The past several years, Delaware Park has been a hotspot for big time horses to come out of. From Afleet Alex and Barbaro to Havre de Grace, they have put the Stanton track on the map. However, with Parx (Philadelphia Park) not only having slots but getting a G1 as well, Delaware has struggled with their dates over the past few years. This upcoming season will be no exception, with the DTRC giving only 100 days of racing for the 2012 season. This is down 6 days from the 2011 sesason, and 16 days from 2010. Plus there is no contract currently with the Horseman's Association. The start of the season will be May 12 with for the third year in a row, the Delaware Oaks and Delaware Handicap will be held on two different weekends.
It's sad to see my home track struggling like this and with the way things are going right now. Unfortunately, the competition from PA and MD with both of those states now having slots has hurt Delaware. It's just very frustrating to see this happen and honestly, as a fan there is prob. little that I can personally do (other then bet which is something I'm not really interested in).
Even with the issues that are going on, I hope that the 2012 season is a good one. Hopefully we see another good Delaware Handicap, of course prob. nothing like last years with Grace and Blind Luck. Thorough, with all the talented fillies that are returning, it could turn out to be one of the deepest DelCaps in quite a while.
Delaware Park is my home track and I was also disappointed when I heard about the 2012 racing schedule. I really do not understand their reasoning for racing on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. I can go back and look, but I find it hard to believe the handle would be more on a Monday, Wednesday, or Thursday versus a Friday or Sunday. I would have liked to have seen a Thursday-Sunday race schedule.
ReplyDeleteAs far as reducing race days, I am fine with that. I would not mind seeing it reduced even more, say to 75-80 days, racing Friday-Sunday with an 11 or 12 race card daily. I know I was annoyed when I would go to the track for a day of betting and see 5-horse fields, or even a 10-horse field scratched down to 5-6 horses. I believe Delaware Park needs to follow what Monmouth Park did recently and reduce race days, which would increase race purses and field size, and hopefully with better quality field and betting option, an increase in handle.
Monmouth has had issues though, the Elite meet from a few years ago ended up as somewhat of a lukewarm disapointment. Morris Bailey backed out of his lease and I think the horseman are running the track this year.
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