Sunday, July 18, 2010
Belmont Park North
(SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY – July 19, 2010) “The world is far more startling than most fiction is,” wrote Daniel Handler in his New York Times book review of John Brandon’s Citrus County yesterday. The imminent start of the Saratoga horse racing season substantiates the wisdom of his observation. This Friday, Saratoga Race Course, a track where thoroughbreds have raced for 141 years, will begin the second 40-day meet it has ever held amidst a setting as unsettling as any encountered.
As recently as early summer, the New York Racing Association wasn’t even sure that it had the money to open the historic venue. The Aqueduct VLT casino, a conduit through which revenue is to be added to NYRA’s top line, was to be under construction – it isn’t. With only one bidder to choose from, the Lottery’s process to select an operator was down to a Malaysian casino company, prompting law suits from disqualified entities. New York City OTB, the association’s largest retailer, had gone bankrupt, causing a reduction in the payments of its commissions. An audit taken last week portended insolvency. What a way to face your public.
Except for a brief respite, each year since 2004 has been a nightmare. In Charlie Hayward’s first year as CEO, Getnick & Getnick, a state-appointed security and fraud monitoring firm, posted signs around the grounds that announced its vigilante presence. After a face-saving year of record attendance and handle, NYRA then had to fight for its life in an unusually-prolonged and highly-insulting election to renew its franchise. This winter and spring, there were ill-conceived public relations stunts by horsemen and breeders to beg politicians for life support. New York horse racing’s problems didn’t end there.
“There is more at work here than an extra four days,” wrote the two-time Eclipse Award-winning turf writer Paul Moran at ESPN.com. New York horse racing is involved in a declining industry trend and nationwide economic malaise that has led to a reduction in the horse population. Except for the rich weekend stakes, the 40 days that Saratoga will be holding this summer will seem only a little bit different than the 59 days that NYRA races at Belmont in spring. Hayward, in fact, has predicted fields of below-typical quality.
“Once an aura is blemished, it is stained indelibly,” Moran warned his readers, looking back at a time when NYRA would rarely run a claiming race, especially one for state-bred horses or maidens. Forgetting, for a minute, the pre-PJ Campo days of five and six horse fields, he scoffed at the condition book, criticizing the racing department for diluting the product in favor of creating more bettable attractions. “Tamper at great peril with the exclusivity of Saratoga and the perception that winning here is something to be savored beyond winning almost anywhere else,” Moran concluded.
Michael Veitch, the horse racing columnist of The Saratogian, expressed similar regrets. “Since the first organized thoroughbred meet in 1863, Saratoga has been about quality,” Veitch wrote. Sure, there may have been hard times following the closure of the gambling houses. But throughout the 1980s and early part of this century, the separation in quality between Saratoga and all other tracks in terms of the racing has been noteworthy At least in this regard, the voice of three veteran observers is unanimous.
There can’t be two points of view on a formula that’s lasted nearly a century and a half, now can there? It’s not possible that the decision-makers at NYRA aren’t aware that Saratoga Race Course and all that goes on there represent the epitome? It would be dead wrong to look at numbers, compare yours to sets of other tracks that are failing, including your own, and decide to re-engineer a winning brand’s DNA. There’s a difference between Saratoga horse racing and horse racing at Saratoga. Protect the former; avoid the latter. Things will ultimately get better.
After a fashion, the only people showing lack of panic are those involved in the heart of the matter. Understandably, they’re reluctant to admit that 2010 might not be the ideal year for adding four days to the calendar. They’ll be equally reluctant to admit a mistake when they ratchet down the season by the same number next year. It seems not a day passes without some outrageous development that sets New York racing back. In the face of continuous upheaval, the maintenance of equilibrium is a necessary trait.
Like the general manager of a mediocre Major League Baseball team that plays in a weak division, Hayward is keeping his outlook positive while crossing his fingers. Yesterday morning, he woke up in Saratoga Springs to yet another newspaper editorial that all but pounded a stake in his employer’s future. Yesterday afternoon, he delighted in seeing a happy throng at the track’s Open House. How much stress can a man take, by the way?
Nevertheless, knowing what a brand represents is the most important understanding that a company trying to sell its product to the public can have. Someone should decide right away that if the 40 days of racing can’t accommodate Saratoga quality during the current horse shortage, the meet should run 36 or 30 or 24 days again. Saratoga racing is not Belmont Park North, even though that’s what’s in store for this season.
Read more from Vic Zast at Facebook.com/viczast and Twitter.com/viczast. Vic Zast's Saratoga Diary begins Friday and presents fresh information all 40 racing days of the Saratoga meet at bloodhorse.com.
Written by Vic Zast
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