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Take Me Out to the Ballgame: Letter to the Editor

If there are two sports whose paths have mirrored each other historically, it would be baseball and horse racing in America.

Both are tradition-driven and both enjoyed prominence for decades. And both recently have dealt with challenges, scandals and declining interest.

One sport though has chosen to embrace innovation.

Baseball has developed multiple changes over several years as they fought to gain fan, media and sponsor revenue. To our credit, racing has innovated in several spaces, specifically health and safety, but not so much in product presentation.

The last major product innovation in racing happened four decades ago with the creation of the Breeders' Cup.

Major League Baseball announced this week that they enjoyed their biggest year-over-year attendance increase since 1993. Because they listened. And they changed.
The energy is back in baseball. Media attention is back. And the fans are back in the ballpark and watching games on a bevy of media options.

Can we say the same of racing? Unfortunately, no.

But fortunately, it is not too late. As long as racing will step up to the plate right now and embrace meaningful innovation.

Need one example? There is a 100% chance that realigning the Triple Crown on a better schedule would result in more media attention, more wagering and a stronger safety message.

Earlier this year, leaders within the sport–Churchill Downs, Stronach, top breeders and others cried out for increased cooperation and collaboration.

There is no question that much of this was due to our safety crisis, but clearly the safety issue is only one of many that should–and must be addressed by a broad coalition of our industry.
That is if we want to remain relevant and follow a proven path, like our friends in baseball just showed us.

It took bold thinking and a never-give-up attitude by John Gaines to create the Breeders' Cup. And equally as important, it took thinking of the greater good by breeders and racetracks.

The evolution of racetrack ownership should make innovation much, much more possible than ever. You can count on one hand the entities that control the sport.

Throw in the Breeders' Cup and The Jockey Club and representatives from those seven could fit around a small dining room table!

There are 30 club owners in MLB involved in the decision-making process. Not to mention the Players' Association and others.

Undoubtedly, a Commissioner-led model greatly facilitates changes to baseball, but with so few involved to create meaningful innovation in racing, we can still change without requiring a Commissioner.

Want to truly pay homage to the 40-year anniversary of the Breeders' Cup? Create a “Gaines Commission” to study and implement strategic changes within racing.
Outside professional support would moderate our “think tank” project, at first with only representatives from the racing entities mentioned above.

As the commission begins to develop and agree on potential action, others (deservedly so) will be brought into the process. But for now, one step at a time.

Just as baseball went to a pitch clock, the Gaines Commission would be on the clock as well, directed to finalize their recommendations long before Breeders' Cup 2024.

Baseball changed and has been rewarded. Racing can do the same. Our changes will be different. Our changes won't be as easy.

But we don't have another 40 years to wait.

Kip Cornett is a Thoroughbred owner, bettor and sports marketer.

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Coach Repels All Challengers For Pippin Score

Rick Kueber's Coach won her second race in a row in Saturday's $150,000 Pippin Stakes at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark., repelling the challenge of stakes winner Miss Bigly for a three-length score. The 4-year-old daughter of Commissioner, sent to post as the 8-5 favorite, grabbed the lead at the start and was expertly piloted by Ricardo Santana, Jr. The pair completed a mile over the sloppy course in 1:37.58 for trainer Brad Cox.

Cox also won last year's edition of the Pippin with Getridofwhatailesu, and was just a few inches shy of sweeping Oaklawn's two-turn stakes series for older fillies and mares in 2021. He sent out Monomoy Girl to win last year's $250,000 Bayakoa Stakes (G3) and Shedaresthedevil to win the $350,000 Azeri Stakes (G2). Monomoy Girl, in what would be her final career start, was beaten a nose by Letruska in the $1 million Apple Blossom Handicap (G1) to deny Cox a four-race sweep.

When Coach broke sharply, Santana sent the filly out to take the lead but kept her off the deeper inside rail, about three-wide down the backstretch. They marked the first quarter in :23.44 and the half in :47.60. Miss Bigly tracked the pace along the inside, and moved up around the half-mile pole to draw even with the frontrunner.

Head-and-head around the far turn, the two riders were waiting to cue their mounts for the stretch run. When the question was asked, it was Coach and Santana who managed to find another gear on the outside. Coach pulled away from Miss Bigly with ease, racing to the wire a three-length winner. Miss Bigly had to settle for second, while W W Fitzy checked in third and Breeze Rider was fourth.

Bred in Kentucky by Three Lyons Racing, Coach is out of the Exchange Rate mare And Stay Out. She was a $65,000 yearling at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Fall sale, and won her first three races including the Rags to Riches Overnight Stakes at Churchill Downs. On the Kentucky Oaks trail, Coach managed a third in the G3 Fantasy Stakes at Oaklawn before finishing ninth in the Run for the Lillies. She did not race again until December, when she won her comeback race at Oaklawn.

Overall, Coach's record stands at five wins from 10 starts for earnings of $387,840.

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Letter to the Editor: Horse Racing Needs a Commissioner’s Office

by Armen Antonian Ph.D

As the 2021 Breeders' Cup approaches, there is much for horse racing to celebrate. New procedures put in place at racetracks to prevent horses with pre-existing conditions from racing have reduced fatalities. And the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) will be implemented next year to standardize medication of horses.

But from California to Kentucky to New York, horse racing is still under a magnifying glass. In the absence of national leadership, individual racetracks struggle to manage ongoing issues and each, on their own, is responsible for promoting a positive image for racing with the general public.

Thoroughbred racing needs a commissioner's office to help address emerging problems and enhance racing's image. Other sports have such an entity. Horse racing needs one, too. Why add another layer of authority? The existing, truncated structure of individual track management of pressing racing issues is insufficient because problems/solutions go well beyond the framework of a single track. What would such an office be involved in?

Take the controversy about the recent Kentucky Derby. The Derby is so important to racing nationwide (revenue, breeding, fan interest, etc.) that any major decision involving the Derby would have a commissioner's office oversight looking out for the general interest of the sport. A commissioner's office would have addressed the slight medication positive of Medina Spirit (Protonico), the Derby winner, while, at the same time, standing by the race result. Whether the win later technically holds is a legal matter. Churchill's response had no such subtlety as it called into question both the authenticity of Medina Spirit's performance and his fitness to run in the Derby.

Trainer Bob Baffert was abruptly suspended from Churchill for two years. What ensued was a (predictable) outpouring of accusations from all directions about the horse, the trainer, and, yes, the sport of horse racing. The sport of racing was not enhanced by Churchill's response. Some in the general public have been led to think that a smidgen of a legal medication can make a horse win the industry's signature race, the Derby. It is very hard to win the Derby! Ask any trainer, jockey, or owner.

Medina Spirit's trainer, Baffert, has been the face of racing. A commissioner's office would have stepped in to add balance to any official pronouncement about the trainer. A two-year ban appears excessive both to the average racing fan and the public at large. The positive reception of both Baffert and Medina Spirit this month at Santa Anita indicate the feelings of the average race fan. Of course, penalties would have been proposed based on a commissioner's office interaction with Churchill for the positive test result (pending investigation) but not without a nuanced view of the circumstances. The last thing horse racing needs is doubt about the sincerity of its response to one of its most noted figures. The public understands the need to give an ointment to a horse for a skin rash (the plausible reason for the drug overage pending the test result). The public would even approve of such a medication for Medina Spirit.

Contrast Churchill's one-sided response to Medina Spirit's positive test to the balanced approach of the Breeders' Cup board of directors. The Breeders' Cup board acknowledged Baffert's predicament (“totality of the circumstances”) and are requiring his horses to undergo additional testing and scrutiny before racing in this year's Breeders' Cup. The board acted in the broad, constructive manner of a quasi-commissioner's office.

There are a host of other issues that demand industry-wide attention. A commissioner's office would already be addressing the purposeful doping of horses with illegal drugs charged by the FBI against trainers Jason Servis and Jorge Navarro (Navarro has pleaded guilty). An industry-wide investigation (apart from that of the FBI) would be underway, coordinated by a committee that would reach out to all racetracks to verify how widespread such doping might be. The horses who may yet be subject to such treatment deserve a rapid response. The racing and general public need to know. Instead, discussion of illegal drug use on horses just festers in chatter among race fans and then filters out into the general public fueling the dark notion that the entirety of horse racing is a dishonest enterprise.

The most visible of racing issues today is the riding crop. To the public at large, the riding crop appears to be a negative, archaic feature of racing. A commissioner's office would help to create a nationwide riding crop standard, after consulting with the jockeys' representatives themselves, and then educate the racing and the general public as to its proper and expected use. The public will understand–if the reasons the crop is needed are explained. But instead, having different crop rules in different states, and no crop at all in New Jersey is incongruous and again feeds into suspicious views about horse racing.

And finally back to the Derby. I was at the 2019 Derby and what struck me about the disqualification of Maximum Security (New Year's Day) was that three local stewards alone were making the decision for the industry's biggest race. No input from a central office like other sports existed. Let us have a seven-person stewards' team for the Derby, with a member from a commissioner's office and with a handicapper/fan on it as well. Horse racing: its people, its fans, and its horses deserve the consideration of a national racing office like any other major sport. From whip rules to public relations and more, today's issues require immediate action that go well beyond the capacity of individual tracks. A first “tip” for a press release from the new office: I know of a horse that originally cost $1,000 that won the Kentucky Derby. Now that is a story to run with!

Armen Antonian of Pasadena, California holds a Ph.D in political economy and political philosophy.

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Boardroom Commanding In Seaway Win At Woodbine

Boardroom, last-out winner of the Grade 3 Whimsical, continued her strong performances over the Tapeta track at Woodbine Racetrack in the Grade 3 Seaway, powering past the leader Toffen on the turn to take the lead and pull away to a seven-length victory.

The 4-year-old filly broke cleanly from the outside, taking up position behind Toffen and Hell N Wild in the early part of the seven-furlong Seaway. On the turn, jockey Luis Contreras took Boardroom four wide, easily finding the front as her stablemate Fiduciary moved with her. Into the stretch, though, Boardroom poured on the speed, drawing away with ease and leaving no room for anyone to challenge her at the finish. Our Secret Agent was second, with graded stakes winner Amalfi Coast third. Golden Vision, Hell N Wild, Fiduciary, and Toffen rounded out the order of finish.

The fractions for the seven furlongs were :23.34, 45.39, and 1:10.24 with a final time for the seven furlongs of 1:22.02. Find this race's chart here.

Boardroom paid $4.40, $2.60, and $2.10. Our Secret Agent paid $3.10 and $2.30. Amalfi Coast paid $2.40.

Bred in Kentucky by Polo Green Stable, Inc., Boardroom is a daughter of Commissioner out of the Rahy mare Money Madness. She is owned by LNJ Foxwoods and trained by Josie Carroll. Consigned by Q Bar J Thoroughbreds, she was sold to Solis and Litt for $475,000 at the 2019 Ocala Breeders' Sale Two-Year-Olds In Training Sale. With her win in the Seaway, Boardroom has five wins in seven lifetime starts, for career earnings of $283,569.

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