Good article, entertaining juxtaposition of Frank Stronach and Ms. Whitney.

I remain a Frankaphobic, but realize that in 2007 Magna and CD will be the major players to replace NYRA. As I have said in the past, maybe we all should be concerned that 2 entities will eventually control all of the major racing venues in the US.

With regards to Magna and NYRA, my greatest fear is that the Saratoga meet, which IMO is a week too long at 6 weeks, will be expanded to 8 - 10 weeks.

Winter racing at my favorite venue, the Inner Course, should probably only be conducted four days a week. Right now, on a 5 day schedule (45 races), we are seeing 15-20 maiden races per week. These cheap maiden races and state bred maiden races produce chaotic results and big mutuels, but in the long run are bad for the breed and bad for racing. To me, this is a result of too many horses being bred in this State. Good for the economy, maybe, bad for the quality of racing. Too many N1X- N2X allowance horses are being given the opportunity to procreate. To train these mustangs we have a whole generation of "stuportrainers" who probably would not have been hired as grooms in the elite barns that raced in NY in the 70s.

The entire NYC OTB network needs to be streamlined. It has never recovered from the Tammamy Hall like appointment of Hazel Dukes, a civil rights activist who didn't know..er, duke about racing and wagering. If Frank could fix OTB and Aqueduct, I could see myself being transformed from skeptic to sycophant.

And while I'm on scheduling, I wish NYRA, or someone, would race on Tuesday. I mean the choices are Philly, Tampa, Turf Paradise and Sunland. Now thats what I call a dark day.



Post Edited (03-08-05 03:15)