Starting times.

[Chuck]

Maybe I need more of a life....but Golden Gate racing again had me thinking of starting times. Here is why. Correct me if I am wrong but over time, GG has been a track that featured 5 horse fields with 3 of the entries trained by Hollendorfer. Or 8 horse fields with all the entries trained by guys with 12 or more horses entered in the 8 race card. Just crazy. Seriously, the handle numbers should resemble Charlestown. But they are actually pretty strong, week in and week out. Why.....the horses are terrible and the trainers repeat like a bad mexican dinner? The only reason that makes sense to me off hand is the starting time. It runs side-car to the larger California venue and I guess it keeps Californians from getting bored with most people playing both. Now.....they varied the start time in NY with twilight racing on Fridays to some success. And they race after the moon starts sinking here in the East, in California, on select Friday's (which makes NO sense to me). I wonder what would happen here at Tampa if the card ducked some of the competition from NY and GS by starting racing at say 3:30 PM. Lights would be needed but that isn't a dramatic expense for a spot open 1/3 of the year; they have done it other places with success and you might catch lightening in a bottle. Certainly even on bad card days the product is better than GG. I bet Tampa would run along side SA or Hollywood with great success. Dramatic suggestion...maybe? But that is what this board is about. A healthy exchange of ideas to stimulate positive change in racing. Personally, I wouldn't mind catching the rays and then coming in for racing. Nor would many working Joes mind getting extra time in at the office before heading to the track. Thoughts?

[ken]

The more coordinated the times the better- I think Magna 5 worked pretty well.
I do not care what time they run locally- but in Ca you could have 1 or just a few races from a good sized track and miss most of them!

[Mister Sanderson]

I Think Your Idea About The Starting Times Is Dead On. They Draw That Money Just On The 15 Minute Time Differential They Share With Corresponding Big Boys Of Cali (sa, Hol, Dmr).... No Doubt About It.. If They Switched Full Time To A Midafternoon Or Nighttime Post (pacific Time), It Would Be Curtains Soon Enough For Gg,bm... Your Idea Of Tbd Switching To This Post Is Very Intriguing; Its Very Possible At The Least It Could Bring Up Draws At Least Some... California Gamblers Would Obviously Be Higher Contributors... Less Options At The Time When Gp, Aqu, Tp, Fg, And Even Lrl Are Finishing The Day Up. So That Would Be Around A 5 Pm Post For Tbd Right??? Do Ya Have Lights There?????

[ken]

Hollendorfer runs a bunch here; and about every meet you get a couple of trainers claiming everything they can. Last year Steve Myadi and Art Sherman claimed a bunch. Sherman picked plenty of good ones; Steve just claimed anybody and wins some.
I guess this is a small amout of trainers but most LALALLand trainers send cast-offs or stakes horses up here or claims the better ones to run down south. Then you have the fair trainers. Fairs get big fields because they run all sorts so Tbreds only run 5 or 6 races a day. Anything above claiming level is a short field. I'm hoping rubber dirt will allow them to run longer.
Maybe they should write races by Beyer #- you know, claimer for male 4+up whose last 2 race Beyer's average was between 60-75. Or between 75-90. Or below 50!