Hawthorne Needs To Maximize Its Turf Course

[Tom]

Finger Lakes has plenty of room to add parking for a BC.
In fact, we could probably through together a cross-country type turf course through neighboring corn fields, each horse could have it's own row, and Irad wouldn't get dq'd!

gotta try decaf.

[stlseeeek]

Horses run in the snow, and Arlington held a breeders cup, as did Woodbine.

I realize you west coasters are scared of the cold, but the horses actually love it.

[classhandicapper]

Originally Posted by Tom

Finger Lakes has plenty of room to add parking for a BC.
In fact, we could probably through together a cross-country type turf course through neighboring corn fields, each horse could have it's own row, and Irad wouldn't get dq'd!

gotta try decaf.

IMO Finger Lakes is very underrated. Right now it kind of looks like the locals got together, plowed a field, and made a track. But it has its casino and it’s a terrific vacation area. I’m not sure how to get it to the next level, but it has the ingredients to become a vacation destination and bigger time track.

[dilanesp]

Originally Posted by stlseeeek

Horses run in the snow, and Arlington held a breeders cup, as did Woodbine.

I realize you west coasters are scared of the cold, but the horses actually love it.

Yeah, but the rich people who attend the Breeders' Cup like things a little warmer.

It's the same reason most college football bowl games are in sunny climates, and the Super Bowl generally (although admittedly not always) stays in warm weather cities.

And the BC, specifically, is pretty dependent as an event on wealthy patrons and sponsors. It doesn't get a lot of revenue from television. Obviously they DID go to Woodbine (and I had fun there), but when you are convincing the marketing people at Luxury Goods, Inc. to put up big money to sponsor your event, if their people, who don't necessarily care all that much about horse racing, are going to have to gallavant around in 39 degree weather, that's a negative. Same principle with convincing rich people and celebrities to come attend the thing.

Honestly, I don't really think they'd hold as many in Kentucky as they do if it weren't the historic center of American racing where a lot of the major breeding operations are located. It's just a lot easier sell to get rich people to come to California (or Florida, before Gulfstream remodeled and took itself out of the rotation).

[The_Turf_Monster]

The purpose of the BC is to promote breeding, not find the best weather. I would expect to see it ignore California until it can handle its own problems and promote breeding in Kentucky, Florida, New York, and maybe even Maryland. I would add Arkansas, but OP doesn’t have a turf track

[castaway01]

Originally Posted by The_Turf_Monster

The purpose of the BC is to promote breeding, not find the best weather. I would expect to see it ignore California until it can handle its own problems and promote breeding in Kentucky, Florida, New York, and maybe even Maryland. I would add Arkansas, but OP doesn’t have a turf track

This has been discussed here before. It's been 15 years since the BC left California or Kentucky. New York is the only other place they'd be interested in going and NYRA doesn't want the event. It's not ever, never ever coming to Laurel or Pimlico. The discussion is pointless as these places aren't even in discussion.

[MonmouthParkJoe]

Originally Posted by dilanesp

Well, it takes two to tango. One of the issues is whether the BC wants Belmont.

https://www.thoroughbreddailynews.co...ms%20difficult.

Why wouldn’t the BC want to be in NY again once the facility gets renovated?

[Striker]

Hawthorne would have to make a lot of changes to its turf course if they are to host more racing dates. The course has only been used on a limited basis during their meets in the spring and fall, and the rail cannot be moved much due to how narrow the course is.

[Thomas Roulston]

Breeders' Cup or no Breeders' Cup, a second far turn at Hawthorne would allow the Beverly D., the Secretariat, and The Race Formerly Known As The Arlington Million to continue to be run at their original distances.

[dilanesp]

Originally Posted by MonmouthParkJoe

Why wouldn’t the BC want to be in NY again once the facility gets renovated?

I don't know anything about the internal reasons for it (and to be clear, it's entirely possible that in the next go-around of site selections, they bring it back to NY), but just from the information that has been reported out the BC clearly has had serious issues with NYRA. One thing I am aware of is that New York BC's haven't been all that financially successful compared to events in CA and KY. Having said that, a lot has changed since 2005 so I don't know if that's the operative thinking now.

Basically, if BC continues to not select Belmont as a site, we should assume there's some continuing issue the BC has with NYRA.

[cj]

Originally Posted by Thomas Roulston

Breeders' Cup or no Breeders' Cup, a second far turn at Hawthorne would allow the Beverly D., the Secretariat, and The Race Formerly Known As The Arlington Million to continue to be run at their original distances.

I know I shouldn't ask this, but how do you create a second far turn?

[wisconsin]

Originally Posted by cj

I know I shouldn't ask this, but how do you create a second far turn?

The turf course there used to be six furlongs, so they can make a 2nd turn similar to Los Alamitos

[wisconsin]

Originally Posted by Striker

Hawthorne would have to make a lot of changes to its turf course if they are to host more racing dates. The course has only been used on a limited basis during their meets in the spring and fall, and the rail cannot be moved much due to how narrow the course is.

They used that course the last few years into the 1st week of December. It gets plenty of action. They always have 3 or 4 races in the extra's on the overnights (not to be confused with the condition book).

[The_Turf_Monster]

There is no room to do anything at Hawthorne so long as they want to keep the dirt at 1M for the harness meet

I don’t speak for the Carey family but I would imagine that if they were to add a stakes race, it would be the Illinois Derby that CDI did everything to kill

[Striker]

Originally Posted by wisconsin

They used that course the last few years into the 1st week of December. It gets plenty of action. They always have 3 or 4 races in the extra's on the overnights (not to be confused with the condition book).

While you are right about making it into December, I would argue that only running 28 turf races during the meet fails to qualify as getting alot of use. Some of that was due to weather obviously.