Saturday, December 24, 2005
SANTA ANITA - THINGS TO LOOK FOR AT MEET.
There is no racing at Santa Anita today. Racing will start on Monday 12/26/2005 at 12:00 noon.
Things to look for at Santa Anita's meet.
Look for fewer controversial rulings from the stewards at this meet with the appointment of established veterans Tom Ward, George Slender, and newcomer Scott Chaney, a former assistant to trainer Darrell Vienna.
Look for two wel-regarded 2 year olds beginning opening day at Santa Anita. Cindago from Sadler's barn and Point of Impact from Bob Baffert's stable. Point of Impact is a $750,000 son of 2001 Horse of the Year Point Given's first crop.
Look for Steve Knapp, who won his first training title at the Oak Tree meet, to continue his winning ways at Santa Anita. He has quite a few turf horses and about 50 horses overall in his active stable. He rested about 15 horses getting them ready for the Santa Anita meet. He has a lot of horses ready to run.
Look for Santa Anita to remove it's replay show from the over-the-air T.V. It will only be shown over the selfish Magna-owned HRTV, the track's in-house network.
Look for more talk about bringing Polytrack to the Southern California tracks. It's not a matter of "if" it is going to happen but "when" it's going to happen. It should bring some out-of-town trainers and horses to California as they now claim that they don't race in California because the surfaces here pose a greater risk of injury than their home tracks.
Look for more owners in California to quit racing and quit the game. As races don't fill and go, as more purses go down and expenses keep going up it creates a bad combination for the owners. They are getting tired of it.
Look for racing meets in the future (3-4 years) to have a combination of quarter horses and thoroughbreds on the same card. I am not talking about the Fair meets but at our regular tracks. Possibly with 10 to 11 races with 6 being thoroughbred races and 5 being quarter horse races.
Look for further major problems at all California tracks before anything is done to stop the decline of the tracks, purses, and number of horses at the meet. California's racing's future appears dim.
Things to look for at Santa Anita's meet.
Look for fewer controversial rulings from the stewards at this meet with the appointment of established veterans Tom Ward, George Slender, and newcomer Scott Chaney, a former assistant to trainer Darrell Vienna.
Look for two wel-regarded 2 year olds beginning opening day at Santa Anita. Cindago from Sadler's barn and Point of Impact from Bob Baffert's stable. Point of Impact is a $750,000 son of 2001 Horse of the Year Point Given's first crop.
Look for Steve Knapp, who won his first training title at the Oak Tree meet, to continue his winning ways at Santa Anita. He has quite a few turf horses and about 50 horses overall in his active stable. He rested about 15 horses getting them ready for the Santa Anita meet. He has a lot of horses ready to run.
Look for Santa Anita to remove it's replay show from the over-the-air T.V. It will only be shown over the selfish Magna-owned HRTV, the track's in-house network.
Look for more talk about bringing Polytrack to the Southern California tracks. It's not a matter of "if" it is going to happen but "when" it's going to happen. It should bring some out-of-town trainers and horses to California as they now claim that they don't race in California because the surfaces here pose a greater risk of injury than their home tracks.
Look for more owners in California to quit racing and quit the game. As races don't fill and go, as more purses go down and expenses keep going up it creates a bad combination for the owners. They are getting tired of it.
Look for racing meets in the future (3-4 years) to have a combination of quarter horses and thoroughbreds on the same card. I am not talking about the Fair meets but at our regular tracks. Possibly with 10 to 11 races with 6 being thoroughbred races and 5 being quarter horse races.
Look for further major problems at all California tracks before anything is done to stop the decline of the tracks, purses, and number of horses at the meet. California's racing's future appears dim.
