A New Low For Churchill Downs/Twin Spires

[trotman]

I can't believe the latest move by Churchill. In their "We Are Churchill Downs"
take it or leave it attitude to charge Calder horsemen who stable there in their off season $10 per stall until their meet starts back in April. 40% of the horses that race at Gulfstream for their entire meet come from Calder and many with the state that racing is in are on the brink of going broke already.
What is upsetting is that Calder and their parent company Churchill did not announce this to their horsemen until the end of October after all stalls had been allocated at Gulfstream and Tampa and surrounding training centers. This has been the reason for both Tampa and Gulfstream having a hard time filling races during their openings to their meets. Gulfstream has stepped in and has agreed to pay for the Calder stalls for the month of December until a solution to the problem can be found. What disturbs me is that this is Churchill undermining winter racing in Florida for their own pockets and forget the horsemen and the lifeblood of their industry "THE BETTOR" by sucking any value out of the races. The races will be filled with very few that fit the conditions and therefore chalk prices will abound, not to mention that this will put strain between both race secretaries and horsemen at both Tampa and Gulfstream having to continue to fill races with horses not ready to run. It's about time racing sends a message to Churchill/Twin Spires. Sure everyone will continue to dream about winning The Kentucky Derby but for the rest of their meet which amounts to nothing more than a fair meet they should think of racing elsewhere.