Great News! Stronach Group is sending Ritvo to Santa Anita to revitalize track

[Andy Asaro]

http://www.latimes.com/sports/more/l...520-story.html

Excerpt:


Tim Ritvo, chief operating officer of the Stronach Racing Group, is being sent west to help “implement best practices,” Sal Sinatra confirmed to The Times. Sinatra is the Maryland Jockey Club president and general manager.

Ritvo will arrive in Southern California in a few days and take up residence in a house that adjoins the downhill turf course at Santa Anita.

[dilanesp]

Originally Posted by Andy Asaro

http://www.latimes.com/sports/more/l...520-story.html

Excerpt:


Tim Ritvo, chief operating officer of the Stronach Racing Group, is being sent west to help “implement best practices,” Sal Sinatra confirmed to The Times. Sinatra is the Maryland Jockey Club president and general manager.

Ritvo will arrive in Southern California in a few days and take up residence in a house that adjoins the downhill turf course at Santa Anita.

Santa Anita functions fairly well as a racetrack (it can still draw a big crowd, for instance) but is in deep trouble because of short fields and a big time horse shortage.

Hopefully Ritvo trues to address that.

[Andy Asaro]

Gotta take on the TOC and convince Belinda that we have to sell it as gambling game of skill.

[JustRalph]

Unless he's bringing about 500 hundred horses with him....wasted time

[SuperPickle]

Like him or hate him he's probably the best racetrack executive in the country at the moment.

Like Santa Anita or hate it the place is in trouble. They're life and death to race 4 days a week.

So my analysis is simple. I'm not sure if anyone can help Santa Anita but if anyone can its this guy.

Btw... one of things I know he'll look at is the viability of current race week. If the racing office says they can't do Thursdays right he'll move to axe them. At Gulfstream he preferred longer cards on the weekend. In the winter months they clearly had enough horses to race six days if they wanted to during the height of the meet. But he ran 11-12 races on the weekend sometimes even 13. He buys into the fact more races on Saturdays and Sundays are better. Notice Laurel has also gone to three days and their business is trending up.

So I'm pretty sure a three day race week is coming. Cue the sobbing of the horsemen.

[Andy Asaro]

Originally Posted by SuperPickle

Like him or hate him he's probably the best racetrack executive in the country at the moment.

Like Santa Anita or hate it the place is in trouble. They're life and death to race 4 days a week.

So my analysis is simple. I'm not sure if anyone can help Santa Anita but if anyone can its this guy.

Btw... one of things I know he'll look at is the viability of current race week. If the racing office says they can't do Thursdays right he'll move to axe them. At Gulfstream he preferred longer cards on the weekend. In the winter months they clearly had enough horses to race six days if they wanted to during the height of the meet. But he ran 11-12 races on the weekend sometimes even 13. He buys into the fact more races on Saturdays and Sundays are better. Notice Laurel has also gone to three days and their business is trending up.

So I'm pretty sure a three day race week is coming. Cue the sobbing of the horsemen.

Belinda is the only one who can save it but it's up to Ritvo to open her eyes to real solutions.

[theiman]

Andy,
Were you aware that Prime Ticket, in LA and OC, hasnt shown TVG for about 6 weeks now.
I e-mailed them yesterday, but dont expect a response until at least tomorrow.

For those not aware, Prime Ticket is Fox Sports West 2.

Nobody at SA knows why it was dropped. I get TVG on my cable but not in HD. Prime Ticket was/is in HD. Not sure if other Fox Sports Networks dropped TVG around the country.

They show UFC replays during the mid day when live racing is on.

[Andy Asaro]

Originally Posted by theiman

Andy,
Were you aware that Prime Ticket, in LA and OC, hasnt shown TVG for about 6 weeks now.
I e-mailed them yesterday, but dont expect a response until at least tomorrow.

For those not aware, Prime Ticket is Fox Sports West 2.

Nobody at SA knows why it was dropped. I get TVG on my cable but not in HD. Prime Ticket was/is in HD. Not sure if other Fox Sports Networks dropped TVG around the country.

They show UFC replays during the mid day when live racing is on.

I had heard that. The Stronach Group can only control what was in the deal when they sold HRTV to TVG. I'd imagine that TVG doesn't want to spend the money to go on that channel but I'm just speculating. Hopefully with Ritvo there things will be different in a positive way.

I need to get off my ass and just stream the tracks I'm playing. That way I don't have to put up with split screens and the hosts not mentioning the winners odds when they cross the wire.

[Afleet]

Stronach is too busy suing Derbywars

[whodoyoulike]

Originally Posted by theiman

Andy,
Were you aware that Prime Ticket, in LA and OC, hasnt shown TVG for about 6 weeks now.
I e-mailed them yesterday, but dont expect a response until at least tomorrow.

For those not aware, Prime Ticket is Fox Sports West 2.

Nobody at SA knows why it was dropped. I get TVG on my cable but not in HD. Prime Ticket was/is in HD. Not sure if other Fox Sports Networks dropped TVG around the country.

They show UFC replays during the mid day when live racing is on.

Can you keep us updated on this?

I'm uncertain if my racing channel is FSW2 but I've noticed mine hasn't shown horse racing in some time. I've been relying on my ADW but they've made changes a couple months ago and watching the races has changed or I just haven't figured it out yet. I emailed my ADW and their reply wasn't very helpful.

Thanks.

[elhelmete]

Originally Posted by JustRalph

Unless he's bringing about 500 hundred horses with him....wasted time

Yes, exactly.

Gotta engage the TOC too, good luck. Didn't Lou Raffetto last 10 minutes here? And he's a terrific exec as well.

It's an awesome facility, and customer service really is top notch. Lots of improvements over the past 5 years to the physical plant.

[elhelmete]

Originally Posted by Andy Asaro

Gotta take on the TOC and convince Belinda that we have to sell it as gambling game of skill.

I respect your opinion quite a bit Andy, but wonder specifically about the bolded above.

What track operator sells horseplaying as a game of skill?

What would that 'look like?'

Compared to most tracks I've been to, I find Santa Anita to be pretty progressive as far as bettor education and offering help to newbies. The weekend handicapping seminars are pretty good too.

If anything it seems like Stronach has almost mimicked the casinos who, in the face of declining gaming revenue, amped up their food/bev/accommodation offerings (and prices) to make up for it.

[castaway01]

Originally Posted by JustRalph

Unless he's bringing about 500 hundred horses with him....wasted time

Exactly. And you can replace "Santa Anita" with "Monmouth" or 20 other tracks and you'd still have the same issue. Horse racing is not a viable investment, so there aren't enough horses to participate in it, which makes it less of a viable investment, which leads to fewer horses, etc. Can't sell an attractive betting product when you don't have anyone to run in the races.

[Andy Asaro]

Originally Posted by elhelmete

I respect your opinion quite a bit Andy, but wonder specifically about the bolded above.

What track operator sells horseplaying as a game of skill?

What would that 'look like?'

Compared to most tracks I've been to, I find Santa Anita to be pretty progressive as far as bettor education and offering help to newbies. The weekend handicapping seminars are pretty good too.

If anything it seems like Stronach has almost mimicked the casinos who, in the face of declining gaming revenue, amped up their food/bev/accommodation offerings (and prices) to make up for it.

https://www.paulickreport.com/horsep...-horse-racing/

Billboards, print ads, digital ads saying

1. There's gambling at Santa Anita (sounds nuts but most don't know)

2. At Santa Anita we now pay more when you win. Stop by and gamble on the greatest gambling game of skill ever created.


And the Jockey Club and the NTRA already agreed to use Ca as a test jurisdiction to sell horse racing as a gambling game of skill and that they would support it if asked by Santa Anita and the TOC

[Andy Asaro]

Tim Ritvo to stay at Santa Anita for a while

http://www.drf.com/news/tim-ritvo-st...ta-anita-while

Excerpt:

In a phone interview, Ritvo said he plans to arrive at Santa Anita this weekend.

“I want to spend more time out there like I should be,” he said. “I want to observe. There are no silver bullets and I can see what we can do to make things better.

“We’re going to come in and evaluate and see what’s been working and what needs help.

“I can dig into different issues.”