http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/ ... year-round
What's happening in South Florida? Florida does not regulate dates?
Gulfstream To Run Year Around?
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JCBloodstock
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Personally, I think this is one heck of an idea. Imagine a place that you would never have to leave. Imagine a place where you would have the security of racing year round. It would be a plus for owners, trainers, breeders and stallion owners as well as everybody else involved with the show. It sounds a heck of a lot better than these regional programs supplemented by slot machines that seem to think breeders and owners can survive off of 60 day meets.
JCBloodstock wrote:Personally, I think this is one heck of an idea. Imagine a place that you would never have to leave. Imagine a place where you would have the security of racing year round.
You just described Penn National & Parx. Year around racing. I'm not comparing quality of horses/races, just the year-round racing part.
I remember in the late 70s/early 80s when it was Hialeah & Gulfstream fighting for the best winter racing dates in south Florida. Now it is Gulfstream/Calder. One contestant changed, but the fight is still the same . . .
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fastappy
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The problems I see with the scenario is that A) the same players (Stronach in this case) are in conflict in the OTW & simulcasts and the bettors are left out, B) the over saturation I believe has diluted the appeal of the sport, & C) It focuses track owners resources to fighting legal battles, rather than effectively using funds together, promoting the sport, improving infrastructure, & increaseing purses for owners & breeders.
Just my take on it.
Just my take on it.
"He's by Damon Runyon out of a Don Rickles mare," Actor Jack Klugman
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fastappy
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Joltman wrote:Ahh for the good ole days when Hialeah was in competition for winter dates, Calder on the shelf as the perennial runnerup, and a good fight and midnight deal with the powers that be undoubtedly over booze and smoking Cuban cigars...
jm
Those were the good ole days! I've been fortunate to meet a few people where their word and a handshake was all you need.
"He's by Damon Runyon out of a Don Rickles mare," Actor Jack Klugman
I didn't read the article yet, but I've been saying for years that tracks should run all year. I've never gotten the concept of opening for a couple months, attracting a fan base, then telling them to go away till next year. Just bad marketing and a waste of advertising dollars. Year round tracks would also offer stability to families working on the back side which would lead to retaining good people. There are tons of great reasons to stay open-especially in the South.
I've never been to Miami. Is it really feasible to run a first class track in say August when you not only have heat and humidity but you are competing with Saratoga and the other tracks in the East for horses?
I know if you tried that at Santa Anita, it wouldn't work. There is a reason everyone heads off to Del Mar in July and August.
I know if you tried that at Santa Anita, it wouldn't work. There is a reason everyone heads off to Del Mar in July and August.
Sysonby has hit the nail on the head when it comes to understanding from whence the concept of a seasonal racing program came from - it was all the rage before CA/H and it made perfectly good sense.
As a trainer you 'wintered' in sunny/warm Florida or at New Orleans' Fairgrounds, then migrated to Louisiana Downs, Oaklawn and/or Keeneland in the early spring before landing at Churchill on your way back to the midwest following the Derby Trail", finally settling in for the summer Arlington, Saratoga, Turfway, Colonial Downs, Pimlico, Monmouth and Belmont for the 'summer' into early fall' season of racing. On the west coast it went from Hollywood and Santa Anita in the fall/winter/early spring before migrating to either Del Mar 'by the sea' to the south or to points north on the Pacific coast (Golden Gate, etc.) for the summer, with lesser lights racing at the "inland" bull ring tracks that accompanied the "Fair" Circuit. Only major population centers managed to have more or less 'year round' racing: New York with the Big A, Belmont and Monmouth avoided only the worse of the bitter NE winters; Los Angeles had both Hollywood and Santa Anita offering again nearly year round racing except for those hot, dry 'Santa Ana' prone months. Floridians did not want to go to the track in the summer heat and humidity unless the races started at night, after the sun went down and the ocean breezes cooled things off a bit > hence the concept of racing 'under the lights'. Ditto with The Fairgrounds - what a miserable place to be "outside" in the months of June, July and August.
Does it make sense today? I'm not sure it's as relevant for the fans in today's world of enclosed, climate controlled venues.....but it remains a consideration for the horses! I can not understand why anyone would want to race a thoroughbred over a distance of ground on an 88 degree evening with 99% humidity and a complete lack of wind resulting in air you can cut with a knife. Heck I've spent my entire life in Houston and the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coastal regions and I sure don't want to do any active aerobic activities during our long drawn out hotter'n heck summers! Venues like New Orleans and Houston, the Florida based tracks should avoid hosting a meet during the 'hurricane' season months - even when one only comes to your neck of the woods once in many years the threat and the need to react to that threat before it actually lands is entirely too disruptive/financially disastrous. Similarly I'd understand why Lone Star, Louisiana Downs and Oaklawn would want to avoid the very earliest portion of spring with the strong likelihood of a 'freak' ice storm/hard freeze and/or tornadoes/violent wind storms just as I understand why trainers (and tracks) in the midwest have no taste for hosting meets in the months considered their 'blizzard' season. (You do have to admire those stalwart fans of the trotters - I see them racing on blue ice hard tracks in snow falling so heavy you can't even see the horses some nights!).
However, as far as the 'seasonal' aspect of racing contributing to the loss of fan base - it sure didn't happen then and it doesn't seem to now in the 'prime' centers for racing. You don't see 'football' (I'm talking American style football here) fans giving up after the Super Bowl/College Bowl Games are over do you? They're perfectly willing to suddenly become 'B-ball' fans, etc. or just hang out until early next fall when the Pre-Season/Exhibition games begin....and Green Bay fans are certainly well known for their willingness to sit out a game under the worse of wintry conditions for their beloved Packers!
As a trainer you 'wintered' in sunny/warm Florida or at New Orleans' Fairgrounds, then migrated to Louisiana Downs, Oaklawn and/or Keeneland in the early spring before landing at Churchill on your way back to the midwest following the Derby Trail", finally settling in for the summer Arlington, Saratoga, Turfway, Colonial Downs, Pimlico, Monmouth and Belmont for the 'summer' into early fall' season of racing. On the west coast it went from Hollywood and Santa Anita in the fall/winter/early spring before migrating to either Del Mar 'by the sea' to the south or to points north on the Pacific coast (Golden Gate, etc.) for the summer, with lesser lights racing at the "inland" bull ring tracks that accompanied the "Fair" Circuit. Only major population centers managed to have more or less 'year round' racing: New York with the Big A, Belmont and Monmouth avoided only the worse of the bitter NE winters; Los Angeles had both Hollywood and Santa Anita offering again nearly year round racing except for those hot, dry 'Santa Ana' prone months. Floridians did not want to go to the track in the summer heat and humidity unless the races started at night, after the sun went down and the ocean breezes cooled things off a bit > hence the concept of racing 'under the lights'. Ditto with The Fairgrounds - what a miserable place to be "outside" in the months of June, July and August.
Does it make sense today? I'm not sure it's as relevant for the fans in today's world of enclosed, climate controlled venues.....but it remains a consideration for the horses! I can not understand why anyone would want to race a thoroughbred over a distance of ground on an 88 degree evening with 99% humidity and a complete lack of wind resulting in air you can cut with a knife. Heck I've spent my entire life in Houston and the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coastal regions and I sure don't want to do any active aerobic activities during our long drawn out hotter'n heck summers! Venues like New Orleans and Houston, the Florida based tracks should avoid hosting a meet during the 'hurricane' season months - even when one only comes to your neck of the woods once in many years the threat and the need to react to that threat before it actually lands is entirely too disruptive/financially disastrous. Similarly I'd understand why Lone Star, Louisiana Downs and Oaklawn would want to avoid the very earliest portion of spring with the strong likelihood of a 'freak' ice storm/hard freeze and/or tornadoes/violent wind storms just as I understand why trainers (and tracks) in the midwest have no taste for hosting meets in the months considered their 'blizzard' season. (You do have to admire those stalwart fans of the trotters - I see them racing on blue ice hard tracks in snow falling so heavy you can't even see the horses some nights!).
However, as far as the 'seasonal' aspect of racing contributing to the loss of fan base - it sure didn't happen then and it doesn't seem to now in the 'prime' centers for racing. You don't see 'football' (I'm talking American style football here) fans giving up after the Super Bowl/College Bowl Games are over do you? They're perfectly willing to suddenly become 'B-ball' fans, etc. or just hang out until early next fall when the Pre-Season/Exhibition games begin....and Green Bay fans are certainly well known for their willingness to sit out a game under the worse of wintry conditions for their beloved Packers!
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bdw0617
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It's very fiesable if you run at night, which at this point in time, is illegal to run a race after 7pm if I am not mistaken in the state of florida.Sysonby wrote:I've never been to Miami. Is it really feasible to run a first class track in say August when you not only have heat and humidity but you are competing with Saratoga and the other tracks in the East for horses?
I know if you tried that at Santa Anita, it wouldn't work. There is a reason everyone heads off to Del Mar in July and August.
Florida would be the perfect place for "prime time" night racing
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Bid wrote:I didn't read the article yet, but I've been saying for years that tracks should run all year. I've never gotten the concept of opening for a couple months, attracting a fan base, then telling them to go away till next year. Just bad marketing and a waste of advertising dollars. Year round tracks would also offer stability to families working on the back side which would lead to retaining good people. There are tons of great reasons to stay open-especially in the South.
Agree!
"I'll lay me down and bleed a while, and then I'll rise and fight again." Sir Barton
Casual racing fans do not see it as a sport. It's like a night at the casino or movies-it's entertainment. We all grew up playing Football & Baseball so we understand you can't take the physical punishment all year and generally if you like one sport, you like both. Very few grew up in racing and most have no understanding of the game. There is also no similar game to switch to in the off season. Those human sports also do a great job of keeping themselves in the news by having televised drafts and combines etc. during the off season. Racing cannot afford months off because the people just do something else and don't come back.
I have an appreciation of racing's history, but we need to stop saying "We can't" or "this is how we always did it" because times have changed. We need to think of how to survive and keep our game in front of the public. We used to get fans because we were the only legal gambling allowed outside Vegas. We are not the only game in town now. That's why we need to be entertaining & available.
As for the weather-I lived most of my life in NJ and the last 6 years in TX. It would be easier on the horses running at night at Lone Star than a summer afternoon at Monmouth with that humidity. As for the "winter" in north TX, I think we had 2 weeks this year- so cancel racing 2 days per year if it's really bad. The horses love TX in the winter and the ground never freezes so the surface is fine. You also would have turf all year if Lone Star wouldn't trim the grass as soon as it got an inch high.
I have an appreciation of racing's history, but we need to stop saying "We can't" or "this is how we always did it" because times have changed. We need to think of how to survive and keep our game in front of the public. We used to get fans because we were the only legal gambling allowed outside Vegas. We are not the only game in town now. That's why we need to be entertaining & available.
As for the weather-I lived most of my life in NJ and the last 6 years in TX. It would be easier on the horses running at night at Lone Star than a summer afternoon at Monmouth with that humidity. As for the "winter" in north TX, I think we had 2 weeks this year- so cancel racing 2 days per year if it's really bad. The horses love TX in the winter and the ground never freezes so the surface is fine. You also would have turf all year if Lone Star wouldn't trim the grass as soon as it got an inch high.