An empty chamber shoots no bullets
Real Writing on Racing 💯
There have been many eloquent stories written about the impending demise of the majestic palace of Midwestern racing, Arlington International Park. I wrote about the bleak situation a few months back and the dark clouds that hang over the 326 acres that the track sits on have grown even more ominous since then. The guillotine hasn’t lopped off the head of Chicago racing yet but the blade has been sharpened and the executioner awaits his cues from company headquarters back in Louisville. It’s only a matter of time and beautiful summer days like last Saturday’s final card of relevant racing in front of a large crowd won’t change that reality. The end is near.
It didn’t have to be this way which is perhaps the most frustrating aspect to this sordid tale of lies and deception and naivety and indifference. The microcosm of modern racing is all here. A solid racing circuit operating in a major metropolitan area with a great sense of history and ancillary benefits of a relatively strong state bred breeding/racing program sees some negative signs. The horsemen and track team up to try to get the state government to help by giving them the tools (a casino) to keep up with the neighboring states racing product which are enhanced by those means. Years of failure to achieve that goal sees a steeper decline in revenues for both parties yet they seemingly are still aligned as they continue to press for the elusive lifeline as gambling in the state spreads. When at long last an embattled legislature finally grants them their wish…the track reneges on their partnership and blames the partner, the horsemen, and their need for a few shillings from the newfound pot of gold as the reason to shun said gold. Exposed as charlatans, placing the property up for sale is the option that the track chooses as they also institute curbs on the sale to prevent their scorned partners from even attempting to salvage the racing circuit. As always in the modern day world blame must be assigned. Here it’s shared, perhaps not equally but shared nonetheless, between the state for the interminable delay in granting the racing industry it’s opportunity to operate on a level playing field, the racetrack for their deceptive practices, lying to horsemen (and everyone else) about their ultimate intent for Arlington Park and the horsemen for being naïve enough to trust that the state would care about their industry and the track wouldn’t double cross them despite their history in other locations that show them to be an untrustworthy bunch.
All that being said, trust is not something that can be found in abundance in racing these days at any level and for very good reasons. From the seemingly mundane issue of timing races, to more complicated ones like the betting pools being secure, to difficult to believe training feats, to less than spectacular jockey performances…it’s increasingly difficult to muster up a great deal of confidence in any facet of this industry. The tracks have taken their eye off the ball so to speak and many have multiple issues that don’t seem to be addressed. Backside security is a farce for the most part, not to mention the balance of equine talent on those back stretches is very much tilted toward a handful of big outfits at the expense of everyone else. A horse shortage amazingly hasn’t spurred the racetracks into working with horsemen or breed associations or sales companies to promote horse ownership even though that directly effects the supply side of their racing product. The two largest racetrack operators have joined forces with CAW groups giving them huge rebates and allowing them to buy the signal for minuscule rates which places them into direct competition with their real, live wagering customers who increasingly feel like minnows being fed to the bigger fish. Anyone with a semblance of mathematical skill can understand that the jackpot wagers that spread from track to track like wildfire are milking the regular players to reward the CAW’s who can virtually “buy” the pool when it is advantageous for them. Sure a lot of the casual players don’t pay much attention to these pools but they do raise an eyebrow when the horse they bet $20 to win on at 4-1 as the field loads into the starting gate, wins the race and pays $4.20. It’s hard to actually believe that there aren’t bets being placed after the race goes off, even if that isn’t technically what is happening. If you are expecting a $100 return on your wager and you get back $42…well it’s not a positive trend when your winning players aren’t happy.
Speaking of positives, the entire Servis/Navarro/FBI issue raises a lot of questions, some that many might not have considered. How can anyone have faith in a system where the rules are fuzzy, where oversight is non-existent, where praise from official sources is lavished upon questionable connections despite a strong and steady undercurrent of grievances from other participants and customers alike. Almost 18 months later there are similar training feats still happening, some amazingly enough with ties to the shamed outfits, yet that same sunny outlook persists in many corners.
Where are the regulators you might ask? How have they changed their mode of operation? What methods have they taken to ensure rules are clear cut and at the very least, adequately enforced? In most cases absolutely nothing has changed. The New Jersey racing commission has badly botched instituting a dubious whip rule and doubled down by treating jockeys that seemed to use their whip for the stated “safety” reasons worse than the out of town jockey that committed a major safety violation in the states biggest race. They also allowed a trainer who has been banned from several other mid-Atlantic venues to appeal a positive drug test till “January or February” despite the trainer admitting in the press that he likely is guilty of the violation. This week NYRA stewards fined a trainer with a spotty reputation $5000 for a ‘detrimental’ action yet as of this writing still hasn’t revealed what that action was, even to the trainers legal counsel. At least the NYRA stewards are allowed to say “no comment” to the press as their brethren in New Jersey aren’t even allowed to speak to the media. Everyone is hoping that the vaunted HISA will clear up many of these issues. However outside of the time squeeze they have getting the legislation turned into a workable rule book by this time next year and having to ward off a legal challenge that may very well become an important case far bigger than Horse racing, many of these problems don’t seem like they will be directly addressed by that board. I won’t even wade into the murky waters of adjudication of on-track racing incidents today as that might take 1000 page treatise, especially if the Del Mar stewards continue to flash the blinking lights on the tote board like they are on a Vegas style slot machine.
So where do we as an industry turn? That is not a question with a straightforward answer. What we can do is start to admit to the issues that we do know exist, to realize that the current racing leadership across the board (racetrack executives, horseman’s representatives, alphabet groups, etc) needs to open up their ears to the sharp yet often reserved voices that better understand the problems (and potential solutions) and in some cases decide that growing the sport and business of horseracing is still important to the various factions. We need to stop pretending that there isn’t a better way forward, stop acting like business as usual is acceptable and accept that wholesale change is needed in all areas. The magic bullet approach will never work.