They Gotta Get it Together

Today was a long day, and at times it was excruciating.

I got a set of emails from a long time fan just now, which shows the frustration.

"Bleh, they take 15 minutes to circle but can't take 30 seconds to look at the Florida Derby stretch drive, add the whipping of International Star..... it feels like it's not worth my money anymore."

Make no mistake, this is not an isolated complaint from a "whiny horseplayer". This has been going on for awhile.

We don't hold our breath for stretch drives to watch the majesty of the horses, we do that because we're sure the horse we want to win is about to get bumped as he's cruising by, or taken into the outside fence. It's not like the stews call herding often, and when they do it's usually interpreted a hundred ways.  This has gotten out of hand.

We never know what time post time is because they'll drag a post by making horses walk over and over again in a circle. Today, unbelieveably, they stretched a post time at Santa Anita, while Gulfstream was 2 minutes to post, then they had to stretch the Gulfstream time to post, because they stretched the Santa Anita time to post.

Gulfstream and Santa Anita are run by the same management team.

Who's on first?

We need four ADW's to bet every track today - or we can use one, bet a half a million dollars into 22% juice, and get a toaster as a gift. If you wanted to bet from Pennsylvania today you found you were locked out of the ADW, because of ADW taxes. Same with New York.

If you're lucky enough to find lower rake, you suddenly look up and some tracks are now giving you no more than a toaster. Heck, this guy lives in California, and they don't even let him collect points for a toaster.

Lately, a professional betting friend of mine has not asked me for my thoughts on the races. CDI and Stronach have removed their races from betfair, and that's where he follows the sport. He used to bet six figures a year into the parimutuel pools. But now they're off betfair, and he doesn't follow the sport at all.

They are making it incredibly hard to be a fan, and a bettor.

Thank god for the horses, because watching them today we hold nothing but respect - International Star,  a true pro; Upstart who always tries his guts out. The performances in Dubai.

That's a deep respect that keeps us tuning in. But it can't last forever for some. They have to start getting it together.