- ...or so it seems, the way that the day after I wrote that the tracks would benefit from having their race archives made easily available online for free, Churchill Downs announced that they would do just that for all of their properties.
Now comes the joyous discovery that Cal Racing has acquired the rights to show replays for many tracks outside of California, including those of NYRA and Magna (though not Churchill). This is particularly excellent news as far as NYRA goes, as their replays on the Racereplays.com site had become a disgrace of late. Cal Racing has a nice size screen and excellent sound and video quality, though, as with most video sites, is subject to freezing during peak hours. Like now I guess.
And a note about the redesigned NYRA site, which I had given a passing grade last week. Now it seems I may have been too hasty, unless I'm just missing something. One of the better features on the old site was the stakes section, in which you could see a listing of the stakes schedule for the year, read a brief history of each race, and then go to the 'Stakes History' link and see all of the past winner/jockey/trainers of each one. I figure it's gotta be me, that they wouldn't possibly remove such an informative and interesting feature as that (as in, one that makes me sound smarter than I am). Did they?
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Wednesday, September 27, 2006
Blog It And It Will Be So...
Posted by Alan Mann at 6:43 PM
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4 Comments:
I just heard back from my buddy in Japan. I'm posting his e-mail in it's entirety, so you can get his thoughts on the race:
"In his last race it was pouring on the day of the race, but hadn't rained much before it. So it's possible the track was rated as good, although if so i think that's deceptive as it was in pretty bad shape. After the race in the interview the trainer/jockey and announcers all said it showed that an off-track was no problem for Deep Impact, and while they didn't think it would bother him, it was a relief. And if you saw the race (you can see them on the Net, YouTube or the JRA site), he handled the track very well. So off of that race, i don't think a soft track should be a big problem, although like you wrote, firmer would be better, as less chance of something going wrong. As for the small field, that could be in his favor. Take loves to take him to the far outside, in part because he has so much confidence in Deep and just wants to keep him out of trouble. That's one reason he lost to Heart's Cry in the Arima Kinen, but one of about 5-6 things that didn't go his way, such as a downpour throwing off his training schedule, his not being in top condition, a very slow pace, and he still lost by a neck in a race that he otherwise wins by 5. So i like the prospect of him possibly going 2, 3 wide as opposed to him having to go 4-5 wide. I really think if he runs his race, takes to the track and Take doesn't screw up, he should win fairly comfortably."
P.S.- Deep Impact recorded his final workout today, and Take said that it was probably "the best piece of work he's had since coming here". Of note, he also said that he would prefer it doesn't rain before the race. And believe it or not, Deep Impact has moved into the favorite's spot with the European betting firms (he's currently being offered @ 5/2). I really didn't expect that to happen, but i guess the horse has been receiving a whole lotta support since he began training in France. That should tell you something.
right on. thanks for that, walter.
I've been looking for the NYRA stakes schedule all night tonight. It appears they did take it down.
But I'm partially willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, because they also took down the video archive of their stakes since 2001, which I not only appreciated but wish they'd expand it back a number of years for all of their major races (they already do that for the Belmont and Travers). The video archive is back up for Belmont and Saratoga, but it's still MIA for Aqueduct. As a NY racing fan for the last 20 years, and an AZ resident for the last 15, that's been something I highly liked about NYRA's site. I emailed them on the video matter a couple weeks ago, and maybe another one on the stakes history might be a good idea.
So, yeah, stakes history and stakes video archives I hope will not just stick, but expand as well. But then, I also wish NYRA hadn't dropped the Lawrence Realization, either, but that's just me.
I did email NYRA on the stakes history and got a response that they're working to add it to the site soon.
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