Well, no racing at the NorCal fairs on Tuesdays, but it could only help. It's like 8-9 bucks for admission, 8 bucks for parking at Pleasanton.
I think what helped was the conscious effort by the fairs to get field size up and they cut a couple stakes to do it. TOC was NOT happy, saying that big races made publicity. There was one day at Pleasanton where they had an average of ten+ per race, a rarity now. Gimme decent-sized fields!
Cutting back to the chase, yeah, there are certain things that Equidaily likes to keep in front. Crist doesn't count in the scheme of things though, it's what Albany feels like doing at the moment. The situation is summed up by Crist's own words from the article:
"Trying to predict how it will all turn out at this point is a little like making a Kentucky Derby futures bet tomorrow - on the 2007 Derby."