news

Caught a story in the Form this week that Lou Raffetto has abruptly resigned from his post at the Maryland Jockey Club (organization that runs Laurel and Pimlico) where he ran the two Maryland tracks for the past few years. I don't know him, but I do know that he's a Jersey guy and probably spends as much time hanging out around Monmouth Park as he does down in MD. I'd suspect that a job closer to home is in the cards and wonder if something might be in play with the NJ tracks. The NJSEA, the state agency that owns Monmouth Park and the Meadowlands, recently brought in a new President and CEO, so perhaps something might be in the works. Lou was pretty popular up at Suffolk Downs and he's been a fairly straight shooter through some tough times down in Maryland, so might not be the worst guy to throw into the mix around here. He did mess around with reduced takeout this past summer, so he can't be too far off the reservation, which is more than you can say for most in the racetrack management business.

Will cruise down Route 1 tomorrow for Nautical Agent's race at Philadelphia Park. It should go off at around 4:20 or so and can be viewed here. Expectations are fairly low; just hoping we can get a good race into her against this tough field and position ourselves for a more purposeful run next out against softer. I've already started daily max withdrawals of $300 in preparation for the betting bonanza. Judging from the last ATM receipt, I needn't worry about too many more trips to the bank.