The Meadowlands' newly formed task force, a mix of horsemen and horseplayers blended with a few racetrack management types, convened for the first time on Wednesday morning (April 14) via conference call to address issues on the racetrack.
The topics discussed ranged from driver decorum to the application of racing strategy and public perception.
The primary focus of today's exchange were a few issues that have become the culture of Meadowlands racing, specifically first turn "courtesy tucks", the lack of movement in the middle quarters of the race due to drivers riding "half out" and moving off the pylons as the horses enter the stretch, allowing a horse to pass inside.
The horseplayers made known their frustration with the outcome of a race being altered by the above while the horsemen offered their perspective on why those things occur and how the races might be negatively affected if discretion on some of those issues was removed from their options.
The exchanges were honest and forthright, and was agreed that as the quality of the racing/horses improves the issues focused upon may resolve themselves to a large extent.
Meadowlands GM Jason Settlemoir moderated the call and was pleased with the exchange.
"I thought it went really well for the first meeting," Settlemoir said afterwards. "The opinions, questions and answers were legitimate, I thought everyone took it seriously and all involved were forthcoming. It's good sometimes for people to hear what others are thinking and how our product comes off to the customer. We'll take what we learned from this exchange, apply what works and move forward from there with future calls."
(The Meadowlands)