What if they held a Stakes race and nobody came

[JustRalph]

http://drf.com/news/golden-gate-cancels-stakes

[Cardus]

What if someone started a thread and no one replied?

[DeanT]

Pretty sure they should raise takeout, to raise purses, so less horses come.

Or something like that.

[Zman179]

This thread is just like what the Golden Gate Race Secretary sees when he tries to get a race together: only 4 replies.

[johnhannibalsmith]

... only 4 replies...

...from two different trainers.

[onefast99]

Lenas Angel(Nov 12th) at Aqueduct had 1 horse enter out of 12 nominations with one of those nominations lady Alexander on the sale block at Keeneland yesterday(sold for 410k). The race was to be contested at 6f and for some odd reason got switched to a 7f race at time of entries.

[Cardus]

How does this sound: what if the racing office "encouraged" the trainer of the slowest member of the threesome to scratch in advance of the race?

Golden Gate would have a match race in a sprint stakes. That's not such a bad thing, and it might draw more attention to the race than if there were three horses in the starting gate.

[johnhannibalsmith]

How does this sound: what if the racing office "encouraged" the trainer of the slowest member of the threesome to scratch in advance of the race?

Golden Gate would have a match race in a sprint stakes. That's not such a bad thing, and it might draw more attention to the race than if there were three horses in the starting gate.

Ha! I actually promoted this notion once in a similar situation once and everyone nearly fell over. It was too much to even digest. And they hadn't even thought what the HBPA's kneejerk reaction would be to cutting up a stakes pot among just two.

[onefast99]

Ha! I actually promoted this notion once in a similar situation once and everyone nearly fell over. It was too much to even digest. And they hadn't even thought what the HBPA's kneejerk reaction would be to cutting up a stakes pot among just two.
Wouldn't the pot still be paid out 60% for win and 20% for place and the rest of the money returned to the fund?

[Zman179]

How does this sound: what if the racing office "encouraged" the trainer of the slowest member of the threesome to scratch in advance of the race?

Golden Gate would have a match race in a sprint stakes. That's not such a bad thing, and it might draw more attention to the race than if there were three horses in the starting gate.

Well they would lose the Exacta, Quinella and a third win option in the race, so it would cost them revenue to do so. Remember, that sucker horse increases the odds on the other two horses.

[therussmeister]

No need to lose the exacta. Canterbury once offered an exacta in a match race. People actually bet it. Predictably it paid less than the win.

And they say the lottery is a tax on stupidity! :rolleyes: