If you like low payouts, here's your playground....

[taxicab]

Santa Anita's winter meet has had 8 racing programs to date.
Out of 68 races run, only 3 of the winners have paid over $20.00.
Currently, "The Great Place" is on a streak of 47 consecutive races where the winner has paid 8-1 or lower.
"Chalkhouse" comes to mind......

[Sunday Silence]

5 horse fields will do that..

[Stillriledup]

Disgusting.

Maybe they ought to try carding races for the bettors and not "de horsemen"?

[NJ Stinks]

I just don't get the love for Santa Anita. I like a great view as much as the next guy but sooner or later you've got to focus on the races being run.

[thespaah]

No dog in this fight...
I looked at the 12/31 and 1/1 cards..Chose them at random.
12/29..76 went to post 4 winning favs. 8 of 9 in the money.
1/1....74 went to post...2 winning favs..4 of 9 in the money.
The first two races on 1/1 stunk...4 in the first. 5 in the second. After that, field counts were pretty normal.
Each of these dates, the avg field was a little over 8 starters.

[thespaah]

Disgusting.

Maybe they ought to try carding races for the bettors and not "de horsemen"?
I still do not understand the term "carding races for horsemen"..
I used to be acquainted with a racing secretary who worked at Freehold..
He told me his job was to card races with the idea of having the entire field finish in a dead heat.
The perception I get from your observation is that trainers are calling into the Racing Sec'y's office and telling them "hey I got one ready to rock and roll. I need a race for him/her. Can you write one for me?"....Or something to that effect.
The way I see it is Racing Secretaries are limited to writing races for the horses that are on the grounds. What else is he or she supposed to do?
Walk the shed rows with magic horse performance enhancing pixie dust?
I'm not trying to start an argument here at all. Perhaps I am misinterpreting your claims.

[VeryOldMan]

No dog in this fight...
I looked at the 12/31 and 1/1 cards..Chose them at random.
12/29..76 went to post 4 winning favs. 8 of 9 in the money.
1/1....74 went to post...2 winning favs..4 of 9 in the money.
The first two races on 1/1 stunk...4 in the first. 5 in the second. After that, field counts were pretty normal.
Each of these dates, the avg field was a little over 8 starters.

I don't have a dog in the fight either - look at the next couple of days after your sample. Seems like a lot of short fields. I don't have enough experience re SA to know whether this is normal for this time of year. Field size surprised me.

[Stillriledup]

I still do not understand the term "carding races for horsemen"..
I used to be acquainted with a racing secretary who worked at Freehold..
He told me his job was to card races with the idea of having the entire field finish in a dead heat.
The perception I get from your observation is that trainers are calling into the Racing Sec'y's office and telling them "hey I got one ready to rock and roll. I need a race for him/her. Can you write one for me?"....Or something to that effect.
The way I see it is Racing Secretaries are limited to writing races for the horses that are on the grounds. What else is he or she supposed to do?
Walk the shed rows with magic horse performance enhancing pixie dust?
I'm not trying to start an argument here at all. Perhaps I am misinterpreting your claims.

Reddam entered a horse the other day that had no intention of running. They ran their fancy 1-5 shot (who got DQd from the win) but the race "went" because they had a fake entry, a horse who ran like 3 days earlier and lost by 500 lengths in a bottom level maiden race was entered and scratched. That's a "horsemen" race, they wrote the race for that squire eddie horse.

ALso, you have 4 and 5 horse fields with 2 bafferts in every race, those are not 'bettors" races and if they're not bettors races, they're horsemens races.

[Phantombridgejumpe]

If so it should be raised. If not, there should be. OR, charge for a scratch.

I'm not totally against writing some races for the bar a that supply a lot of horses. Has to be some give and take. No horses=no races but no races=no purses.

If you are against big customers having some advantages I assume you are against some betters getting rebates?

[Pensacola Pete]

The way I see it is Racing Secretaries are limited to writing races for the horses that are on the grounds. What else is he or she supposed to do?
Walk the shed rows with magic horse performance enhancing pixie dust?


Why not? There are plenty of trainers the Racing Secretary could learn that from.

[thespaah]

Why not? There are plenty of trainers the Racing Secretary could learn that from.
And the opposite is true, I am sure.

[BlueShoe]

So everyone is choking on chalk at The Great Race Place? Just wait, things will change. This coming week horses will start racing back from opening week outings, and expect a few sudden form reversals and big prices. Later on in the meet, when there is a 3 day Pick-6 carryover, with favorites going 0 for 8 one day and 1 for 9 the next, fans will be complaining that form has taken a holiday. This is the nature of game, changes, what goes up will soon come down.

[dansan]

About a month players were complaining about a long shot forget the post complain complain complain :D

[SandyW]

There is a major shortage of horses in Southern Calif.
I don't expect things to change any time soon.
The owners and trainers love short fields.
This game is about money and as long as the public supports SA at the windows, nothing will change.

[stevem]

New Years Day provided racing on Wednesday when they dont normally run. Yesterday was the 9th day of racing in 11 calendar days since the start of the meet. California tracks simply cant do that anymore. Worst part is, they are making the same mistakes again when they run on Monday the 20th this month and Monday the 17th of February. Monday cards are fine, as long as you dont run Thursday. They have no business running 5 days a week.

[Al Gobbi]

New Years Day provided racing on Wednesday when they don't normally run. Yesterday was the 9th day of racing in 11 calendar days since the start of the meet. California tracks simply cant do that anymore. Worst part is, they are making the same mistakes again when they run on Monday the 20th this month and Monday the 17th of February. Monday cards are fine, as long as you don't run Thursday. They have no business running 5 days a week.
Throw in the fact that Hollywood ran an extra week + extra races this fall (Golden Gate didn't) and it does not help matters at all. Golden Gate took the week off and has had better field size the past two weeks, but they have also done something a little smart and cut some weekday cards down to seven races and I believe they are taking the two Thursdays off when racing on the holiday Mondays coming up.

Del Mar is also cutting opening week of the summer meet to a four day schedule this year (they will start on a Thursday) before going Wednesday - Sunday for the rest of the meet.

[carlonr]

From my understanding, the Del Mar meet will start on Thursday (the 1st week only) because of the scheduling conflicts with other activities concerning the fairgrounds.

[aardvark]

From my understanding, the Del Mar meet will start on Thursday (the 1st week only) because of the scheduling conflicts with other activities concerning the fairgrounds.
They probably need the extra day to switch the fairgrounds over from the San Diego County Fair which ends this year on July 6th to get everything ready for the races.

[Howlet]

Would you like to know exactly why there needs to be horseman races?

http://www.paulickreport.com/news/ray-s-paddock/allegations-tarnish-cost-of-freedom-retirement-story/