okay - here is a sure fire way to make money racing!

[TrueColours]

In a national Canadian publication I was reading tonight, they advised that at Woodbine, effective in 2005, in order to try and increase the size of the fields, they will be awarding a payout of $400.00 per horse for each horse placing below 5th in any race, ostensibly to help offset the cost of maintaining the horses that arent doing so well in the races.

GREAT!

I feel like buying a TB - any old TB - doesnt matter if its old or young, fit or not, lame or sound and I will enter it in a race every day of the month and it wont matter if the races are short or long, grass or dirt and I will get $400.00 deposited into my account every day (except Mondays and Tuesdays which are dark days) and at the end of the month, I will have $8000.00 in my account, minus about 3000.00 in monthly expenses so I should be able to make about $5000.00 a month doing this!

Of course I am being fascetious, but do any other tracks DO this and does it not open the door - WIDE OPEN - for abuse of this nature?!

[jellac]

Actually when there are a "flood" of entrants at the track the "number" system by which each horse at the track (or those with their papers on file even thought they will ship in on race day) is issued a number based on the day it's papers arrived and thereafter re-issued whenever it races, works very well to make it near impossible for any particular horse to actually draw into a race more often than maybe once every two weeks (QHs) and a longer for TBs. Once your 'any ol' horse' has run....or walked....from start to finish, it would get a new number and all horses at that track with lower numbers woudl have precedence over it in the succeeding draws to fill races.
It is when the fields are short....and Racing Secretary desparate that a horse who has raced very recently might be allowed to be run back quickly or one that is not quite fit is likely to be allowed to run....so in fact that is what short fields really indicate to my mind: not enough horses at the track of a particular type to fill that type of race consistently throughout the duration of the meet.

It's been my experience here in Texas that even as horsemen lament the lack of slots and hence purses "competitive" to our neighboring jurisdictions that every December the SHRP meet program is almost entirely dominated by Maiden races for 2YOs that have never started or not yet broke their maiden, specially Tx-bred Maidens. IF you're trying to get into an allowance type race or start a 3YO or get a non Tx-bred into a race in December, other than a stakes, you've got pretty slim pickings to choose from - and plenty of other horses of the same type trying to get in that race as well. From January thru March SHRP's program is heavy with races for mares 3YO & up trying to get in a few more outs, more winnings, get claimed before going to the breeding sheds.

I just tried - for well over a month or two - to get a QH filly in a 2YO race at Manor Downs - but not in one of the seemingly endless Trials as she wasn't nominated for that Futurity - and it proved impossible - she never drew in to the few such races that were carded. So after having her papers at the track for a full 2 months of the Meet she never got into a race....or if she did, they dropped that race from the Program. Had the same problem trying to get my 3YO TB gelding into a race before he turned 4 at SHRP two years ago. His papers had been at SHRP since the very first day they were taking them for their Fall/Winter TB meet and still couldn't get him in a race for 3YO & up MSW C & G, Tx-Bred (or OPEN) until January when he was officially 4. The two times he did draw into a race they decided to use one of the substitute races rather than the one he was in....this despite having consistently having 20+ entrants for that type of race!!! OF course I could have put him in a CLMG race right off the bat just to get him a start but I didn't want to risk having him claimed.

Finally, because the ultimate "consumer" of racing as a sport/entertainment is the betting public....if your horse didn't run in a fit and competitive fashion.....and there is no ready explanation of why it failed to do so....the horse will be barred from starting at that track until it has met certain criteria set by the track managment......(much like a horse that is a poor starter is barred from being in a race until it has satisfied the Gate Chief with several 'practice starts'). You'd be amazed at the amount of time that is spent by track management going over the videos of the races from all angles looking for 'odd' behavior, whether it on the front end, among the winners (jockey/horse interference) or at the back (where somewhere some bettors took a bath on those trailers). Jockeys are regularly called in to view videos and ask questions about what happened in a race and owners/trainers can be called in for questioning when a horse is an inexplicable sub-par performer.

He might never be allowed to race at that track for simply being non-competitive and therefore offering no bet opportunity.... Remember Zippy Chippy...who was essentially barred from all but one track in the NE a few years back because he just couldn't manage to win - EVER!!! It became something of a 'spectacle' to have Zippy Chippy in a race but he was not welcome at most tracks, because he had proven himself to be non-competitive under any circumstances short of the rest of the field all having heart attacks between the start and the finish.

[jellac]

P.S. True Colors....I DO WISH there was a Sure Fire way to make money racing horses!!!

Even as a very small time breeder to race I've been amazed at how hard it is JUST to get your horse in a race once you've FINALLY made it to the track!! Just when I thought we'd cleared all the hurdles to seeing whether or horse had what it takes to win....it seemed a whole new set of obstacles were introduced. Frankly it really made "Claiming" a horse seem very attractive to me...for yet another reason.

[Jean]

At Lethbridge Alberta they also pay to last hole. It is designed as a way to help the average owner pay some expenses at least the jock mount to keep running.

[madelyn]

There are a few other tracks that pay every runner, sometimes $100, $125, etc. Usually they are tracks hoping to attract "shippers", ie: a horse comes in just to run, to get exposure for the track to the horsemen.

[wilf]

Actually there are many tracks that reward owners for merely showing up and as much as you may feel that it is open to abuse I dont find that it is very apparent. At Woodbine for instance the pre race vet checks are quite thorough and previously up there I was often reluctant to make the trip up from Fort Erie to take a shot on their awesome turf course as by the time you pay for the van/jockey and groom exes you would be out over $500, so this news is a big help to us down here where all horses earn a check in a race , the amount being dependant on the original purse and the field size. Overseas they have had subsidized shipping in Australia and Britain for years to help owners out who have a long haul to make.

[monicabee]

NYRA instituted a sharing of a small percentage of the purse (2%? I think) for the also rans starting last year. I don't suppose many people ship in unless they seriously hope to have a bigger chunk of the purse, but at least it will cover your jockey fee most of the time.

[Tairaterces]

Just checked the charts of a few tracks and if you break from the gate you get paid:

Aqueduct
Calder
Hollywood
Belmont

T

[Laro]

Out here you can add Del Mar, and Hollywood Park, as well as Santa Anita. We get $400.

[henthorn]

Many tracks have added payment to cover the jock mount at least. It saves the owners and track bookkeepers lots of aggravation and time, by not requiring money up front for daily races. Only the stakes require money in the account prior to race time. At Remington Park I think each starter gets at least 1%. Texas tracks don't have such a system yet for TBs.