HORSEPLOP.COM
General Category => Harness Racing => Topic started by: Hayandoats on December 30, 2024, 09:51:07 AM
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Everyone is hoping that some of the drivers from Freehold will give it a go at Plainridge this coming meet. Everyone is tired of the boys from Maine playing games, along with a couple of drivers from NY that are in on it. The driver colony needs a shake up real quick! With the purses at Plainridge you think they would be coming in droves.
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Everyone is hoping that some of the drivers from Freehold will give it a go at Plainridge this coming meet. Everyone is tired of the boys from Maine playing games, along with a couple of drivers from NY that are in on it. The driver colony needs a shake up real quick! With the purses at Plainridge you think they would be coming in droves.
Freehold doesn't exactly have a star-studded driver colony, not that Plainridge does either, except for a handful, but unless you have your own competitive stock, getting live catch drives will be difficult.
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Our new person to horseplop sounds like one of our devoted seniors who go to the races that think every race is fixed. The purse money at Plainridge may be the best in the country. The top drivers make over $100,000 a year racing just there. Their 5% adds up nicely.
I'm curious who he thinks is coming from Freehold. The top drivers at Freehold race at Yonkers. They would get minimal work at Plainridge and forget about the others.
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New drivers needed for sure! Beckwith and ranger then it's wide wide open. Athearn sucks without Nickerson. Switzer doesn't impress me. Graffam i think has talent. Drew C is a no factor at ridge. New blood needed bad!
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Be glad to let you have a few from Dover!
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Be glad to let you have a few from Dover!
Ever find out why Art Stafford Jr is banned from Dover?
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For this to potentially to happen, you will need new owners (with deep pockets to acquire better/faster stock) to potentially compete as well as new trainers that won't use the regular Plainridge drivers.
FYI, look at the driving colony at Plainridge.
Ranger is in his mid 60's.
Randall is up there too!
You have a young crew with Brett Beckwith, Matt Athearn, and Mitch Cushing.
Who did I miss, both young and old?
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Ever find out why Art Stafford Jr is banned from Dover?
Nope
Everything is hush hush. Tim Crissman as well.
Not positive test related I believe or there would be days listed from USTA. And he wouldn't been able to race in DSOA races as well. Same thing with Tim. Must be something related, however.
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Let Walter Case go there already.
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Great purses at Plainridge. Drivers can do really well. There is alotta untapped talent that needs to take a chance there. They just need a push. Athern and Beckwith are young and make a killing there. But the field is very weak. Different tracks have talent that really need to take a shot there. Yonkers has a couple that get lost in the shuffle. Monticello has some young blood that should try there. The Carter kid is one. At Saratoga Glen Bailey should consider it as well. These guys can make good money if they break through there. So there is talent out there. Just no being out to use.
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Let Walter Case go there already.
Case is over 60 and a shadow of what he once was.
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looked at their year-end driver summary
They also have
Switzer, Monti, and Graffam - All in their 30's.
along with Beckwith, Ranger, Athearn, and Cushing, These 7 are in almost every race. 3 in their 20s, 3 in their 30s, and Ranger as the senior. But a good one at that with over 10,000 wins. It sure looks like a nice mix to me.
Then there's the odd driver who mostly drives the ones they own.
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For this to potentially to happen, you will need new owners (with deep pockets to acquire better/faster stock) to potentially compete as well as new trainers that won't use the regular Plainridge drivers.
FYI, look at the driving colony at Plainridge.
Ranger is in his mid 60's.
Randall is up there too!
You have a young crew with Brett Beckwith, Matt Athearn, and Mitch Cushing.
Who did I miss, both young and old?
Jimmy Hardy, Drew Campbell and Ron Cushing are others who are in the neighborhood of 60 yrs old.
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looked at their year-end driver summary
They also have
Switzer, Monti, and Graffam - All in their 30's.
along with Beckwith, Ranger, Athearn, and Cushing, These 7 are in almost every race. 3 in their 20s, 3 in their 30s, and Ranger as the senior. But a good one at that with over 10,000 wins. It sure looks like a nice mix to me.
Then there's the odd driver who mostly drives the ones they own.
Beckwith is a Great driver, He will be a Grand Circuit staple real soon.
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Beckwith is a Great driver, He will be a Grand Circuit staple real soon.
Be careful there….
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Be careful there….
He's done well so far but let's not get ahead of ourselves. Winning the driving title at Saratoga and tying for it at Plainridge isn't exactly the big time. He won over 6 million in purses this year racing against mostly nothing drivers on alot of favorites. He wouldn't get those kinds of drives against the big boys, so why leave a good thing at age 21?
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His trajectory is promising.
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He's done well so far but let's not get ahead of ourselves. Winning the driving title at Saratoga and tying for it at Plainridge isn't exactly the big time. He won over 6 million in purses this year racing against mostly nothing drivers on alot of favorites. He wouldn't get those kinds of drives against the big boys, so why leave a good thing at age 21?
Can Brett Beckwith get more out of a horse than Tim Tetrick--(who seems to be going downhill)?
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Can Brett Beckwith get more out of a horse than Tim Tetrick--(who seems to be going downhill)?
Beckwith drove at Harrah's Philly the last 2 weeks, won a couple of races, but blew on alot of favorites on the front end with easy leads.
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Beckwith drove at Harrah's Philly the last 2 weeks, won a couple of races, but blew on alot of favorites on the front end with easy leads.
He seems to be tangling with G Nap there
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GNap was on fire the last 2 weeks with Tetrick gone. Beckwith had 86 drives with 10 winners, was on alot of favorites that lost with easy leads.
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He's done well so far but let's not get ahead of ourselves. Winning the driving title at Saratoga and tying for it at Plainridge isn't exactly the big time. He won over 6 million in purses this year racing against mostly nothing drivers on alot of favorites. He wouldn't get those kinds of drives against the big boys, so why leave a good thing at age 21?
300k not too shabby for the kid
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300k not too shabby for the kid
That's alot of money for a 21-year-old kid, hope he's smart enough to save most of it and stay clean. I agree, he probably drives at least 250 days a year and does alot of travelling so why would he even consider trying the Meadowlands against the big boys at this stage of his career, plenty of time for that later on if he's good enough.
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300k not too shabby for the kid
Brett probably put in as much travel time as Aaron Merriman and races at better tracks and more purse money too!
Brett also has a better chance of getting better grand circuit drives than Aaron in the future also.
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That's alot of money for a 21-year-old kid, hope he's smart enough to save most of it and stay clean. I agree, he probably drives at least 250 days a year and does alot of travelling so why would he even consider trying the Meadowlands against the big boys at this stage of his career, plenty of time for that later on if he's good enough.
It's called getting your foot in the door, so you have the opportunity later to achieve this.
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I know what it's called, but don't think he'll do it right now. Most of the live drives in the big races are already taken. He has plenty of time to get his foot in the door if he's good enough.
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Didn't want to start a new thread and this is a driving one, so I want to say this Billy Davis
is coming on. This McNair abscence and Sylvain being gone. Opportunity is there. Good for him.
Having a bigger impact at Mohawk than he did at Nfld. or Buffalo [though he was the man a couple of yrs there]
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Why did he leave Canada years ago? He was doing okay and fairly young. Then he ended up in Batavia? Then rarely left Batavia. Is it a family thing?
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I actually like the driver colony at Plainridge. Good mix of young and veteran.
Beckwith, Graffam, Atheran, Monti, Switzer Jr, Ranger, Randall, Campbell, Hardy, Cushing M, Cushing R, Stevenson (inj)
Then you have guys who have a few in or race on occasion. (H. Campbell, Stalbaum, O'Dea, etc...)
With Freehold closing, what trainers down there would realistically re-route their entire operation to MA? Seems like a stretch.
My question for those horesmen and women who race at PRC now, has PRC re-invested funds into improving or expanding current barn and paddock areas?
I would think if you want different trainers to bring a bunch of horses there to race yearly, then you need to have the space to house them.
I realize most are ship-ins from their local barns or out of town.
What other projects are on their 3/5/10 year plan to improve overall?
To those same people, 25 years ago when PRC was built, I believe the town had a restriction to not have lights. Is that still in play?
Were conduits ever placed there in the event down the road, lights could be added?
I would love to see Sunday night racing in June-Aug there at 5pm. They already race Mon/Tue. Might be attractive for those shippers to bring more down.
Happy 2025!
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Beckwith doesn't have an attitude like Tetrick. He thanks trainers and owners.Plus he'll drive anything if he's listed
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Interesting quote read today
Bob Heyden: Brett Beckwith. Exemplary. I ask you, who sets examples for others at 21? He’s as good at this age as anyone ever.
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I agree with that statement.
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The world is Beckwiths oyster at this point. He just needs to keep a level head & stay away from bad habits.
As far as Ontario goes, I can’t see Davis Jr. ever becoming anything huge there. With that being said, if he can latch on there full time, great place to make a good living. Many of the well established colony are getting long in the tooth & eventually they fade away… much like Ritchie/Condren/Saftic/Waples etc.
Tim Tetrick is a pompous prick, plain and simple. When you think of the greats, Campbell & David Miller have more class in a finger nail then he has in his entire body…