In a proactive move to increase flow in races, officials with the Meadowlands Racetrack made the decision to increase the bank in the racecourse's turns prior to the current meet. The track's publicity arm sought and has received feedback from members of the driving colony, which is optimistic that the move will turn out for the best
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A video segment compiled by the track features comments from Eric Abbatiello, Joe Bongiorno, Billy Dobson, Andy Miller, Ray Schnittker and Brandon Simpson, along with Yannick Gingras and David Miller.
After having navigated the new bank, David Miller said, "As far as the track goes, I think it showed a lot more versatility.
"A lot of horses were coming off the back end and winning (last weekend), which made it a little bit more of an even playing field. As far as the racing went, I thought it was good, competitive, and it's only going to get better."
In his comments, Gingras conveyed that he wants to put in some more time over the new layout before coming to his conclusion in regard to the banks, but he did say that he has been pleased with the move so far.
"I think the track is fine. It is fair, but I don't think you are going to see what you did in the '80s or '90s, I just think that those times are gone," Gingras said.
"I talked to a lot of people that think it is going to come back, the big flow. But I've seen some replays from those years and you used to go [:] 29 and [:] 58 and be able to make four moves and go a quarter in 29 seconds. Now you go 27-second quarters. How far do you want to come from? If there are three horses coming, you are going quarters in 25 seconds. It's just not going to happen. It's never going to happen like that (the '80s and '90s) again, but, then again, you could come from second or third-over last weekend and win races. The track is a little bit deep, and it's the winter. Did that play a factor in horses getting tired up front (last weekend), or is it the bank?
"I know the bank can't hurt, that's for sure, but I just don't know how much it is going to help. I'm pleased with it. I won races from second over and third over last weekend --- I almost reached from fourth over. Maybe those are things that we weren't able to do in the past, but it was one weekend. I would like to see it a little longer, but I was really pleased with the way that everything went."