1. Woodbine does it, no one else does, as far as I know. More tracks should.
2. Most tracks I've seen always have the dirt/turf conditions up, regardless of what surface the upcoming race is on.
3. I can tolerate it if it says it on the feed (i.e. "$1 pick 4 payoff"). What drives me crazy is when tracks don't say how much it is (i.e. "exacta X & Y. How much is the base you list, though?)
4. Agreed.
5. In a few cases, I've seen the camera simply cut away from the winner and go back to the horses battling for second/third. Most tracks I've seen are good about not isolating the winner, though.
6. Some tracks do put their entries out really early, but I'm not a fan. If you leave the entry box open for longer, it increases the amount of horses entered. Besides, you'd probably see a lot of trainers change their minds 4-5 days out, which would lead to a lot of late scratches.
7. Agreed.
I write a column in which I occasionally bemoan some of these problems, but one that sticks out to me is the vagueness on scratch reasonings. "Trainer" or "Stake" is so vague as to be meaningless. If a trainer wants to scratch, it should be for medical reasons only, not because the trainer doesn't feel like running his horse.
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