You are Tom Cruise.This is the moment you have been waiting for. It’s the rolling start of the NTRA 500. You have waited anxiously for this day, competing time and time again in the qualifiers to make the lineup. So many previous attempts have gone up in flames, brush offs, no shows, and fishtail spin outs. But this time you have succeeded.
You follow in two long lines of cars all blazoned with flashy logos and abbreviations in blocky letters. They are your competitors: TOC, CHRB, TOBA, and KTA-KTOB, just to name a few. Ahead the pace car maintains an even tempo as you keep a gentle pressure on the pedal. Under the hood throbs the hearts of 749 thoroughbreds plus Zenyatta, all held in check by your tight grip on the shift stick.
The last eighteen months of preparations and late night e-mails have honed you for this instant in time. Your hand clenches the wheel fiercely in expectation of the start while thousands of bloggers in the stands cheer wildly. Finally the pace car slides aside and the green flag swoons over the finish line.
You stamp down on the accelerator and the herd whinnies to life. The tachometer engorges within the dash until your hand steadily plays at the shift, reigning the herd into the next gear. The herd falls into a more controlled rumble of hooves as your car hurdles around the first turn.
You slip inside the CHRB car while engaging the clutch, changing leads and tucking easily into the next gear. The speed continues to increase as you give chase to the TOC car around the second turn and into the first stretch. Now is your time to pounce! You show the herd the whip as you push in on the clutch. They respond gamely, their hooves pitching higher as you weave laterally and overtake Drew Cuoto on the outside.Jamming the heard into the fifth gear you duck back in, parlaying your momentum into a move along the inside of David Switzer in the KTA-KOTB car. Inches separate the two cars as they careen around the third turn, rubber and aluminum racing plates void of toe grabs squealing upon the synthetic racing surface.
Switzer’s herd shows no quarter as your own breathes down its bridle, the two cars exchanging bobs for the lead. The racetrack whips past at breakneck speeds as the two herds list out of the final turn. The frenzied cries of the bloggers pitch higher.
“Down the stretch they come!”
Your foot takes the pedal to the floor. The herd’s whinnies crescendo. Switzer’s car however matches the effort as you both shoot into the top of the lane. Axle to axle the two herds charge towards the finish line. Sweat beads at your brow as you try to contain the intensity of the herd under the shuddering reigns. To your dismay the KTA-KOTB car begins to inch ahead. Never!
Fortunately your herd’s custom Waldrop V8 was engineered with a unique but untested feature. Regardless, you engage the fire breathing, nitrous infused Zenyatta with a single pump of red push button. Instantly you are pressed uncomfortably into the slots toned leather of your seat as the herd lets loose a demonic shriek under the unleashed deluge of equine energy.
Your car suddenly leaps into the lead. This is it!
BOOM!
The world drops into slow motion as your front right Lasixstone tire suddenly comes apart. The herd abruptly loses control and pitches towards the outer rail while spinning repeatedly like a top on the synthetic surface. You scream out in horror: “NOOOO!”
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Well, today was the day.
After eighteen months of late night e-mails I finally had my first one on one meeting with a leader in racing, Mike Ziegler from the NTRA Safety and Integrity Alliance. I have to admit that until Wednesday part of me feared the meeting would fall apart. The reason why was because all my previous attempts at meeting leaders had gone wrong either from no shows or from brush offs. This time however would be different.
Amazingly I slept well the night before the meeting. Usually when big things are going to happen I have to take a sleep aid. Instead the anxiety didn’t hit until arriving at the Front Runner restaurant at Santa Anita. I checked in with the hostess and when I mentioned Mr. Ziegler’s name lights seemed to go off. Red alert! Red alert! The hostess made a couple of calls and then whispered the table number to her coworker. My initial thought was, “Whoa, I’m going to be meeting with a big dog of racing.”
Mr. Ziegler arrived shortly thereafter. I didn’t really know who to expect and was pleasantly surprised to see he was in his mid thirties with a big disarming smile. Kudos goes to the NTRA for finding such a young, passionate man.
(For all the racing fans out there, I have to say the NTRA has really put together an A-Team. Everyone I have met so far from the NTRA is top of the line polite and intelligent. If you think racing is headed down the tubes and that no one in charge gives a toot, talk to an NTRA executive. They really care about where the game is headed and want to make changes for the better. Again, as far as I know Alex Waldrop’s door is open to anyone. No other CEO I know will personally read and respond to their customer’s e-mails. [alexwaldrop@ntra.com])
Mr. Ziegler also reminded me of Patrick Patten, well known among the racing blog world as “Handride”, for his similar style of humor. Time seemed to really move quickly. We both spoke about our racing histories, though mine was exceptionally shorter and definitely less impressive. As it turned out Mr. Ziegler has worked at Bay Meadows, Hollywood Park, and Santa Anita, hence the reason why everyone knew him including our waitress, Wendy.
Introductions and general ice breaking continued on for some time. Our food had arrived by the time things got down to business. The first thing Mr. Ziegler mentioned was how he wished the jockey’s guild could have joined us in the conversation. As he pointed out, having the guild’s input is important and vital in creating a new and improved game. He spoke about how most jockeys are really having a time of it and that they need to be included in the program. I couldn’t agree more. Again this all inclusive nature of the NTRA goes to show their level of concern and genuine desire to make the sport better. Conversation then moved into the alliance in general and what is going on in the immediate future. As it turns out Keeneland is getting certified this weekend after which a massive effort will be made to protect racing in Maryland.
Eventually talk migrated into ownership and the current state of public partnerships. It was a pretty lengthy conversation but some things said really stuck out and deserve mentioning. First, Mr. Ziegler spoke about how racing in Ireland really hit the breaks at one point until the industry began promoting public ownership. The results of those efforts were that the patrons became more engaged and more interested in going to the track and wagering. My response was that in the Ambassador Program I find that most people are not very willing to wager, but are interested in horse ownership. It seems that the next generation of racing fan views ownership as more appealing than wagering. I suggested that the sport should try to capture their desire to want to own by offering an improved ownership product. By just concentrating on squeezing that $2 win wager out of them we are missing out on a better opportunity. What industry would pass up selling a $500 or $1000 dollar product to their customers? It seems that racing is willing to do just that.
Second, Mr. Ziegler pointed out many owners do not seem to mind what happens to their racing investment. It would seem that many throw their business sense out the window when they buy into a horse. Why else do so many bad partnerships exist for year after year? If owners did not like being taken advantage of you would think they would take their business elsewhere. Instead the bad partnerships just go on and on. My response was that many owners do care about their investment. Those who do are stuck on the sidelines of our sport because there are so few positive public ownership opportunities. Loopholes of the current regulatory system were discussed as well as how partnerships are structured to get around the SEC. We discussed the alliance’s code of standards after I was given a NTRA Track Certification Application and was challenged to use that as a template for certified stables. Now I have the homework of reading and digesting how something similar could be created for public partnerships.
The two of us seemed to agree on most everything. Mr. Ziegler did play devil’s advocate several times against certified stables but I came back with strong arguments. In the end the only major point of division was how we viewed the NTRA’s role in stable certification. I see it as a program for building new stables and that the NTRA should be selling the ownership product nationally through these stables. Mr. Ziegler sees the certification process as a way to get existing stables to meet a mutual code of standards. Rather than selling ownership, the NTRA would instead act as a reporting agency.
Anyhow, the hour ran out way too fast. It seemed we were right about to get to some really meaty stuff when his next appointment arrived. To me it was like we were coming down the stretch and then suddenly the whole race fell apart. I was getting really excited and passionate about things and then boom, Mr. Ziegler had to run. Another way of saying it is imagine you are looking at the most sinfully delicious chocolate cake in the world. The smell is intoxicating. It’s a cake right out of the oven and still warm with the frosting melting off the sides. You have been staring at the cake in the oven for the last hour. Then, just as you are going to take that first bite the cake suddenly goes flying off the table and over a cliff.
“NOOOO!”
Well the reason for the hasty departure was Mr. Ziegler had a meeting with Ron Charles, president of Manga Corporation. After paying for lunch (thank you!) Mike apologized four times and then a fifth time in a later e-mail. I told Mr. Ziegler that I understood the situation, and I do. He has a lot on his plate. But if you think an hour should have been enough for us, let me remind you its been eighteen months of patient waiting for me to have a chance at racing's ear. Sixty minutes is just an appatizer.
Instead we are going to continue the conversation via telephone sometime the end of next week. When that occurs I’ll be certain to post an entry giving a summary like I did tonight. To the individuals who contacted me with specific questions for Mr. Ziegler, my apologies, we never got that far. I’ll try to ask them during our next conversation.
Until then,
Perseverance!
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