Activity on the Road to the 2021 Breeders’ Cup kicks into high gear this weekend under the iconic twin spires at Churchill Downs, with two Breeders’ Cup “Win and You’re In” Challenge Series qualifiers scheduled as part of a stakes-packed card on Saturday June 26, the last day of Churchill's spring meet.
Month: June 2021
Brits Barred From Derby Sale As Covid Rules Change
A last-minute change of local Covid regulations in Ireland has led to British buyers already in the country for the Tattersalls Ireland Derby Sale being unable to attend the sales complex at Fairyhouse.
The company's major sale of National Hunt store horses gets underway at 11am on Wednesday and continues through Thursday, but those who had already travelled across the Irish Sea under strict protocols which included a 'bubble' for visitors from Britain, can no longer participate in person.
Bloodstock agent Tom Malone vented his frustration on social media on Tuesday evening upon hearing the news, having already spent two days viewing the young jumping stock on the sales grounds.
He told TDN on Wednesday morning, “First of all, Tatts have done everything within their power to make sure that it goes ahead but unfortunately they are dealing with local authorities and, at the last minute, which was yesterday afternoon, they said that the English bubble does now not apply at the sales complex and if it goes ahead they would cancel everything. None of us would do that to anyone else. We are all in this industry together and we just have to work on and get it done.”
Malone said that he will now be following the sale online and liaising with Mags O'Toole on the ground at Fairyhouse. He continued, “It's frustrating. I've done all my work so it's not the end of the world for me because I have seen everything I want. But my business runs on being active on the ground, and if I am not on the ground I am definitely going to be 50% less active, because when I'm there I'll buy.
“The people who have done this don't realise the ramifications of what they have done but unfortunately it can't be changed now, and what it means for the sales coming up I don't know.”
Around 100 people had travelled from Britain to attend the sale and have been staying together in a hotel under the bubble arrangement which allows for travel between the sales ground and the hotel only.
Malone, an Irish-born former jump jockey now resident in the south-west of England added, “You come in clean with a PCR test. I've had a jab and I am doing everything I'm told to do to run my business, but out of Tatts' hands someone is ruining it for us all. But that's just where we find ourselves.
“Niamh Spiller and Mary Lanigan and all their team [at Tattersalls Ireland] have done phenomenal work late into the night making sure everyone was catered for. I feel for them. They've done everything they can.”
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Campbell: What’s In A Name? Study Finds Bettors Unduly Influenced By Horses’ Names
This commentary originally appeared on HorseRacing.net on June 21 and is reprinted here with permission.
The handicappers of America are in a highly speculative business. It is not quite the lumber market of late, but … For some, it ranges somewhere between wildcatting out in West Texas, and base jumping off the KL Tower in Malaysia, figuratively speaking.
When it comes to “horseplayers,” they combine a strange concoction of superstition with past precedent. One would like to think that they are scientists more so than tarot card readers. Some are on the phone, pacing slowly; either doling out tips, or intently listening to a supposed qualified source. When the anonymous deliver, they are instantly known by all, a soothsayer of renown. Think town crier. When it doesn't — think the stocks in the square.
Racetrack culture is full of genuine and original “wildcatters,” who are just waiting for you to ask them the “Question.” That question being, “Who do you like?”
Betting methods are endlessly fascinating. Participants devour the Form in all sorts of ways. Some wait right up until the race goes off to look at it, while others prepare days in advance, hoping to unearth some numeral or meaningful sign that their selections can lead to cashing tickets. Everyone who participates in making a wager receives a permanent record, either on paper or digitally, of an opinion that at one point they thought might be correct.
At different points in the year, casual horseplayers arrive on the scene like tourists. Wearing their shiny white tennis shoes, cameras around the neck at the ready, and holding up their trifold maps like in one of those string of Chevy Chase Vacation films. They are hoping to “stump the chumps.” If they win, exuberance is a tidal wave, but if they lose, they might not return — at least until next year. More professional track-goers know better, and they can temper wins and losses.
Over the course of my own experience in different betting milieus, I have often wondered about how much the names of horses can influence the wide spectrum of those that place bets. Are they really as good as they think they are, those novices to the veterans, when it comes to dealing with this issue? Could they be unduly influenced by such an arbitrary thing as this appears to be?
A recent article in the Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics entitled, “Sonic Thunder vs. Brian the Snail: Are people affected by uninformative racehorse names?” probed some of these questions. In other words, turning to those that examine behavioral economics might provide some intriguing answers.
In this particular study, a triad of scholars from the Department of Business Administration at the University of Zurich (Oliver Merz, Raphael Flepp, and Egon Franck) wanted to take a deep dive into the world of “effects.” That being how decision-making and market efficiency play in the world of horse racing. Our sport, they tell us, is particularly interesting because data is readily available to measure things like investment, choice, and result.
What they uncovered was some fascinating material about the habits of mind when it comes to choosing horses. Betting decisions they say are affected by uninformative racehorse names. They looked at over 400,000 contests between the ten-year span of 2008 to 2018, developing a long list of words from the Oxford Dictionary to cover anything that related to the word “fast.”
What they mined from countries across the globe (including the U.S.), is that when a “fast-sounding” horse was entered in any given race, the probability of them winning was “overstated.” To put it another way, the returns, the ability to cash a ticket, were actually lower compared to bets on others.
Wait, what, you say? A horse with the name “speed” was overly bet when compared to one with “slow” in it?
Correct. With all the collective knowledge available in the sport of horse racing, and with all the professional supposed “opinions” that are out there, something as trivial as this could have a major impact on the betting market. I find that both disturbing and captivating.
Of course, betting on a horse always has elements present where bettors do not have all of the knowledge at their disposal they could to make could be called an “informed wager.” But choosing a horse based on its name only, I would say is universally scoffed at by those that consider themselves “in the know.” Ask any of the National Horseplayers Championship (NHC) players in Las Vegas when they attend the tournament there, if they make their selections based on names, and you would probably get some wry smiles along with legions of shaking heads. It is simply not done, they will say.
However, we are talking about the depths of the human mind here, aren't we? It has twists and turns, fissures like a maze. As Freud and Jung began to tell us in German over a 100 years ago, the subconscious is a tricky business.
That is why we need departments in colleges and universities that examine topics such as behavioral economics. It can follow lines of inquiry, cross-pollenate, and uncover truths we might not have thought existed. By the end of the piece, the authors make some rather sweeping suggestions about society at large, and whether this kind of “effect” plays out on a larger scale. They are on to something. Has horse racing once again provided the world with a window into actions of a much broader audience? Perhaps.
What we do know is that track culture has a niche of behavior that is intimately tied to one's own pocketbook. Just like buying on Amazon during “Prime Day,” or purchasing a stock on Robinhood, those decisions about why we do what we do, reflect greatly on who we are as both individuals, and as a collective, “people.” We might not want to admit it, but sometimes those choices turn out to be pretty uninformed.
The next time you are out at the racetrack, surveying the PPs for a race at say, Belmont, watch out for those “speed” horses. As for those names, your mind might be leading you down the wrong path. That goes double for you, wildcatters. Knowledge in this case, is not as apparent as it might seem.
J.N. Campbell is a turfwriter based in Houston.
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The Blueberry Bulletin Presented By Equine Equipment: Lessons From A Draft Cross To An OTTB
This is the second installment in our monthly column from editor-in-chief Natalie Voss following her journey with her 2021 Thoroughbred Makeover hopeful Underscore, fondly known as Blueberry. Read previous editions in this series here and learn Blueberry's origin story and the author's long-running bond with this gelding and his family here. You can find Blueberry's Facebook page here.
Horse racing is a sport predicated on comparisons – both of horses actively competing against each other and those generations apart. For some years, Racing Twitter loved nothing more than to pit two greats from different eras against each other in a theoretical race (Man o' War vs. Secretariat is the one that used to make the rounds) and ask which one would have won. It's a question people still love to ask jockeys and trainers who have been lucky enough to work with more than one top-level runner. The interviewee almost never has a very stunning or insightful answer and I frankly think that's because it's a ridiculous question.
As someone who rides, I have a keen sense for what unique individuals horses can be and that's probably why I've never found these comparisons all that interesting. Great horses are no more similar to each other than mediocre ones, so a lot of it has seemed like comparing apples, oranges, and bananas for me.
And yet, I find myself doing exactly the same thing in my own riding life.
Although I've been riding my whole life, Blueberry is just the second horse who has been my own. My first is an opinionated Percheron/Thoroughbred cross mare named Jitterbug, who I have written about here before. She was a neglect case in her youth, essentially feral until the age of three. I began working with her when she was five and unbroke. While teaching her to carry a saddle and rider was surprisingly easy, it took years for her to become a reliable mount with a solid walk/trot/canter who could reasonably be said to stand for the farrier, bathe, tie, clip, load – the most basic list of skills you see in most sale ads. She has been a challenging ride, made more challenging by the fact I encountered her at a time I was retraining my hunt seat to dressage.
We have accomplished a lot together when I think about where she started – a buggy-eyed, rank individual of Too Much Weight and Too Much Brain, shuddering in the back of her stall the fall morning I first met her more than a decade ago. We've competed successfully in horse trials, combined tests, dressage and jumper classes; we've hacked many miles in the local parks and on hunter paces; she is now reliable enough to carry children around, as long as they have no ego at all and tell her how pretty she is. I cannot pretend that she has always been easy or good for me as a rider. Flatwork sessions on late nights under the arena lights have sometimes ended in frustrated tears. She's bigger than me, and she will never unlearn that. We know each other so well, we crawl into each other's brains and play chess over 20-meter trot circles. A lot of effort goes into minimal improvements in our dressage training, but I have to admit there were many times I had doubted she would be rideable at all so perhaps I should take what I can get.
Jitterbug is now 17, and Blueberry's arrival in my care after his retirement in November was impeccably timed. Jitterbug is partially leased by a kind family who ask relatively little of her, and she and I needed a break from pushing each other's buttons. As I've brought Blueberry along under saddle these last two months, it's been hard not to think about all the positive qualities he had that the big mare … well … doesn't. (A work ethic, for example.)
The author with the big mare
I'm trying to reframe this way of thinking, as I don't think it's totally fair to the OG. So instead, I've been trying to think about the lessons one horse has taught me in order to prepare me for her polar opposite.
- A horse with a good mind is worth their weight in gold. Mentality was more important to me than anything else when I began thinking about my next riding partner, and that's what attracted me to Blueberry. Jitterbug has kept me safe through fireworks shows, rogue wildlife, loose horses flying by us at horse shows, and all manners of klutzy moments as I've led her to and from the field in icy mud. So far, Blueberry has shown similar wisdom, tuning out galloping pals in neighboring paddocks on late evenings in the arena, staring placidly at loose horses at shows (it's a jungle out there) and learning to ignore a Most Unsettling Power Saw. He's an athletic little thing, but even if he moved like a giraffe, I'd know I was safe. As I get older, I have come to appreciate that I do not bounce so well when I hit the ground, and as such I value a horse that will avoid any unnecessary gravity checks.
- At some point, if you chose well, your developing horse will outclass you. This discovery with Jitterbug came when she progressed from smaller fences to three-foot monsters and I realized suddenly that all that talk about a tight lower leg was not a suggestion based on aesthetics but practicality. That was several years into our journey together. In true OTTB fashion, Blueberry learns new things quickly both mentally and physically, so it was a matter of weeks before he went from doing the drunken sailor/baby horse wobbles around corners in the arena to proudly holding himself up. While he was getting stronger, I was staying basically the same and as soon as he was capable of taking bigger, more upright strides, I started looking like a beginner. Floppy lower legs, a wobbling core, weak wrists – it's all I can see when I watch video of us working together. I suspect all riders hate watching their own equitation but I'd forgotten just how much I hate it. I think I'd assumed I had more time to develop myself and now we're waiting on my fitness level to catch up to the 4-year-old greenie.
- The answer to this is always to drop your stirrups and suffer through as much posting trot as you can. This is tougher once you get a horse with a Thoroughbred-sized stride, by the way. I hate this truth, but I can't escape it.
- Smart horses will learn from you every moment, even when you aren't trying to teach them things. I can no longer blame my horses for immediately running out of gas after a nice transition from canter to trot. I apparently am so relieved to have kept a consistent position from one kind of bouncing gait to another that I immediately become a wet noodle, inadvertently suggesting 'You know, this is a great time for a nap.' All this time I had blamed the half Perch for halting a few steps after a lovely canter, and in fact I am the lazy one. Sorry, Jitter.
- You're playing the long game here. It's easy to become discouraged when considering the above, especially when you're an amateur rider like I am, fitting in lessons and training rides around the edges of a full-time job. It's easy to feel like you're behind where you could or should be. Jitterbug has taught me though, that any real progress worth measuring takes place over months and years. I hope Blueberry and I will be partners for many years to come, and that means each of us will have periods of rapid progress and plateaus, both physical and mental. Yes, he seems like an easy ride right now, but we will have our struggles eventually. That's just life with horses. The more important thing will be looking at how far we've come, and working through those challenges as a team.
The post The Blueberry Bulletin Presented By Equine Equipment: Lessons From A Draft Cross To An OTTB appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
