Dan Liebman | Horse Racing Free Tips

A Fan Witnesses the Risk of Sports

I am a man comprised of many parts. Certainly among them: sports fan.

Yes, the big three–basketball, football, baseball–but also soccer, hockey, and, of course, horse racing.

I've attended a Summer Olympics, where I witnessed amazing track and field, swimming, and boxing. I also saw two sports for the first (and last) time–judo and team handball.

My father, before the interstate was even finished, would drive my siblings and I to Crosley Field in Cincinnati to watch our beloved Reds. As a youngster he took us to Kentucky football and basketball games in Stoll Field and Memorial Coliseum.

Many of my childhood heroes were athletes.

During the 1970s and early '80s, I attended many Cincinnati Bengals games with my longtime friend Chuck Oliver, who inherited season tickets from his father. In 1985, when Chuck moved from Indianapolis to Atlanta, he graciously passed the season tickets along to me. I've had them ever since.

I've rooted for the Bengals. And, during many seasons, rooted for the Bungles. My four children are Bengals (and Reds) fans. Interestingly, two now live in Cincinnati. Another resides in Ft. Thomas, Ky., about a five-minute drive to the baseball and football stadiums on the banks of the Ohio River.

In the old Riverfront Stadium, my four Bengals seats were 14 rows up from the field. Two seats were on each side of the 50-yard line. Today, in Paycor Stadium (formerly Paul Brown Stadium), I am at the 20-yard-line, two seats in row 21, two directly in front in row 20.

I rarely attend games on Thursday, Sunday or Monday nights for two reasons: 1) it is about a 90-minute drive home; and 2) though I enjoy a beer as much as the next guy, some fans tend to over-imbibe for late-starting contests.

Monday night, however, I was in the stadium because my close friend, Donna, is a longtime Buffalo Bills fan and the thought of being together to watch Joe Burrow versus Josh Allen was too enticing.

My daughter, Jennie, and her friend, Cole, were in attendance with us.

Wearing my Bengals hat and three layers of Bengals shirts, I was excited when “we” won the coin toss and elected to take the ball. We aren't deferring to the second half. We want the ball.
When my favorite player, Tyler Boyd, caught the game's first touchdown, it was game on.

Unfortunately, after Buffalo kicked a field goal and the Bengals began their second drive, the unimaginable happened. Tee Higgins caught a pass on a slant pattern and was tackled by safety Damar Hamlin.

I was looking right at Hamlin when he stood up for just a few seconds, then fell to the ground. I knew this was no torn ACL, no stinger, no concussion.

This was serious.

You really knew so when they asked players to surround the 24-year-old former Pitt player so fans could not see what was happening.

Being a horse racing fan, my thoughts turned to times when track personnel bring out a barrier so fans don't witness a horse being euthanized on the track.

Minutes seemed like hours as emergency personnel worked on Hamlin. We saw them get out the paddles. We could not see them performing CPR, but wondered aloud with other fans if that is what was happening.

We were disturbed that it took the league so long to cancel the game. A friend on Facebook reminded me it takes “corporations” a long time to make decisions.

Indeed, NFL teams and the league itself are corporations.

Thankfully, the right decision was made. After watching players openly crying on the field, how could they possibly compose themselves to carry on?

But what if it had been a playoff game? Or the Super Bowl? Would a different decision have been made? Would they have agreed to play the next day?

What happened to Hamlin is simply not a scenario you expect to happen.

There were many things in play–television ad revenues, playoff implications, players working at their craft for future contracts, etc. But the players, teams, league all realized first and foremost that ahead of the business of the game was concern, care and respect for Damar Hamlin.

Racing fans are often reminded of this relationship of sports and business, such as when colts are rushed off to stud and mares are mated more with the sale ring in mind than the racetrack.
In 1990, I was with my two brothers at the Breeders' Cup at Belmont Park. We had wonderful seats outside at the sixteenth pole. The Distaff was a thrilling duel between champions Bayakoa and Go For Wand, until the latter broke down right in front of us and had to be humanely destroyed.

My younger brother, not a huge racing fan, bid us farewell. He headed to the train station and departed, unable to remain after watching the tragedy unfold.

My older brother and I stayed. We had come to see Unbridled, who did win the Breeders' Cup Classic. Also, I think, being racing fans, we more easily accept that horses, sadly, do sometimes break down.

I wonder now, however, what would have happened had jockey Randy Romero, who was not seriously injured, lay on the track as long as Damar Hamlin lay on the field?
In football, the players are the athletes. In racing, there are two athletes – the human athletes and the equine athletes.

All athletes–and in the case of horses, the owners and trainers–know there is some degree of risk in what they do.

There is, however, a wide range in that degree of risk. Certainly horses and jockeys have a greater degree of risk than someone competing in ping pong.

While football players have a high degree of risk, it did not appear Hamlin's tackle of Higgins was particularly hard. Listed at the time of this writing in critical condition, medical professionals will hopefully shed some light on the cause of his cardiac event.

What I witnessed in Paycor Stadium was horrific. It left me stunned, dazed, bewildered.

It also left me to remember something important. Though I am a sports fan, and root for certain teams and against certain teams, at the end of the day, it's just a game.

The health and welfare of the athletes should always come first.

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Op/Ed: Corniche Connections Should Consider Dennis Diaz Wisdom

In 1985, owner Dennis Diaz had a decision to make after his runner, Spend a Buck, won the GI Kentucky Derby.

Under ordinary circumstances it would be on to the GI Preakness S. two weeks later.

But, as Lee Corso would say: “Not so fast.”

In this particular year, before the Triple Crown prep season had begun, Garden State Park owner Robert Brennan offered a $2-million bonus to any horse who won the track's two preps plus the Kentucky Derby and GIII Jersey Derby.

Diaz and trainer Cam Gambolati sent Spend a Buck to the New Jersey racetrack, where he won the Apr. 6 Cherry Hill Mile S. and Apr. 20 Garden State S. prior to his run in the Kentucky Derby.

So, after Spend a Buck, under jockey Angel Cordero, Jr., beat Stephan's Odyssey by 5 3/4 lengths in a sharp 2:00 1/5, Diaz had a decision to make.

It didn't take him long to make it.

Though Pimlico, home of the Preakness, had upped its purse from $250,000 to $350,000-added, Diaz opted for Brennan's offer. The Preakness was won by Tank's Prospect, who earned $423,200 for his owner, Gene Klein.

Spend a Buck won the May 27 Jersey Derby with Laffit Pincay, Jr. aboard, Cordero having a previous engagement. With the purse and bonus, Diaz pocketed $2.6 million, at the time the largest purse in the world.

(Who did Spend a Buck defeat in the Jersey Derby by a neck but Creme Fraiche, who would go on to take the GI Belmont S.)

Because of the bonus Brennan had offered, and the fact Diaz had spurned a run at the Triple Crown to chase the money instead, Triple Crown Productions was formed and the three tracks (Churchill Downs, Pimilco and the New York Racing Association's Belmont Park) began offering a $5-million bonus to any horse that swept the series.

Now, with the purses of the Triple Crown races larger and the long-dropped bonus sponsorship (first by Chrysler, later by VISA), the bonus, which was never paid, has been dropped.

Breeders' Cup Juvenile winner Corniche | Breeders' Cup/Eclipse Sportswire

What does all of this have to do with today?

Well, today Peter Fluor and K.C. Weiner have a decision to make. The men, who race as Speedway Stables, own Corniche (Quality Road), winner over the weekend of the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile.

With his decisive victory, and a perfect three-for-three season, Corniche will be named champion juvenile colt. And with that, the expectation of being the winter-book favorite for the 2022 Kentucky Derby.

Where is Corso when you need him, because again, “not so fast.”

Corniche is trained by Bob Baffert, who trained this year's Derby winner Medina Spirit (Protonico). However, after Medina Spirit tested positive for the presence of betamethasone, Churchill Downs Inc. suspended Baffert from saddling horses at its tracks for two years.

Yes, a different set of circumstances altogether than what faced Diaz, who owned a modestly bred horse bought inexpensively and trained by someone few had previously heard of.

Corniche was an expensive purchase ($1.5-million OBS April sale topper) with a nice pedigree, bred and racing in an age where there are a multitude of farms and partnerships desperately competing to make future stallions.

If they are hell-bent on taking a run down the Triple Crown trail, Fluor and Weiner have two options. They can transfer their colt to a new trainer or they can pursue litigation against Churchill to allow Baffert-trained runners to earn points in prep races and compete in the Derby.

Or, they could take a page from Diaz and instead of being hell-bent, they could say to hell with tradition, the Derby, and Churchill.

There are, after all, many other racetracks and many other races with big purses. And, surely, some clever racetrack promotion team could put together a bonus as cleverly as Brennan did.

Another thing for Fluor and Weiner to consider: Corniche's sire, Quality Road, did not win the Derby. Neither did Tapit, Into Mischief, Ghostzapper, Curlin, Medaglia d'Oro, Uncle Mo …

Want to go back a bit further in history? Though Northern Dancer won the Derby and established a dominant sire line, Mr. Prospector, who also began a superior sire line, did not.

Yes, the Derby will always be the Derby. To this Kentucky-bred, there is no more wonderful race than the Derby. Never will be.

But winning the Derby should not be the ultimate goal for Fluor and Weiner. If they believe in their horse, and in their trainer, there are many other races in which to run.

And, make no mistake about it, breeding farms will still want to stand their horse and breeders will still want to send mares to him.

Another thing for the residents of Houston to think about. Spend a Buck was voted the 1985 Horse of the Year and champion 3-year-old colt.

Tradition is great. It provides us a way of linking the past to the present and perhaps one day, to the future.

But for Peter Fluor and K.C. Weiner, there is also the wisdom of Dennis Diaz to consider.

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Spending Time Reflecting

We reflect more as we age, mostly because we simply have more to reflect on.

If only wisdom worked the same way.

So, it is a reflective state of mind I find myself in today with the news of the passing of Mary Anne Hockensmith, who died at age 97 Monday at her beloved Woodlake Farm outside my hometown of Frankfort, Ky.

Having spent some time there as a youth, I was fortunate for about 14 years, until last fall, to live on a farm that–as the crow flies–was a very short distance from Woodlake. I would drive by her farm every day, glancing at the old farmhouse situated well off Georgetown Road.

I often wondered how Mary Anne was doing, and wish now I had stopped one day just to say hi.

The last time I saw Mary Anne was a few years ago at the community's annual Farm/City Field Day, an event held at a different local farm each year to bridge the gap between the farmers and city folk.

I became more closely acquainted with Mary Anne and her late husband, Freeman, through Jeff Noel, president of my class at nearby Franklin County High School. A sweeter woman you would never meet.

Jeff's late father (Mary Anne's brother), John Noel, was then president of State National Bank, now Whitaker Bank, owed by the family of Elmer Whitaker, who before his death owned Bwamazon Farm.

I will forever be indebted to John Noel, as are countless other local members of my generation who were aided by his kindness and small-town banking skills.

(I am also indebted to Jeff, who taught me to strip tobacco and drink bourbon. The former I have not done in more than 40 years; the latter I still occasionally enjoy.)

Though she was mother to 12 children, Mary Anne's true love was horses. She was passionate about riding, breeding and racing, and many times showed me the cover-worn volumes she had of stud books, stallion registers and catalogues.

Just after we finished high school, the Hockensmiths raced a nice filly named Clear Conscience, bred by Freeman in Ohio.

Clear Conscience (Court Recess–Debby Gail, by Portherhouse) was a hard-knocking mare, winning 10 of 34 races including five Ohio-bred stakes in 1978 and 1979 for trainer Kenny Davis.

With Mary Anne's passing, they are all gone now, the men and women who indulged a young Thoroughbred enthusiast so many years ago. There were others in town, but my late father's introductions led me to the kind souls of Fred Bradley, Sidney Turner, Bill May … and Mary Anne Hockensmith.

Fred Bradley had the most success–later in life–but they all got in the game for the right reason, love of the horse.

Frankfort, Kentucky, is unique, being a state capital town with a population of only 25,000 (about 40,000 in the county). A large number also commute in each day to work, fewer today though after COVID-19 alerted the world to work-at-home opportunities.

My father was born in Irvington, N.J.; my mother in Brooklyn, N.Y. They ended up in Frankfort, where they marveled at being able to live in a small town, home to the workings of state government yet surrounded by countless tobacco and cattle farms, most of which had horses of some breed.

My father, an attorney and judge, not only pulled me along each year to the Farm/City Field Day but to the Farm/City Banquet. Though he lived and worked in the city, his words were not lost on me of the importance of the farming community and we counted many of them among our closest friends.

We still have connections to our town in the Thoroughbred world. Though the Taylor boys of Taylor Made Sales Agency were not born here, their father, the late Joe Taylor, longtime manager at Gainesway Farm, was.

So, too, Fred Bradley's son, recently retired trainer Buff Bradley (one of Mary Anne Hockensmith's conditioners); Ryan Mahan, head auctioneer at Keeneland; Courtney Schneider of Shawhan Place, current president of the Kentucky Thoroughbred Farm Managers' Club; and trainer Rick Hiles, longtime president of the Kentucky HBPA.

Frankfort also boasts the Ramspring Farm of Dr. O.M. (Mac) Patrick and his family, the leading Franklin County breeders today. Mac and his wife, Mary Leigh, started their operation a bit later than the others, in the mid '70s, but have enjoyed considerable success.

And, there is a retired magazine editor, who has more time to reflect today on how the farmers of the small community in which he was raised helped him to understand it is fine to be a small cog in the workings of the global Thoroughbred enterprise.

Around the world they will always exist, and the industry will always be better off because they do.

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Op/Ed: Guild Members: You Should Not Be Proud

Perhaps no collection of companies makes decisions based more on hard data, charts, statistics and actuarial tables then those that make up the insurance industry.

Non-smokers get better rates on health insurance.

Middle-aged drivers pay lower premiums than do those a generation or two younger.

Those driving in Los Angeles traffic pay more than those who live in rural areas of the country.

Apply for a term policy and the insurance company can list your premiums for the rest of your life. They know what the statistics show, based on your place of residence, family history, gender, age, health condition, etc.

Interested in long-term health care? Be ready for a question asking if you participate in such activities as bungee jumping, sky diving and/or, my favorite–heli skiing, which for the uninformed is off-trail, downhill skiing or snowboarding reached by helicopter instead of a ski lift.

One thing probably even riskier than heli skiing is being a Thoroughbred jockey. Every time a jockey gets a leg up on a mount, he or she knows the inherent risk involved in the vocation they have chosen.

Imagine being a jockey and speaking with an insurance agent about binding health or long-term coverage.

Which is why for years, members of the Jockeys' Guild have been provided access to policies for life insurance, temporary disability and accident, death and disability.

Yet, as reported by Bill Finley in the June 15 TDN, the Guild recently informed its members currently riding at Monmouth Park they would no longer be covered by the organization's policies.

Monmouth, as has been widely reported, is the first track, because of a directive from its state racing commission, whose jockey colony may carry a whip but not encourage its mounts with the stick.

As Finley noted, Guild management says it believes races at the New Jersey track are more dangerous with the new policy in effect.

“The increase of risk is thereby creating a greater exposure for the Jockeys' Guild and the benefits that we provide to our members who are riding under such regulation,” Guild president and CEO Terry Meyocks said in a letter sent to members.

Frankly, that is a bunch of crap. Bull crap, not horse crap.

The Guild has not seen the policy rates increase, nor has it been informed the rates will go up because of the new rule at Monmouth Park.

The track is only a few weeks into the meeting, as yet with no apparent increased risk to jockeys.

When respected trainer Jerry Hollendorfer was ridiculously singled out in California a few years ago for having a higher incidence of breakdowns, could the Guild have said any jockey who rides the horses he trains (at any track) would not be covered?

According to Meyocks' quote, riding those horses would cause an “increase of risk” and therefore “greater exposure for the Jockeys' Guild.”

Suppose over time we find a greater incidence of accidents in races where Lasix is not allowed. Would the Guild cover a rider should he be injured in an allowance race but not in a graded stakes–at the same track on the same day?

What if New Jersey is just the first state to enact regulations saying riders can carry a crop but not use it except in cases of extreme emergent circumstances?

Jockeys and their agents must constantly decide at which tracks they will accept mounts. Some riders, unhappy with the new policy at Monmouth, have elected not to spend their summer at the track. Others have accepted mounts and ridden without incident.

The Jockeys' Guild may certainly take a hard stance on its belief the riding crop aids riders and keeps them safer. But by playing politics the organization is forcing members riding at Monmouth to either bind their own coverage or ride without it.

Often the Guild steps in to lobby on behalf of members riding at a specific track or in a certain state.

In this case, however, the Guild is turning its back on members that have consciously decided to ply their trade at Monmouth Park.

At the conclusion of the Monmouth meeting, should the Guild's insurance carrier raise its rates based on “evidence” of an increased risk to jockeys, there may be reason for the organization to consider a discussion with its members.

It goes without saying that jockeys require insurance and the Guild's binding of coverage for members is an important, if not the most important, benefit of membership.

But if you are a jockey riding at Monmouth Park, we don't know yet if you are at an increased risk. Well not from the commission's policy. You are, however, from your brethren at the Guild.

Ride they say, but we won't cover your ass. We don't have your back.

If the Jockeys' Guild wants to file injunctions and/or lawsuits, testify before committees, threaten boycotts–go ahead. But pulling the rug out from members at Monmouth Park? Well on the litmus test for class, it doesn't go any lower.

If you are a jockey riding in another state, and a member of the Guild, are you proud of how your organization is treating the Monmouth jocks?

You shouldn't be.

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