I thought the first two weeks of the Spa meet offered excellent cards for the most part, but it's been mostly downhill since. The Sunday and Monday cards were the definition of putrid.

Quote from Mark Hennig in this morning's Albany Times Union:

"These sprint races on the turf are great. There are a lot of horses that fit the condition, and they are very exciting races."

So I guess I can like these three turf sprints a day cards, or lump 'em.

Amazing that in the time it took me to go from graduate school to married w/three kids (fifteen years, basically), the Spa turf schedule went from featuring loads of 11, 12, and even 13 furlong races (was it really in my lifetime that J. Sheppard got a first timer, Pillow Mint I believe, to win 1st out at 1 5/8ths???) to sprint-mania. Anybody remember the Seneca, a graded turf race at 1 5/8ths? Long-gone...will they have to resort to state-bred 25k maiden claiming quarter mile turf dashes to fill cards fifteen years from now?