Sunday, March 07, 2010

The Continuum of Frustration to Anger to Abandonment

(CHICAGO, IL – March 8, 2010) It is near impossible to determine at which point horse racing is on the continuum of frustration to anger to abandonment. But this is certain. The sport is being assaulted in every which way from every direction, and the fallout from the fans’ vitriol is stinging.

Wagering fell again in the month of February and bad weather was blamed. Last fall, the excuse was the economy. Yet, horse racing has been trending seriously downward for more than a year…well, heck, for nearly a decade. On the other hand, the way it has fallen in terms of the respect that its fan base is giving the sport traces much further back and, in one sense, is considerably more troubling.

A discourse that is civil may ensue when a turf writer sticks to predicting the finish or covering the results of a race. But when he comments on the manner in which the sport manages its business – in other words, on how the areas of operations, administration or legislation are being tended to by the horse industry’s leaders, the readers break loose with a tirade of comments that could make a ruddy-skinned man with high blood pressure blush.

“It’s extremely painful to read,” said Alex Waldrop, CEO of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, about the feedback he gets from horse racing fans and horseplayers to his own blog when he addresses such matters. Waldrop noted also that “the fans have many points of contact” and serving all the issues existing at all the touch points isn’t possible in an industry where consensus is the only form of management.

Speaking in a telephone interview on Friday, the NTRA president acknowledged that he realizes the extent to which many people are unhappy. He sees what they write and think about horse racing’s problems. Moreover, he believes other leaders read the same complaints as he. “It’s hard for anyone to look into the mirror. Sometimes I must force myself,” he candidly admitted, while implying that the practice needn’t begin and end with him.

Two weeks ago, after Waldrop posted an NTRA.com blog about a speech he gave at the University of Arizona in which he emphasized that the future of racing was the Internet, the first reader to comment on what he wrote was a man named Russell Weber who accused him of listening to the fans but not answering them.

“There are two ways to handle comments,” Waldrop offered. “One way is to be responsive, and the other is to let people react and don’t get into it,” he explained. Often readers left to mixing in their views with the views of other readers who make comments on an issue can be more productive than complicating your own views with more of the same, he intimated.

“If I enter the space, I’d better be prepared to line up for its consequences,” Waldrop said about his own Internet writing. But he didn’t offer much in the way of explanation to Weber who commented that he wasn’t, and he didn’t shed much light on why industry leaders who don’t blog are reluctant to engage in dialogue by commenting on criticism or acknowledging ideas.

“It’s not smart on the part of leaders to disregard their public,” warned Dr. Charles Kenny, a clinical psychologist whose company The Right Brain People researches human emotion and its effects on business. “An old idea in psychology called the Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis holds that when people don’t have their frustrations addressed, they act out their anger. In business, the frustration can lead to anger when customers feel that they have been insulted,” Kenny said.

“We have noticed from our work across many categories that the American people feel betrayed by just about every segment of leadership,” said Kenny. He believes that today is not a good time for leaders and, in fact, it’s a particularly bad time for leaders to avoid listening to and acting upon what the public wants. He cites MoveOn.org and the Tea Party as examples of movements that have grown out of the establishment’s practice of acting the way it wanted instead of the way its constituency advised.

In addition, Kenny knows from research he has conducted for the racetrack industry that losers can be made to feel like winners when patrons are recognized for their worth and when they have their ideas played out in policy.

“A fan’s team represents who he is. So when a fan goes to a ballpark and his team wins, the fan is rewarded; he becomes, in effect, a winner, too. But winning does not happen regularly in gambling, so the horse racing fan puts more emphasis and invests more emotional energy in the experience at the racetrack and looks to the surroundings, the amenities, the staff and the management for affirmation of his self-worth,” Kenny postulated.

If Waldrop’s right that horse racing is entering a new age of engagement on the Internet, then Kenny’s theory about serving fans and horseplayers with the validation that they’re not chumps is a challenge. Likewise, if Kenny’s right that one way to keep fans involved is to make them feel like winners, even when they are not, then Waldrop’s colleagues in the establishment better start dialoguing with and reacting to the public to figure out ways to accomplish this.

To its credit, the NTRA seems to understand what’s necessary. Its effectiveness in convincing the sport to ban anabolic steroids and the formation of the Safety and Integrity Alliance to which nine racecourses have already prescribed, as well as its current efforts to bring about an industry compact, are developments that grew from a groundswell.

Now it’s time for the individual racetracks, the Breeders’ Cup and The Jockey Club to say what they’ve done to engage their benefactors. Remaining mute when fans call you out, allowing the discord to grow and seeming to be “hard of listening” when the whole world around you is shouting is just fueling a rage that’s unnecessary, and nihilistic, to boot.

Vic Zast comments on horse racing daily at Twitter.com and Facebook.com. Keep tabs on Alex Waldrop’s bi-weekly blog at NTRA.com. Dr. Kenny’s new book is "The Right Brain: Drive Your Brand with the Power of Emotion."

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Sunday, February 28, 2010

Social Studies: How the Changing Culture has Caused Horse Racing to Fall

(CHICAGO, IL – March 1, 2010) All industries are challenged by circumstances that affect business negatively. It’s the job of their leaders to find ways to overcome them. Yet, sometimes, a situation changes so much that no matter how hard people work or how smartly they plan, there’s not much to be done that can turn a failing enterprise into one with a future.

A trite example of an industry that is disappearing quickly by little fault of its own is the newspaper trade. Advancing technology is making the delivery of information on paper obsolete, just as it is eradicating that portion of the music industry built on record sales. The current generation may be witnessing the extinction of typewriters and fax machines, telephones and Kodachrome. In less than a decade, the majority of cars will be powered by a combustible energy source that is other than gas, transforming an industry, sustained for a century on an unwavering premise, into one that relies on a new dynamic.

Horse racing is often faulted for managing its affairs poorly, and the number of reasons why the sport underperforms is exhaustive, mostly accurate and blameworthy. Nevertheless, the sport’s current troubles may be more the result of an evolving society that is headed in an opposite direction than the foibles of incompetents. Like all things that persist for an extended time on the reliance that the public will like it, horse racing’s demise has been influenced by dozens of changes in the culture.

To the following list, one could add how the elimination of unattainable luxuries has destroyed a guardian class, ruined the value of exclusion and made everything banal. In addition, there’s no doubt that a suffocating preoccupation with political correctness and a widening sensitivity to animal rights have caused agita with the heart of the sport. But here are three changes, less burdened by theory and easier to comprehend, that should help make the point adequately.

The USA is no longer a nation where the horse is important. The general population was aware of the horse on a daily basis until the first decade of the last century. The memory of horses in the city streets, making deliveries and transporting people via wagons lingered with some people through the 1960s. After that date, only people living a rural life came in contact with them. As our society shifted completely away from being agriculturally-based in the last half of the 1900s, the connection between man and the horse widened further.

Dick Downey, the author of thedowneyprofile.com, grew up on a farm. He said, “In lockstep with the decline of the popularity of horse racing, we have seen the rise of NASCAR. Everyone has a car, and very few of us have a horse or any personal memory of a horse. The connection between these phenomena is not coincidental, in my opinion.” Downey also suggested that it is not coincidental that most of the top jockeys hail from Latin America or Cajun country, societies in which the horse was an everyday presence. Accordingly, many of the top trainers grew up on farms or ranches.

The attitude of people toward horses is more embracing in places such as Kentucky and Saratoga Springs, where the animal is seen, appreciated and still contributes to commerce. Where the horse is not valued the same, and with the track emptied of fans who now participate remotely, the sport has deteriorated into a mere gambling exercise. As a gambling alternative to casino games and slot machines, it appeals to a smaller audience.

Pari-mutuel gambling is not the Big Tax Daddy it was. When government could no longer resist tapping the public’s insatiable appetite for gambling, it legalized lotteries. In 1964, the New Hampshire Sweepstakes became the first government-sanctioned lottery in the 20th century. In 1978, New Jersey became the second state to legalize casinos as Atlantic City came to compete as an East Coast Las Vegas. In 1988, the Indiana Gaming Regulatory Act legalized tribal gaming operations.

Today, there are lotteries in 42 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Forty-eight states have legalized gambling of some sort. According to the American Gaming Association, commercial casinos control 43 percent of the market, lotteries control 28 percent, Indian gaming operations 17 percent and pari-mutuel gambling a measly six percent. Horse racing’s $13 billion handle, a portion of which is sheltered from taxation, is a pittance compared to what people are risking elsewhere.

All these alternative gambling opportunities put a simple principle in play - they take a little money from a lot of people often. In comparison, horse racing has placed an emphasis on milking each player as much as it can to attain industry growth. Regardless of which strategy is right, there’s no doubt that the landscape has changed in terms of where and how people gamble. In turn, the sport no longer can argue its value as a big tax revenue producing enterprise to the states. In Florida alone, for example, total state revenues for pari-mutuels fell from $144.7 million in 1989 to $33.9 million in 2008, a reduction of 76.6 percent.

Studious endeavors will struggle in a sound bite society. When Time Inc. launched People Weekly on newsstands in 1974, the world was shocked that a magazine would trivialize its topics by reporting them in short takes. In the convening decades, America’s interest in reading long-form articles has dwindled to a trickle. Impatience has set in, attention spans have shortened. In short, the concept of fast no longer exists. Even the fastest of functions occur too slowly.

People no longer spend more than two or three minutes with a single topic. Readership falls off drastically after 250 words are consumed. The nation has regressed from being a society that advertising genius David Ogilvy believed to be disinterested in headlines that were shorter than seven words to one that software developer Joel Spolsky says doesn’t want to read. Twitter.com – the fastest growing Internet social media site – requires its contributors to communicate in 140 characters.

Within this milieu, how, then, can horse racing, which requires learning, attention to detail, patience and study, be expected to attract new followers? Unless the sport begins changing to a pastime that anyone can enjoy from one which is the playground of learned folks, it is pushing a ball up the hill like the futile laborer Sisyphus.

Vic Zast invites you to comment below and to visit with him at Facebook.and Twitter.

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Sunday, February 21, 2010

Straight Talk About Danger

(CHICAGO, IL – February 22, 2010) Knowing that four feet were added to the already 18-foot high icy walls of the half pipe at the Vancouver Games so that Gold Medal winner Shaun White and other snowboarders could propel themselves upwards like rocket ships should have convinced me that Brian Williams was right that no athletes have more courage than Winter Olympians. But, it didn’t.

The NBC-TV Evening News anchor was moved by grief to deliver his paean to downhill skiers, snowboarders, skeleton and bobsled sliders, ski-crossers and aerialists following the death of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvilli in a practice run. Kumaritashvilli’s death was his sport’s first fatality since 1975.

In comparison, 150 jockeys have been killed in a thoroughbred horse race since 1940, 60 are permanently disabled and three have died from their injuries in the last three and a half years, according to Terry Meyocks, national manager of the Jockeys’ Guild. A jockey has to have nerves of titanium, and bones of steel, just to work everyday.

A racehorse can fall in practice, clip heels with another runner in a race, bolt unexpectedly on a turn, or rear in the starting gate. One can’t predict when an occurrence of dire consequence will transpire. And, perhaps the random nature of accidents associated with such unforeseen animal behavior enables a rider to carry on.

Nevertheless, occasional bad luck’s no excuse for not keeping a history or at least an accounting of events that cause people to die or be injured on the racetracks. The tragic death of the Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro, a horse, brought about the formation of The Jockey Club’s Equine Injury Database. One would think that we’d want the same for our sport’s human participants.

“As an industry, we’ve got to work together to save lives and improve the safety of the sport,” said Meyocks, when I tried to learn more about the number of jockeys who have died or experienced career-ending injury as a result of an accident. The veteran horse racing industry executive credited Keeneland and Dr. Barry Schumer for taking a lead position in helping to develop jockey safety and mentioned a long list of other organizations and people that have contributed to their efforts. But he said also, that despite the work and generosity of many, no official database exists and that having one is imperative. “Everything takes time in this industry,” Meyocks admitted, seemingly frustrated.

In the meantime, apprentice Michael Straight, a graduate of Chris McCarron’s North American Racing Academy, is one person who can tell Meyocks and the Jockeys’ Guild friends what it’s like to stare death in the face while on horseback. Straight is spending time in a wheelchair now, the victim of a nasty spill at Arlington Park. The East Greenbush, NY native has fingers crossed that he’ll walk eventually, but a lifelong dream to live the life of a jockey seems no more than a dream for him now.

“Being a jockey, I knew there was a risk. But you have to be bigger than that,” Straight acknowledged in a telephone interview a few days ago. “Every time I got in the gear, I would think about where I was. I was thinking of everyone else in the race, hoping that I wouldn’t do something to hurt them,” he added. I couldn’t help but believe that in Straight the sport had lost someone special. He was polite, humble and grateful that he’d gotten as far as he did in his chosen field, and wasn’t bitter with the cards that the sport dealt him.

In recounting his intimidating first mount at jockey school, Straight said, “Lots of kids had to not go along with it because they were too scared. But I wanted to be a jockey since I was seven or eight, so I wasn’t afraid.” The jockey credited an upbringing in a supportive family and friendships with jockeys at nearby Saratoga Racecourse as key to his learning process. I can’t be certain, but in talking to him, he sounded as a person well-grounded in a deep faith in God, too.

Nevertheless, Straight admitted that it is “a bit reckless” to ride horses. He believes jockeys who aren’t willing to go for an advantage when presented in a race weren’t up to the task. He also admitted that his youth accommodated a beneficial impetuosity. “I’d handicap my races knowing that some older jockeys would ‘stay safer’ and then played it out as it goes. During the running of a race, you rely a lot on instinct,” he said. Straight was 24 when his accident occurred.

As for which sport is the testiest, does it really matter? There’s no denying that the Olympics have been souped up considerably with daring in the last 30 years. After a slump in the TV ratings in the late 1980s, the organizers of the Winter Games deliberately began staging high-risk Medal sports that would appeal to a younger audience. This year’s ratings, in turn, are fantastic, even better than American Idol. Considering how the Olympic athletes are flinging themselves down the slopes, reaching breakneck speeds in the chutes, sliding faster than oysters down throats and soaring four stories above the surface of the mountain, Williams was spot on to say that they were cut from a different cloth than the common Joe.

Yet, jockeys are extraordinary, too. “I definitely thought we are braver than the average guy,” Straight replied when I asked him if jockeys, like the Olympians, were unusual. “If you want to do it, you don’t think that you’re going to be hurt. You don’t care so much about injuries,” he said.

If there is a difference between Straight and White beside the obvious, then, it’s not age, gender, weight, height, and daring, but purpose. White and his colleague Olympians court danger to make millions off the public’s fascination with it, while jockeys, like Straight, live with danger merely to keep working, their acceptance of risk rarely noticed.

For more from Vic Zast, go to Twitter.com/viczast and Facebook.com/viczast

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