Fairmount1 Wrote:
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> When Downs After Dark racing ended in June, I went
> down in the paddock area to see the party that
> would be happening there. Before I made it there,
> I ran into Travis Stone who was with his friends
> as he was leaving (just be aware that he is close
> to the Casse barn when you see morning lines with
> Casse' horses as you may see a bias he wouldn't
> recognize).
>
> Anyway, I spoke to him about his Spa morning lines
> in a joshing manner. He didn't take it very
> kindly and pushed on me to explain further. So I
> responded "What about Seven Forty Seven who you
> had at 12-1 and went off about 6-5?" His reply
> tells you everything you will need to know about
> his understanding of a m/l.....
>
> He said (and I paraphrase but this is very, very
> close) I'll tell you just like I told my friends,
> 'that horse didn't win til this spring.' I
> immediately said It doesn't matter whether the
> horse won or not, what matters is what the odds
> were that day! We parted ways after that.
>
> On a final note, many of these guys making a m/l
> don't have the math right whatsoever for figuring
> out the morning line (their "points" add up way
> too high but I'll leave it at that without getting
> more technical). I believe I saw Stone discuss
> his method once around Derby time indicating he
> doesn't do it correctly in my opinion.

This fiasco is not Travis Stone's fault. He has proven his incompetence. If anybody needed a reminder, just look at the Lake George today -- look at the line on Defiant Honor, her PPs and what she went off at. The guy is clearly incompetent and everybody has known this for a long time at this point. It is no secret and the proprietor of this website said the NYRA was in discussions about how incompetent the guy is.

The question is -- when the NYRA is confronted with incompetence, they do not remove the guy but rather they re-up and bring the guy back. That is the problem -- the person at the NYRA who decided to do away with the guy who makes the line the rest of the year and is great and put this incompetent person in place.

Just sickens me. The Saratoga meet is where the sport is supposed to put its best foot forward, and instead they do their best to sicken their customers.