Cards at Saratoga

[parsixfarms]

In many respects, the racing office is in a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation on the overnight stakes program. My sense is that a few years ago, several NW2x or NW3X allowance-type horses were shipping to places like Monmouth or Delaware to run in overnight/$70K stakes races. To keep them at home, NYRA bolstered its own overnight program. One of the unforeseen consequences is that, given the state of racing today, it has cannibalized the overnight allowance program (especially with 3YO races, where the stakes are glorified NW1/2X-type races). But at least the horses are generally staying home now. Should there be a greater purse difference between the allowance/overnight stakes and the "featured" stakes races? Probably.

Two other thoughts: I am not a fan of the extra races that NYRA is carding, especially with the 6 day race week. (I almost feel like I'm at Calder or Gulfstream.) Aside from taxing the horse population (and leading to lesser quality fields being needed), I think it taxes the fans as well. There's something about being able to leave the track at a reasonable hour. Combined with an average of 33 minutes between races (about 1-2 minutes per race additional this year), it's tough. Approximate post for Thursday's 10th race is 6:04 PM. That's not good. In the past, that race, even on a weekend, would go off around 5:45 PM.

Finally, I'm also perplexed by the positioning of the stakes races on the cards. I understand that, when there is a short field in the given race, they may want to move it to get it out of the late pic-4 or pic-6. However, the positioning of the stakes races this past Sunday was downright baffling. The Yaddo was the fourth race of the day, while the West Point (an excellent betting race with a full field) was the seventh race on an 11 race card. Meanwhile, the next sequence of races consisted of a $35K NW2L claimer for fillies at 5.5F, an NY-bred NW2X and an open NW1X allowance.