Aqueduct and Short Fields - Time for changes?

[jeebus1083]

I admire NYRA's attempt to continue to card 5-day race weeks with 9-race cards, but it might be time to consider cutting back on days and races to better fill the cards.

Wednesday's card, after scratches, there are 60 horses entered, 75 on Thursday, (74 in-body, 73 betting interests plus 1 on the AE list), and 62 on Friday.

I understand that the racing office can only work with what they have, but this is bad, even for winter racing. I remember when NYRA cut the schedule from 6 days down to 5. Perhaps it's time to cut the fat again.

[Striker]

The AQU inner cards look very similar to the ones before the casino/slots money boosted the purses.

[OTM Al]

Originally Posted by Striker

The AQU inner cards look very similar to the ones before the casino/slots money boosted the purses.

Considering they have been told that there is a minimum bottom for claimers they are allowed to run and can only pay a max of 2X (and may go down further) the claiming price in purses, that should not be surprising. There will be a few interesting maiden races and a few good stakes, but these rules pretty much neutralized the effects of casino revenue on the average weekday card where claimers play a big role.

[Al Gobbi]

According to Dave Grening and Jerry Bossert, the upcoming NYRA board meeting will look into the possibility of four day a week scheduling and dropping the ninth race.

[jeebus1083]

Thanks, Al Gobbi. It's too bad that race dates/cards may contract, but the game has changed, and the reality right now is that NYRA cannot sufficiently support a 5-day racing week with 9-race cards.

[wisconsin]

Originally Posted by Al Gobbi

According to Dave Grening and Jerry Bossert, the upcoming NYRA board meeting will look into the possibility of four day a week scheduling and dropping the ninth race.

Fine by me, but they'll screw it all up if they go through with poly on the inner.

[OTM Al]

Hadn't even considered another change that happened a while back causing the shorter fields but down at the bottom of this DRF article

http://www.drf.com/news/nyra-conside...acing-schedule

it is cited that shippers are down 80% since the new drug rules went into place. Very predictable and says a lot. One must imagine some horses that also normally would have been on the grounds aren't there anymore either for the same reason.

[MightBeSosa]

Sounds very plausible, and probably explains why NYRA was so reluctant to demand fewer juice options.

They knew.

[jeebus1083]

Originally Posted by OTM Al

Hadn't even considered another change that happened a while back causing the shorter fields but down at the bottom of this DRF article

http://www.drf.com/news/nyra-conside...acing-schedule

it is cited that shippers are down 80% since the new drug rules went into place. Very predictable and says a lot. One must imagine some horses that also normally would have been on the grounds aren't there anymore either for the same reason.

Yet another reason why this sport needs a uniform drug administration policy.

[turninforhome10]

NYRA to Consider Synthetic for Aqueduct
http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-raci...uct?source=rss

[bisket]

At the first whisper of a synthetic track Crist writes a column denouncing synthetics in New York. Any poker players in the house have any doubts about how weak drf's hand is when it comes to synthetics... If i were across the table from him I'd slow play him til he was broke.

[Al Gobbi]

I don't see why they can't just put a new winterized based surface (dirt) on the main track. It would give horsemen more opportunities to run longer (ie: 6 1/2 and 7F) instead of 6 or 1M which seems to be 85% of the races in the winter and give NYRA the chance to run up towards 14 in the one turn races.

[turninforhome10]

Could it be that it is harder to train on the winter track? Speaking more from being at Parx than AQ but East Coast tracks are under much the same stresses from the environment. Winter racing is hard on the horse with cold air on the lungs, frozen greasy track and IMHO a different quality of animal. Also involved are the pressures to have the horse ready for the race ie Economics of the condition book as the purses have created the owners more concerned about when the horse runs again. It is hard to keep an animal at a level of fitness for top performances when they can not have consistent training conditions.
Just a thought.

[tzipi]

Originally Posted by OTM Al

Hadn't even considered another change that happened a while back causing the shorter fields but down at the bottom of this DRF article

http://www.drf.com/news/nyra-conside...acing-schedule

it is cited that shippers are down 80% since the new drug rules went into place. Very predictable and says a lot. One must imagine some horses that also normally would have been on the grounds aren't there anymore either for the same reason.

"Shippers down 80% since new drug rules"

Unfortunately, not shocking in today's world of horse racing. It's a drug game sadly.

[EagleEye Po]

If there is legitimate evidence that field size is down as a result of NYRA's stricter drug policies they should use it as a positive and promote it to Horseplayers.

I would prefer to wager on a cleaner product.