Ride With Racki

Recently the TOC has announced that they are not renewing the contract of former president Drew Couto. I’m not one to go after someone who has been defeated so I will say nothing more against Mr. Couto. I am glad to see that there is change and that the TOC has put out the call for new applicants to fill the position. After some personal deliberations I sent in my resume and candidate summary. I probably would have not but considering that this year’s TOC Board of Directors was a walk over (5 candidates for 5 positions) I figured that there’s nothing to lose by throwing my hat into the ring.

I do not know if I will get a call back concerning the position but I may simply because so few others apply. In the summary I explained that while I have only been involved in the sport for five years I have learned a lot during that time. My work with the NTRA shows that I take the initiative and do not wait for someone to come along and hand me something. In fact having no history is a good thing. I do not owe any one any favors.

If I were president the owners and the bettors would equally be on the top of my list of the people to take care of. I’m sure that would drive the trainers and tracks bonkers, but they seem to have forgotten that the owners and bettors are the people who keep them in business. They are the ones who lose the most money. We need to start treating our customers the right way to bring them back from the mindless slot machines and house favoring table games. Where is the trust? Where is the customer service? We really need change. Some of the things I would seek to change include:

• Closing pools one minute to post.
• Increasing fines for improper public notification of 1st time geldings.
• Increasing fines for medication violations.
• Directing money raised from these increased fines into exotic carryovers or other betting opportunities such as handicapping competitions.
• Providing supplement money for horses shipping into California.
• Providing increased starter money for horses in stakes events.
• Creating a mentoring program to increase first time track visitation and customer retention e.g. Ambassador Program
• Attracting new owners by creating an ownership education stable(s) that is trustworthy and has a low capital requirement e.g. Certified Stables

Most importantly I would take my office door off the hinges and proudly display it on the track apron. (That would generate some buzz.) Anyone who wanted could come by the TOC office and pour out their anger and frustrations concerning the game and tell me what they think would make racing better. Right or wrong I’d hear them out. I know there are a lot of good ideas out there that the sport has not thought of.

Yes, I’m not your traditional/safe/stodgy candidate. I’m your dark horse overlay. But sometimes a longshot is your best bet.

Perseverance!

Gone Fishin'

For those who were wondering and thought I shut down The Commissioner, I have good news. I'm not going anywhere. I was simply on vacation. My apologies for not informing others of my three weeks spent in Washington State. However as a health care provider my home address is publicly available to anyone if you go to the right websites. Consequently when I leave for any significant amount of time I don't let many know.

But three weeks still isn't enough time to make up for not posting anything since mid-May. Well I am in the midst of Regal Heart. I've quickly realized I have one major flaw, the propensity to self-edit compulsively. There are some pages that have been re-edited ten times. I suppose this is because I want to make such a good product that I keep nit picking over the details rather than moving on. Editing involves asking yourself, "does that read right? Is this interesting? Am I being too detailed or not detailed enough?"

This week I am going to focus on just moving ahead and let the editing go for a while. I still need to finish the first two chapters and get the submission into the writer's guild as my immediate short term goal.

That goal would have been easier this week however I decided to go back on the warpath for certified stables. As it turns out on Roger Stein's radio show he made mention of how a particular racing stable is defrauding their investors. Being one of those investors I had simply given up on the stable and written off the lost money. But since Mr. Stein was willing to take the initiative I decided to e-mail him. Well that lead to a very prolific e-mail conversation which now involves, in no particular order, the NTRA, the TOC, the CHRB, Little Red Feather Racing, a handicapping service, a racing steward, and a few others. Toss in some phone calls as well for good measure. Whew!

Today also involved getting things rolling again on the NTRA Ambassador Program at Del Mar. The track has us green lit so now we need a trainer willing to let us come visit their barn for the barn tour part of the program. I made a call and am waiting on a confirmation from last year's helpful trainer, Doug O'Neill. I also contacted a pony club that never was able to attend last year to get them involved in the first program of the season after which I contacted last year's press, the Poway Chieftain, to see if they are willing to cover us simultaneously as a local interest story. The paper last year accounted for 90% of attendance so I hope to have them on board again.

Hopefully I will be able to get to Regal Heart during the weekend when all else is squared away.

Perseverance!

:591B & Princess Rooney

When it comes to training graded stakes winners, I haven't much luck. Out of twenty-nine lifetime attempts I've only won once. That graded win came last year at Del Mar in the Hirsch Handicap-GII compliments of a tiny field and a doddling pace. The odds were 39-1. That was attempt number nineteen at the time. I can and still sympathize with Todd Pletcher, who until Rags to Riches, had not won a single Triple Crown race in twenty three attempts. I had pretty much resigned from the graded stakes ranks until recently when Princess Azula (V) breezed an eye popping :591. I had been suspecting something much slower.

My best answer is she took more away from the Vagrancy Handicap-GII in May than thought. In that race she battled Canadian trained Arctic Rush (V) all the way to the wire and got out nosed. I haven't seen a breezing :591 out of a mare in my stable before. Is it legitimate? Probably. Azula is an honest horse and runs pretty much to form. She's certainly come a long way from her state maiden win in March at Santa Anita which was nothing exciting, a dull 1:06 over five and a half furlongs.

However they say strike when the iron is hot and Azula seems to be peaking, getting ever keener with each start. So I took my chances and put in for the Princess Rooney-GI which came up somewhat light after top female sprinter Blonde Dynamite (V) bowed out from carrying 126 pounds. The race is no walk over but it seemed like the most logical choice. The Princess Rooney is a "Win and You're In" so my fingers are crossed on this one.

Here's the SRF's write up on the race.

Perseverance!