Where does the money come from?

Thoroughbred Brief has a great post, regarding the NTRA and the problems it faces, trying to implement some much needed change.

Apparently, the problem revolves around money; and how the multi-millionaires that control this game, don't have enough of it.

Everything would be much better, if only the money were there. So I ask the question: where does the money come from?

I would suggest, sponsors.

Post Parade had a post, back in October-when the Dow was way up at 9300, regarding this very issue. Now, nobody in their right mind is going to jump into the cesspool of horse racing and attach their name to a diseased product. The corruption, the drugs, the mob, the infighting-and that is just IEAH. Bessemer Trust has jumped ship and the NFL is yanking its members out.

So what to do? What about a back loaded sponsorship agreement. Get Home Depot or VISA or whoever you want and guarantee them free advertising for, say, two years, with the understanding that the game cleans up its act and eliminates the drugs and the cheaters.

If at the end of those two years, the game has progressed enough, to the satisfaction of the sponsors, they sign a short term contract to continue advertising, for a fee, in order to give them the opportunity to assure themselves that this is not just a one off. Give them track naming rights. Home Depot at Churchill Downs or whatever the hell else you want. Get rid of the Churchill Downs if you want. In the merry-go-round of stadium names, nobody is going to care if in three years the track changes names four times.

The point being, if the sponsors get a chance to advertise, at no cost; while holding the carrot of future, lucrative advertising deals in front of track execs; those in control might feel more comfortable taking on some radical initiatives and implementing some much needed change.

CDI obviously does not want to be in the track management business, instead they are shifting their efforts to the ADW; so why not sell the track to the NTRA or group of owners; functioning as a 501(c)(6), much like the NFL. Maybe each major track can undergo this type of transition.

These tracks would or could function as host sites for coordinated meets, scheduled within the context of a progressive season, without the scheduling cannibalism prevalent today. The tracks, if they function as one, could negotiate lucrative ADW contracts for their horsemen, with revenues going to the NTRA, after track expenses are taken out.

The game needs an image to sell and what it has going now is ugly. Backstop yourself with some giveaways, it costs you nothing and could return a tidy sum.

They sold the naming rights to the Kentucky Derby, they shouldn't appear to stand on principle now.

Declaration of Something...

When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the parimutuel bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of the Federal Interstate Horse Racing Act of 1978 entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self evident, that all bettors are created equal, that they are endowed by the Congress with certain unalienable rights, that among these are, Life, Liberty and the pursuit of the Pick Six carryover.

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their W2G.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

Such has been the patient sufferance of these Bettors; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Racing Jurisdictions. The history of the present President of the NTRA is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these Bettors. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

• He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the betting public.
• He has plundered our Breeding stock, ravaged our ADW's, burnt our Bettors, and destroyed the ROI of our people.
• He has impeded the racing jurisdictions from passing Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
• He has called together exploratory bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
• He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing a racing Commissioner.
• He has affected to render the Chemist independent of and superior to the Trainer.
• He has combined with others to subject us to a myriad of racing jurisdictions foreign to each other, and unacknowledged by the same; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
  

1. For regulating race day medication.
2. For protecting trainers, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any and repeated violations which they should commit.
   
3. For neglecting, beyond any decency, the welfare and posterity of the racing stock and trackside employees.
4. For transporting horses beyond borders to be slaughtered.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the Governor of a wagering people.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the wagering public, in General Cyberspace, Assembled, appealing to the Common Sense of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good Bettors, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Racing Fans are, and of Right ought to be heard; And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of the parimutuel system, we mutually pledge to each other our Pick Three, our Superfecta and our two dollar ticket.

What If...

I have no background in marketing or finance. I am not familiar with the inner workings of the industry nor do I have a clue regarding the mechanism of ADW's and federal v. state gambling regulations. I am ignorant of social networking protocols and the voodoo that is this mythical beast known as the internet. The fact that I can turn on my computer and make it to this page on a daily basis is a victory for me but I am learning.

If you have ever seen a dog look at a clock you have a general idea of my frame of reference.

So I throw this out there fully expecting that it will, at best be ignored(if viewed at all) and at worst mocked in the dark dimension of the blogosphere. On the bright side, I am pathologically antisocial so I am fine with all that?

As is no secret, racing needs to do three things immediately:

1. Appoint a commissioner with supreme executive power.
2. Ban all racing medication and drugs. Zero tolerance. Progressively punitive fines and suspensions with a lifetime ban on the third offense. Not 13 or 72.
   
3. One racing jurisdiction. One set of rules.

Anything less than this, run for the exits.

Now, if this can be done and that is a big if, then the industry leaders can turn their attention towards other matters...but first get the thing going in the right direction. Forget about marketing the sport and increasing its fan base. Focus on fixing the problem. The industry is flawed and no amount of PR is going to get it whole. Too much is being thrown around as the panacea...there isn't any one. You can't build a lasting tower if the foundation is defective.

Once the hemorrhaging has stopped then all those ideas that are floating about out there can be gradually brought into the fold. This will not be fixed in a few years. The short attention span generation might not tolerate this but it has to be done. This industry hinges on the principles of evolution and natural selection NOT nanotechnology, the blidget and speed dating (all good things in their own way).

What if, and this is by no means the list topper, racing created two conferences. East v. West. In this country racing has pretty much split itself up that way anyway so a formal division of the product would not be that much of a stretch and Californians are already their own breed.

Follow....

Create a racing circuit, a tour if you will. Cooperation is needed and that is probably where this thing goes off the rails but if American Idol can be a hit then anything can happen.

1. Shorten the racing season. Arlington does not need a 120+ day meet and neither does anyone else. Reduce the number of races and you get larger fields. Like I said, I have no background in marketing or finance but I imagine that simple math still applies.
2. Create a series of races agreed upon by all tracks/or whoever, so that nobody cannibalizes anybody else's product. Set up the races so that each division, i.e. sprint, turf mile, etc... gets an even spacing of their premier events among all the member tracks; this could tie in with point 1, where each track has a 2-3(or whatever) week meet and the venue changes so the horses travel the circuit. Something similar to what Formula 1 has. The series would be sponsored by someone-not Hooters.
   
3. Make the Breeder's Cup the goal. Apply the rankings that the TBA has set up or something along those lines. Again, I am not the marketing guy.
4. Create an inter-conference showcase, like the Sunshine Millions but for all horses. East v. West. Keep that as the January goal. Some races would need to move their date but that's the price of progress, i.e. The Clark might not run in November or whatever.
5. Tie the Claiming Crown into this somehow and make it a national tour along with the graded stakes series.
6. Smaller tracks would either card very short meets that would follow the "Pro Tour" and cater to the claiming types or they would shut down or become concert venues or state parks. There are too many tracks for the number of sound horses.
7. Streamline the wagering process. Reduce take-out. Make it a standard percentage nationwide and maybe incorporate a revenue sharing agreement a la NFL to split all proceeds among the racing circuit. The commissioners office could be in charge of this pool and would then allocate whatever percentage to some federal fund that the respective states could dip into based on percentage of handle generated or whatever metric you want to use. The remaining funds go to purses, track employee benefits, drug testing, horse care issues and whatever else.
8. Market the BLOODY crap out of this thing. Get sponsors and some legitimate broadcast agreement; if anybody suggests televising human interest stories instead of the GI Manhattan, shove a hot poker up their ass. Again, though I am not the marketing guy that last one might boost ratings.

And finally....Preserve the nobility of the sport. Incorporate whatever else into whatever else but maintain the purity and the pursuit of that ideal, that embodiment of excellence that through the years has been called: Man O' War, Whirlaway, Citation, Native Dancer, Ruffian, Dr. Fager, Personal Ensign, Buckpasser, Forego, Kelso, Secretariat, Spectacular Bid, Ouija Board, Cigar, Evening Attire...

Which one of these is not like the other?

Since I can't come up with any brilliant ideas of my own, I am happy to steal some from better minds.

Much has been posted in the last few days regarding the state of the industry and the upcoming congressional hearings, the battle for ADW revenue and across the board purse cuts at several tracks. The product, in its current incarnation, is flawed.

History and tradition are all well and good but there are times when new blood is needed. Baseball lowered the mound and brought in the DH (nobody consulted with me on that), hockey put that glowing thing on the puck...well nevermind that one, american football brought in instant replay and even football experimented with the golden goal.

Horse racing, meanwhile, has only adopted higher takeouts and anabolic steroids.

What if, the jockey club or whoever is in charge of such things, allowed...wait for it...promotional logos on the jockey pants and saddlecloth? I know, they did that already but they could do it more. Allow the jockeys and whatever owner wants to, to place ads on the silks and pants. They could agree to a certain percentage of that ad revenue to go to the owner but most of it would go to the tracks purse structure. Work out the details...I'm just the idea man.

Don't like the ads on the silks and pants? What if they clipped it into the horse when they shaved them?

What if BMW Oracle formed a racing partnership? Exxon Mobil? National Geographic? Viagra? Would they own any geldings....?

Talk amongst yourselves.