“I’m from the government…”

Real Writing on Racing 💯

On August 12, 1986 President Ronald Reagan was conducting an otherwise routine news conference, in this case at the Illinois State Fair in Springfield to an audience that was primarily those in the agricultural sector, namely farmers. It was during that brief and otherwise mundane speech that the President, who famously had been a popular actor in his pre-political life, uttered probably the most iconic and oft repeated line that he’d ever delivered. It is one that’s still used on a regular basis in all manners of commentary when protesting anything remotely governmental.

"The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the Government, and I'm here to help.”

Those words echoed through my head as I perused stories on HISA’s long anticipated yet barely discussed rollout that had appeared in the Bloodhorse and Paulick Report Friday morning. Earlier in the week I had spoken with a number of racing officials from tracks in a variety of different geographical areas and also several representatives from industry groups that are identified by letters. The theme, five weeks out from the HISA rules going into effect including mandatory registration for literally everyone in the sport in any capacity, was that a great deal of critical unknowns still existed.

• The deadline for registration for HISA for all covered and non-covered persons and for horses is July 1. What happens to the people and horses that aren’t registered when that deadline passes? Is there a penalty or does a grace period exist? Are horses that aren’t not yet registered going to be allowed to enter races and if they aren’t registered by race day will they be scratched? Does the same apply to the owners and trainers of those horses? In the case of a partnership owning the horse (the majority of horses these days are owned by more than one individual) do all the partners have to be registered and if one isn’t does that affect the horse or others?

• Who is going to oversee these registrations and enforce all the new HISA rules as of July 1? Are the various racing offices and stewards at tracks nationwide going to be tasked to do HISA’s bidding and has any sort of program been set up that explains what the protocols are (as of today I haven’t not talked to anyone that knew)? What about all the backstretch workers and exercise riders? Who keeps track of their status? How do vet records on claimed horses get transferred? What happens if they aren’t transferred within the required three day period? No one seems to have answers and we are closing in on 30 days from the deadline.

There are a million other questions and at this point seems like folly to bother asking as there isn’t really anyone available and on the off chance that you might get someone affiliated, they don’t seem to want to talk. Obviously this has been a massively difficult assignment in getting a huge national program up and running from scratch in such a relatively short time frame but they didn’t do themselves any favors. HISA in general has been overly secretive, has shown little transparency in the process and based on some of its clunky rules and language seems to suffer from a lack of those with valuable practical experience.

There has been a constant theme for years that those who were skeptical about federal government intervention were the bad guys who were standing in the way of progress. That has never been true in the past nor is it now. The status quo was never something that was desired by those who didn’t stand to directly benefit from it which is something that many other areas of the sport suffer from as well. What most reasonable racing participants wanted was clear, effective and fair regulation that allowed for proper care of the horses while punishing those who were gaming the system or outright cheating. Understanding that our political system at the national level is in tatters and our legal system is getting more complicated by the day, this was always going to be difficult to achieve without some headaches. It has been disappointing nonetheless that that what passes for leadership in our sport wasn’t able to bring the industry together to do what’s best for it, choosing to jam this bizarre, quirky, nebulous law through. I just hope that HISA doesn’t get stuck in our proverbial throats and serve to choke us to death instead of being the medicine that we needed to get better.

Racing Thoughts

⏳ We don’t have enough horses. No one seems to have any idea what to do about it other than cancel programs, cut back on races or just let short fields galore be accepted. That is classic ‘treating the symptoms not the disease’ which racing has been doing forever. WE NEED MORE HORSES! If you work for a racetrack or breed organization or sales company or horsemans group you need to start putting together plans to attracting new ownership investment, making owning horses desirable and working at the grassroots level to stimulate breeding programs and state bred incentives before it’s too late. The sport WILL die from this affliction and we are talking sooner than later. Think about what you have done both personally and professionally to get more people interested in horse racing lately. You still need to do more, we all do. We can have 50 million fancy conferences and the suits can talk till they are blue in the face but the truest of truths regarding racing is that you can’t do it without horses. Do more.

☀️ Few state bred programs have dropped off further than Florida’s has. In the year 2000 Florida had 4551 registered foals which represented close to 14% of the national total. As of 2020 (last year TJC fact book covers) that number had dropped to 1449 and 8% of of a shrinking national total. Why no urgency to reverse that trend? 🤷🏼‍♂️ That said, today’s 11th race at Gulfstream the Big Drama is a reminder that at its best the Florida bred program can produce some super fast sprinters. A really interesting race featuring some rapid older horses like defending champ and 700k earner Well Defined, the hard knocking Shivaree, Sunshine Sprint winner Gatsby and open stakes winner Willy Boi take on the classy three year olds King Cab and Cajuns Music. Post time for the eight horse field is 6:21, be sure to check it out as I’m guaranteeing that announcer Pete blows a gasket when they get down to the half mile in supersonic fractions!

🏇🏻 The Soaring Softly at Belmont is an excellent race with 10 three year old fillies lining up to run 7 furlongs on the Belmont’s Widener grass course. Derrynane is the one to beat in there but she is far from a lock and several other fillies including Breeze Easy, Lost My Sock, Sail By, Ouraika and Chardy Party in the mix. Hopefully the rain holds off and it remains on the grass.

🏇🏻Churchill runs the Keertana stakes for fillies and mares going 12 furlongs over their new turf course which might have a little bit of give to it after a wet week in Kentucky. We suggest giving La Lune a long look at a decent price as she should improve off her seasons debut against War Like Goddess. Anything above 6-1 should make her a play in a very evenly matched group.

The old school video of the week brought to you by Silks.io

💰As the great Tom Durkin says “Soaring Softly, the queen of the American green”