Op/Ed | Horse Racing Free Tips

Letter To The Editor: An Aussie Perspective On Being An American Racing Fan

I was saddened to read the heartfelt Letter to the Editor: Why I Am Leaving The Sport I Loved for 50 Years that appeared on the Paulick Report website on Jan. 20. As an Australian turf fanatic and now small-time owner who has been living in New York for a decade, I have a perspective on this.

Like the author, I relate deeply to that experience of the first time at the track and getting “hooked.” As a sports fanatic kid growing up in Melbourne in the 1980s and 1990s, I was ambiently aware of racing, but it wasn't until I experienced the roar of the crowd at the 1999 Caulfield Guineas and an epic battle between the champion colts Redoute's Choice and Testa Rossa that I was transformed forever. Or as the author puts it, “spiritually fed.”

Sadly, nothing about the author's recent experiences and decision to get out of the game entirely surprised me.

A few observations:

Racetrack Experience – American racetracks, even the bigger ones, are generally decrepit. While there may be little motivation to invest given the sport is played for TV and online wagering, it's a stark contrast to the magnificence of a Flemington or Royal Randwick on a clear day. Not to mention the hundreds of picturesque racecourses that make up Provincial/Country fixtures. Where my father lives in Kyneton, about an hour's drive from Melbourne hosts a brilliant “Country Cup” day each year with entertainment and great food options. In other words, a way to get people who aren't necessarily racing fans to enjoy a day out and perhaps also place a few wagers.

Wagering Experience/Bet Types – The user interfaces for American parimutuel betting are, in my view, very poor and don't reflect what younger generations would regard as a good user experience. While wagering types are mostly common between North America and Australia, the existence of “Flexi” betting options whereby a bettor can invest wagers of their choosing in return for a calculated % of the dividend are far more enticing than the rigid unit options available here. Additionally, many young people don't grasp parimutuel totalizator concepts. The option for “Fixed Odds” betting in Australia attracts a different type of player.

Integrity & National Regulations – I am not suggesting that Australia doesn't have its own issues with integrity, animal welfare, and scandals. To suggest otherwise would be untrue. But as recent examples show, public outrage against exposed corruption and animal cruelty has led to swift and decisive action by regulators. The bad guys do get disqualified for extended periods. While there may be minor state differences, on the whole, there are national rules of racing for medication and horse ratings/classification systems that promote certainty for participants and the wagering public.

Mainstream Interest / Media Platforms – Finally, while racing remains niche in Australia, engagement in some form is much more common there, particularly amongst younger generations. While only a handful of my friends follow racing daily, a large cohort will get together with their mates for the occasional “weekend quaddie” (a Pick 4 equivalent) as a social activity at pubs and sports venues across the country. A lot of this has to do with the prevalence of excellent media and digital platforms like Racing.com.

— David Salter
Owner, fan, and horseplayer

Want to sound off about something you've seen in the Paulick Report? Send us a letter at info at paulickreport.com. Please include your contact info so our editorial staff can reach you if they have questions.

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Letter to the Editor: Why I Choose Racing Over The Sports I Loved For 50 Years

I just read the letter from my fellow Texan (Name Withheld) and I appreciate that he took the time to share his thoughts. I try to be open minded and we (racing) need everyone's opinion. However, like a coin there's two sides to this story and I feel compelled to share a different perspective.

As a kid growing up in Detroit in the 1970s, my days and nights were filled with following and watching football, baseball, basketball and hockey. I wasn't a casual fan, I was the true meaning of fan – fanatical. Watched and played sports 24/7, read the sports page front to back, traded cards, listened to the Tigers broadcast on my transistor radio well past bedtime and became a sports encyclopedia that could tell you Denny McLain's ERA the year he won 31 games, but couldn't recite the presidents of the United States.

As I became an adult, I continued to be an avid sports fan and had season tickets to the Miami Dolphins, the San Francisco 49ers, the Dallas Cowboys and, for the past 25 years, the San Antonio Spurs. I was in Candlestick Park for “The Catch” and in the arena when the Spurs hung five championship banners. Talk about a run. I thought to myself, 'It doesn't get any better than this.' I couldn't have been more wrong!

I had always been intrigued by Thoroughbred racing, but I was just a casual fan who went to the local racetrack occasionally or watched the Triple Crown races on TV. Then something happened about 15 years ago that changed my sports world forever! I decided that I wanted to own a piece of a racehorse and went in search of a syndicate and a horse that looked good to me. I didn't know anything about anything so going in search of a racehorse is nothing short of hilarious to me today. Anyway, I fell into safe hands and I was off and running.

Those early years were a blast – surrounded by great people that were truly passionate about the game and lived it morning, noon and night. I was having a ton of fun, but after a few years the numbers on the circuit I was running just didn't make sense. In other words, my expense to purse ratio was not good enough to sustain my stable. I had graduated from the syndicate ranks a few years earlier and the expenses can mount up if you aren't careful. A change had to be made if I was going to survive in the game that I was now so passionate about.

That took me to the West Coast and what was, in my eyes, the mecca of racing. You only need to sit in the stands of Santa Anita Park once looking out over the track at the San Gabriel Mountains or stand in the saddling paddock of Del Mar to know you don't want to run anywhere else in the world. To make a long story shorter, my move to California was a game changer for me. I had the good fortune of some graded stakes wins and Breeder's Cup appearances that I thought were reserved for only the top players in the game.

I don't take winning for granted. It's a tough game and winning is the culmination of a lot of hard work on the part of a lot of good people. Horsemen and horsewomen committed to their trades and working tirelessly to achieve results in a sport where losing 80% of the time is considered a success. I have found that most are motivated by passion and not by money or greed. But maybe the best part of all is the friendships that you make in racing — the kind that will celebrate you when you win and are there to pick you up when you lose.

So, whatever happened to the sports I followed for 50 years? While “Name Withheld” wrote about horse racing changing, so has MLB, NFL, NBA and NHL. I guess the $150 million contracts, the outrageous tickets prices, and the $15 hotdogs and beers contributed to my change, but it was the greatness of racing that ultimately changed the sports landscape for me.

While change is inevitable in all sports, it doesn't have to be a negative. Let's evolve our game to be more inclusive and let's work together to make it better. It's easy to tear something down, but it takes real commitment to make racing something we can all be proud of.

I'm in – how about you?

In closing, I would like to thank my trainers, my partners, my jockeys, my agents, my veterinarians, my fellow owners, the racetracks and my horse racing friends that have contributed so significantly to giving me the opportunity to take the ride of a lifetime. It truly is The Greatest Game!

–Mark Martinez (Agave Racing Stable)

If you would like to submit a letter to the editor, please write to info at paulickreport.com and include contact information where you may be reached if editorial staff have any questions.

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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.

The post Op/Ed: Corniche Connections Should Consider Dennis Diaz Wisdom appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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They Ran a Lasix Free Breeders’ Cup…And Nothing Happened

The biggest story when it comes to the ban of Lasix in the Breeders' Cup is that there was no story. It was, simply, a non-factor.

A total of 148 horses competed in this year's Breeders' Cup, all of them running Lasix-free. There were no reports of any horses being in distress or bleeding from the nostrils. I did not hear of one trainer blaming a defeat on the ban of the diuretic. Nor did I hear of or read about any trainers saying they were passing the Breeders' Cup because Lasix wasn't being allowed.

And there was a record handle, so, clearly the bettors weren't reluctant to play races without Lasix.

Dr. Jeff Blea, the equine medical director for the California Horse Racing Board, said that he hadn't seen any signs of serious or obvious problems.

“There was no informal data collected to evaluate EIPH in horses that ran on Friday and Saturday,” he said in an email. “Anecdotally, I had surveyed several of the local attending veterinarians to get an understanding of what they were seeing endoscopically, specifically horses that bled a grade 3 or 4. I'm still waiting on responses from two practitioners, but it doesn't appear that it was a significant problem.

“One practitioner commented that grade 3/4 was noted in less than 10% of the horses he scoped. That said, I don't know his denominator. Others commented that they were surprised that they didn't observe severe episodes of EIPH. Furthermore, to my knowledge, I am not aware of any incidents of epistaxis on those two days.”

What happened to all the dire prognostications, that horsemen would suffer irreparable injury if the drug were taken away from them? That innumerable horses would no longer be able to race without it? That horses would bleed through the nostrils in full view of a horrified public? That it is inhumane to force horses to race without Lasix?

None of that has been proven to be true.

Lasix was banned on 2-year-olds in many jurisdictions in 2020. This year, it was also banned in graded stakes races at most of the top tier tracks. This year's Triple Crown was also contested Lasix-free, also without any problems. There is not much available so far in the way of data regarding how horses fared without Lasix, but, just as was the case with the Breeders' Cup, the number of serious problems appear to have been minimal. The sport simply adjusted and moved on.

By the time we got to the Breeders' Cup, the Lasix debate, once among the most controversial subjects in the game, had turned into a non-issue. Probably a lot of you never even took it into account that this Breeders' Cup would be contested without the diuretic. That's because the results of this year's Lasix-free races have proved that taking it away is, well, no big deal.

That's just it. Is Lasix really necessary? Trainers no longer give it just to bleeders but to every horse in their barn. It became a matter of not preventing bleeding but not allowing the competition to have an edge on you.

Racing is conducted everywhere else in the world without it and American racing had done just fine without it for one-hundred-plus years before its use became widespread in the 80s.

So why allow it? It's been evident for a long time that U.S. racing is too dependant on drugs, which has created an image problem for an industry that keeps on having to prove that it is on the level and that it is safe.

But my biggest problem with Lasix is that there is credible evidence that it is a major factor when it comes to why horses race so infrequently these days. In 1970, before Lasix had permeated racing's landscape, the average number of starts per runner per year was 10.22. It's now down to about 6.15.

The slide in the number of average starters per year began just about the same time that Lasix started being legalized across the country. That's not surprising since Lasix's is a diuretic that acts to dehydrate horses. When dehydrated, a race takes something extra out of a horse and they need more time to recover. That's just common sense.

That's anecdotal evidence that Lasix has contributed to a situation where we have the most unhealthy, least durable collection of horses ever seen in modern times.

The good news is that there are more changes on the horizon. When the Horseracing Safety and Integrity Act (HISA) goes into effect, the clock will start ticking on the drug. Under HISA, a racing commission that wants to prolong Lasix use can do so for three years. After the three-year period, a unanimous vote from HISA would be needed to continue the legal use of the drug. It's on its way out.

Yes, the sport has many problems that are a lot more serious than the use of Lasix. We've seen that with the rash of breakdowns at Santa Anita in 2019 and the 2020 indictments of trainers Jason Servis, Jorge Navarro and others on charges that they were using performance-enhancing drugs. That doesn't mean that the sport can't assess each issue independently and act. Getting rid of Lasix won't solve all the drug issues, but it's a step in the right direction and the right thing to do.

And horsemen, those who were predicting doomsday scenarios, can relax. They will do just fine without the drug. This year's Breeders' Cup proved just that.

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