Monday, July 21, 2008

The Cure to Empty Seats Syndrome

(SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY – July 21, 2008) It is impossible to determine the exact date of death for horse racing in America as a spectator sport. Carbon dating conducted on a cadaver found in Aqueduct’s abandoned grandstand suggests that it happened 30 years ago. The discovery of a 2001 Hialeah betting slip in the wallet of a 120-year-old man in a North Miami cryogenics lab has been credited as proof that the demise was, in fact, recent.

As a matter of record, the end came on with a plague. In the early 1980s, when the first signs of simulcast technology surfaced, racetracks abandoned their social contracts. When the NTRA decided an unhealthy diet of drab competition was unmarketable, it developed a fatty strategy that placed emphasis on special events, thus acknowledging that the game’s everyday pursuit did indeed appeal only to gamblers. When the Breeders’ Cup World Thoroughbred Championships made auditions out of dozens of $1 million fixtures, even races of historic proportion lacked anodyne.

Last spring, after Robert Evans of Churchill Downs pronounced racetrack attendance a false measure of success, the number of people in the stands as a statistic was stricken entirely from the box scores. Nevertheless, it would take a time traveler moving backwards to reconstruct the unraveling of horse racing as the country’s most attended sport to zombie status. Regardless, we’re midway between the openings of two legendary racetracks that seem to have avoided the “empty seats syndrome.”

In five of the last six years, Del Mar in Southern California has drawn crowds of more than 40,000 people for the opener to its traditional summer meet. Wednesday’s raucous crowd was reported at 43,459, the second highest ever – this despite fears that the high cost of a tank of gas would restrict the affordability of margaritas at the oceanfront course considerably, thus discouraging commuters.

Saratoga Race Course, on the edges of Siro’s in God’s country, is another destination racetrack that faces the same challenge. But it won’t be the first time that someone has placed an obstacle in front of New Yorkers, and track officials believe that they’re headed for another huge season. Last August, as NYRA faced extinction and mud was slung in Saratoga Springs as if it was Singapore, the track broke betting records. It’s believed that a run of rainless days and a surprise visit by either Big Brown for the Travers or by Curlin for the Sword Dancer could send the size of its crowds soaring.

Naturally, the popularity of Del Mar and Saratoga are explained by the fact that these tracks run boutique meets at which high level horses commingle with high energy fun for a brief stint that lasts less than a few weeks each summer. If you want to enjoy live horse racing at its best, the thinking at these places of business is that you either show up during the few days on which the product’s available or miss it. Hand in glove with this thinking, both tracks offer a product that’s sensational.

When Saratoga opens this Wednesday for 36 days, there will be a stakes race each day, of which 33 will be graded stakes for nearly $10 million in purse money. Visitors will find a sold-out clubhouse and grandstand, jam-packed picnic grounds, and a social scene unique in the fact that, win or lose, there’ll be no regrets for putting up with stifling heat, dusty seats, endless betting lines, and distant parking. Now, how’s that for a corner on the market? More appropriate to this article - now, how’s that for a sport that is dead as a spectator event?

Considering that the exception to the rule seems the better part of logic, perhaps it’s time for a crazy idea. For the good of the sport on several fronts, maybe other racetracks, beside Del Mar and Saratoga should shutter their doors to the public for most of the year. What is there about trekking to Hawthorne in March that can help racing to develop its public? Have you ever been to Turfway in February? Where has the perpetual grind of year-round racing gotten us?

Oh, no. This isn’t a suggestion that racetracks should exist non-productively. That horse has left the barn, to borrow a euphemism. The tracks need to race horses year-round, of course. But let them tell fans to stay away, watch the sport on TV, make their bets on the Internet, and wait for the real show to come around. (We’re not too far from that anyway.) Then, let them put on a show – Saratoga and Del Mar-styled - that’s worth waiting for. Imagine the money saved and made in the interim.

Pari-mutuel handle isn’t the problem with horse racing, attendance is. Close to $16 billion was generated throughout North America last year, creating over $3 billion in revenue – on a par with professional basketball (the NBA) and more than professional hockey (the NHL). Internet, simulcast and telephone account betting represent over 85 percent of all monies wagered. Why do racetracks need fans in the stands? Horse racing’s supporters stand up for the sport. Let them be where they are - participants in virtual reality.

The idea of conducting the sport without a live audience is so preposterous, it might be genius. As it stands now, the racetracks are sinking money into operations that exist for a market that doesn’t deserve the investment. Why pretend? By consolidating the best racing and a unique ambiance into one short spell of the year in selected markets, the game could have more than two racetracks where human life persists.

There is a future for post-Apocalyptic horse racing. Someone simply needs the vision, the courage, and a Del Mar margarita to pull the trigger.

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Sportsman Jackson Not Finished with Making Curlin a Legend

(Saratoga Springs, NY - July 13, 2008) Now we’ll learn what kind of sportsman Jess Jackson is. It is one thing to bravely venture into the unknown when everything seems to be going your way. But it is something else to be brave when the deck seems to be stacked against you.

Curlin’s second place finish to Red Rocks, the 2006 Breeders’ Cup Turf champion, has people believing that Jackson and trainer Steve Asmussen will abandon an invasion of Paris for the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.

The handsome, copper-colored son of Smart Strike was 2-5 in the $500,000 Man O’ War Stakes at Belmont Park, despite never having run on turf before. To say that he ran a bad race would be exaggerating the outcome. But to say that he looked good in defeat would be totally oblivious to his absentee brilliance.

At the break of the Man O’ War, Curlin struck the side of the gate in a clumsy way, worked harder than usual to gain fourth before the first turn, and allowed the British invader, Red Rocks, trained by Brian Meehan, to gain the catbird seat. Javier Castellano Jr. permitted the two front runners, never serious threats, to shred foolish fractions and burn themselves out. Then he took the lead, quickened like they do in Europe, and was set to go back to England a winner.

Let me be the first to suggest that Robby Albarado’s ride aboard Curlin wasn’t a thing of beauty. You’ll hear it again as the days pass. Like the bettors who enabled Red Rocks to go off at 6-1, Albarado underestimated what it would take to beat a turf specialist that is far better conditioned than any you’ll find on this side of the pond. Moreover, the rider failed to sense that his mount couldn’t make up the ground that existed on the final turn between him and his conqueror. He hit overdrive too slowly, and, in putting pedal to metal, Curlin looked more like a Hummer than a Jaguar.

“We didn’t see that late kick from him today,” Jackson admitted, but fell short of blaming anyone or any surface. Going into the Man O’ War, Curlin had won five straight races on the dirt including the Dubai World Cup and the Breeders’ Cup Classic and nine of 12 career races. Yet, he had trained brilliantly on the grass course at Churchill Downs a couple of weeks prior to Saturday’s disappointing showing.

“My feeling right now is that he needs another turf test,” Jackson said, and that would be fine by all interested parties. Regardless what you think of the controversial Jackson, you must tip your hat to his ambitions. Running Curlin as a four-year-old is admirable in itself, but running him with the goal of winning the biggest races on three different continents is mind-blowing.

No American-trained horse has ever won the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe or, for that matter, any other major middle distance European classic. It is often thought that when asked to run without medication, our best horses aren’t up to the challenge. Moreover, only a truly exceptional animal can adapt to the undulations of Europe’s grassy tracks, soft turf conditions, and clockwise running requirements. Carry Back finished 10th in the Arc in 1962. Tom Rolfe ran sixth in 1965, and El Senor was ninth in 1991.

Nevertheless, Jackson’s quest is a throwback to horse racing cyclone days, when the best horses barnstormed the country to try distances, weights and opposing foes that they never attempted before. Not every race tried by these legendary runners resulted in victory. But every race that they ran in was noteworthy, interesting and fan pleasing.

There wasn’t a really big crowd at Belmont to see Curlin, and, quite frankly, it would have been a surprise if there was. Not since Point Given in 2001 has there been a thoroughbred that could entice people to visit a racetrack instead of a beach, ballgame or casino. But considering the Man O’ War was a test for the 2007 Horse of the Year instead of his ultimate goal, he can have a pass for failing to be box office boffo.

Where Jackson and his horse have succeeded is in giving fans something positive at the same time all the rest of racing is giving the sport a black eye. The winemaker might be drunk to attempt the Arc, given Saturday. But Meehan didn’t discourage him, and noted that Red Rocks was at his best at the same time Albarado was merely mediocre.

“He is top class and always has been,” Red Rocks’s trainer said, even though his 5-year-old Irish-bred horse has won only six times in 19 starts. “I think it was the best performance. Better even than when he won the Breeders’ Cup (Turf). Our goal will be the Breeders’ Cup again.”

In 1967, Jim Morrison of the Doors sang a lyric on the Ed Sullivan Show that he was told to change for the network censors. Sullivan told the rock legend that he’d never appear on the show again. Unflinchingly, Morrison replied with amazing aplomb, “Why would I want to anyway? I’ve done that already.”

Several years later, they buried Morrison in Paris, a casualty of marching to the beat of a different drummer. Today his tomb is the most popular in Père-Lachaise cemetery where lay Oscar Wilde, Edith Piaf, Moliere and Chopin. Had he lived his life conventionally and acted the way everyone else expected, perhaps the memory of him would be thin like ashes.

As Curlin nears his end, let’s hope Jackson is more Morrison than Meehan.

Sunday, July 06, 2008

Breeders’ Cup to Offer Ordinary Horses Big Bucks

(CHICAGO, IL – July 7, 2008) Now is a good time to buy that thoroughbred you’ve wanted. There is so much money up for grabs at the racetracks and so few horses that are good enough to go after it that even a decent sort can become an over-achiever. Can you remember a time when the quality was this sparse and the prize money this high?

This past weekend began the process of developing Breeders’ Cup fields via the Breeders’ Cup Challenge. The “win and you’re in” scheme qualified the winners of the $750,000 United Nations Stakes and the $300,000 Salvator Mile Stakes, both at Monmouth Park. Neither may ever enter the starting gate at Santa Anita and, if one does, then the Breeders’ Cup is going to look more like the Claiming Crown than the World Thoroughbred Championships.

Stealing a Grade 1 stakes at Monmouth was a terrific achievement for Presious Passion, jockey Eddie Castro and trainer Mary Hartman. The race that they captured has been won by such luminaries as Round Table (1959), Dr. Fager (1968), Halo (1974), Manila (1998, 1987) and Sandpit (1995, 1996). For Hartman, who has been training horses on her own for the last decade and has worked on the backstretch for twice that long, it was her first Grade 1 start, and, obviously, her first Grade 1 victory.

Regardless, if Florida-bred Presious Passion, a 13-1 longshot, advances to the Breeders’ Cup Turf, as intended of the United Nations winner, you can declare racing’s end-of-year showcase, a fraud. The 5-year-old roan son of Royal Anthem had won three graded races before this one. On Saturday, he beat nothing while scampering wire-to-wire on a yielding turf course unchallenged.

Nothing, as a matter of fact, is an apt way to describe the highly-touted false favorite Champs Elysees. A close relative to Danehill, Danzig and Northern Dancer, the Bobby Frankel-trained runner, at 11-10, was supposed to win the United Nations, just as he was supposed to win the Charles Whittingham Memorial Handicap in June, the Jim Murray in May, the Santa Anita Handicap in March and the Hollywood Turf Cup in December. Now a record like that doesn’t suggest Breeders’ Cup, does it?

The field for the Salvator Mile was stronger than the United Nations’, but its winner isn’t headed for sunny SoCal either. Indeed, winning the race qualified Notional, a son of Excess, for the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile. But Santa Anita doesn’t have a dirt track; it has a synthetic surface. Therefore, Gotcha Gold, the horse that finished second, is more likely to be a Breeders’ Cup contender.

On the other hand, give Notional his due. He was one of the best 3-year-olds leading up to the Kentucky Derby last year before suffering an injury that kept him off the Triple Crown trail. He won the Gr. 2 San Rafael and the Gr. 3 Risen Star before finishing second in the Gr. 1 Florida Derby. But this year, as a 4-year-old, he hit the board only once in four starts before Monmouth. Aha, there you have it. See the link? Obviously, the problem with Notional before Saturday was that all these recent starts were on grass or synthetic - a racing surface he doesn't care for.

The affinity between Notional and dirt notwithstanding, the owners and trainers of the first two thoroughbreds listed among the top in the most recent NTRA poll have already declared out of the Breeders’ Cup Classic. Curlin will race in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe instead of the Classic. Heatseeker’s been retired. Big Brown, number three in the poll, is headed for the Classic, although his molasses-slow workout last week portends a mysterious pre-stallion illness. It’ll happen either before he runs his next race or after it. Note, the word Haskell is missing.

Of the next seven - Zanyetta, Benny the Bull, Einstein, Ginger Punch, Kip Deville, Divine Park and Da’Tara, only Einstein and Da’ Tara can handle a mile and a quarter on faux dirt. Who then, other than Casino Drive, can make this year’s Classic a classic? The Europeans, of course - that’s who.

The conventional belief is that cool climate venues encourage the Euros more than the California tracks. In the past, the biggest contingents of foreign-based horses have shown up at Belmont Park and Churchill Downs. But with a synthetic surface to run on, many European trainers are thinking the soft crop of Americans would be easy to pick on. Horses accustomed to grass seem to like running on rubber bands and sand. Although the pound is worth twice what the dollar is, money is money, and its value is relative to the ease in accumulating it.

The Breeders’ Cup Ltd. is doing all in its power to prop up the American-trained horses for its World Thoroughbred Championships. But this most amazing event has been watered down by the expansion of its races at the most inopportune time. The Horse of the Year has its sights set on Paris. A miserable bunch of 3-year-olds lie in wait for Big Brown to defect from the Classic. And the leftover horses (those not good enough for early retirement) leave a taste in the mouth that is bitter.

In the next 100 days, perhaps the Breeders’ Cup Challenge will identify a superstar. But it’s more likely that he’ll be arriving in California from afar.