Infield Potatoes

That was going to be the original name for this blog however upon further review I began to wonder how many spud defying jokes one could handle. There's also the fact that I reside in Southern California which is a long way from Idaho. Finally you have to wonder if anyone would take my french-fried, scalloped, al gratin mash seriously with such a title. So as interesting as Churchill Downs growing 1000 bushels of russets in the 1918 infield may be one should pick a name with a little more due diligence.

Unfortunately all the really good racing related names are spoken for already (all the easy ones anyhow). So I considered something a bit more outside the gate such as "Vanned On" but then figured it would be seen as pretty tasteless by some. "Left at the Gate", "Three Wide", and "Riders Up" all passed through my consciousness but in the end I settled on "The Commissioner" which does not seem very horse related at all. Cue the explanation...

The blog's title spawns from two executives playing with Blackberries in the middle of a mini presentation I was giving at the recent NTRA Marketing Summit at Las Vegas in September. As the story goes I was talking about regulating thoroughbred partnerships when John Della Volpe of Social Sphere messaged Keith Chamblin of the NTRA saying "There's the first commissioner of horse racing." John mentions this briefly on his blog here.

Well as unlikely as my becoming the first commissioner of horse racing may be it makes for an interesting enough title. And to those who mislabeled me at the summit as a "Blogger" it looks like you are all now correct.

Perseverance!