40 Days and 40 Nights

For anyone who might think that Saratoga is still some kind of cool little boutique meeting, consider this: At 40 racing days, it will run four more dates than the Belmont fall meet which will follow. For those of us who, for whatever reason, are unable to get up there for live racing for much more than a weekend - if that - by the time racing finally returns down here some eight full weeks after it packs up and leaves on July 18, it might very well be Belmont that will feel like something unique.

If there's anything that's good about the extended meet in my view is that it will end, once and for all, any talk of stretching Saratoga even further. I know that some people could watch donkeys run around that racetrack and still go "Oooo, wow, Saratoga." But just you wait; at a relentless six days a week, and with racing quality that, after dazzling I'm sure for the first few days, just ain't gonna be much different than the state-bred and maiden claiming-filled cards we're seeing downstate, y'all are gonna realize that this thing has already been extended way past the max. Even though it's been held at 36 days for awhile now, the meet has in fact been feeling longer and longer as the racing has grown more ordinary in the last few years. This season, by the time we're rolling into September and there's still six days to go, it will feel more overdone than the first 27 minutes of The Decision, and everyone will have had enough. That's right, even you!

Anyway, the whole question of the Monmouth-style shorter race weeks and whether that format is the salvation of racing is the Friday topic of the day for the Thoroughbred Bloggers Alliance (TBA), and you can find the links to those, and other racing sites, at the TBA site at www.tbablogs.com. And it is the best such website around, and I'm not just saying that because Patrick told us to. Did you know that if go to the PP Search page there, you'll find a search engine to find all of the free past performances available on the internets on any given day?

Unfortunately, time is short and I don't have much to expound much further than I have in the past here on the subject at this time. But here's one thing I'll throw out there: It seems as if the success or failure of the Monmouth experiment is being based on attendance and handle, and that's fine for now. However, a longer term question is the effect of shorter meets on the horsemen. While reduced racing dates may mean reduced expenses for the tracks, the cost of owning horses will stay the same. However, the opportunities to generate revenues will be reduced. Yes, the purses may be higher, but not only will there be less races, but there will be, in theory, far more horses to compete against. It's not surprising to me to see horses trickling back from Monmouth to Belmont. Wouldn't you think that an owner might very well want to race against five horses than 12, even if the purse is somewhat lower?

So I wonder what reduced racing opportunities will do to the ranks of those willing to risk their money in horse ownership. Though, on the other hand and in the long run, perhaps breeding will become far more selective, an outcome which can only be beneficial to the sport. Only a contracted racing program far longer and widespread than what we're seeing at Monmouth will provide answers to these questions.

- Free music at the South Street Seaport last Friday evening, and this may very well be my favorite of all the great such venues in the city during the summer. Besides the laid-back ambiance and the great views, it's the only place I know of where the city's insidious open container laws don't apply. Not sure exactly why, but here one can walk into one of the bars, walk right out with your drink in a plastic cup, and drink to your heart's delight right there outside. Feels kinda weird, we're so conditioned here to that being illegal.

Anyway, another great night of music; two very cool bands on the evening - Woven Bones is a trio from Austin, TX which shrouds their rock in reverb a la early Jesus and Mary Chain and, my favorite current band name, A Place To Bury Strangers. They have a recent release on Hozac Records entitled In and Out and Back Again. Fellow Austinites YellowFever were supposed to complete the bill. But band member Jennifer Moore, who has a restaurant day job, forgot to leave her chef's knife at home before boarding the plane for New York. Er.....not a good idea. The moral here is....don't attempt to bring big knives onto airplanes. OK?

So instead, we got a chance to see Brooklyn's Beach Fossils, whose excellent debut album on Captured Tracks I wrote about here. They didn't disappoint, as perhaps you can tell below. (And note that both bands feature standup drummers....don't recall seeing that even once in the past.)