Purses slashed at Santa Anita

[cj]

Maybe the boycott is helping! I can only imagine the horseman will be none to pleased, especially with an out of town handle decline of 17% . Think they might be a little upset at Frankie?

http://www.thoroughbredtimes.com/todaysnews/newsview.asp?recno=41825&subsec=1

[BillW]

Sounds like they need slots. :rolleyes:

[Buddha]

or new owners and management

[lousycapperII]

Originally posted by BillW
Sounds like they need slots. :rolleyes:

:D It will never happen in this lifetime. The Nevada gaming and the beer lobby are the two biggest in Sacramento. Their yearly slush funds are so big you could comfortably retire on them and spend the rest of your days playing the ponies. :D

-LCII

[trying2win]

--The Santa Anita handle is down....well DUH!

--I don't think the astute PA members are surprised by that news.
I'm willing to bet that Santa Anita's unenlighted management willl give the usual "reasons" why the handle has declined. Too much competition from casinos, lotteries, NHL hockey and NBA basketball games in LA, the state taxes are too high, and on and on. Everything but the truth.

--How about real reasons, such as some of the policies of Santa Anita's executives like... making it more difficult to bet the Santa Anita races by refusing to take bets from a variety of other U.S. betting companies and insisting you join XPressbet, high parking costs, high admission and seating fees, exorbitant concession fees, proliferation of 5 and 6 horse fields, too many winners this meet that go from hot favorites to left-field longhots, eliminating free live video, etc. Hello Santa Anita management! You have to please the customers first, before you receive your rewards.


T2W

[JustRalph]

Originally posted by lousycapperII
:D It will never happen in this lifetime. The Nevada gaming and the beer lobby are the two biggest in Sacramento. Their yearly slush funds are so big you could comfortably retire on them and spend the rest of your days playing the ponies. :D -LCII

You can get slots and gaming tables in Ca if you are an Indian reservation, can't you? I used to drive past some on the highway out there........

[Suff]

The ship was sinking... the water was up around thier necks and they wanted to debate who has the better Jockey Colony.

Even on this board when people honestly and legitmately were questioning California racing ... They hung on in hope things would get better... On the real bad days they reached back and talked of The Sanita Tradition..... And on the really really bad days like when they had an average field size of 5.1 they leaned on the CAlbreeders program...

So today they bottom out on purses amongs the majors..and probably fit somewhere between Calder and Deleware...

Its important to Remember that they JUST THIS week petitioned the Governer to allow them to raise takeout on exacta's. He elected not to sign the bill... but had he. Santa Anita would have announced a PURSE CUT and a TAKEOUT INCREASE in the same week.

Abandon ship.

[cj]

Speaking of jocks...what with the disappearing acts out there? Ron Hansen, then Antley, now PVal. Where the hell is this guy? If Jerry Bailey vanished for a week, I'm quite sure we would know if he were a missing person, or just MIA at the track. We know nothing about PVal. We need the FBI on the case, that way we will know all the details :D!

[Tom]

Santa Anita. When do they open? :rolleyes:

[lousycapperII]

Originally posted by JustRalph
You can get slots and gaming tables in Ca if you are an Indian reservation, can't you? I used to drive past some on the highway out there........

:D Just for the sake of debate...what are the chances of a NEW California race track being constructed on an Indian reservation? Not in this lifetime. Luv the new doo! :D

[cj]

As suspected, the horsemen are not a happy bunch. In addition to the decision to drop many of the online wagering services, the Sunshine Millions appears to be a sore point.

See article:

BloodHorse (http://news.bloodhorse.com/viewstory.asp?id=20368)

[delayjf]

Don't be to sure that Cal won't get slots, Theres a bit of a battle in CA between the Indian Casinos and Arnold, basically it looks like if the Casinos don't give a bigger piece to the State, CA may allow slots outside the reservations / racetracks. The correctional officers have a strong union as well and they seem to be reading the writing on the wall. Hard to pay off a man who is worth several hundred millions. With the state deficent what it is, its a whole new ball game.

Suff,
I only think the Jockey colony is deeper, I agree with you about the quality of the racing, but I don't thinks it quite as bad as you depict. It will survive.