Yes, but...

Nokia started out as a paper mill company. They expanded into electricity generation and merged with a rubber galoshes manufacturer.

The obvious infrastructure for a multinational telecommunications company.

I imagine, at multiple junctures in their corporate history, someone had a pretty good reason for not doing something different. They probably had SWOT analysis and market research indicating the problems associated with expansion or alternate thinking.

Racing has plenty of reasons for not changing anything.

All parties remain entrenched in the way things have always been done and people just don't change the way they drive home from work. It's just not done.

Seth Godin, in a recent post, vents at 'everyone'. Everyone that says things are they way they are and they cannot change. Everyone in racing is what is wrong with the game.

Flowing Data links to a few sites willing to search for data, for a fee. Seems like a good opportunity for someone to pay for a search of all PP's for all horses running in the last few years and start an open source site for race horse PP's.

A mechanism must exist for making PP's free. Once the database is generated, the trick rests in maintaining it. Google must have a thing in Beta where they can generate running lines with a laser pointer or something. A camera with points of call Google mapped into it and a stopwatch. I mean the solution can't be all that hard.

I think the control of PP's is why racing is so resistant to embedding horses with those RFID tags. It would then just be too easy to make your own running lines and compete with Equibase.

I also think the guy who feeds the Loch Ness monster had Kennedy taken out and kidnapped the Lindbergh baby.

Reasons abound for not doing anything. It proves easy to say no. Everyone has reasons.

Not everyone wrote King Lear. Not everyone gets to pilot the VSS Enterprise.

Fees bleg

Is the percentage of purse monies, paid to jockeys, negotiable or mandated?

Could a jockey charge less?

If it is mandated, could the authority set a lower fee for claiming races? Or any race for that matter?

If jockeys can charge what they want, they could compete on price and maybe the unknown jockeys could get a few more mounts out of the deal. Owners would, I imagine, take the offer from a jockey who can ride.

Elite jockeys would be in demand in the bigger races, where the marginal utility of their services would provide greater return.

I don't know of any studies and I imagine the competitive nature of jockeys skews this theory but would not the opportunity costs of riding in a low level claimer outweigh the potential return from any race. I think Jerry Bailey understood this concept.

If unknown jockeys can charge whatever they want, "elite" jockeys would probably reconsider riding that claimer for the same amount, focusing their attention on the higher purse races.

In theory.

Form Monkey

This is my tribute to Jonathan Coulton's epic, Code Monkey. (The song is released under Creative Commons license and I take it to mean I can steal and alter at will.) A version of the song is at bottom for you to sing along...

My apologies to the man.

Form Monkey wake up get coffee.
Form Monkey bankroll fine.
Form Monkey checks the late scratches and the morning line.
SA canceled due to rain again.
Turf off, game stink.
'Capping not functional or elegant,
What do Form Monkey think?
Form Monkey think maybe takeout too high he play goddam slots instead.
Form Monkey sick of shout it out loud.
Racing execs stupid and proud.

Form Monkey like supers.
Form Monkey like tri and pick six too.
Form Monkey very simple man,
with big, warm, fuzzy secret heart.
Chantal likes you. Chantal likes you.

Form Monkey hang around at off track.
Think sports book nice.
Form Monkey like the four at Monmouth
but he can't get his price.
He say no thank you to the track cause,
entry cost big hit.
Anyway toilets on overflow,
Nowhere to shit.

Form Monkey have long walk back from window,
stewards take down mortal lock.
Form Monkey not thinking so straight,
Form Monkey not feeling so great.

Form Monkey like supers.
Form Monkey like tri and pick six too.
Form Monkey very simple man,
with big, warm, fuzzy secret heart.
Chantal likes you. Chantal likes you a lot.

Form Monkey have every reason
to get out this place.
Form Monkey just keep on punting.
Make it up last race.
Much rather go home have a beer.
Take bath, take nap.
N-2-L standing for fifty-k,
such a load of crap.
Form Monkey think someday he have decent pools even off-time odds be true.
Form Monkey just waiting for now.
Form Monkey say someday, somehow.

Form Monkey like supers.
Form Monkey like tri and pick six too.
Form Monkey very simple man,
with big, warm, fuzzy secret heart.
Chantal likes you. Chantal likes you.

That's what you get for waking up in charge

Alex Waldrop posted his latest statement regarding last week's NTRA Live! fiasco. A few excerpts:

'The end result was a disappointment to many'...Please identify those individuals who were satisfied with the end result.

'I was not a pleasant person to be around at 6pm last Saturday -- and for most of the three days thereafter, for that matter. Like many of you, I was disappointed that I didn't get to see the races like I was promised, but what made matters infinitely worse was that I felt we had let so many of our most passionate racing fans down'...Anytime someone goes out of their way to tell me how much hell they raised or how they called people to task on my behalf, it makes my ass twitch.

Of course you expressed anger. Of course the result proved unacceptable. Expressing any satisfaction with the product would prove you are the feckless mouthpiece, some, this blog included, purport you to be.

Make the damn thing work. The proof of the pudding is in the eating. Or, as the august dilettante, Katy Perry, once said.

Shut up and put your money where your mouth is.

The road not taken

On occasion, I like to indulge in hypotheticals.

If every trice is a node in the space-time continuum, then infinite branches of singular events are possible. A transcendent butterfly effect, if you will.

What if Zenyatta stayed retired?

There is no Apple Blossom showdown. Rachel Alexandra has no reason to prep in the Ladies Stakes, or, at the very least, Zardana doesn't ship in to keep her honest. Rachel crushes the field and preps as Team Jackson sees fit.

The summer rolls along, the male competition slugs it out in diminishing stakes, since Belmont and Saratoga are decimated. Rachel takes her shots, if they don't just keep her running in restricted company, targeting the BC UniSex-Classic.

Quality Road is cleaning up but he aggravates his quarter crack, which, you know, isn't the most improbable thing and doesn't show up for the big dance.

Shirreffs, having a clue Zardana might be something, keeps her away from Rachel but targets the Classic.

They run the race and, let's just say, dimensions phase and echo in the Kentucky gloaming. Zardana and Rachel finish 1-2. (The Europeans won't be a threat since the race is on dirt. O'Brien will still have half the field, with this year's version of the greatest horse he's ever trained. A truly genuine harse)

Who gets Horse of the Year?

Seek not the favor of the multitude

Who knew Seth Godin was an avid reader of this dusty, forgotten corner of teh interwebs I call home. An excerpt:

That's where the first trend comes in... the artists, idea merchants and marketers that are having the most success are ignoring those that would rubberneck and drive on, focusing instead on cadres of fans that matter. Fans that will give permission, fans that will return tomorrow, fans that will spread the word to others that can also take action.

It's worth being one of the few who actually read the whole thing.

Science and surplus

A recent article by Clay Shirky (ht Seth's Blog), discusses the cognitive surplus society pisses away watching TV.

In the article, he writes about a professor in Brazil who started a Wiki page where locals can label exact locations of committed crimes. This community effort allows people to see, at a glance, where the more dangerous neighborhoods are, without having to wait for some bureaucratic process to get the ball rolling. The information is real time and relevant.

Seems like racing could use a similar system to track horse breakdowns at specific tracks and use that information, along with whatever isn't hidden or altered, to determine causal factors.

Getting honest reporting is another matter.

In The Science of Horse Training, Bill Pressey tirelessly fights the battle to bring a little science to the game. He posits a horse that can go a mile in under two minutes, with a heart rate below 200 beats per minute, possesses stakes calibre.

It would be interesting to see what his methods could produce from some legitimate race horses, at any level.

System timed out...

Epic fail.

A missed opportunity.

The NTRA Live! experiment, while well intentioned and a positive development, signifies the inadequacy of that organization's management capabilities, given the server meltdown.

With an eager audience and one clamoring for an opportunity to view its stars in an open medium, the NTRA underwhelmed in its promise to deliver anything worthy of this game. The shortsighted nature of this organization has become monotonous in its pathos.

I don't blame the IT department-and by department I hope I am not referring to Waldrop's nephew; trying to handle that amount of traffic on a Commodore Vic20 is an Augean task. I understand the NTRA is underfunded and probably short staffed-Alex Waldrop might want to consider cutting his salary to funnel cash to the server acquisition department-but to so disappoint a captive crowd heralds the time for this game to look elsewhere for its promotional wing.

It reminds me of the French revolutionary who looks upon a rushing crowd and says, 'There go my people, I must find out where they are heading, so I can lead them.'

Boolean query: Anyone with a Mac and a dotTv domain could have pulled this operation off with fewer glitches?

What would it take for a small yet dedicated cadre of knowledgeable individuals to form a legitimate marketing/promotional organization, at a fraction of NTRA's operating budget, to give this game the professional face it deserves?

Conan O'Brien is looking for work. He recently Twittered he was going to follow some random person and she went from three to over 20,000 followers!!

He has a captive audience and knows how to marshal it. Why not throw an obscene amount of money at him and have him host a weekly show? Get Randy Moss as the straight man-he can't be happy with the way ESPN is treating the game.

Signal rights and what not might be a challenge but if this past weekend proves anything, it is people want access to the game, will allocate their attention to it and follow it with their cash. Tracks should be champing at the bit to get their product out into the mainstream-don't they teach that in Marketing and Business 101?

This platform could allow tracks and the game at large to cater directly to the customer and provide them with what they want at marginal cost. This study, while probably biased, seems to indicate just that.

Maybe the NTRA will learn from this. Maybe they will beef up their servers or steal a Linksys connection from the local Starbucks. Maybe tracks will realize the potential for growth through cooperation and the free distribution of their signal.

Maybe they will connect on their next opportunity but maybe they don't have too many of those left.

Because if you miss enough of them, that's the ballgame.

Tipping my hat

I like hats.

As a rule I don't wear them but I like the idea of them; on rare occasions I reserve the right to break my arbitrary, sartorial brocard and wear a tweed Ivy cap.

Love tweed.

I like fedoras too but have never found one that I wear well, plus everyone is wearing that stupid ass hat Jason Mraz wore a while back, so that killed it for me right there.

Anyone interested in hats and horse welfare might want to read this article at Bloodhorse.

The point of this post, however meandering, is not to wax philosophic on the practicality or elegance of a jauntily tipped chapeau but to commend the NTRA for its decision to carry the RA/Zen prep races, on its 'NTRA Live!' site.

Well played, gentlemen. Well played indeed.

Dance with the girl who brung ya

Is Vic Stauffer the Rodney Dangerfield of racing?

I liked him as an announcer. Hollywood shitcanned his ass. OK, their decision, fair enough. I assume they had their reasons.

Joel Rosario has been tearing it up on the left coast and as a measure of gratitude, decides to fire Stauffer.

I respect the free market and believe every person deserves to get paid exactly what the market will bear but Ebanks had Tyler Baze's book and Rosario pwned his ass.

"I got him at the fall meet of Hollywood in 2008," Stauffer said. "At that time, he was 10th in the standings; he ended up second. The next meet was the main one at Santa Anita, he finished third. The next meet was Hollywood spring; he was leading rider. Then was Del Mar; he was leading rider. Then came Oak Tree. He had a chance to tie for the title in the last race of the meet, and finished second.

"The next meet was Hollywood fall, and he was leading rider. In 2009, he was fifth in North America in purse earnings, and thus far this year, he is third in North America in purse earnings and the leading stakes winner at Santa Anita this meet, second in the standings, and he's missed 11 days."

I have no idea what the politics of agent relationships are out there, or anywhere for that matter, but how much better will Rosario do?