Amazing seventh race on Sunday
If you haven't already seen Sunday's seventh race at Del Mar, when Phar to Win almost got carried up into the clubhouse terrace restaurant on the first turn, you need to check it out on TVG replays or, better yet, calracing.com, where you don't have to pay a fee to watch something that should be free.
The chart footnotes say that Phar to Win was four-wide into the first turn, but it was more like six- or seven-wide as the 7-2 shot appeared to lose all chance at victory. But somehow, Jon Court managed to still win by a length in one of the most amazing races of the meeting. Check it out!
Hey, I have an idea for you and your readers, something like your fantasy of owning a racehorse. Try this.
You awake one morning and you are the "sole" owner of Santa Anita Race track. No board of directors or "others" to get in the way. You call all the shots! What would be 5 moves that you would make in the first 24 hours?
Haven't been checking the board for a while, but I like the question of what I would do if I ran Santa Anita.
1. Eliminate all "exclusive" wagering and TV contracts. Bad for racing, racing fans and future racing fans. Did I mention it's bad for the fans?
2. Shut down HRTV. As much as I think HRTV is the better network, the situation is similar to what consumers had to choose in the early days of home video in the 1980's. VHS or BETA? Beta was superior, but VHS won the consumer war. HRTV is by far superior, but TVG has the corporate muscle to reach into more homes.
Since Santa Anita would be a programmers' wet dream at TVG, I would hope I'd get the HRTV on-air crew a new home at TVG.
3. Install the artifical track on the training track. Since no one has bothered to find out what So Cal weather will do to a surface like that, time to find out. I would hate to run at Hollywood with live racing as an experiment in progress.
4. Add a well deserved new statue in paddock area to honor Bob & Beverly Lewis for their contribution to So Cal racing.
5. Get a media group together (TV, radio and print) to work on a plan to promote So Cal racing in each of their chosen areas of media.
For the first day, I think that would be a lot.
Kirk,
Good agenda. Hard for me to disagree with any of them. I find it really difficult to believe that the CHRB is jumping all over this snythetic racing surface before we know what it's really going to be like. If it flames out, it could be a big waste of money.