Quote:
Originally Posted by Rex Phinney
WTF is Santa Anita doing? Even though this is my favorite track, I have to say these guys looked like a bunch of sideshow clowns right now.
Not just the obviously poor condition of the track but they way the track officials seem to be running a narrative that this is the horseman's fault. First the changes to training registration and timed workouts and now the changes to the race day medication stuff.
Are these guys seriously spending time hashing out raceday medication rules while the track surface is obviously wrecked? It sort of seems like anyone with half a brain would be solely focused on the track surface 24/7 right now.
What a bunch of dumbshits. And these daily press releases that they keep running to remind everyone that the track is shut down because horses kept dying there is just one more WTF move. Like guys, fix your shit, quietly, and then let's go racing.
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1. Of course you are right that they are shifting blame. They took out the synthetic track, they scraped and sealed it over and over again, etc. That's what big corporations do-- shift blame, if they can.
2. Having said that, the probability that this issue has nothing at all to do with actions of horsemen is close to zero.
3. Once the media decided this was a story, there was no "fix your shit, quietly" option anymore. Local news, which NEVER covers horse racing, was out doing live stand-ups at Santa Anita once the horses started dying. Local TV stations were tweeting about it. They weren't going to go "OK, we'll just leave you alone and let you figure this out and quietly restart racing". No way. This was now a big story, and what Santa Anita does or doesn't do is a big story too.
Santa Anita is operating in the following environment:
a. There is a TON of sympathy for animal rights in California. Indeed, there are probably far more members of animal rights organizations in the state than there are regular horseplayers.
b. The media, perhaps from ignorance of the sport and perhaps from what folks have been telling them, have concluded that Santa Anita has a significant safety problem, and are demanding answers and fixes.
c. The horsemen and perhaps some gamblers are doing what they always do in these situations, which is acting like the Mayor in "Jaws" who cares about nothing but keeping the beaches open and really doesn't care if any of the vacationers get eaten by sharks.
You try and operate in that environment and be absolutely sure-footed. Especially given they haven't even isolated the causes of the breakdowns.
