When Joe De Francis, president of Laurel and Pimlico, hired Lou Raffetto Jr. as his chief operating officer, he told him that the racing product ought to be his number one concern. Raffetto quickly concluded that many of the problems in Maryland were technical ones involving the way races are scheduled. He sought to avoid scheduling similar races too close to each other so that they didn't cannibalize each other's fields. But I think the majority of horsemen have accepted the changes and that they're happy to see something being done. So Raffetto changed the official scratch time to just prior to the draw for post positions.
Every track has trouble filling their races.
But we're better than we were last year. He predicted that fans will notice a conspicuous improvement in racing quality as soon as the grass course is operational. However, horsemen have traditionally resisted this remedy, because they don't want to see their racing opportunities reduced, and they have no objection to small fields where everybody is assured of getting a piece of the pie. But now a cutback has been virtually forced upon them. In a meeting with management last week, horsemen said they favored cutting the schedule from approximately 47 to 42 races per week.