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...

Sound and fury

Class will tell.

The House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection concluded its hearings today sans "Babe" Dutrow. He was a vet scratch apparently, feeling under the weather. Maybe he could have used a shot of Winstrol. The chairwoman Jan Schakowsky stated that the committee had not received word from Dutrow that he would not make the hearing. Dutrow claims he informed the committee of his planned absence. I wonder who is not telling the truth?
Update: Dutrow apparently was telling the truth. (10:15 in Paulick's live blog) Sorry Babe.

The panel, by and large, expressed its frustration with the industry in general and its eagerness to ban the use of medication in racing. A consensus was reached on the need for a governing authority for horse racing and the dysfunctional status of the current system, with the glaring exception of Alex Waldrop, president and CEO of the NTRA. Like the entertainment director aboard the Titanic, he claimed-with a straight face worthy of Oscar nomination-that the industry was best positioned to regulate itself and was making great inroads towards achieving self governing credibility. (My words, I'm not a journalist so I'm paraphrasing.) You bloody wanker, have the brass to step up to the plate and admit that you and the entire industry are useless and detrimental to the sport in general. Nobody wants to be told what to do but have the simple decency to admit that after so much time to fix your own mess you need to let someone in to do it for you. Piss off.

But I digress.

Curiously, TOBA has a new owner video thing on the Bloodhorse and in one of their presentations Dr. Chip Johnson, DVM, states that he, as a vet, has a truckload full of great stuff to make your horse run faster. WTF?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?? In the intro to the whole series, the moderator states that the purpose of TOBA is to increase the economics and integrity(IN THAT ORDER)of the sport.

Dutrow with his absence and Waldrop with his shrill cry of "...nothing to see here" prove that in the end, this whole charade was the classic "...tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."

Class will tell.

If I die before I wake...

There are days when I am sickened by humanity and its detritus.

A few days ago the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal by an Illinois based slaughterhouse to remain open. And there was much rejoicing.

I have nothing against eating horse meat, per se but the inhumane treatment of the animals and the callous disregard of the owners is an offense of leviathan proportions.

Every horse should have a home and someone to love them and rainbows and candy. Horses, thoroughbred or otherwise, deserve better than we give them and while the situation for them will never be ideal we at least owe it to them to make it DECENT. It is unconscionable that situations like this occur, and this is just one we know of.

How hard would it be to require breeders to be the home of last resort? They get a cut of any winnings that that horse accrues throughout its lifetime, whether they own it or not. Why would it be off the wall to require them to take the horse back if/when nobody else has a purpose for it. There could be a flat surcharge(tax), payable to the breeder whenever they sell any horse that would mitigate the financial hit they would incur if that horse does come back but it should not be large enough to create a breeding incentive. Make them responsible for their actions. Breeding for the sales are we? Breed this. We have too many horses every year? How quickly would we get the population under control if the breeders were responsible for their stock?

We have too few horses to fill races? Maybe most horses shouldn't be running. Maybe we have too many tracks and too many racing days. Maybe the quality of the product would go up if we cut back on production. Maybe I am talking out of my ass.

I love horse racing. It requires horses and those horses have to come from somewhere. I just think that there might be a better way to do all of this: the breeding, racing, training, betting and regulating.

The horses deserve a good run for their money, because every bloody time, whether we deserve it or not, they give us a good run for ours.

A long, hard look

I don't play three card monty; I don't like being setup and I can't follow the cards fast enough to beat the con. I'm balding but I don't buy hair restoration cream no matter how many quadruple blind tests it has undergone. I don't play the lottery, I, generally, don't lick electrical outlets and I am never, ever sick at sea. So I take more than my particular exception to the august body that is the United States Congress, when they decide to step into the arena of horse racing and lay down their Solomon-like wisdom on matters great and small.

Genius may have its limitations, but stupidity is not thus handicapped
-Elbert Hubbard

Why am I supposed to believe that "This time it's different"? How many times do we have to touch that hot stove before we realize that it's hot? This dog and pony show, catering to the same audience that makes American Idol what it is, is a farcical ceremony as are the various industry wide committee's.

A committee is a cul-de-sac down which ideas are lured and then quietly strangled.
-Sir Barnett Cocks

Nobody needs to discuss what the problems are; everybody knows. Medication, drugs and what laughably is referred to as the industries fines (indulge me) and suspensions program. Enough already.

We are to blame. You...me.

We all know that this goes on day in and day out and yet we continue to patronize this sham. If any of us really gave a shit we would show up on BIG race days by NOT showing up. Don't bet. Take a pass. Stick it to these industry hacks like they have been sticking it to us for all these years. If there is no betting, then there are no purses and no racing. No racing, no money and no job. Pocket book politics. That's the beauty of the system, we have it within our means to effect change in a very real way.

Otherwise we might as well go piss into the wind.

Before I go admire my self-righteous ass in a mirror, let me just say that I am WAY psyched about the Churchill card for tomorrow and can't wait to throw some money down on it.