>If the condition book continues to favor NYB runners, I envision fewer and fewer non NY barns coming to Saratoga. <

First, let me qualify this by saying I don't know much, if anything, about the NY Bred program. All I know is that the horses get very inflated purses and the stock is slowly improving over time.

Why should anyone provide financial incentives to grow a breeding and racing program in their own state?

Why shouldn't the NY breeding program be subject to the same free market forces as any other business or industry?

When you subsidize something, you typically get more of it (and we seem to be). Other than the people that are directly involved with NY Breds, it seems everyone else is being hurt by this.

1. NY gamblers get more cheap NY Bred races to watch and wager on.

2. All the money that's going for those very inflated NY Bred purses is coming from somewhere. That probably means that people working with non-NY Breds are getting less than they should based on a free market distribution of purse money. That it turn is probably putting some marginal owners out of business.

Is it any wonder that NY can't fill solid Open ALW and Claiming races anymore and that we have to watch an unending parade cheap NY Bred races?