Del Mar Opening Day, Fantistic

[Igeteven]

I play very conservative on an opening day of any track, today I only played one race and hit a home run.

What I did notice was this, handle was fantastic, everyone is having a great time and the women were :p :p :p :p :p

There pick 5 handle was over the rainbow and it paid extremely well if one hit it.


Now how would you rate it today?

Anyone.

[GatetoWire]

Just real glad that no east coast track uses polycrap.

Turf and Dirt are the only way to go.

[andymays]

http://www.drf.com/news/del-mar-attracts-record-crowd-opener

[Igeteven]

http://www.drf.com/news/del-mar-attracts-record-crowd-opener

I told Mary at Del Mar this would happen on opening day.

[Some_One]

So just because people only know how to bet early speed they should get rid of polytrack? The 38 dollar horse was the 2nd best horse in that race wouldn't have a shot on a dirt surface, and how anyone can say no to poly but yes to turf is beyond me. There are plenty of tracks where you can find some small field 6f sprint where you can bet the even money early speed who'll go wire to wire.

[jelly]

Hollywood lost over $50,000,000 :jump: in handle.
It looks like DelMar will have a better meet.

[KingChas]

Kayla is 2nd in the jockey standings.................. :jump:

[Igeteven]

Hollywood lost over $50,000,000 :jump: in handle.
It looks like DelMar will have a better meet.

Where did you get these figures?

[tbwinner]

Kayla is 2nd in the jockey standings.................. :jump:

:lol: :lol: :lol:

[beefas]

I watched the last 5 races on tvg. Thats a nice place with some great races, a great opener for sure, its nice to see so many people support horse racing... :)

[JBmadera]

got killed, played too many races, need to sit back and wait for Saratoga.

[llegend39]

got killed, played too many races, need to sit back and wait for Saratoga.

I agree -The song should be renamed to "where the polycrap meets the surf"-forget ole Del mar

[JBmadera]

I agree -The song should be renamed to "where the polycrap meets the surf"-forget ole Del mar

I still don't understand why they went to that sh*t after so many great meetings on the real stuff. But I was a freakin' idiot for play 7 races on opening day...DOH!

[GaryG]

Horses that were able to carry their speed on Cushion Track will get swallowed up on the Poly. If we dislike Polytrack so much maybe we should all bitch about Keeneland, Woodbine and Arlington. Or do we just like to complain about California racing?

[dansan]

you nailed it gary 95 %of the ones that camplain havent even been to delmar

[Igeteven]

got killed, played too many races, need to sit back and wait for Saratoga.

Remember the old saying: One can beat a race, but not the races,

Einstein tried and give up, so what did he do, he help build a bomb :cool:

[JBmadera]

Remember the old saying: One can beat a race, but not the races,

Einstein tried and give up, so what did he do, he help build a bomb :cool:

true that! let the excitement of opening day get to me I guess. always loved going out to DMR

[Tom]

Watching Del Mar and WO last night got me in the mood...I may have to play the turf out there. Even if it is in California.

Toga-capping tonight with a few grass races sprinkled in....sounds like a plan.

[Igeteven]

true that! let the excitement of opening day get to me I guess. always loved going out to DMR

Opening day is to me, how are the horses going to take to the surface, what do the trainers and jockeys have in mind

I just pick my best race and throw the dice, When Saratoga opens, it will be the same way on opening day for me.

Pick and choose, good luck Saturday at Saratoga.

[Stillriledup]

I'm watching Skimming win the Pac Classic from the mid 80's (on TVG Classic) and longing for Dirt to come back to DMR. Too bad the current mgmt has 'backed' themselves into a corner by being so vocal about the greatness of polytrack (see: plastic).

From what Lester is saying, DMR had a 'fantastic' day on opening day. I just can't help but wonder how much bigger the betting pools would be if it was a great dirt surface.

DMR and Saratoga would usually be somewhat close in betting pools, but as time has gone on and plastic has reared its ugly head in California, there's no comparison, the Spa's exa and tri pools are much much bigger than what we have at DMR.

I know its PC to say 'all the right things' about safety and whatnut, but why would we begrudge DMR the ability to make as much profit as they can?

Sure, opening day was 'great' and all that jazz, but as time wears on with this meet, the fields will get shorter, the betting handles will go down and the novelty will wear off. There was a tremendous bias there yesterday, winners were cascading down the track on the far outside and it became apparent that you had to handicap the racetrack and not necessarily the horses.

Handicappers want to be able to tell themselves "the track is fair, its all about the horses, i don't have to worry about any wide/closers bias and i don't have to factor anything into my handicapping other than actual horsepower"

I know many of you will say that it doesnt matter and you should just adjust, but i'm not speaking from a bettors standpoint, i'm looking at this from DMR's pov. When you see results like this, you (as a big bettor) have to pull back the purse strings and bet much less. The 2 dollar bettor isnt affected all that much, but in fact, its probably an advantage for him because when a bunch of 20 and 30 dollar winners come in, he only needs 1 of them to make a profit for the day. But, for the large bettor, those bettors have to bet much less because of the 'random' nature of the plastic and how it was playing yesterday.

I can't imagine there are too many large players (when i say large player, im thinking of someone betting a couple hundred a race or more) who are saying "i can't wait for tomorrow, i'm really confident in my picks and i'm going to bet double fisted into these races"

Correct me if i'm wrong, but when DMR had dirt, werent they racing 6 days a week with no problem? Now, because of plastic, they're racing 5 days a week and talking about how they might struggle to fill some fields. And, back in the 'day' they never had to 'pay' trainers to ship horses in, now, they're paying guys to show up with purse incentives for out of towners.

Maybe polytrack has prevented a few casualties and there have been less 'catastrophic' injuries, but lets face it, if you go back and look at a random racing form from 2 years ago (which i did last night) i was looking at the PPs for So Cal, it was in May of 2009 and almost every horse i saw on the lines i was like "i remember this horse, i remember this horse, i remember this horse' In other words, there were very few horses i saw who raced on this May day 2 years ago who are still racing (to my knowledge). Most of them have disappeared.

My question to the polytrack and cushion proponents would be this. Where are these horses who raced on this May day in 2009 at Hollywood? How come for every 1 horse i see who's still racing, 9 of them havent raced at a So Cal track in quite some time?

Where are these horses, where have they all gone?

[sonnyp]

TVG just had a shot of the grandstands and apron before the 2nd race.....place looked like a ghost town. wonder what the numbers will look like today ?

[toussaud]

this is like taking candy from babies. I love del mar.


if you are a pace handicapper you are pretty much toast at del mar.

[Igeteven]

Still

one great post.

[cj]

this is like taking candy from babies. I love del mar.


if you are a pace handicapper you are pretty much toast at del mar.

What, pace can't include those that run late?

[andtheyreoff]

I'm watching Skimming win the Pac Classic from the mid 80's (on TVG Classic)

Wow..... :bang:

[Producer]

you nailed it gary 95 %of the ones that camplain havent even been to delmar


I agree 100%. I don't care what surface they run on, going to Del Mar for a day at the races is one of the most enjoyable racetrack experiences one could have.

[johnhannibalsmith]

Wow..... :bang:

Thanks... I decided to leave it alone... :D