This Saturday's edition of the Diana at Saratoga Race Course, quite simply, is an abomination that never should have been carded. It's bad enough that racetracks successfully petitioned (owner-stacked) racing boards to allow for uncoupled entries in races, but to allow four of five entrants to come from the same barn, regardless of independent ownership, is an affront to the betting public and spirit of competition.
Dismantled coupled entry rules used to be in place because of a justified worry the public might smell collusion in individual races. At least the perception of integrity was considered. Until recently, New York refused to even allow husband and wife jockeys to participate in the same race (while permitting the Ortiz brothers, Jose and Irad, to race together on a daily basis).
In 2015, New York modified its rules on coupled entries in what the BloodHorse said was an effort to boost field size and increase revenue for the tracks. So long, primacy of integrity.
Ludicrously, it was reported that a mere two public comments were received about the proposal, both from NYRA, of course in favor of uncoupling. I doubt much effort was made to engage the gambling public because it certainly would have had a thing or two to say about this.
A New York State Gaming Commission note accompanying the rule stated, “The commission steward would maintain authority … to require horses be coupled prior to the commencement on any particular race upon a finding that doing so is necessary in the public interest.”
I guess four of five entrants coming out of the same barn doesn't rise to the level of this elusive threshold. Perhaps if Chad Brown controlled all five of the runners…
The increased concentration of horses by the most powerful owners in the hands of a select few trainers exploits a vulnerability in the logic of uncoupling. If the goal was to increase field sizes, the presence of so many imposing runners from Brown's barn discourages potential opposition from even entering … and no one else has the horses to compete.
The owners in the Diana are not fully representative, but as the most powerful ownership syndicates continue to drive up median sale prices at auctions and corner the market on the top and middle of quality bloodstock, they (passively?) collude to dominate racing by, again, concentrating the horses of any talent in the hands of a select few trainers and ultimately subsidizing their operations by subsequently overwhelming short fields of inferior runners – short fields far too often made possible by uncoupled entries, precisely opposite of the spoken goal in permitting them.
Were this not allowed, these races – quite properly – would not go.
Earlier this year, Santa Anita Park offered bettors a race even more dismal than this Diana, when the Grade 3 Robert B. Lewis Stakes for 3-year-olds draw all of four runners, all trained by Bob Baffert.
As the Daily Racing Form reported Feb. 2 in its preview of the race, “Baffert-trained colts foaled in 2020 won 18 of the 22 non-restricted special-weight maiden dirt races in Southern California since Del Mar last summer, and seven of eight dirt stakes.”
Baffert won the Lewis Stakes, by the way, making it eight of nine.
To be clear, no one wants to see stakes races canceled, particularly illustrious ones like the Diana, which dates to 1939. An alternative to scrapping uncompetitive stakes would be to run them as non-wagering exhibitions, which at a minimum would allow races to maintain their graded status. It also would avoid penalizing innocent entered owners, while making a show of interest in competitive integrity.
Still, if enough prestigious stakes races were threatened with cancellation because of a lack of competition, it might actually stimulate the spreading of talent among a wider field of trainers. No other effort to do that is being made, even as genuine horsemen, every bit the equal of the national leaders, watch their barns shrivel and die. But, of course, that's the goal of the richest: the reduction of competition.
Just look at the trainer leader board on Equibase, at the sheer volume of runners the leaders are sending out. It's only July, but already Brad Cox has had 451 starters. Todd Pletcher 494. Mike Maker 572. Robertino Diodoro 516. Steve Asmussen – wait for it – 1,264. You'll probably get to 2,500, Steve! The entire 2020 foal crop was only 18,454. Obviously, starts aren't starters, but you get the point.
The owners saw the light: Give all the best horses to a select few trainers, starve or discourage the smaller outfits and hopefully drive them out of business, and then just sweep up all the money because the commissions permit tracks to card pantomimes of competitive races. Like the Diana. It's a recipe to make the strong stronger and the races lesser. There is nothing Grade 1 about it.
John Scheinman is a two-time Eclipse Award-winning writer based in Baltimore.
The post Scheinman: With Four Of Five Runners From One Barn, Saratoga’s Diana An Affront To Betting Public appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
