There was so much cause for optimism at Yonkers Raceway when the 2018 season began. The removal of the passing lane, a finish wire that lined up with a camera, a Director of Racing that set out to put more life into an aging product. The early results were indeed encouraging when the “New Look” Yonkers product was unveiled in January. Handle appeared to be on the rise and races suddenly found those sitting in the entire way boxed in as opposed to winning easily without doing much work. Now nearly eight months after the arrival of these changes, I found it impossible to look at a few issues this past Friday night and not wonder why more work hasn’t been at least started on revamping the track’s condition sheet. Going into Friday’s card there were two glaring examples of horses dropping too many classes and earning prohibitive favorite status on those grounds alone. It would seem well within a Racing Secretary or a Director of Racing’s discretion to eliminate even the most remote chance that there might be a 1-10 shot in an overnight event.  Sadly, when Proven Desire won Friday’s third race at Yonkers he was that kind of favorite. While hindsight might be 20-20, foresight should be even sharper considering that more eyes than ever are looking into making the Yonkers product more competitive. It’s hard to blame trainer Rene Allard for shipping to Saratoga for a soft spot and still returning to Yonkers under the non-winners of $10,000 in last five starts threshold that would allow Proven Desire to be eligible. What’s difficult to swallow is that Proven Desire shows two races on the program in non-winners of $30,000 company where he went off at odds of 5-1. If the bettors can see those lines, then there is no reason to believe that those people putting together races at Yonkers don’t have them available. That’s why it’s hard to imagine why Yonkers hasn’t either upgraded its condition sheet or better yet added conditions to keep horses from dropping too many classes in a short span of races. That Proven Desire dropped from non-winners of $30,000 to non-winners of $10,000 after making two starts (and winning one) makes no sense if the initiative is to improve the balance of quality of the races. You see it’s impossible to ask drivers to be extra-aggressive with their horses when they don’t have a chance going into the race. Perhaps not as glaring but still a bit difficult on the handicapping eyes was the presence of Sell A Bit N at the non-winners of $20,000 in last five starts category on Friday. Here’s a mare that had already earned $230,000 in 2018, but that wasn’t enough to keep her from entering a class of horses that routinely raced at a much lower level, all of which had failed to reach six figures on the season. It was a mismatch on paper and Sell A Bit N did her part by winning convincingly on the front end, a spot she hadn’t been in while racing against tougher company. That last point was meant as a feature to recognize what the double, triple and quadruple drops in class tend to mean on the odds board and on the racetrack. Why would other drivers, knowing full well that they are outclassed in horsepower, be foolish enough to pull and risk a decent check? They aren’t. To me it’s time to implement simple solutions to the Yonkers condition sheet that would prohibit horses from dropping in class under certain guidelines. Obviously there’s no way a Racing Secretary can prevent a stable from shipping out to race against lower company, but given Yonkers Raceway’s extraordinary purse structure there’s no reason to create walkovers. At the same time, a closer look at both of the aforementioned examples shows that neither spent more than one week at a reduced level before dropping a second time. Proven Desire went from non-winners of $30,000 and made just one start at Yonkers in non-winners of $20,000 before returning for his next start in non-winners of $10,000. Sell A Bit N was a 2-1 shot in the Open Handicap before racing once in a Preferred and then once at the non-winners of $30,000 level off a four week layoff. It’s the objective of all trainers to maximize earnings for owners and clearly in both of the above cases that’s what the exact result was. While The Meadowlands has had to scrape together horses to put on two cards a week, Yonkers has been flush with horses and therefore has a huge edge in creating competitive racing. Passing lanes alone or occasional pep talks for regular drivers are not likely to be enough to change the culture that has been established with the high purse structure at Yonkers. Racing easily and earning extreme drops in class have been a major part of the competitive disadvantage produced by this system. It hasn’t gone unnoticed by the betting public that routinely throws out horses that they don’t expect to be competitive or just passes on races that lack enough horses with a chance to win. There’s always a balancing act to try to achieve what’s in the best interest of owners and trainers versus what’s in the best interest of gamblers and the future of the sport as a viable wagering alternative. If racing 10 horses at added distance on Sunday is something owners and trainers were fine with, there’s no reason to believe a little tweaking of the condition sheet won’t find at least majority approval. We’d be remiss in not mentioning that Friday’s card at Yonkers also found horses going from last to first to win in three of the first six races with longshots scoring on each occasion. If gamblers could count on that situation happening with more regularity it would be a step in the right direction.