The weekends leading up to the Alabama are always fine as far as crowds are concerned. I think a lot also depends on the weather. It will be interesting to see how much (if any) money Stronach has contributed to Elliot Spitzer's war chest. If it is significant I would be very suspicious of its relationship to the bad press NYRA got recenlty thanks to Spitzer. Does anyone really think that jockey's possibly riding overwieght is an issue that would be addressed by the NY attorney general if he was not running for governor and the NYRA franchise wasn't up in a couple of years.