Rich Perloff probably has the toughest job on TVG. While he has an ongoing presence on the weekends when so often there's so much great racing (see Songbird, Nyquist and Exaggerator coming up in a few days), he also has to muddle through the agonizing telecasts by himself on Mondays and Tuesdays when he fields such questions from the viewing audience as: "Can a jockey be considered great if he doesn't win that much, or even not at all?" I kid you not, that one came up yesterday.

    But the worst part of Perloff's stay on the worst two racing days of the week is trying to make programs at Parx, Finger Lakes, Fort Erie and Zia Park sound exciting. If there's anybody who hasn't been convinced yet that there's a critical shortage of able race horses in this country, one Monday-Tuesday go-around is all one needs.

    Here's a rundown on the performance of the aforementioned tracks over the past two days.

    Parx: 62 runners in nine races on Monday (average 6.8), 74 on Tuesday in nine (average 8.2, not bad).  

    Finger Lakes: 62 runners in nine on Monday (average 6.8), 65 on Tuesday in nine (average 7.2).

    Fort Erie: 55 runners in eight on Tuesday (average 6.8).

    Zia Park: 64 runners on Tuesday in nine (average 7.1). 

    It's never been disputed that short fields cause drastic cuts in handle, and mutuel wagering over the two days was disastrous. On Monday at Parx, on-track handle was a miniscule $40,507, and we don't know what all-sources handle was because Equibase got it hopelessly wrong by showing a figure of $1,219. On Tuesday, the numbers were $53,578 and $1,272,787. It's difficult to comprehend how the track can continue to function efficiently. It must be like walking around in a cemetery at midnight. 

    Finger Lakes is no better, except that the upstate New York purses are miniscule compared to those in Pennsylvania, despite the presence of a very successful racino. On Monday, the Finger Lakes all-sources handle was $1,306,513; no on-track handle was given, which usually means it's too embarrassing to divulge. On Tuesday, it was $1,221,914.

    At Fort Erie on Tuesday, the all-sources handle was $847,862, which was monstrous compared to the debacle they call Zia Park, in New Mexico. At Zia, they aren't shy about revealing attendance - it was 194. I would guess that the on-track handle was an all-time record low for any track, anywhere, but Zia may have had some lower. The number was $16,106. I assume they save a ton on mutuel clerks and concessionaires by having just one of each. There was also an ITW figure - $3,820, and an ISW figure - $337,490.

     

    

 

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