Richie - could not agree with you more, on all fronts. If one of the most prestigious tracks in the racing world can't be in front of an aggregious oversight (duh- how long is the race again?), what to make of the "others", where it MAY be overlooked (insert local track here) & chalked up to a mistake.
Hell, in CA they would just back all 4 horses out of the gate and reposition the gate (get the dig here?). Take 2 mins.
I'm hearing your comment regarding my hometown and the Cardinals & the fans all too often in the last month. This is very hard to understand and I can't even begin to make an analogy. I'm getting back up there in September for 2 games for personal observaton. But when you allow your city to go to hell, who wants to be downtown? I used to tell people I'd been to STL and done all the cultural things - both a day and a night game! It's sad to watch from afar. It's close to becoming DC...
You are dead on regarding the retail gamblers (investors is my personal description).
Thanks for posting.