Quote:
Originally Posted by Thomas Roulston
How come the UAE routinely runs 16-horse fields? They even have 16-horse gates to accommodate them.
See also the UK and Ireland, where 20-or-more-horse fields are not at all uncommon.
What are they doing right that we're doing wrong?
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They are doing what is right for them. They have the owners and trainers and horses and public that can support that scale of racing.
What's wrong over here is that the industry is not keeping up with the reality of supply and demand for horse racing here. We don't have the horses or people so that every bush track in the country can run 8 or 9 races of 8-10 horses every day. We could do that maybe 30 years ago. Things have changed, and the racing industry hasn't kept up.
Belmont today had 11 races. Three of those races had 5 horses, 3 more had 6 or 7. And that's on Kentucky Derby day. That's pathetic.
Talking about 16 horse fields in this country is nuts for the foreseeable future. Any good horse player would be happy as a clam to see regular cards of 8 or 9 races with 8-10 horses in each.
