If Wishes were Horses…

Real Writing on Racing 💯

That is NOT Paco Lopez

“If wishes were horses, beggars would ride.

If turnips were bayonets, I'd wear one by my side.”

- James Kelly from Scottish Proverbs, Collected and Arranged (1721)

Our initial offering of 2023, “2022 is Gone, Rememberances of the recent past” (Check out here if you missed it) took a quick look back at some of the racing stories of 2022 that may linger in one’s mind. Today’s piece is a wishlist for the future, our hopes for racing in this new year, no bayonet included (though surely the lords of HISA would slap us with a draconian penalty for too many slashes used if we did have one).

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Wishes for 2023

🏇🏻 Let horse racing’s biggest stories be about horses. Sounds simple but far too often the mess that humans make (both inside and outside of the game) due to waning modern day moral and ethical codes is what gets splashy headlines, not the feats of great creatures.

💸 Along that same vein, can the leadership of the sport start working to bring the industry together rather than continuing to encourage smash and grab cash schemes or issue patronizing decrees from atop an ivory tower?

⚖️ Can we get a Triple Crown season that doesn’t dwell on the Churchill Downs Incorporated’s bailiwick in regards to a certain trainer? I realize this is unlikely and it might be too late already to make a change, but the ban on Mr Baffert’s participation in this year’s Kentucky Derby is just a drain on the sports small bit of good cheer left at this stage of the game. Having a “previously trained by…” horse win the Derby and immediately ‘change hands’ before the Preakness does no favors to anyone. Not to the participants (including the horses), not to the tracks, not to the media attempting to adroitly describe the situation and certainly not to the customers who see it as another weak and confusing regulatory failure. Baffert has served his days, he has suffered public ignominy, he has bounced back as expected and the remaining suspension just seems superfluous.

🏇🏻 Can some of our weaker divisions rebound and produce multiple good horses? The older sprint division has been in shambles the last few years, how is it that America can’t produce an abundance of quality dirt sprinters anymore? The female sprint division was more competitive last year though the fact that a filly with two stakes wins will be easily voted Female sprint champion is telling. Turf? Manila and Lure are rolling over in their graves at the ineptness of the American turf runners. Chad Brown’s chokehold on the female turf division has been mainly fueled by imports and one that wasn’t, Regal Glory is now retired. Of course it would also be beneficial if the racetracks could do a better job of growing grass but the dirt sprinters still have no excuse.

⏰ Can post time awareness syndrome was finally be diagnosed? A little dab of post-drag won’t kill anyone, and has actually been shown to be good for the bottom line, but can we try to tighten things up a bit? And can we PLEASE stop running races from semi-major tracks at the same time? It’s not that difficult to do, it’s bad business, it’s annoying to your customers and it makes racing look more amateurish than it already tends to be. If another track is out-handling yours by 400% it’s probably a good idea to stay off their post times…most of your customers will not watch your signal live if forced to choose. It is just not that hard to do.

🏇🏻 I hope that a group of later-developing types emerge on the older horse scene. We desperately need some of the fringe players from last year to keep improving so that our very best races don’t resemble a used car lot. The Pegasus World Cup since it’s inception has usually featured at least one star contender, this years version looks like a B movie cast and the biggest name, Cyberknife, is making his swan song. Unfortunately with the exception of Taiba, who is headed off to the Middle East and likely won’t be seen in an American race until mid-summer at the earliest, the brand name horses are all retired.

🦕 I hope that the Stewards nationwide will do a better job, be more consistent and have the intestinal fortitude to institute greater control over what occurs on the field of play. There is probably a better chance of dinosaurs walking down Broadway in Saratoga tomorrow morning, but one can always hope.

💵 A wish that I have had for a number of years that never comes to pass is the standardization of all payoffs to $1 with the exception of the Win/Place/Show pools. It’s not a pressing issue but it can be confusing.

🫱🏼‍🫲🏾 I’d love to see racing as a whole, embrace diversity with more than lip service or an occasional token hire. In order to grow the game, new markets must be found and the reality is that many people of color and ethnicity other than white people are already involved as participants. If we want others to follow, we have to at least act like the racing community including tracks and media outlets are open to them. There has been a bit of progress in this area but it’s minuscule as to what can be done and exists in a tiny space that most don’t see. My good friend Roberto Rodriguez has done an exceptional job in increasing Spanish language coverage through his website www.elpotroroberto.com and partnerships with the DRF, Keeneland and the Breeders Cup but it has taken 8 years to just get to this point. A handful of tracks have been doing some Spanish language broadcasts and alternate race calls but that is just a start. There are millions of potential customers that ignore racing because they don’t feel all that welcomed, it’s not that difficult to change that dynamic.

🗳 I’d like to see the new year bring positive changes to the way we elect our annual ‘champions’ and IMO more importantly, Hall of Fame members. Based on numerous social media conversations involving Eclipse voters, there are quite a few area’s where clarity is needed (including who should qualify and remain eligible as a voter). The Hall of Fame committee should simply invite Sid Fernando to participate as his sense of modern thoroughbred history, especially as it relates to present day racing is second to none. I can’t speak for him or guarantee that he’d even accept the nod, but he would be an invaluable resource for what I consider to be an important subject. And can we please induct Corey Nakatani already?

🎥 I hope that racing organizations put more emphasis on the wagering aspect of racing and stop taking a cookie cutter approach to broadcasts and coverage. I’m not talking about network coverage of the Triple Crown and Breeders Cup, that isn’t their responsibility as they aren’t part of racing. Every track has an in-house feed that the vast majority of viewers are watching from somewhere other than the track. Do better. Work harder at providing timely information and educating your customers, not regurgitating PP’s and having those who would surely be bankrupt if they played their selections, giving out picks. Hire better, more creditable people with a greater understanding of wagering. Pay them a reasonable salary as they are the frontline and face of your business. If you are a racetrack exec and you don’t know the story of Pompano Park over the last decade, you’d be wise to do a little research. Find out how one man with no bells and whistles, no fancy trainers or horses, no stakes schedule, virtually no marketing budget, 1990’s era camera’s/TV monitors and a tiny grandstand with barely any concessions, created awareness levels that rose above all but the very top tracks. Where handle increased from less than 100k a card to close to a million in just six years despite Pompano Park being in racetrack hospice for most of them. Gabe Prewitt pulled off the most impressive racetrack management feats of the last few decades and yet nobody has really tried to emulate them and it doesn’t seem like anyone is smart enough to bring him onboard to do something similar for their track. He understood his customers and gave them what they wanted, when they wanted it and perhaps most importantly earned credibility in a industry where it’s in short supply. It doesn’t matter what breed, the customers will flow to where they feel like they are being heard, where they feel like they have a fair chance of winning and where they know that they are appreciated. Sports wagering is mopping the floor with us in the gambling sphere, we need to do better.

⏱ It is my fervent hope that the timing systems nationwide can be far more accurate than they have been in the recent past (shout out to the Time Lord {he knows who he is} for his tireless work behind the scenes in correcting the wide array of inaccurate times). Hopefully those who embark on the next attempt at modernization (the last one was not a success) take into consideration that a mechanical clock was first invented in England in 1275, and measuring time isn’t all that different 750 years later. Just be accurate.

🤞🏼 I hope that racing does more to encourage people to invest in racehorse ownership. As so many horse owners will tell you, despite the roller coaster ride of emotional trauma that can be inflicted by the huge swings of hope turned into reality and vice versa, it’s as positively addicting as anything that adults can legally do. (Shameless plug alert 🚨) A project that I have been involved with that can be a great first step for potential owners is Game of Silks, a horse racing fantasy game that uses real life horses and results as a basis for its platform. It’s a dynasty type setup where you “own” horses that compete at real life venues, earning “purse money” for your stable. There are many more complexities as well, for instance the ability to syndicate your horses, or to owning land/building a barn in the Metaverse and a lot of other ways to be involved. Yes for the less computer savvy people among us, the learning curve might be a little steeper because of a lack of familiarity with the technology, however once you are past the initial stages, those issues are alleviated and your horse racing knowledge might give you a ‘leg up’ over the less experienced players. Game of Silks has partnered with NYRA and Fox Sports and you will be seeing and hearing a lot more about it in the coming months as the first wave of horses (2 year olds) start to hit the racetrack this spring. There is a growing community of Silks players that share an interest in strategy games (which real life racing truly is) and are hungry to learn about racing (and unlike most horse racing social media, not yet cynical). Please free to contact me with any questions about Game of Silks and how you can get involved! Email me at Charles@Silks.io or Goingincirclespodcast@gmail.com

🤬 I’d love to see #Endjackpotbets. They are simply bad news for bettors who aren’t part of a Computer Assisted Wagering Team, as CAW teams wind up winning an inordinate % of these pools. If you feel the need to wager on a jackpot wager, make sure to stick to mandatory payout days only, as they are actually a good bet on those days.

☹️ I hope that racing can find a dedicated source to properly fund the PDJF (Permanently Disabled Jockey Fund) so that it doesn’t have to rely solely on donations and fundraisers. It seems like a no brainer but the fact is that the industry including the commissions, tracks, horseman and jockeys themselves have not made this a priority and there is no guaranteed, steady source of revenues. If it wasn’t for generous donations and the hard work of a small group of individuals, so many unfortunate ex-jockeys would be left with almost no help from the racing industry. Horse aftercare doesn’t get nearly enough funding or focus from racing either, but these people are important too. The recent fall and partial paralyzation of 21 year old jockey Joree Scriver at Sunland Park (Click here for some promising news) is another sad reminder that danger lurks every time that starting gate opens. In 2021 we ran over 37,000 races in North America, if we could generate just $30 per race total to the PDJF, that’d be roughly $1.8 million dollars for the fund. Split three ways between the horsemen, jockeys and tracks, that’s $10 a race from each party (off the top, not from individuals) to come up with a significant amount. If horsemen, jockeys and the tracks can’t afford $10 per race to help take care of people that are literally handicapped from racing…what does that say about all of us?

❓ Let’s hear your hopes for the new year below in the comment section!

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Some thoughts on the latest Derby Trail developments

▪️ The 2022 Sham (Gr I) at Santa Anita wasn’t a factor on the Triple Crown trail, unlike the 2020 and 2021 editions which produced Authentic, Life is Good and Medina’s Spirit. After watching yesterdays race, this year’s version (Video here) appears to be more like last years than the previous ones. The winner, Reincarnate, is not your typical Bob Baffert early season three year old stakes winner. For one he started his career on the grass, took four starts to break his maiden and went off at 16-1 as the outsider in the compact group of five (the Sham has had 3 consecutive runnings with five horse fields). His TG numbers were steady but unspectacular (8.75 and 9.75 in two dirt starts) though he did have the luxury of having natural speed which he used to bound to the lead heading into the first turn before being joined on the outside by 2.30-1 second choice Spun Intended. Those two raced as a team heading down the backside with the Hard Spun colt prompting the pace going to the half mile marker where Reincarnate seemed to get the better of his rival who came under pressure from Mike Smith at that point. He was quickly tackled by stablemate Newgate who had trailed early but was gaining ground on the turn while their other Baffert compatriot, the 3/5 favorite National Treasure, lurked from the pocket position behind the early leaders. Turning for home, Juan Hernandez a shook the reins at the Good Magic colt and he responded, gamely holding off Newgate who seemed to have hung late and National Treasure who had no apparent excuse while checking in third. Smith pulled up Spun Intended at the quarter pole and briefly impeded Packs A Wallop who was hopeless behind at that point. Word later came that Spun Intended, who walked onto the horse ambulance, had suffered a non-life threatening injury and was resting comfortably in his stall. The fractions/final time was solid and the first two earned 95 Beyer speed figs which is about par at this time of the year for a SoCal 3 yo prep. I’m not sure that any of these horses are A-level Baffert contenders to be frank. I’d have to see more from the winner, Newgate doesn’t seem to be a 10 furlong type and National Treasure ran ok but I’d call it more disappointing than promising.

▪️ If I was really rich I’d do things like sponsor the Jerome (BT) (Video here) from Aqueduct and make them call it the “Send it in Jerome” Stakes (A blast from the glorious days of the Big East). This years running was an interesting event though very unlikely to have much impact on the Triple Crown. Lugan Knight, a Goldencents colt trained by Mike McCarthy, was a Kentucky shipper stretching out to a one turn mile after running a solid third sprinting in an allowance at Churchill on Thanksgiving weekend. Ridden by Dylan Davis, he outran the field, which on paper contained a plethora of speed, to grab the lead heading down the long Aqueduct backside run to the turn. Artic Arrogance, who was cutting back in distance after being a close second in the Remsen last out, quickly joined Lugan Knight and the two raced as a team heading around the turn. As they approached the top of the stretch, Jose Lezcano on Artic Arrogance tried to press past but Lugan Knight answered every challenge and held him off to win by 1/2 length. No one else made any impact with the first two more than seven lengths ahead of General Banker who was third. Lugan Knight isn’t really bred to be a 10 furlong horse (he earned an 85 Beyer for the Jerome) though at this time of the year those pedigrees tend to be viewed with glasses that may have a rose colored tint to them. His dam, Sly Roxy, was a unheralded sprinting filly by Speightstown whose main claim to fame was running 5th, beaten 14, in the 2017 Adirondack Stakes (Gr II) at Saratoga. With continued development Lugan Knight could be a factor in some of the important one turn races that are growing in prominence on the three year old colt schedule (Pat Day Mile, Woody Stephens, Amsterdam and H.Allen Jerkens) but I don’t see him as a serious Derby contender.

▪️ Cyclone Mischief created some buzz with a nice allowance score against fellow three year olds going a mile at Gulfstream on Sunday (Video here). The Into Mischief colt has plenty of stamina on his dams side, this was his fourth lifetime start and all have come at a distance one mile or longer. His speed figs had been ordinary (TG 11.5 3x) though I’d expect this number to come back faster (Beyer was 90). Before anyone gets too stirred up, the field consisted mostly of sprinting maiden breakers stretching out against winners, or other pretty ordinary runners, the pace scenario set up perfectly and Tyler Gafflione did an excellent job of using the colts size to create space to make his move going by the quarter pole. He did draw off nicely but these are generally good types to avoid as they step up into deeper waters. The Holy Bull (Gr III) on February 4 looks like a logical next stop for Cyclone Mischief but I’d be wary of him duplicating this performance around two turns.

▪️ The Lecomte (Gr III) scheduled to be run January 21 has only attracted 5 nominations which has to be an all-time low for any Derby prep. It’s a $200,000 race worth 10 Derby points to the winner with a $4k supplement nomination available. Take the Charge, who was claimed for $30000 two back (last years path to the Derby winner’s circle lol) is the only horse stabled at FG nominated. The only horse nominated from the Gun Runner stakes, the local prep for the Lecomte, was the distant 7th and last place finisher Mazing Mark. Incredibly strange.

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⏳ Trivia Time - Which sire is producing the most winners at Aqueduct?

😔 In last weeks piece I’m embarrassed to say that I neglected to mention my good friend JJ Graci who passed away this past December, as it still doesn’t even seem possible.

😡 Check out the latest Indian Charlie and his commentary on the disgraceful situation concerning NYRA Richie Gazer and the NYSGC. Click here for the todays edition.

👍🏼 If you are looking for a great home for your mare in Florida, make sure you check out Pleasant Acres Farm in Morriston. Click HERE for more information