 6 days a week like its a good thing. why? if it makes the cards better then cutback to 4. but do they do that? no, they continue on running bad cards and it ruins the cards on the good days also.

i know it is that way in ca. also, but like i said, at ca. has the excuse of not having the money to offer that these other tracks do due to slot money. there is no reason belmont/ aqueduct/ saratoga should be in the same spot. but they are, and again i ask, why? they should be the one racing jurisdiction that doesnt have these problems. do people just not like going to that area? is it the shitty weather? is ith crooked politicians? im not being a smartass here. im really trying to figure this out.

also one reason i think for the lack of entrants in the big races at all tracks, that being ca., ny, and all other tracks suffering from small fields in their marquee and even smaller stakes races, is because of the bloated purses in the other races they card. horses should be rewarded for winning races and accomplishing things in their career. the better they do, the more money they should be competing for. back in the old days for instance, 20 years ago or so, a race like the santa anita handicap or santa anita derby out here, or say the jockey club gold cup or belmont stakes in new york, had big purses. already up to a million dollars. but the supporting races on the card had no where near that much in purses and neither did the preps leading up to these races. it gave horsemen something to shoot for once or twice a meet to make the big score. it attracted huge fields because that was your one chance. now the prep races and undercard races have purses that are percentage wise alot closer to the big races then they should be. plain and simple, as i have said before, there is just to much money floating around out there, enabling owners and trainers to shop around and avoid the best competition while still making damn near as much money as they would if they ran in the biig races. and dont even get me started on maiden races. sorry, but mdn. special weights should not have higher purses then your weekday overnight stakes do. that is a F*ing joke.