Perseverance

"If we are facing the right direction, all we have to do is keep on rolling."

~Buddhist Dung Beelte

Well after momentary success with Woodbury University it is back to the usual with the Ambassador Program at Santa Anita. Usually I wouldn't comment on our success or failure, however, I am afraid I have beaten the "image" and "marketing" aspects of racing's drum a little too long and have annoyed some people in the process. When industry leaders stop returning your e-mails, you tend to get the drift (NTRA CEO Alex Waldrop still replies, thankfully). Therefore I digress. I am going to step away from those issues and find something else to comment upon. However since there isn't a lot of major industry issues hitting the Bloodhorse.com site to spin my opinion on at the moment, I'll resort to updates on the Ambassador Program for the interim.

Well the Ambassador Program was cancelled for today. There was only one signed up so I cancelled it to save me the two and a half hours of driving. A professor from a statistics class had called me earlier in the week and said they would be interested in coming out. I told them to register the group on Meetup.com but they never followed through. Perhaps this weekend was bad for them but they seemed really interested, especially with how I told them it was free, so maybe I'll be writing about their day at the track later in March.

In an attempt to generate more interest, Donny in the marketing department at Santa Anita put together an ad to run in the daily official track program. He said it ran both days this weekend so perhaps that will generate some interest. Hopefully the past is not a precursor as we tried this at Del Mar to little (ok, actually no) success. People at the track already tend to know much about racing, so a "newbie" program isn't too thrilling to them. Still the ad is free so it is worth a shot. Getting the word out about the program remains the number one factor in its success and since I have no marketing budget, the name of the game is perseverance. Eventually we will get recognized. In the mean time just keep rolling like the beetles.

Other Points of Perseverance:

As far as I can tell "Roses In April" won't be happening. The proposal was denied a while back. I did a rewrite because from the denial letter it appeared that no one understood what I was attempting to get across. However nothing has come back from said letter so I'm going to let that one go. Perhaps it will happen another time.

Whoops, I got bumped again! The second article attempted for The Horseplayers Magazine in their "State of the Game" column could not fit within their March/April issue, so now it’s going to be in May/June issue? No guarantees I was told. I keep holding my breath on this because when it eventually runs I'm finally qualified to win a turf writer's award... not really. The winner for the 2008 Eclipse writing award went to a reporter who worked the beat for ten years straight without serious recognition. Everyone has to put their time in and this first published article will be the first step in the journey all authors undertake.

And the winner is... Ken Kinakin! Who? He won the TOC "Rookie of the Year" Award. Why mention this? Well I actually filled the paperwork out and mailed it back -- all three pages of it. I figured with the bad economy there wouldn't be many new owners and I'd be running against a small field. However my claimer at Los Alamitos could not fend off his pair of horses that won $186,988 in 2008. I guess my Grade-2 win in the Hirsch Handicap at Del Mar just did not impress the voters enough. (Mind you this was the HorseRacingPark.com Hirsch Handicap. Purse: $300 vs. the real Hirsch's $300,000.) Oh well, can't fault me for trying.

I know that someone, somewhere got a smile out of my application.

Perseverance!

A Little "Faith"

On the 15th the Ambassador Program had one participant, Faith J. of Pasadena, CA. I had been expecting ten times that from those who had registered upon the Meetup.com site. Pepperdine University was also talking about coming out but it never materialized. I'm not sure what happened to everyone, but c'est la vive.

It was a real pleasure spending the majority of the day with Faith. While waiting for her arrival outside the main gate to the barn area I observed a lot of people coming and going. For ease of identification I wear a rather distinctive red and black hat. While waiting there, grooms, security, the Seabiscuit tram, trainers, and even Bob Baffert, all cruised by. With the exception of Mr. Baffert, most had a curious expression upon their face when they looked at me. You wonder what they are thinking. (Mr. Baffert was stone cold when he walked by so I have to assume he had more important things going on mentally.) Regardless, the process of waiting around while looking foolish keeps you humble. I, for one, am always in need of a little more of that given the name of this blog is, “The Commissioner”. (Note: I will certainly up the ante on "Snow Day" with an even more daring hat! Stay tuned.)

On the Santa Anita backside, though more appropriately, the "side-side", Faith and I linked up with Frank Monteleone at his barn. Accommodating as always, he stuck around and we chatted about horses for a while. We asked him which was his favorite and he pointed out a three year filly named "Yournamehere". Say what? Faith asked Frank where that name came from. Frank explained that the owner had waited so long to name the horse that there was going to be a fine leaved against the horse in order to receive a filing extension. The owner asked Frank what the papers said exactly. Frank's reply over the phone was, "Your name here." The rest is history.

Leaving the "side-side", we picked up a DRF and headed to our private boxes. Given how many people had originally signed up to participate, the track had reserved us three boxes so Faith took one and me another. The usher, who we named Usher (never got his name) was a fairly handsome gentleman with excellent hair and a great personality to match. We chatted about racing for quite a while and never were quite able to look at the first race. As Usher explains, horse racing used to be immensely popular in his earlier days. Weekends were crammed with fifty thousand easily. Now there were about ten thousand present. You could see by his expression how the decline of his sport hurt him inside. He thought the Ambassador Program was a great idea and congratulated us on making it happen.

Well for the second race Faith and I were able to really look at the form and I explained as best as possible what all the information the DRF was conveying, how to wager, and other basic handicapping information. Before you know it we fell into exotics and I suggested how some people go after interesting exacta combinations. "Hey here's an exacta for you," I said, "The Life-Life box." As it turned out the two horse was named Lifeline and the three was Life Goes On. What do you know, Life-Life came in and paid $20. Unfortunately I had decided to put $2 to win on the one horse that finished somewhere up the track. My sympathies go out to the owners. I know that likely a year ago there were a lot of high expectations when the horse came out of Keeneland for $300,000, then something happened in training, he got sidelined, and all those dreams fell apart, as he never quite recovered. Now the horse is destined for maiden claiming $40,000, or worse. Sometimes you wonder why the sport has to be so hard on its owners.

The third race was a clinch, after the fact. Desert Code was back in action after his win in the Breeder's Cup Turf Sprint, though at a severe trim from 30-1 to 2-1. I took my lucky parlay voucher and put it evenly across the board on him ($4 across). He won with plenty to spare and Faith and I shared a high five. Well the voucher is now up to $27.80 and the original $2 is now 3 for 3. Who knew Chinese New Year’s "lucky money" was so lucky. I’m going to see how far this thing can ride.

Faith bit the big wagering bullet and made her third lifetime wager on Satellite in the 4th and won! She was really excited and was off to cash her ticket before the tellers could run out of money. After that I offered Faith a farewell, snapped a few photos, and then called it a day because of the long drive home. Thanks again for coming out Faith and letting me ramble on about the sport I love so very much.

Perseverance!

Jockeys: Keeping it Real?

Well I've caught four of the twelve total episodes of Jockeys that have aired so far. I am quite happy with the overall product, especially where they follow jockey John Meier in his struggle to win his first race. That's quite real. Probably the grittiest part of the whole story during episode four was when John called his father to say he won is first race at Santa Anita. His father had no idea. You could see how hurt the twenty year old apprentice was that his father didn't watch the race nor even looked up on Equibase to see how he did (the father is a jockey so knows these resources exist). His father's excuse in missing the race was, "I have a life too." Ouch. Viewers, who are fathers, take note, when your son is doing something personally important to them, at least catch the replay.

On the other hand there are a few questions I do have about the show. One of the producer’s favorite scenes is where two jockeys, in silks, wrestle one another to the ground while on the clubhouse turn at what appears to be Fairplex. Umm... yah. Suspension anyone? The stewards would have seriously slapped down either jockey for doing something like that in the public's eye. Again another scene shows a jockey beating the inner rail at Fairplex with his whip in anger. No way. Then there's the ambulance siren when the van goes after a fallen Kayla Stra. Nope. Finally and most annoying is the very disrespectful calls by 'Tv-Trevor', "And Kayla Stra finishes in last place". Trevor Denman is a stand up guy. He'd never call a race like that. 'Tv-Trevor' is some sort of alternate universe television race caller that exists for some reason or another. I guess if you are blind and you can't see how the text reads in the lower left, "Kayla Stra -- 10th Place" then 'TV-Trevor' is necessary. But to people completely unfamiliar with racing, 'Tv-Trevor' probably comes off as abrasive which is far from how the real Trevor is. Hopefully no one at Safeway gives Trevor a tongue lashing for being so mean. Fortunately his image is never shown on television so the only way anyone would recognize him is if he buys his fresh lobster saying, "That one is movin' like a winnah!"

On a more serious note, it’s important to keep things real. The producers probably want to make the show more exciting but showing a horse breaking down, jockeys fighting, and ambulances wailing during each commercial break leads the unfamiliar to believe that these things happen all the time when in reality they don't. My suggestion would be to show some owners screaming and jumping up and down when their horse wins, Jimmy the Hat taking a wad of fifty losing tickets and tearing them up into an explosion of confetti, or something else not so negative. Sure it’s not 'jockey related' but at least they're keeping it real.

Perseverance!

Striking Gold on Wood

For those curious about the Ambassador Program I can tell you it’s a really tough row to hoe. Our first program of 2009 was supposed to be the second Sunday of January and, well, that never happened, nor did anything else happen with the program in the month of January. The problem is not that people are not interested, but that no one knows they can come enjoy a unique day at the races, as if they owned their own horse, completely free of charge. As with Del Mar and Oak Tree, getting the word out is the most difficult part of running the Ambassador Program. Again I tried the whole e-mail/fax thing with all the local newspapers and as usual none of them returned my messages. The Santa Anita publicity department was similarly unhelpful. Their written excuse was they ran a press release for me once at Oak Tree and --between the lines-- that was once too many. Why am I so unpopular?

Well fortunately Santa Anita has two individuals within my decade who are passionate about the sport. One of them is in charge of promoting the track's "College Face Off Day" where college students can get into a fictitious wagering tournament with a real prize of $5,000 in donations towards their campus clubs. I shot him the idea of using the Ambassador Program to promote the Face Off Day with college papers. Well he took that idea and ran with it and contacted many local campuses. We struck gold with Woodbury University who put together its communication and design majors and brought them out to the track to have a very unique experience.

The Woodbury group began the day with the Seabiscuit tour, followed by a snack at clocker's corner, then joining the Ambassador Program for a walking tour of barn 26. Trainer Frank Monteleone was very gracious to allow some thirty five individuals to walk his row and greet all the horses while asking him various questions about what its like to be involved in the game. Most of the students had never gotten so close to a horse before so for them it was pretty exciting. A couple of smitten young women wanted a horse right away. They picked out a feisty chestnut and named it "Texas". "Texas" didn't like the name and decided to voice its opinion by taking my shoulder for a carrot while I was busy talking about the Triple Crown. The next can be surmised in three words, "CAT LIKE REFLEXES!" Yes, for once I rolled a '20' for dexterity. Ahem. Let's cover up the age, all right?

Afterwards it was off to the paddock to meet jockeys Chantal Sutherland and Gerry Olguin, to ask some questions and get some autographs. Then it up to the Club Plaza to meet with HRTV and Santa Anita, then to the Turf Club for the design students to spy the architecture, to the private boxes to catch a race, down to the paddock for the paddock tour, over to the rail to watch the fourth, then into the winner's circle for a group photo. WHEW! What a huge day that was. Everyone seemed pretty tired but in a good way. I received a lot of thanks and hand shakes and promises to return to the track in the near future (and hopefully with friends!). Well it looks like the Ambassador Program struck gold with these new Woodbury race fans. Pepperdine University on the 15th will be next.

Perseverance!

The Best Investment

In e-mail correspondence with industry members over the past month, I have noticed that I am beginning to say the same thing over and over. What's all the repetition about? It seems like the people in power are not grasping the concept I am trying to get across. Ever heard the phrase "the best investment you can make is in yourself"? What this phrase usually refers to is whether or not someone should seek higher education. Why do individuals go to four years of undergrad, then go to graduate school for another four years, and spend a quarter million dollars in the process? Just so they get a title and can add a couple extra letters after their name? MD. PhD. DDS?

The reason why someone burns eight years and all that money is because, in the end, they come out ahead because of it. Sure, someone who finishes high school and immediately joins the work force ends up ahead at first. But a decade later, the fellow with the extra letters has paid off their student loans and is earning way more than their high school peer. Another way of saying it, horse one is a speed ball, horse two is an even paced closer, and the race of life is at ten furlongs. Unless the speed ball is able to get some insane lead the closer will eventually catch up and win the race.

What the racing industry seems to have forgotten and needs to restart is an investing plan in itself. Sure, Churchill spent a lot of money improving its physical plant a few years back. But when was the last time racing spent any significant amount (time or money) making an investment in their bettors, owners, and fans? Part of the reason why racing is demographically top heavy is because someone somewhere decided that it wasn't necessary to spend resources on an unseen tomorrow.

Marketing groups now plan for just today. You can see this in industry publications that write about how such and such increased handle and attendance for that particular day, yet they never write, "...will likely lead to a significant increase in future attendance." No one ever plans for that anymore.

When running the Ambassador Program at Del Mar a lot of people asked, "Why?"

"You're not paid for it?"

"'fraid not."

The first time race goer knitted their brow as the mental chalk ticked out on the slate: 2 + 2 = ... 0? Confusion began to set in.

Gently smiling the ambassador continued, "I enjoy teaching and love this sport. Nothing is better than making a new fan."

A farmer who plants seeds does not expect a harvest the next day. Neither should racing. One of the fastest growing vegetables, the summer radish, takes about three weeks until harvest. Breeders know that the thoroughbred foal needs eleven months gestation. What is the gestation time for a thoroughbred owner? For me it was forty months. How long is it for others?

In a time of famine do we give up the whole agricultural model? No. Instead we plant even more and work even harder to insure a better crop. In this racing famine we should be planting extra seeds and burning the midnight oil tilling the earth to ensure a bounty of horseplayers, horse owners, and horse fans. Yes those tracks and leaders that start investing today will feel like nothing is being accomplished, that the money is spent in vain. For them it will seem to be a loss of time and money. But down the road the sport as a whole will flourish because of their investment made now. Only then will they realize they made the right choice.

Is there anyone left willing to make that sacrifice?

Perseverance!