Open For Suggestions

[stu]

Y'all,

It is official now - I am the new racing secretary for the Downs at Albuquerque.

I am open for suggestions on the type of races to write which would
attract you, the non-regular handicapper of ALB, to become a regular handicapper of my track.

Stu

[njcurveball]

Congrats Stu! :ThmbUp:

Can you card some races for Jersey breds on the grass?


thanks,
Jim

[46zilzal]

Y'all,

It is official now - I am the new racing secretary for the Downs at Albuquerque.

I am open for suggestions on the type of races to write which would
attract you, the non-regular handicapper of ALB, to become a regular handicapper of my track.


Some distance races to find out where the stamina is in the breed. I remember that good old (RIP) Vernon Invader did well there....

[Tom]

Way to go Stu :jump:

My favorites races......NIGHT RACES! :D

And I agree with 46....starter allowance/handicaps races going long - a series, starting a 9F and going to 2 miles.

[Show Me the Wire]

First congratulations. Second nice sentiment about writing races to attract new wagering blood. However, I believe you will have to write races to accommodate the type of horses populating your backside for your tenure to be successful.

Once again congratulations.

[Steve 'StatMan']

Congratulations Stu!!!

[stu]

However, I believe you will have to write races to accommodate the type of horses populating your backside for your tenure to be successful.

This seems to be the theme on a couple of the forums which I posted my request. My reply is the same for the forums:

I acknowledge it is a weird request and that all of my races will have to be written considering the horses on the grounds. I posit that there are numerous ways to write a race for the same subset of the backside populations some of which will be more interesting to the betting public.

[cj]

Write races that draw big fields. That, above all else, is what bettors should want. We don't care about 5 horses stakes and allowances.

[lurker]

Congrats. You are way ahead of most track exec's because you might actually value the public's opinion. Good Luck.

[boomman]

Y'all,

It is official now - I am the new racing secretary for the Downs at Albuquerque.

I am open for suggestions on the type of races to write which would
attract you, the non-regular handicapper of ALB, to become a regular handicapper of my track.

Stu

Stu: As many know here, I was the announcer at The Downs at Albuquerque for 19 years. Have our paths crossed?

Boomer

[joeyreb]

An idea interesting idea discussed on At the Races and Beyond could of weeks ago... Redefining the Maiden races to allowing surface maidens to allow horses to break their maiden on both Dirt and Turf.

I think that would be interesting, long as it wasn't abused.

As handicapper, one thing I would like to see is the elimination of career maidens. Horse should get 10 times to break their maidens, if not they should have to move on with dishonor to NW1L or X conditions.

I hate MC 10k claiming races with career maidens in someone gotta win races.


Joe
http://www.inside-the-paddock.com/

[Pgh. Gere]

Stu- Congrats! and Good Luck with your new post.

As others have stated, whatever it takes to get full and competitive fields.

My gimmick to try would be this; other parts of the world have handicap races restricted to horses within a certain range of Official Handicap Rating. We don't really have that here, but we do have Equibase and or Beyer Speed Figures. So maybe a race resticted to horses that recorded a beyer say of 80 as a ceiling and maybe 65 as a floor, within say the last 3 months, with weight allowances accorded to those with the lower figures.

Just a thought.

[nomadpat]

Good luck Stu!

I used to play ALB, I would say a couple of ideas/suggestions: Put all the QH races together at the beginning of the card like SUN does. The other is to offer a pick-3 or pick-4 bet in the TB races.
I hope that ALB gets more handle this year!

[kenwoodallpromos]

Good luck to your track!
I suggest-
1) Post finish times for all finishers in all races, instead of only the winner in Throughbred races;
2) Allow the lowest weight possible for maiden claimers (why have olders who never won carry 120?, trainers like weight off.)
3) Have a minimum purse for all finishers regardless of finish position, like $1,000.00.
4) If you have a turf track, allow dirt winners (who have not won at a route or for 6 months) to enter turf route maiden races.

[Bruddah]

We certainly appreciate being allowed to voice our ideas, and there have been several good ideas suggested. However, I think it would benefit you more, to be open and question your local handicappers. I am sure they could be more on target in answering your querie. At least they would be more familiar with your track.

We all wish you the very best. :)

[ponypro]

Look at the Derby undercard, what a disaster. who cares what kind of horses they were. It was mostly unbettable beacuse of field size

[Light]

Back in the 80's, before simulcasting,my home track would hardly card a maiden race on a weekend. They'd have decent fields and quality races for older horses. They'd put all the maiden and 2 or 3yo races on the weekdays. They knew everyone came out to play on the weekends so they gave em what they wanted. Was very popular. With the changes in racing you dont see that anymore,but if I was RS,that's what I'd do.