Bring Back The Aqueduct Summer Meeting!
 

Who else can remember the Aqueduct summer meeting, which ran from about the Wednesday after the Belmont Stakes until racing moved upstate to Saratoga?

This meeting was last held in 1976 - and in the last days of its existence, its highlights were the stirring, three-way battles among Forego, Foolish Pleasure, and Lord Rebeau.

And unless this is done, replacing the Inner Dirt Track with a second turf course will have been a total waste of money.

Both the start and the end of the Saratoga meeting can be pushed back two weeks, so as not to shorten it - and with two pre-Saratoga meetings instead of one, there would be fewer races taken off the turf, and therefore, larger fields.

I am convinced more than ever you just hate the way things are.

One of my first experiences with this sport was when my grandparents took me to Aqueduct in June and July of 1971. I was 12 years old at the time.

I can also vividly remember the racing show hosted by Frank Wright in the mid-to-late-'70s. That's when I saw the Forego/Foolish Pleasure/Lord Rebeau battles in such races as the Suburban Handicap and the Brooklyn Handicap.

And when I became old enough to actually go to the track, I loved such races as the Gallant Fox Handicap and the Display Handicap.

That's all nice and warm, but it has no bearing or relationship to the reality of horse racing today in the US. You want to "bring back" the Aqueduct Summer Meet.

The big problem with racing today is too many races and not enough horses. "Bringing back" a meet ignores that problem, unless you offset it by reducing the number of races elsewhere. Preferably reducing the number of races by a much larger number than the increase proposed.

Too many tracks, not enough horses.

Along with some OCD. A lot.

You have to understand the way things are to hate them. The alternative is that you don't understand how the system works and how to function within it, and you hate being in that situation.