Cooperation and Irony

News from Yonkers Raceway and the SOA of NY shows that horsemen and track management can work together for the benefit of each other. Starting on September 1st, Yonkers will no longer card races for $7,500 claimers and their lowest conditioned class (nw3000cd). The decision to eliminate these classes comes as it is becoming increasingly harder to get horses raced at Yonkers due to the level of purses; horsemen need to upgrade their racing stock.

The cooperation comes with Yonkers Raceway writing a claiming series for horses that have started for a claiming tag of no more than $10,000 or less than $7,500 during the period of June 1 through July 25. The reason for this claiming series is three fold. It will give horsemen a chance to see if their $7,500 claimers can be competetive in $10K company and it will also provide the means to lose the $7,500 claiming lines off the program (many tracks will not allow a horse to race if they show a past performance line with a claiming tag below the track minimum). The track is also rewarding horsemen who have been loyal to Yonkers during the lean days. To be eligible for this series, a horse must be under the control of a trainer that made at least twenty starts during 2003 (pre-VLTs). The purse for the eliminations will be $15,000 with the final going for $50,000 ($30,000 consolation).

Lastly, in order to get more horses raced, two NYSS races will be taken off the betting program to allow overnight horses a chance to race. Being sire stake races cost tracks little to put on, it is admirable that management is willing to work with the horsemen.

Some horsemen object to protectionism occuring at tracks, feeling they should have the right to race wherever they wish. Ideally, the horsemen are correct. However, being many horsemen abandoned Yonkers in search for greater profits, there is nothing wrong with rewarding those who kept the place running by offering special race opportunities provided the out of town horsemen are not kept from racing in overnights.

In a bit of irony, the SOA are reminding their horsemen that the Meadowlands is experiencing a horse shortage and are pointing out to their members that they may wish to consider racing at the Meadowlands to get their horses raced.