Hollywood

[Tucumcari]

cancels racing Thursday. We are in trouble and IMO it will only get worse before it gets better.

[tbrace]

Tuc,

Why did they cancel? No horses? Will it be every Thursday?

[docjocoy]

From the TDN:

Hollywood Park Cancels Thursday Card Due To Lack Of Entries
Posted: 5:52 PM ET

Due to a shortage of horses in Southern California, racing at Hollywood Park had to be canceled for Thursday. The track delayed Thursday's draw for two days, but finally had to call off the program when they could not field enough entries. Hollywood Vice President Eual Wyatt Jr. told Daily Racing Form, "The factors are that we could not fill a representative card; we didn't have a choice."

[Tucumcari]

I hope they go to 4 days for the duration of the meet. Del Mar has already acknowledged some problems and are going to 5 days. They were close to a card and then they weren't. Like magic

[majxmom]

I can't get my 2yo ready fast enough. The pickins are pretty good in these short fields to make some money. It's bad for racing in general here, but if you've got a horse ready to run, it's money time! It's a lot easier to get a check against 5 than 10.

[Tucumcari]

It certainly is!

[louis finochio]

I have not seen the great number of 2 yr. olds in training at SA like the past years, thy are MIA.

[Sysonby]

I'm sure that they will blame the economy but the truth is that horses are streaming out of California. Paolo Lobo is leaving the state, Jeff Mullins has a string in New Mexico and rumor has it that Vladimir Cerin will send some horses to Canada. Calbreds are running this week at Calder, Philadelphia Park, Lone Star, Indiana Downs and Will Rogers Downs to name a few. In the last week of Sunland, some of the owners running horses included Marty Wygod, Class Racing, Leigh Ann Howard, Michael Cooper, Ballena Vista, Vessels and Tommy Town. How many of those horses could have and should have filled the card at Hollywood? Other than a stakes race, what possible incentive could there be for a California breeder standing California based stallions and fielding Calbred horses to run in New Mexico except trying to get off the synthetics.

The problem with the short fields is that those races may or may not go which means instead of facing only five horse fields, you are facing no one and paying bills. It makes managing a horse that much tougher especially if your horse needs certain conditions to be competitive such as speed up front or long on the grass. It also chases away the gamblers which makes the whole game go round.

So now Golden Gate and Hollywood have had to cancel a whole card due to the horse shortage in the state. If this is all just the economy, where are the other cancellations around the country? Is this why the CHRB told TDN recently that the mandate may not be mandatory in the future?

[Tucumcari]

Yep Sys, there is an exodous. Vladamir is already in Toronto. He has one at least one since opening day. I "believe" Biancone is also headed there with some... People are leaving and with reason! I intend to follow suit.

[louis finochio]

P. Lobo should have left long ago, as his stock is medicore, he will do better when racing against the same caliber of tb he is training.

There is 398 stallions standing in Calif. with a hi % of them have never bred a winner, & the mares their bred to havent bred any winners.

My plan is to form a syndicate of owners & pool their $ and bring into the state middle of the road provern stallions & mares that have bred winners.

If a tb breeder dosent weed his garden his competition will. As those unproven stallions will become also rans.

[docjocoy]

My plan is to form a syndicate of owners & pool their $ and bring into the state middle of the road provern stallions & mares that have bred winners.

Interesting plan, Louis. Have you had any interested takers?

[Sysonby]

Louis, with all due respect, that idea is a complete nonstarter. While we should all strive to breed the best horses we can, Calbreds can run against Calbreds exclusively now at different levels including claiming (when you can fill those races). Their relative quality or lack of it isn't what is keeping horses out of the entry box. The real problem is that their owners have been chased out of the game by financial stress and the horses are plying their trade in Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Pennsylvania and Indiana where they don't get the benefit of being a Calbred.

Besides no one is going to bring a top stallion to the state when California's premier stallion In Excess has seen his fee drop to $12,500 in the last year.

[Tucumcari]

There is not much in the way of stallion in CA that I would be proud to breed to. Redattore, Cees Tizzy... I guess Harris sort of sums it up for me.

[Timber]

Lets not dance around it. It costs owners too much to run in So. CA. If you're an owner-trainer, stay in CA; purses good, competition out-of-state.