Mo is officially back. Last night he made his first start at Pocono Downs in a Non Winners of 3 to 5 races lifetime. You know the old saying that ‘perception is reality’? Well, my perception of what this race would be like wasn’t really reality. I kind of expected Mo to fall into a relatively soft field and have a legitimate chance to win even coming off this long layoff. That wasn’t the reality, but now that I look back at it a day removed, that’s just fine.
The field he faced was actually chalk full of talent. The #1 horse, Mobile, won $110,000 as a 2 year old and like us was making his second charted race off of a layoff (he was off a month). The #2 horse, My Old Friend John, won $124,000 as a 2 year old and made a run at the Berry’s Creek stake a couple weeks back. He didn’t make the final after finishing 6th in his elimination race, but only got beat by 2 lengths. The #7 horse, Precious Medal, took in $98,000 as a 2 year old and was coming off two fast qualifiers as compared to Mo’s single qualifier. Toss in a hot 5 year old (Nuclear Joe Joe) coming off two straight 1.51.1 miles and you have the makings of a stakes race. Not an easy task for Mr. Mo off that long layoff.
In the end our driver, Joe Pavia Jr., did what was best for Mo: he took him to the back and raced him up easy before urging him to turn it on in the stretch. I have to be honest, though, it was kind of hard to watch him sit back like that. The in race emotion was ‘why is he so content to just sit back?’, but upon further review, there was no other way to do it. Mo needed this race to get tight and he did. After closing with the fastest last quarter of the bunch in 27.4, he flew at the leaders and took 4th, only getting beat by 2 and ½ lengths. A longer stretch and he probably would have caught one or two more, but in the long run, that really doesn’t matter. He dropped 2 more seconds off his qualifying time to pace in 1.53.1. That’s a nice first mile on that track.
Now things start to get really exciting. We’ll be entering Mr. Mo in the first leg of the Pennsylvania Sire Series next Thursday at the Meadows Racetrack near Pittsburgh. It will be a tough race, but will go for good money and after last night, I really feel Mo is ready. He will likely be facing much of the same types of horses as Mobile, My Old Friend John and Precious Medal (and potentially will actually see them). What’s more, Danny and I are flying out to cheer him on! It has been a long time since we’ve seen the colt. We will make sure to get some new pictures to put up on the site. Stay tuned, the draw is on Monday and after our perpetual outside post positions, we are due for a good one.
Friday, May 29, 2009
Monday, May 25, 2009
Qualifying Day
Eighty nine days ago (from when I first typed this), In Over My Head came out of the 10 hole in the $82,500 Junior Trendsetter Final at the Meadowlands. He gunned to the front, held the lead past the half and gutted out a 3rd place finish at 85-1 odds. Then we quit with him. It was a decision that was difficult, yet very simple. He never had a big break between his 2 and 3 year old seasons. He was relatively slow to mature as compared to some of his contemporaries. He needed more time and we just hoped it would pay off in the long run.
Will it pay off? Well, we just don’t know yet, but today was a step in the right direction. After getting the reports of some nice training miles, he took to the track at Pocono Downs in a qualifier this morning. John Butenschoen acted as a player/ coach (in horse racing terms, the driver/ trainer) and the results were great. He won in 1.55.1 (which is a new lifetime win mark for him) by open lengths. Sounds like he went easy on him in the stretch as he had proven all he needed to this day.
The race occurred this morning at about 10:30 and wouldn’t you know it, I had a big meeting starting at 10:00 am. It was so important that I never once thought about how the colt was doing…OK, that’s a lie, I thought about it a couple of times. Once I got back to the office, I saw the calls from John and Danny…had to be good, I thought and after barreling to my computer and pulling up ustrotting.com, I realized it was.
So what’s next? Finally time to race again! Taking a page from the book of every coach who ever lived, you need to take things one game (or race) at a time. You know where you hope to go, but can’t look ahead too much. At least we are off to a good start.
Will it pay off? Well, we just don’t know yet, but today was a step in the right direction. After getting the reports of some nice training miles, he took to the track at Pocono Downs in a qualifier this morning. John Butenschoen acted as a player/ coach (in horse racing terms, the driver/ trainer) and the results were great. He won in 1.55.1 (which is a new lifetime win mark for him) by open lengths. Sounds like he went easy on him in the stretch as he had proven all he needed to this day.
The race occurred this morning at about 10:30 and wouldn’t you know it, I had a big meeting starting at 10:00 am. It was so important that I never once thought about how the colt was doing…OK, that’s a lie, I thought about it a couple of times. Once I got back to the office, I saw the calls from John and Danny…had to be good, I thought and after barreling to my computer and pulling up ustrotting.com, I realized it was.
So what’s next? Finally time to race again! Taking a page from the book of every coach who ever lived, you need to take things one game (or race) at a time. You know where you hope to go, but can’t look ahead too much. At least we are off to a good start.
Monday, May 18, 2009
It’s All In the Stars
I actually took some time this weekend to watch a little bit of the NBA playoffs. Now, I’m a huge basketball guy, but an average fan of the NBA (at best). Too long of a season, guarantied contracts make too many players lazy and the court is too small for these mammoth athletes (how about that one??? Think about it, the court for a 5th grade girls game is the same width as an NBA game…no wonder they stall in the half court). Anyway, despite everyone’s constant bashing of the NBA, it is a popular league and one thing they do better than almost everyone is the promotion of their stars. This point was driven home with the 500,000th shot of Kevin Garnett sitting on the sidelines in a suit, scowling at opposing players and trying to blind them by bouncing a run away stadium laser light off his boulder sized diamond ear ring. The guy isn’t even on the court and he is a focus. Why? Because the NBA promotes their stars no matter what.
Flash back to a blog post a couple of weeks ago in which I was talking about the need for racing to have aged horses racing for multiple years. I truly believe that is a NEED of racing in order to gain the public’s interest. No one outside of the tight racing community will have a clue who Somebeachsomewhere is by the end of this year (heck, they may have forgot about him already) and like I have said, he is a legit SUPERSTAR. Pardon my bluntness, but he is a worthless superstar in the breeding shed from a promotional perspective. No one knows about him and no one cares. Horses can start breeding at 6 or 7 just as easily, but as his owner stated, they need a reason to keep racing. What better reason that money and fame? Certainly seems to keep Mr. Favre interested in playing football.
Everyone can agree on one thing: racing need to market and promote much better. The question is how and with who? I really believe that these efforts need to be focused. You simply can’t promote ALL of it. You can’t cover every age, every gait, every race from a conditioned claimer on up to the Hambeltonian. It is literally impossible. I’ve always thought if you focus your promotion on the best of the best, the rising tide will lift all boats…including $2,000 claiming races at a small track.
Which brings us back to the loosely described idea I had a in a blog entry a couple of weeks back. An annual series that focuses on the aged pacers in harness racing (as a side note, trotters should also be considered, but it is important not to bite off too much at once). Aged pacers offer as the most marketable for a number of reasons including name recognition, durability (compared to younger horses) and anohter is consistency. The problem with focusing on the Hambeltonian or any younger horse race (especially trotters) is the general public have no idea what a break is, what it means or why it is happening. They think the horse is hurt, drivers are stiffing the public or it just ruins the race. The less breaking, the better.
I’ve recently been reading a number of well known horsemen describe a 5% or 10% solution in which a certain percentage of purses will be skimmed by the USTA and used to market the sport. That same solution should be used for this plan. The promotion and marketing needs to be FOCUSED and the series I’m about to describe is prefect for that. If you can identify with aged pacers, other ages and gaits will also benefit. Think of Nascar. They focus on the Sprint Cup series, but because of the success of that, the Nationwide series benefits, the truck series benefits and on down the line.
In a bullet point summary, here are the high points of a potential Harness Racing Series:
-A twelve race season with one race in May, two races in June, July, August, September and October. The final race will be in November. This represents enough races that a horse could miss (due to injury or other commitments) and not ruin the entire season. Also, twelve races over the course of six months is not overly grueling.
- Track schedule would obviously have to be negotiated, but in a general sense, the following tracks could be used in some sort of order: The Meadowlands, Yonkers, Pocono Downs, The Meadows, Chester Downs, Deleware (LJB track), Hoosier (or Indianapolis Downs), Balmoral Park, Springfield, Lexington, Dover and it could end at The Meadowlands again.
- Events in similar regions would be clustered together to avoid access shipping.
- Each event would have up to four separate divisions, drawn at random, meaning a maximum of 40 horses could compete on a given event. If more than 40 enter, ties are broken by series earnings first and lifetime earnings second.
- Each event would either race for $800,000 or $400,000, so if there are four divisions, individual races would go for either $200,000 or $100,000.
- 100 points are also awarded in each race in the following breakdown (from winner to last in a 10 horse field): 33, 22, 15, 10, 7, 4, 3, 1, 1, 1
- The first nine races would set up the final three. In the final three races, horses ranked 1-10 will compete together in the AAAA division finals. Horses ranked 11-20 will compete in the AAA division final, horses ranked 21-30 in the AA and horses ranked 31-40 in the A division final.
- These fields do not change unless of an injury or another reason a horse is pulled out. In which case, the horse with the next highest point total will get moved up one division (AAA to AAAA, AA to AAA and so on).
- Purses for the final three weeks are as follows:
AAAA: $500,000 per race
AAA: $200,000 per race
AA: $100,000 per race
A: $50,000 per race
-The winner of the AAAA division of the series will receive a $1,000,000 bonus.
-In addition, the winners of each division will receive a trophy (which will be named to build recognition and history over time).
That is how I envision the series in a nutshell. With any idea, there are numerous questions, but I’ll address the obvious one first: where is all the money coming from? Under this scenario, you would need $10.75 million in purse money to cover all the races and bonus. Here is where the 5% solution comes in.
In 2008, the top 50 two year old and three year old pacers earned a combined $36,860,000. Taking 5% of that purse money equates to $1,843,000. Again, that is just the top 50 two year olds and top 50 three year olds. It does not apply to aged races, claiming races and so on. The 5% solution could apply to more than just those horses. However, I believe it should have a floor, meaning that it should not apply to purses checks below a certain amount (say $10,000).
Additional revenues could come from starting fees (if it were just $500 per race with 40 starters and 12 races, that is another $240,000). A portion of the purse money could be offset from track handle as well. I would venture to guess that these races would be very well bet given the constant racing, balanced fields and marketing efforts.
There must be a lot more to make this series successful, including incredibly stringent testing and massive penalties for violators, limitless amounts of marketing opportunities (on the silks, on the bikes, on the numbers, on the track, you really can’t rule anything out) as well as gimmicks (driver helmet cameras, build up of rivalries between horses, trainers, drivers and owners, fantasy horse racing and on and on). I will continue to lay out more ideas over time. I really believe that something like this is what is necessary to draw new attention to harness racing. I’m not sure if anyone will agree or even hear about this, but feel free to pass this on to anyone who might be interested.
In other news, Mr. Mo will qualify this week on Thursday and I can't even talk about it. Just too nervous. Sounds like he has been doing his work well for John Butenschoen and should be ready to go. We are so hopeful, but you can't put the cart before the horse (literally and figuratively). We will have an update on Friday.
Flash back to a blog post a couple of weeks ago in which I was talking about the need for racing to have aged horses racing for multiple years. I truly believe that is a NEED of racing in order to gain the public’s interest. No one outside of the tight racing community will have a clue who Somebeachsomewhere is by the end of this year (heck, they may have forgot about him already) and like I have said, he is a legit SUPERSTAR. Pardon my bluntness, but he is a worthless superstar in the breeding shed from a promotional perspective. No one knows about him and no one cares. Horses can start breeding at 6 or 7 just as easily, but as his owner stated, they need a reason to keep racing. What better reason that money and fame? Certainly seems to keep Mr. Favre interested in playing football.
Everyone can agree on one thing: racing need to market and promote much better. The question is how and with who? I really believe that these efforts need to be focused. You simply can’t promote ALL of it. You can’t cover every age, every gait, every race from a conditioned claimer on up to the Hambeltonian. It is literally impossible. I’ve always thought if you focus your promotion on the best of the best, the rising tide will lift all boats…including $2,000 claiming races at a small track.
Which brings us back to the loosely described idea I had a in a blog entry a couple of weeks back. An annual series that focuses on the aged pacers in harness racing (as a side note, trotters should also be considered, but it is important not to bite off too much at once). Aged pacers offer as the most marketable for a number of reasons including name recognition, durability (compared to younger horses) and anohter is consistency. The problem with focusing on the Hambeltonian or any younger horse race (especially trotters) is the general public have no idea what a break is, what it means or why it is happening. They think the horse is hurt, drivers are stiffing the public or it just ruins the race. The less breaking, the better.
I’ve recently been reading a number of well known horsemen describe a 5% or 10% solution in which a certain percentage of purses will be skimmed by the USTA and used to market the sport. That same solution should be used for this plan. The promotion and marketing needs to be FOCUSED and the series I’m about to describe is prefect for that. If you can identify with aged pacers, other ages and gaits will also benefit. Think of Nascar. They focus on the Sprint Cup series, but because of the success of that, the Nationwide series benefits, the truck series benefits and on down the line.
In a bullet point summary, here are the high points of a potential Harness Racing Series:
-A twelve race season with one race in May, two races in June, July, August, September and October. The final race will be in November. This represents enough races that a horse could miss (due to injury or other commitments) and not ruin the entire season. Also, twelve races over the course of six months is not overly grueling.
- Track schedule would obviously have to be negotiated, but in a general sense, the following tracks could be used in some sort of order: The Meadowlands, Yonkers, Pocono Downs, The Meadows, Chester Downs, Deleware (LJB track), Hoosier (or Indianapolis Downs), Balmoral Park, Springfield, Lexington, Dover and it could end at The Meadowlands again.
- Events in similar regions would be clustered together to avoid access shipping.
- Each event would have up to four separate divisions, drawn at random, meaning a maximum of 40 horses could compete on a given event. If more than 40 enter, ties are broken by series earnings first and lifetime earnings second.
- Each event would either race for $800,000 or $400,000, so if there are four divisions, individual races would go for either $200,000 or $100,000.
- 100 points are also awarded in each race in the following breakdown (from winner to last in a 10 horse field): 33, 22, 15, 10, 7, 4, 3, 1, 1, 1
- The first nine races would set up the final three. In the final three races, horses ranked 1-10 will compete together in the AAAA division finals. Horses ranked 11-20 will compete in the AAA division final, horses ranked 21-30 in the AA and horses ranked 31-40 in the A division final.
- These fields do not change unless of an injury or another reason a horse is pulled out. In which case, the horse with the next highest point total will get moved up one division (AAA to AAAA, AA to AAA and so on).
- Purses for the final three weeks are as follows:
AAAA: $500,000 per race
AAA: $200,000 per race
AA: $100,000 per race
A: $50,000 per race
-The winner of the AAAA division of the series will receive a $1,000,000 bonus.
-In addition, the winners of each division will receive a trophy (which will be named to build recognition and history over time).
That is how I envision the series in a nutshell. With any idea, there are numerous questions, but I’ll address the obvious one first: where is all the money coming from? Under this scenario, you would need $10.75 million in purse money to cover all the races and bonus. Here is where the 5% solution comes in.
In 2008, the top 50 two year old and three year old pacers earned a combined $36,860,000. Taking 5% of that purse money equates to $1,843,000. Again, that is just the top 50 two year olds and top 50 three year olds. It does not apply to aged races, claiming races and so on. The 5% solution could apply to more than just those horses. However, I believe it should have a floor, meaning that it should not apply to purses checks below a certain amount (say $10,000).
Additional revenues could come from starting fees (if it were just $500 per race with 40 starters and 12 races, that is another $240,000). A portion of the purse money could be offset from track handle as well. I would venture to guess that these races would be very well bet given the constant racing, balanced fields and marketing efforts.
There must be a lot more to make this series successful, including incredibly stringent testing and massive penalties for violators, limitless amounts of marketing opportunities (on the silks, on the bikes, on the numbers, on the track, you really can’t rule anything out) as well as gimmicks (driver helmet cameras, build up of rivalries between horses, trainers, drivers and owners, fantasy horse racing and on and on). I will continue to lay out more ideas over time. I really believe that something like this is what is necessary to draw new attention to harness racing. I’m not sure if anyone will agree or even hear about this, but feel free to pass this on to anyone who might be interested.
In other news, Mr. Mo will qualify this week on Thursday and I can't even talk about it. Just too nervous. Sounds like he has been doing his work well for John Butenschoen and should be ready to go. We are so hopeful, but you can't put the cart before the horse (literally and figuratively). We will have an update on Friday.
Friday, May 8, 2009
Berry's Creek
The first big three year old race of the year, the Berry’s Creek, will be raced on Saturday night at the Meadowlands. This is the twentieth installment of the event that has always been raced at the Meadowlands. Its name comes from the actual Berry’s Creek, a tributary of the Hackensack River, which runs just west of the Meadowlands.
The first ever Berry’s Creek (in 1989) was won by Fiorello Blue Chip, a Precious Fella colt out of a Steady Star mare. Fiorello Blue Chip went on to win $740,000 in 95 career starts. The Berry’s Creek purse in 1989 was $309,250 (interestingly higher than this year’s purse of $230,000) and the score of $154,625 equated to 21% of Fiorello Blue Chip’s total lifetime earnings. Not bad for one night at the Big M.
The first major ‘star’ to win the Berry’s Creek was arguably Cam’s Card Shark. CCS earned $2,500,000 in just 30 lifetime starts. His winning time in 1994 was 1.51.0, the second fastest in the then short history of the race, second only to Vine Street’s 1.50.2 victory the year prior. Vine Street’s win that night increased the colt’s earnings by $175,000, but didn’t propel him to greatness like CCS as it represented nearly 50% of his lifetime earnings of $356,000. One thing those two colts did have in common was their driver, John Campbell, who has won the Berry’s Creek a record five times.
The morning line favorite this year is River Shark, a colt out of Four Starzzz Shark who is beginning to round into form as a top 3 year old. He was only a $9,000 purchase at the 2007 Lexington Select Yearling sale. The fun thing about going to those sales is looking back and seeing if you made any notes or had thoughts about horses. I pulled out my old catalog and took a look at hip number 568. ‘Saw Saturday AM’ I wrote with a rating of 7 and a comment of ‘too slim’. I commend the owners for having more insight than I did!
There are a couple of horses in this race that our own In Over My Head took on earlier in the year, including the second favorite Hypnotic Blue Chip. He took some time off in late winter/ early spring and in his first race back he won his elimination to the Berry’s Creek in 1.51.2. In my opinion, Hypnotic Blue Chip doesn’t have to take a back seat to anyone in this field. It will be interesting to see what kind of price he goes off at with the money chasing the River Shark entry.
In other news, Mr. Mo is getting close to qualifying to re-start his 3 year old season. He is training down with John Butenschoen at Pocono and hope to get a qualifier and a start in by the end of May. It’s getting close and I can’t wait!
The first ever Berry’s Creek (in 1989) was won by Fiorello Blue Chip, a Precious Fella colt out of a Steady Star mare. Fiorello Blue Chip went on to win $740,000 in 95 career starts. The Berry’s Creek purse in 1989 was $309,250 (interestingly higher than this year’s purse of $230,000) and the score of $154,625 equated to 21% of Fiorello Blue Chip’s total lifetime earnings. Not bad for one night at the Big M.
The first major ‘star’ to win the Berry’s Creek was arguably Cam’s Card Shark. CCS earned $2,500,000 in just 30 lifetime starts. His winning time in 1994 was 1.51.0, the second fastest in the then short history of the race, second only to Vine Street’s 1.50.2 victory the year prior. Vine Street’s win that night increased the colt’s earnings by $175,000, but didn’t propel him to greatness like CCS as it represented nearly 50% of his lifetime earnings of $356,000. One thing those two colts did have in common was their driver, John Campbell, who has won the Berry’s Creek a record five times.
The morning line favorite this year is River Shark, a colt out of Four Starzzz Shark who is beginning to round into form as a top 3 year old. He was only a $9,000 purchase at the 2007 Lexington Select Yearling sale. The fun thing about going to those sales is looking back and seeing if you made any notes or had thoughts about horses. I pulled out my old catalog and took a look at hip number 568. ‘Saw Saturday AM’ I wrote with a rating of 7 and a comment of ‘too slim’. I commend the owners for having more insight than I did!
There are a couple of horses in this race that our own In Over My Head took on earlier in the year, including the second favorite Hypnotic Blue Chip. He took some time off in late winter/ early spring and in his first race back he won his elimination to the Berry’s Creek in 1.51.2. In my opinion, Hypnotic Blue Chip doesn’t have to take a back seat to anyone in this field. It will be interesting to see what kind of price he goes off at with the money chasing the River Shark entry.
In other news, Mr. Mo is getting close to qualifying to re-start his 3 year old season. He is training down with John Butenschoen at Pocono and hope to get a qualifier and a start in by the end of May. It’s getting close and I can’t wait!
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
The Marketing Miss
(a deviation of the life and times of In Over My Head, aka, Mo)
Even though the Kentucky Derby is not a harness event, I've always thought it is the unofficial, official start to the racing season. Much like the Masters is to golf. With that in mind, I wanted to share some thoughts on racing and promotion in general.
Imagine you are a promoter. You need to generate buzz for a big race that will get national exposure on a national TV station. Imagine you had the following to work with:
A Middle Eastern millionaire (or more) with endless resources shipping over his best two colts to take on the Americans.
A hall of fame trainer in Bob Baffert bringing in the best horse from California.
A former school teacher with a one horse ‘stable’
A cowboy from New Mexico who drove his $9,800 horse all the way to Kentucky himself.
The thing is, you don’t need to imagine anything. Those were just a few of the actual storylines that we had in the Kentucky Derby this year.
Just think of what Vince McMahn (of WWF/ WWE fame) could do with storylines like that? It is so good it almost sounds made up…but it isn’t! I’m a horse racing guy and I didn’t know half those stories until AFTER the race. You mean to tell me I have to watch 75,000 commercials for ‘Frank TV’ and endless other meaningless sitcoms and reality TV shows and you can’t throw a handful of commercials promoting these storylines during the Bulls vs. Celtics series? These are REAL people with real horses and putting real money on the line. No wonder racing is ‘dying’. No one creates any buzz. I’m sick of the ‘woe is me’ attitude attached to racing. ‘Our time has past.’ ‘It isn’t what is used to be.’ ‘No one cares anymore about horse racing’. You know recently, Jeb Bush (and I’m not getting into politics by the way) came out and said it was time for the Republican party to stop the aging love affair with the way things were under Ronald Regan. They were great times for that party. The key word is ‘were’. Its over. Time to move on. Racing needs to take the bull by the horns and move on too and save itself.
So why don’t they do it? Why don’t TV stations and media outlets dump money into promoting great animals and great stories. I have one theory. If Lebron James planned to come into the NBA, play one season and retire, do you think he would get the pub he gets? Do you think the NBA would be a popular as it is if players turned over year after year? No, is the answer to that question. Why sink time and effort into promoting a 3 year old horse who is more than likely going to head off to the stud barn within 12 months? They are gone before anyone gets to know them. With that in mind, it is time for a paradigm shift in the way races are conducted. I don’t see Thoroughbred racing changing…they are too set in their ways. This is a chance for harness racing to take the lead.
Aged Horses
Recently, the owners of Somebeachsomewhere, a legitimate superstar in every sense of the word told Standardbred Canada (link: http://www.standardbredcanada.ca/news/4-27-09/macgrath-retiring-beach-financial-decision.html ) that they retired him in part because there isn’t enough money to race for as an aged horse. While one could say that the owners are simply being greedy, the decision is theirs and only theirs at the end of the day. And for many, it is a simple business decision. Taking a horse like that to stud with a $20,000 fee is a sure thing (at least for a couple years). However, I believe that most owners would RATHER race than take their horse to stud barn. There is simply nothing like watching one of your horses race and the thrill of victory is incredible. In my opinion, we will not begin to fix the core issue with racing until such time we begin to offer more big races to horses older than 3. That is where you can build some constancy of big name horses. Rivalries can begin to blossom and that is where you create interest. You need an ‘us vs. them’ mentality to get people really interested. Michigan vs. Ohio State. Yankees vs. Red Sox. Heck, Yankees vs. anyone else. However, the money just isn’t in the aged races right now. Here is a look at all colt and gelding winners of over $500,000 in 2008 (pacers only):
Imagine you are a promoter. You need to generate buzz for a big race that will get national exposure on a national TV station. Imagine you had the following to work with:
A Middle Eastern millionaire (or more) with endless resources shipping over his best two colts to take on the Americans.
A hall of fame trainer in Bob Baffert bringing in the best horse from California.
A former school teacher with a one horse ‘stable’
A cowboy from New Mexico who drove his $9,800 horse all the way to Kentucky himself.
The thing is, you don’t need to imagine anything. Those were just a few of the actual storylines that we had in the Kentucky Derby this year.
Just think of what Vince McMahn (of WWF/ WWE fame) could do with storylines like that? It is so good it almost sounds made up…but it isn’t! I’m a horse racing guy and I didn’t know half those stories until AFTER the race. You mean to tell me I have to watch 75,000 commercials for ‘Frank TV’ and endless other meaningless sitcoms and reality TV shows and you can’t throw a handful of commercials promoting these storylines during the Bulls vs. Celtics series? These are REAL people with real horses and putting real money on the line. No wonder racing is ‘dying’. No one creates any buzz. I’m sick of the ‘woe is me’ attitude attached to racing. ‘Our time has past.’ ‘It isn’t what is used to be.’ ‘No one cares anymore about horse racing’. You know recently, Jeb Bush (and I’m not getting into politics by the way) came out and said it was time for the Republican party to stop the aging love affair with the way things were under Ronald Regan. They were great times for that party. The key word is ‘were’. Its over. Time to move on. Racing needs to take the bull by the horns and move on too and save itself.
So why don’t they do it? Why don’t TV stations and media outlets dump money into promoting great animals and great stories. I have one theory. If Lebron James planned to come into the NBA, play one season and retire, do you think he would get the pub he gets? Do you think the NBA would be a popular as it is if players turned over year after year? No, is the answer to that question. Why sink time and effort into promoting a 3 year old horse who is more than likely going to head off to the stud barn within 12 months? They are gone before anyone gets to know them. With that in mind, it is time for a paradigm shift in the way races are conducted. I don’t see Thoroughbred racing changing…they are too set in their ways. This is a chance for harness racing to take the lead.
Aged Horses
Recently, the owners of Somebeachsomewhere, a legitimate superstar in every sense of the word told Standardbred Canada (link: http://www.standardbredcanada.ca/news/4-27-09/macgrath-retiring-beach-financial-decision.html ) that they retired him in part because there isn’t enough money to race for as an aged horse. While one could say that the owners are simply being greedy, the decision is theirs and only theirs at the end of the day. And for many, it is a simple business decision. Taking a horse like that to stud with a $20,000 fee is a sure thing (at least for a couple years). However, I believe that most owners would RATHER race than take their horse to stud barn. There is simply nothing like watching one of your horses race and the thrill of victory is incredible. In my opinion, we will not begin to fix the core issue with racing until such time we begin to offer more big races to horses older than 3. That is where you can build some constancy of big name horses. Rivalries can begin to blossom and that is where you create interest. You need an ‘us vs. them’ mentality to get people really interested. Michigan vs. Ohio State. Yankees vs. Red Sox. Heck, Yankees vs. anyone else. However, the money just isn’t in the aged races right now. Here is a look at all colt and gelding winners of over $500,000 in 2008 (pacers only):
One could argue that Somebeach had a chance to make a ton of money. Mr. Big took in $1,500,000. However, look at his line. Eleven wins in fourteen starts. That’s rather incredible. It is a lot to ask of a horse to have that kind of win percentage.Digging into the numbers shows that of the top ten earners in 2008, five were 3-year olds, three were 4 + and two were 2-year olds.
So how could the landscape be changed? How could there be a way for aged horses to stay on the track longer? I think one idea would be to create a new division of racing: horses aged 4 through 6. That division could have its own series or ‘Grand Circuit’. They could even piggy back on big weekends where 3-year old events are taking center stage (and could eventually upstage the younger colts). The key would be to set it up in a series with points and standings. Nascar does it. Golf is trying to do the same thing. Have someone be the lead sponsor and entice big time horses to race not only for purse money, but for year end bonuses. If the winner of the annual Ford Truck Harness Series (for example) got to add a million dollar bonus to their accumulated purse money, do you think Somebeach would be retired right now? Maybe, but I’d guess there would be a much better chance he would be racing and that colt is EXACTLY what the sport needs.
This would be one way to try and create some consistency in racing. Let the 2 and 3 year olds do their thing. This new series would be a way for the general public to get to know horses over a number of years. Consistent horses, consistent drivers, consistent trainers and consistent owners. It would be exponentially easier to promote a battle of Mr. Big vs. Somebeach vs. Art Official. How about seeing a number of dream matchups of Donato Hanover vs. Deweycheatemandhow? Do you realize the buzz you could create off of something like that? More media, more advertising dollars and more money spent at the windows. Racing would actually be taking in non casino generated dollars. Now that sounds like a plan in long term viability.
Ratings and attendance
Interestingly enough, the ratings for this year’s Kentucky Derby were the highest in 17 years. This despite the lack of marketing as talked about above. The on track attendance was also a record high. Racing is not dead. It is one life support and only shows its former glory once or twice a year, but it isn’t dead. Again, the Derby is not harness racing, but horses are horses to a certain extent. Use these important numbers as a beacon of hope to keep working toward a better, more sustainable sport.
Monday, April 13, 2009
T-minus about a month...
The quiet doldrums of the seemingly endless time in between starts is starting to drive me crazy. It seems like a year ago that In Over My Head put up that big mile in the Junior Trendsetter at the Meadowlands as we cheered him on from South Beloit. Actually it has only been 49 days, but who’s counting. In the end, he ended up getting about a month of real R & R. Getting turned out to run around in a paddock every day and being fed like a king. Time to let his minor aliments heal. Time to let him build his strength up. Time to let him continue to mature. I took a look at the sales catalog the other day from the 2007 Lexington Select Sale and noticed that he was born on May 27, 2006, so he’s technically not even 3 yet (although all horses have the same ‘birthday’ in terms of eligibility on January 1st of each year). I always thought that May 27 was a very late foal, so I took a very unscientific poll by flipping through that pages of that sale book and marking the foal month of 50 horses. The results:
- February – 16%
- March – 28%
- April – 38%
- May – 18%
So he was a late foal, but there were more May foals in there than I expected. Anyway, none of that should really matter anymore, but since he’s not racing yet, I have analyze something. The good news is that after his time in the yard, they brought him back and he is training down nicely. They are going slow with him with a targeted of May 15th for him to qualify and kick off his 3 year old campaign. These are the times where you just wonder what he is going to be. Will his couple of races this January/ February be a springboard to something better? If so, how much? Or was that his max potential? Even if that was the case, he’d still be a nice racehorse. The key is to not set unreal expectations for the colt (although, I have to admit, the mind tends to deviate towards an unrealistic amount of winner circle pictures and victory parties).
A real key to success is to properly place him in races where he ‘fits’. We decided (rightfully so) that he is a legitimate stakes colt. As a backdrop, the high purse races that occur every year are considered ‘Stakes Races’. In order to be eligible for them, you have to make a bet. Those bets are made in February and March in the form of sustaining payments. For example, if you want your horse to be able to race at the Hayes Memorial in DuQuion on September 1st, you will need to pay $500 in February to keep him eligible. Now you know why I call it a bet. That race is expected to go for about $50,000 and when September come along, if your horse is racing well and healthy enough, you then pay another $500 as a starting fee. That’s only one race. It can really add up fast and you absolutely have to resist the urge to pay him into all the biggest events based more on hope than on reality. In the end, we kept him eligible for a number of events, including his Sire Series in Pennsylvania. Those events are great and offer a lot of bang for the buck. The way that works is that each state has a number of sires. If you have a horse whose sire stands in that state, you are eligible for their sire series (In Over My Head’s sire is I’m A Fool, who stood in Pennsylvania when he was conceived). For only $500, you can be eligible for four events that will go for approximately $40,000. If you do well, you can make the final that goes for $200,000. Good value, so we obviously paid him into that. We also picked an event down in Indianapolis and a few back in Illinois. We think we picked the right kind of events. They are the kind of events where he won’t live up to his namesake, which, of course, would be a good thing.
Speaking of names, I finally came up with a nickname for Mr. In Over My Head. In order to do so, I just wrote down the first letter in each word in his name. What do you see?
I O M H
Not much, might be the first answer. They don’t go together that well. Then I tapped into my powers of dyslexia and came up with:
Hi Mo
There you have it. His new nickname (for now) will be Mo. I’m looking forward to hollering ‘Let’s Go Mo!’ as he charges to the wire. As soon as I saw that it made me remember a time down at Balmoral Park a few years ago on a brisk fall Sunday night. I think they were racing the Sarah Meyers and as the horses came into the stretch, I saw this long haired guy in a black trench coat screaming ‘Let’s Go Mo!’ at the top of his lungs. He must have been an owner. The fans were sparse that evening, especially since it was chilly outside and his voice just carried up and down the home stretch. The horse was Fox Valley Sangamo and ‘Mo’ won that night. That guy was so happy. That is quite a feeling.
Need more proof that Mo is a good nickname? How is this for coincidence: Fox Valley Sangamo is the half brother (same dam) to none other than Westside Gritty. And the name of the writer from the Capitol Times that did that nice article on her after she won the Orange and Blue elim in track record time? Doug Moe. I think that nickname might work out just fine.
- February – 16%
- March – 28%
- April – 38%
- May – 18%
So he was a late foal, but there were more May foals in there than I expected. Anyway, none of that should really matter anymore, but since he’s not racing yet, I have analyze something. The good news is that after his time in the yard, they brought him back and he is training down nicely. They are going slow with him with a targeted of May 15th for him to qualify and kick off his 3 year old campaign. These are the times where you just wonder what he is going to be. Will his couple of races this January/ February be a springboard to something better? If so, how much? Or was that his max potential? Even if that was the case, he’d still be a nice racehorse. The key is to not set unreal expectations for the colt (although, I have to admit, the mind tends to deviate towards an unrealistic amount of winner circle pictures and victory parties).
A real key to success is to properly place him in races where he ‘fits’. We decided (rightfully so) that he is a legitimate stakes colt. As a backdrop, the high purse races that occur every year are considered ‘Stakes Races’. In order to be eligible for them, you have to make a bet. Those bets are made in February and March in the form of sustaining payments. For example, if you want your horse to be able to race at the Hayes Memorial in DuQuion on September 1st, you will need to pay $500 in February to keep him eligible. Now you know why I call it a bet. That race is expected to go for about $50,000 and when September come along, if your horse is racing well and healthy enough, you then pay another $500 as a starting fee. That’s only one race. It can really add up fast and you absolutely have to resist the urge to pay him into all the biggest events based more on hope than on reality. In the end, we kept him eligible for a number of events, including his Sire Series in Pennsylvania. Those events are great and offer a lot of bang for the buck. The way that works is that each state has a number of sires. If you have a horse whose sire stands in that state, you are eligible for their sire series (In Over My Head’s sire is I’m A Fool, who stood in Pennsylvania when he was conceived). For only $500, you can be eligible for four events that will go for approximately $40,000. If you do well, you can make the final that goes for $200,000. Good value, so we obviously paid him into that. We also picked an event down in Indianapolis and a few back in Illinois. We think we picked the right kind of events. They are the kind of events where he won’t live up to his namesake, which, of course, would be a good thing.
Speaking of names, I finally came up with a nickname for Mr. In Over My Head. In order to do so, I just wrote down the first letter in each word in his name. What do you see?
I O M H
Not much, might be the first answer. They don’t go together that well. Then I tapped into my powers of dyslexia and came up with:
Hi Mo
There you have it. His new nickname (for now) will be Mo. I’m looking forward to hollering ‘Let’s Go Mo!’ as he charges to the wire. As soon as I saw that it made me remember a time down at Balmoral Park a few years ago on a brisk fall Sunday night. I think they were racing the Sarah Meyers and as the horses came into the stretch, I saw this long haired guy in a black trench coat screaming ‘Let’s Go Mo!’ at the top of his lungs. He must have been an owner. The fans were sparse that evening, especially since it was chilly outside and his voice just carried up and down the home stretch. The horse was Fox Valley Sangamo and ‘Mo’ won that night. That guy was so happy. That is quite a feeling.
Need more proof that Mo is a good nickname? How is this for coincidence: Fox Valley Sangamo is the half brother (same dam) to none other than Westside Gritty. And the name of the writer from the Capitol Times that did that nice article on her after she won the Orange and Blue elim in track record time? Doug Moe. I think that nickname might work out just fine.
Monday, March 2, 2009
Checking in
It has now been a week and two days since In Over My Head put up that big mile at the Meadowlands, good for a third place finish in the Junior Trendsetter. Since that day, he has earned a one month, all expense paid (by my uncle and I) vacation to a nice farm in New Jersey. He spends his days running around a paddock and nights in a nice heated stall in the barn. If we could all be so lucky. He's also being fed a lot to make sure he will be ready to face the rigors of a long racing season. We will begin training him again in late March and will have him ready to qualify in mid May.
So what am I going to write about until then? Honestly, I'm not sure. I have to do something to keep my 3 readers occupied (thank you for reading by the way and feel free to share if someone else might want to read my ramblings). I'll probably latch onto some national stories from the world of harness racing and maybe some localized ones. I will also probably give an overview of what it is like to look at a stakes schedule as we did with In Over My Head. It is quite a balancing act. You want to keep your horse eligible to races where he/ she can make some money, but you don't want to overdo it. I can tell you it is quite easy to see your horse through 'rose colored glasses' and think they are better than they actually are. Not to pat us on the back too much, but I think Greg and I came up with a very reasonable schedule for In Over My Head. I guess only time will tell though.
Lastly, we are happy with our purchase of In Over My Head, but another good buy of the Meadowlands sale is True Gritty. She, like Westside Gritty, is named for the Nitty Gritty in Madison. She started her racing career slowly and only brought $2,200 at the sale (I'm not saying she should have brought a big number, but $2,200 was unreasonably low based on how good we knew she was). Well, congrats to the new owners as she has now finished 3rd in the first two legs of the Hopefull series at Yonkers. That's $2,400 worth of purse money...not bad for a $2,200 horse. I wish her and her connections the best!
Keep checking in...I'll keep coming up with harness related stories while In Over My Head gets a break.
So what am I going to write about until then? Honestly, I'm not sure. I have to do something to keep my 3 readers occupied (thank you for reading by the way and feel free to share if someone else might want to read my ramblings). I'll probably latch onto some national stories from the world of harness racing and maybe some localized ones. I will also probably give an overview of what it is like to look at a stakes schedule as we did with In Over My Head. It is quite a balancing act. You want to keep your horse eligible to races where he/ she can make some money, but you don't want to overdo it. I can tell you it is quite easy to see your horse through 'rose colored glasses' and think they are better than they actually are. Not to pat us on the back too much, but I think Greg and I came up with a very reasonable schedule for In Over My Head. I guess only time will tell though.
Lastly, we are happy with our purchase of In Over My Head, but another good buy of the Meadowlands sale is True Gritty. She, like Westside Gritty, is named for the Nitty Gritty in Madison. She started her racing career slowly and only brought $2,200 at the sale (I'm not saying she should have brought a big number, but $2,200 was unreasonably low based on how good we knew she was). Well, congrats to the new owners as she has now finished 3rd in the first two legs of the Hopefull series at Yonkers. That's $2,400 worth of purse money...not bad for a $2,200 horse. I wish her and her connections the best!
Keep checking in...I'll keep coming up with harness related stories while In Over My Head gets a break.
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