This ‘n’ that

Some things kicking around the musty, cobweb-ridden attic of my mind:

• As we all know, Monmouth and the local horsemen have agreed on a schedule change that will lead to 50 days of racing, with average purses of $1 million daily, and 20 additional days with more modest purses.  For many reasons, I’m dubious about the proposal — I think that it will ultimately harm local horsemen, for one thing, plus I suspect that the three-day-a-week schedule will be a lot more attractive to casual horseplayers than it will be to the serious players Monmouth will need to attract.  Nevertheless, as I’ve said often on these pages, doing the same thing is a recipe for getting the same results, and so I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed that Monmouth — which is on the short list of the best places in the country to watch races — has found a winning strategy.
• Judging from the number of contestants in last Saturday’s handicapping contest at Laurel (in which I competed with a spectacular lack of success) who were sporting serious bedhead, there must be a worldwide shortage of combs.  Free the combs!
• Lot of bleating these days about the need to reduce races and racedays and racetracks… one thing you don’t hear much is that the number of races run in this country has declined every year but two since 1989, with a total net reduction of fully one-third of the racing product.  Hmmph…. the market working… how about that.
• The other thing you don’t hear much is this: if you really want to take a whack at racing, and do so in a way that would have a meaningful impact on the practice of breeding, you’d stop — and then reverse — the proliferation of state-bred races for bad horses.  I’ve got no issue with stakes for state-breds, even allowances, but Saturday’s card at Aqueduct “featured” a $15,000 maiden claimer for New York-breds, while the Fair Grounds offered up a $5000, never-won-three claimer for Louisiana-breds.  These types of races essentially reward people for breeding dismal horses — thus incentivizing (and encouraging) that breeding.  There’s no great need to breed decent New York-breds, because the slow ones can do just fine, thank you, racing against other horrific horses.  Oh, and for the record, the Aqueduct race was won by two fat guys dressed in a  horse suit, while a stray dog on the course at the Fair Grounds got up in the last jump to win that race.  Or something like that.
• Back to the Monmouth issue: rumor has it that the poobahs at NYRA have warned horsemen that if they leave New York for Monmouth, they won’t be welcome back to the Empire State.  Always, and everywhere, people trying to put a lid on change shortly find themselves watching the ass of the future as it whizzes past them, leaving them choking on dust.  I suppose, though, that NYRA’s probably used to that by now.
• Meanwhile, in Maryland, the future gets murkier and murkier.  Our pals at Magna, having snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, are now trying to pull their chestnuts out of the fire with a petition drive to overturn the zoning that allows slots at a nearby mall.  And to think that this game was rigged for Magna to win…