“It’s just math…”
Real Writing Period 💯
It’s been awhile since I wrote a post and well….a lot has happened since. Today’s words aren’t about me, though at some point I will tell the tales of some amazing people that I have been fortunate to have in my life. No sir this is piece about other juicy stuff like delusion, selfishness, greed, politics, an absence of vision and a general lack of understanding of the mechanics of horseracing.
I’m in my late 50’s and sports have always been a central part of my life. Learning about, playing, watching, following, studying…athletic competitions have consumed a huge part of my existence. I’m sure many other readers have had similar experiences as American/International sports are a massive industry that has grown exponentially over the last half-century. Now fueled by legalized wagering in addition to incredible advances in communication technologies, sports are an essential and significant part of our cultural experience.
Where am I going with this from a horseracing perspective? Well the answer is a simple one wrapped up in a complicated web of blunders.
We messed up.
This morning as I read leading trainer Chad Brown’s comments on his view of the declining status of quality of the Saratoga meet I had to chuckle to myself. The theory that the day to day racing cards offered at premier meet in the country has slipped in quality surely isn’t wrong. However when considering the messenger on this occasion, it struck me to be something out of a “Racing Onion” (The Onion is a well known parody site on social media) outlet, not www.HRN.com.
“When you have the highest training expenses in the country to be be in New York but you are writing cheaper races at the premier meet in the country, that doesn’t make any sense to me,” Brown told Tom Pedulla. “It’s not fair to the big owners here who invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in yearlings and rehab for horses. I just hope there are enough races offered that I can get in races because, at a certain level, I won’t run them. If there are too many cheap races offered, I won’t do it.”
Uh…what?
Chad is a smart guy and his quotes may not have come across as intended because what is written seems somewhat disjointed…but still. Essentially he wants more races that suit his horses and in general we’d all love to see more good maiden special weights and allowance races with nice sized fields. Yet the giant elephant in the room is this won’t happen because of the stranglehold that a small fraction of barns have on that vast majority of talented horseflesh. Sure changing purse dynamics in Kentucky also play a part, with some connections with Saratoga caliber horses opting to spend the summer in the Midwest, a scenario that would be unheard of in the past.
One word used that continues to trigger me in particular when discussing day to day racing topics is “owner’s investments” in the context that they should play a major not an ancillary role. This is especially true in the context of major operations that pour millions into the business which is a lifeline for the industry in many ways. They are vitally important to the undercarriage of the thousands of jobs and small businesses that make up the racing ecosystem.
The sticky part of the equation is that they wind up siphoning off too large of a percentage of purses, making growth for the non-elite sector more difficult. Chad wants more “quality” races at Saratoga because in his view (he would be correct) it would allow he and his owners more growth potential. More opportunities for good horses to run means more opportunities for the owners and trainers with good horses to earn and somewhat unique to Saratoga, a chance to have a runner in a nice race at the Spa. The reality is that that sector of racing is running out of growth potential literally because we don’t have enough breeders/owners and trainers willing to be fodder for the supertrainers.
The cold, hard truth is that the Brown’s and Pletcher’s of the real sporting world would be treated in the opposite manner that they are in racing. Salary caps, player drafts, revenue sharing, roster limits, etc. have been used to counter the natural advantages that the powerhouse teams, in the biggest cities have. Yes it’s not an exact comparison to all sports and legal issues of course always complicate matters but in general it’s the way we in racing let the middle class erode over the last two decades that have all but doomed the sport to a steady decline.
I started training in 1999, quickly found success and at one time was an up and coming name. At that time there was one Supertrainer and that was Wayne Lukas whose career had just entered a decline. Todd Pletcher was a young guy doing well and growing fast while Bob Baffert and Nick Zito were the two guys focused on the Triple Crown above all else. It wasn’t long before Bobby Frankel went on a historic run of success, winning Graded races left and right. Meanwhile Pletcher was assembling an army using the DW Lukas model with his own twist, taking it to the next level. Steve Asmussen took his huge operation to the big leagues and soon it was like an arms race, the bigger the better as owner’s flocked to the guys they saw winning on TVG as the sport morphed into a national game where before it had been largely regional. The Woody Stephens and Allen Jerkens style barns of 40 horses were left in the dust. Consolidation squeezed the mid-sized barns and the solid, “meat and potatoes” trainers struggled to find clients as the big barns took all of an owners horses, no more B teams.
We could go on and on but the point should be clear. Big event days and Derby week and spring at Keeneland, are just mirages. We haven’t done a damn thing to try to grow the horse supply side, we let thousands of owners walk away quietly or MyRacehorse’ed those people into the big outfits too. I have said it a million times but once again, “it’s just math”. The middle class outfits once filled races on weekdays with full fields of solid, workmanlike horses that people enjoyed wagering on. They are mostly gone. What’s left now, even at Saratoga, is a few powerful outfits, a handful of claiming operations and lower tier connections that just try to keep their head above water every week.
Good luck trying to cook up gourmet menus with those ingredients.
I loved the call on Steve Byk’s show from Mike (Repole) of Queens. It just made my passion for racing greater.
I grew up working for a drug wholesaler that my father ran. I learned a lot about drugs’ uses After leaving that job I went to Breakfast at Belmont every day. I became friends with a trainer and one day he asked me if I wanted to go back to the barn to see the horses I was excited and went back. He asked me if I wanted to walk a sweet horse and I quickly said yes. This happened tor a few days. I was then asked to walk a second horse. On Friday he gave me some money for walking the horses and he said that I was hired.
We had a horse that was an ordinary horse. There was a tonic that each horse got 1 pump in their feed. We gave her 5 of 6 pumps every day. She won a race that weekend against much better horses. The trainer made a comment that the tonic wasn’t lasting as long as it should. We continued to give her the mega dose and decreased what we gave the other horses. She was entered again . She won and was claimed and never won again.
I saw a trainer who trained differently from other trainers and was always accused of doping horses. He regularly claimed horses and ran them back in 5 days and won. His barn was searched on a regular basis and nothing was found. He was giving them jugs (iv infusions) of legal vitamins. He didn’t get positive tests when his horses won and went to the spit box. His “secret” was don’t send the horses to the track but jog them around the shed row for an hour. They built up their wind and stamina. When they ran back quickly (less than 7 days) they ran like they were liked caged animals and won. They won at long prices and as short favorites. A trainer juicing horses would never juice a horse that was a short price. They would probably be tested as a short priced winner or as a favorite. He acquired a horse with a great pedigree but had been running badly. This well bred horse ran in the money in a high class race and he was accused of juicing him. If that horse ran to his pedigree for a top trainer nothing would be said but since he got him to run well he was accused if using drugs.
It was the best job I ever had They actually paid me to go to Florida for the winter and Saratoga in August. When’s the horses returned in the spring I was lucky enough to get a job with Calumet. Having worked for several small trainers I was now working for one of the best. We came back 3 afternoons a week to graze the horses and even got a day off every week. Lucky for me our barn’s backyard was adjacent to Frank Whitley’s backyard. I got to see one of the most courageous horses Forego when his groom hosed his legs every day.. When I looked at his legs I got an education about bad legs. However he was a champion who won top level races carrying high weights.
Calumet had a 3 year filly Our Mims and an unrated 2 year old named Alydar. Classy champions. They had one of the old Calumet guest houses about 100 yards from the barn. I saw how class horses were trained. Opposed to ordinary training
That fall I had to leave because of back problems. Lucky for me I got a job with a wholesaler that was 5 minutes from the back barn entrance and spent my lunch hour at the track I worked for good and bad stables I saw many things happening, both good and bad.
I saw a trainer go into a stall with a towel on his hand hiding a syringe. I saw a trainer put an illegal powder in a horse’s feed. I also saw how a class operation worked with no drugs
I saw many things happening, some good and some bad. Dutrow did his time. Navarro and Servis are doing their punishment Unfortunately some bad things are happening.
If they want to stop all of this shit then they should operate like Las Vegas. A camera would be focused on every stall. When anyone enters the stall they would have to show what is in their hands and show went they had when exiting. It would be costly but would restore faith that there was nothing happening
Unfortunately things could happen when a new drug becomes available. Epogen was a drug for kidney patients that increased their function. The juicers were ahead of the testing. It becomes very expensive when a new drug appears that juices the horses but due to the cost (over $100 per dose)a test isn’t developed until there is a problem and it is being used . An upstart stable came to NYRA. They were using Epogen. They won at long prices frequently. However once the test was developed they disappeared and were never seen again.
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Since the above was written I have had some other thoughts.
Year round racing has hurt the game. Closing in the middle of December gave everyone a break. The stable area would be closed and in the spring stalls would be allocated by who raced their horses in the lest year. When I worked there there was a horse that hadn’t raced in 3 years. Situations like that could e avoided. Thanks to simulcasting the revenue would still be there.
In the Sheepshead Bay Stakes in 2023 Christophe Clement entered 2 orses and Chad Brown entered 3. Brown scratched 1 leaving a field of 4. He never intended to run 3 but the race would have not gone with 4 horses. Manipulating the rules and the entry box????
NYRA inflates claiming prices. Their $12,500 horses are $7500 horses at other tracks. If these races are run at their true values there would be more shippers and the races would have more horses. The purses could stay at the current levels thanks to the slot machine revenues.
I am terribly afraid of Aqueduct closing and all downstate racing being at Belmont. Saratoga racing only in August was special. With all winter racing at Belmont it would become boring. Eventually the days would decrease and Saratoga would get more dates making it less special.
Queens College had a racing club that owned horses and rented a house in Saratoga for the month of August. All members plus others were always welcome – me. The cost of the house was divided by the total nights stayed and you would pay for the nights you were there (usually about $8 per night}. Today the house would have been cost prohibitive to rent for 2 months.
I would love talk to you. I can talk racing 26 hours a day 9 days a week LOL. Please contact me at alydar@optonline.net.
Thanks for the post and keep fighting we’re rooting for you