NYRA racing: trainer jockey colony blues

[linrom1]

I have not been following racing for about the last 10-years with exception of the big racing events such as the Breeders' Cup, Belmont Stakes, Belmont Stars and Stripes event etc. But in the past few years there have been so many great horses such as American Pharoah, California Chrome, Nyquist, Songbird, etc that my interest in horse racing was piqued again.

Since I only interested in high stake route turf and route dirt racing, and NYRA was the only venue good enough to string a few races together other than CLM or sprints for me to watch: I began to follow weekend Saratoga race cards. However I am appalled at the state of trainer/jockey colony at NYRA: it's a cesspool.

How can I trust Oritz brothers when they ride on uncoupled entries for Chad? How come Chad can have multiple entries with all 4 leading jockeys riding for him in the same race? Does NYRA card grass races without Chad Brown?

The Gr1-Test fiasco leaves me somehow angry. It stinks! Oritz brothers riding against Castellano? How about Ortiz on speedster Laoban while another Ortiz is waiting in the wings on Creator in the Jim Dandy? If Castellano goes after Laoban, he'll throw the race to Ortiz on Creator!

It looks like we a disease in NYRA--it's called Chad Brown Ortiz virus. I need to stay away!

[SuperPickle]

I have not been following racing for about the last 10-years with exception of the big racing events such as the Breeders' Cup, Belmont Stakes, Belmont Stars and Stripes event etc. But in the past few years there have been so many great horses such as American Pharoah, California Chrome, Nyquist, Songbird, etc that my interest in horse racing was piqued again.

Since I only interested in high stake route turf and route dirt racing, and NYRA was the only venue good enough to string a few races together other than CLM or sprints for me to watch: I began to follow weekend Saratoga race cards. However I am appalled at the state of trainer/jockey colony at NYRA: it's a cesspool.

How can I trust Oritz brothers when they ride on uncoupled entries for Chad? How come Chad can have multiple entries with all 4 leading jockeys riding for him in the same race? Does NYRA card grass races without Chad Brown?

The Gr1-Test fiasco leaves me somehow angry. It stinks! Oritz brothers riding against Castellano? How about Ortiz on speedster Laoban while another Ortiz is waiting in the wings on Creator in the Jim Dandy? If Castellano goes after Laoban, he'll throw the race to Ortiz on Creator!

It looks like we a disease in NYRA--it's called Chad Brown Ortiz virus. I need to stay away!

It's a very odd take to use Grade 1 stakes as a tinfoil hat example. Using a $20k claimer at least makes you look paranoid versus nuts but alledging collusion in Grade 1 races because two guys are brothers or a top trainer has multiple horses is just crazytown. Is angle they fix six figure races to make an equal or less sum? Are they crooks and stupid crooks?

Here's my counter on people playing the Ortiz collusion card. What makes you think people unrelated or less related are less likely to collude? Between business interests, family, girlfriends, wives and ex-wives half the backstretch is two degrees of seperation apart. Why are these two everyone's focus?

There's zero evidence. It's just "they're brothers they must be cheating."

[jk3521]

There's zero evidence. It's just "they're brothers they must be cheating."

Right. They being brothers you'd expect them to be more competitive against each other.

[cj]

Right. They being brothers you'd expect them to be more competitive against each other.


I find that very hard to believe when it comes to making big money. I'm not saying that they are conspiring to cheat, but with my own eyes I've seen many times where they are reluctant to engage each other on the front end.

[EMD4ME]

You want my take?

The increase in purses is not enough for these boys. They know they play for the biggest pools as well so they want both.

They know that in the end, the purses will be the purses. They will probably average (swap Irad, Jose, Javier and whoever else is hot for a given year):

23% wins
21% wins
19% wins
18% wins

So, they don't really care who wins 23% VS. 18%. They will each make a ton riding horses for their 10% share.

It's their greed of the pools that irks me.