One of the prerequisites of gambling is a fair game. We are talking about a fifty-two card deck, balanced dice or a safe, fair racetrack. Santa Anita's track disaster is the equivalent of dealing a forty-nine card deck or shooting with loaded dice. The track is not safe and that has been confirmed by leading Rider Garret Gomez. This is the last chance for Magna to show that it can rise above the complete incompetence that has plagued its operations.
Gomez has confirmed publicly that he may desert the Santa Anita colony for a safer track. Gomez described jagged rocks poking out of the stripped down surface. How can this be safe? With little choice or time to improve the conditions, the defective cushion track is a looming catastrophe. This is a surface that is not fit for the world class racing, due to this reason the quality of the Santa Anita meet will noticeably deteriorate as top horses follow Gomez to a safer racetrack. Along with Gomez and the Grade I type horses the action of American horse players will move elsewhere. What remains will not be the world class Santa Anita meet that the world is used to.
With the breeders cup on the horizon, just nine months away, the stakes are huge for Santa Anita/Magna management. The track installation incompetence have placed them between a rock and a hard place. Magna the troubled track operator has reached rock bottom and it is a jagged rock bottom. Bankruptcy, failed slot operations and now incompetent track construction have placed Magna in a precarious position. The outcome of this fiasco will indicate if Magna can continue as a track owner in North America. If Santa Anita can rise to the challenge of fixing the track they have destroyed, this organization may turn the corner into a viable track operator. However if this meet falls into complete chaos, complete with a killing field surface and intermittent cancellations Magna's extraordinary incompetence may just run out it out of the equine gaming business. The Breeders Cup is hanging in the balance.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I am no fan of Magna or Stronach, but I have a hard time holding them responsible for this. The CHRB mandated the change to synthetics prematurely, and it seems that the Cushion Track people didn't think adequately about the installation of this surface on this track. I agree that it's a disaster, and that they've been placed in an outrageous position, but I'd place the blame on Shapiro and Cushion.
Such a mess over at Santa Anita. Hey fellow thoroughbred alliance blogger - just wanted to stop by and say hi and congrads. Looks like we're the new guys. You've got some excellent write up on your blog.
I'm like you, got hooked at racing in my pre-teens and have never looked back.
Keep up the good work! :)
Post a Comment