NYRA to make adjustments

[proximity]

18 track maintenance workers making over $100,000?

[affirmedny]

Originally Posted by nijinski

Not the father the trainer is the same one who that's racing now.trains.

The father's name is Howard not David.

[nijinski]

Originally Posted by affirmedny

The father's name is Howard not David.

This I know and he was known as Buddy . I also don't believe David is the main problem here .

[Spalding No!]

Originally Posted by lamboguy

the way i look at things, the bottom needs to be strengthened and let it work its way up. trickle down in horse racing game has been failing for years.

Can you elaborate on this?

Why do we need to stimulate low-level claiming racing? How would such stimulation cause top level racing to improve?

[nijinski]

Linda Rice and Gary Contessa have spoken to reporters and neither blame the track surface.
Contessa would like to get rid of the bottom level racing and bring forth a better product .
Rice would like more stringent veterinary inspections . IMO , this is a key issue. She also thinks there should be more time between injections of cortisones and such before returning to the track.
Both trainers agree the added casino money that inflated the purses are probably contributing to the rash of breakdowns with horses running more frequently and larger fields of these same horses.

Where will the bad guys go now that the Gov's office is watching ? I'm sure a few will flee and they won't be missed.

BTW , Good on David Cohen for bringing Charmeren to the Vet after
the warm up concerned him. He didn't get into the gate the other day

[Ernie Dahlman]

Originally Posted by nijinski

Contessa would like to get rid of the bottom level racing and bring forth a better product .

If you have claiming races there will always be a bottom. In tomorrows first race there is a great example of what is wrong. On March 4 Papa's Nice Cat won a $52000 NYbred allowance race. A friend of mine who watches horses come back after the race told me that on a scale of 1-10 (with 10 being the worst), Papa got a 10. Seventeen days later Papa is entered for the bottom ($7500). Bet him if you want, claim him if you want, if he breaks down you lose but the biggest loser will be NYRA.

[Robert Goren]

As long as the trainers can use drugs to stop the pain in race horse break downs are going happen at a high rate. A sore horse won't run a lick. A sore horse on pain killers who doesn't realise bad it is hurting will run it heart out until its injure causes it to break down. If you want to really reduce break downs, crack down on the use of pain killers.

[Seabiscuit@AR]

My guess is that drugs are a big issue when it comes to horse breakdowns and not just the pain killing variety. The performance enhancing drugs get these horses to run faster than their bodies would naturally allow. Later on the horse's body pays the price for the use of drugs. This could result in breakdown or death

Drug testing needs to be massively upgraded and drug cheats need to cop lengthy suspensions. This is one thing that might lower the breakdown rate. And if it does not well it will improve the game anyways

Instead of shoving all the slot machine money into purse increases a portion should go towards improved drug testing to catch the latest and greatest drugs out there

[lamboguy]

Originally Posted by Spalding No!

Can you elaborate on this?

Why do we need to stimulate low-level claiming racing? How would such stimulation cause top level racing to improve?

when you look at the costs of developing horses these days, it is very expensive. it cost me about $15,000 per horse to get them to the track, about another $5000 to train them on the track before the first race. that does not include the purchase or breeding of the horse. that is for only 1 horse, if you have multiple horses you need deep pockets.

not many people have these deep pockets to invest in horses. if you claim a horse for say $10,000, you might need 3 weeks of training bills and you are in a race. if a new person does well with his claim, he might claim another horse, if he does well there he might tell his friends and that might eventually get in the business of developing young horses and get them to the track. this is just a way of people getting interested in the sport. up until slots, the game has not been able to attract new faces because it never made sense for someone to enter the game. with big money in lower level horses being offered, you will get new faces. it happened 2 years ago in MONMOUTH, it was happening in NEW YORK. the attendance at the racetrack had even gone up with the high purses.

i am just going by assumptions of what has worked years ago in horseracing. the game has gotten away from what worked in the past.
there are plenty of other things that are needed to attract new faces, this is just a start.

[PaceAdvantage]

Originally Posted by Robert Goren

As long as the trainers can use drugs to stop the pain in race horse break downs are going happen at a high rate. A sore horse won't run a lick. A sore horse on pain killers who doesn't realise bad it is hurting will run it heart out until its injure causes it to break down. If you want to really reduce break downs, crack down on the use of pain killers.

Going by your reasoning, wouldn't places that allow race day Bute have more breakdowns than average? States like California and Massachusetts immediately come to mind.

Don't think that's the case though...

[Robert Goren]

Originally Posted by PaceAdvantage

Going by your reasoning, wouldn't places that allow race day Bute have more breakdowns than average? States like California and Massachusetts immediately come to mind.

Don't think that's the case though...

Mild pain killers like bute are not the problem. It is like aspirin. If you have ever had surgery, you would know there is some really good stuff out stuff out there. I have hydrocodone which I take off and on for intestinal pain at home. It is great stuff. When I get a blockage, it doesn't touch the pain. I go to the hospital and they give something and I am feeling nothing until it wears off. I can get up and up walk around and act pretty much normal under it.

[johnhannibalsmith]

Originally Posted by Robert Goren

As long as the trainers can use drugs to stop the pain in race horse break downs are going happen at a high rate. ... If you want to really reduce break downs, crack down on the use of pain killers.

Mild pain killers like bute are not the problem...there is some really good stuff out stuff out there. I have hydrocodone ..."

Piecing together your last two posts... Are you really under the impression that trainers can use hydrocodone or other narcotics? You complain that they can use drugs, but don't have any problem with the ones that they actually can use?

[Robert Goren]

Originally Posted by johnhannibalsmith

Piecing together your last two posts... Are you really under the impression that trainers can use hydrocodone or other narcotics? You complain that they can use drugs, but don't have any problem with the ones that they actually can use?

I am not under the impression that every horseman uses only what the rules of racing say they can. There are really good pain killers out there and they is more and better ones appearing every day. We all know that there are trainers who are using them. I am advocating that the powers that be in racing do a better of a job of rooting out those trainers. Even when they are caught, they get off easy. It is one slap on the wrist for the first offence, two slaps on the wrist for the second, etc. That should stop as well. You are not really suggesting anything I said is not true, are you?

[johnhannibalsmith]

Originally Posted by Robert Goren

... You are not really suggesting anything I said is not true, are you?

It was hard to tell what you were saying quite honestly. You say they need to crack down on the use of painkillers and then talk about how you take common narcotics to kill pain in expanding on why the therapeutic drugs that are legal needn't be curtailed - I'm just trying to figure out what it is that you do mean, not debating whatever it is that may be.

[Linny]

A huge issue that no one mentions is horses being nerved or blocked. It means severing a nerve in the leg. I horse who is blocked, who breaks a leg running will crash to the ground every time. They are the ones that cause the horrible spills. Heaven forbid it happens to a front runner in a tight field, like at Charles Town a couple of weeks ago. A blocked horse is like a guy running on a prosthetic. If the prosthetic breaks, he falls.

The fact is that raising the bottom is meaningless. All the $7500 horses just become $10k horses. An active claim box is a good thing and a bad thing. If a trainer thinks that the odds are that he won't be getting the horse back after todays race, he's much less likely to take a "long view" approach to it's care and mainainance. When the purse money is so out of whack with the cost of acquisition, wierd stuff happens.