Well, if the first week's conditions sheets at Hoosier Park is any indication, very few horsemen from the Meadowlands will be heading to Indiana. As for those Illinois horsemen who have been waiting for Hoosier Park to open in order to head over, they may as well have put sentries on the border. For the first week of the harness meet, it appears every race is written for Indiana Sired or Indiana Sired Preferred. Great news if your horse is sired by an Indiana sired horse, but if you ship in with a horse sired from another state, you may have a better chance of running into a tornado than getting in to race.
I realize one of the reasons for allowing racing in a state is to promote breeding. There certainly is no problem with writing some races for state breds, but to write all races for Indiana Sired or Indiana Sired Preferred is outrageous. Could it be that Indiana Horsemen are afraid of the possible purse cuts coming the next fiscal year that they decided they needed to stuff their pockets with every nickel they can get their hands on?
There is a certain amount of protectionism which is anticipated in racing, but it is another thing to basically put up a blockade. I wonder how they would feel in Indiana if Hoosier Park's signal was not taken by out of state tracks or if out of state horsemen refused to send their signal to Hoosier Park until they write conditions more reasonable.
Clearly, out of state horsemen don't have a friend in Indiana. Just remember, retaliation is no fun.
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