They moved the Mother Goose...yet another change.

[Sheffwed]

I think everyone's missing the bigger picture here (except Andy, this time)

What will NYRA racing look like in a few years is the question, and how to best position it going forward?

Resting on tradition isn't the answer

There are many many more betting options for the wagering public and frankly racing at Aqueduct this month has really sucked, hence the wild drop in wagering (surprised not to see this discussed here) - small fields, plodding races, can't blame the weather on NYRA, but the trainers? Ness, Jacobson, Rice, subpar jockeys - unbettable

Where is this going?

If it were me, I'd maximize Saratoga, frankly run a few boutique short weekend meetings in the Fall also there, especially these days where it's the Big A all the time, then the Big A will be gone sadly

Belmont will be a different place, we will lose the old fashioned paddock and feel when they switch to a new, smaller facility on the other side of the track, if that is the plan, isn't that more important?

Personally I'm looking forward to the all weather surface there, but where is that going? Is Belmont going to lose its charm altogether?

I'm sure NYRA could space out a 3yo Filly series, or even create a new one with other tracks including the Ky Oaks, and have only 1 of the 3 legs in NY as is the case with the TC

And for me, how to attract legit trainers to jurisdictions like NY and CA is the question so we don't have terrible racing with short fields with horses run by trainers who later end up in jail

[classhandicapper]

Obviously, one major problem is that horses don't run as frequently. So some major stakes are going to suffer. But it seems to me that "part" of the problem is that a smaller group of trainers dominate the high quality horses these days. Guys like Cox, Asmussen, and Baffert have a LOT of them outside NY. As a percentage, I suspect there are fewer very high quality dirt horses in the hands of NY trainers these days than years ago. So some NY stakes will suffer. Trainers will ship for the super prestigious races at Saratoga, but they often have similar opportunities closer to home for other races and won't.

The flip side is occurring on turf where Chad Brown has such an unusually high number of high quality turf horses in some divisions, sometimes it's a 5 horse field where he has 3 of them and he ships the 4th and 5th string out. California has that issue with Baffert on dirt.

I don't have any good ideas for how to change this. I'm not even sure we should try. I just think the concentration of so many good horses in so few hands has downsides. It can change the regional distribution of high quality horses and quality of stakes over time (and impact others trying to make a living). Hopefully that will change.

[Someday Silent]

This isn't all on NYRA. I'm perplexed how the U.S. overall is averse to running fillies against colts, but hasn't done anything to provide a cohesive "Triple" for that gender.

[the little guy]

Originally Posted by Someday Silent

This isn't all on NYRA. I'm perplexed how the U.S. overall is averse to running fillies against colts, but hasn't done anything to provide a cohesive "Triple" for that gender.

This isn't all on NYRA? What isn't? Some imagined slight?

The landscape has changed.