Paulick Report | Horse Racing Free Tips

Help Wanted: Omaha Exposition And Racing Seeking CEO

Omaha Exposition and Racing is seeking a new CEO. Explore a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to help the Nebraska horse racing industry usher in the casino era. Omaha Exposition and Racing manages two racetracks owned by the Nebraska HBPA. Work for a board of directors committed to increasing live days and purses rather than shareholders' equity and dividends.

The ideal candidate will have a minimum of five years' management experience in the racing industry, excellent customer service skills, excellent verbal and written communication skills, and a desire to provide an entertaining product that will attract a new generation of race fans. Prefer a graduate of the University of Louisville Equine Program or University of Arizona Racetrack Industry Program and/or any equivalent combination of education and/or experience from which comparable knowledge, skills, and abilities have been achieved.

A qualified applicant can expect to be reimbursed commensurate with their experience and abilities, as well as a generous bonus structured on growth of both racing and casino operations.

The position will report to the president of the board.

Duties:

-Responsible for creating, training and maintaining a staff dedicated to ensuring successful live race meets, generating the best possible experience for our live, simulcast, and casino guests; and increasing live, export and import handle.

-Ensure track maintenance team provides and maintains a safe racing surface for our human and equine athletes as well as a clean and safe stable area.

-Work with Racing and Gaming Commission to ensure all licensure is properly maintained and that all necessary submissions occur in order to conduct live and simulcast racing operations.

-Work with racing secretary to develop and enforce stabling and racing policies that encourage and promote stables of all sizes and provide a condition book consistent with the caliber of horses on the backside.

-Ensure all employees foster a good working environment with each other and our casino partner.

-Work with state vet and stable vets to ensure all horses entered to race or preparing to work are sound and healthy.

-Work with promotions team to attract sponsorships for stakes, overnight races and backside (turn-out) awards.

-Work with HBPA and financial staff to determine purse budget and structure, stakes schedule.

-Assist in recruitment of horses and racing personnel.

-Work with Nebraska Breeders' Board to keep them informed of Breed Stakes Races, Stallion Awards, A&B Breeders' Awards and purse supplements to be distributed at OER meets.

-Any other duties as assigned.

Interested parties email resume, qualifications and references to: bobm@nebraskahorsemen.com

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Letter To The Editor: Illinois Horsemen Need To Wage Legal Battle To Save Arlington

An earlier report includes an article that says Churchill Downs refuses to discuss sale of Arlington Park for racing purposes, rebuffing several overtures by horsemen groups. They want the place redeveloped for another purpose only.

Read that aggregation from reporting by Thoroughbred Daily News here.

Isn't it time for Chicago horsemen to go to court and get an injunction against CD, which has shown total disregard for AP's horsemen and their livelihoods?

When they purchased Arlington Park from Richard Duchossois, it was with the intent of making AP a great racetrack, expanded to include casino gambling when it became available. That ship sailed while Churchill refused to undertake the opportunity to build a casino when given, and now they want to raze yet another great historic racetrack.

Mr. D rebuilt this track from the ground up after a devastating fire in 1985. Anyone who has visited there knows it is a first class facility, with great and historic racing. The Arlington Million comes to mind, with John Henry — now demoted by Churchill to the Arlington 600K. Or the brilliant Dr. Fager's (still standing) mile world record [in the 1968 Washington Park Handicap].

Chicagoland has already lost Sportsman's Park. Hawthorne cannot carry the year-round load. It is time for the government to step in – anti-trust, anti-competition, find something to prevent yet another racetrack from being torn down.

Lament for Hollywood Park, Bay Meadows, Rockingham, Suffolk Downs, Aksarben, Hialeah, Calder, and a dozen other tracks now gone the way of the buffalo. Don't let AP be another casualty: not without a fight. CD is a merciless competitor who has forgotten its origins – more interested in making money than in preserving the industry that gave them rise.

–Frank Ingrassia, racing fan, retired software developer of handicapping products The Horse Expert and SQL Performance Analyzer

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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Australia: Melody Belle’s Farewell Tour Of Australia

There are many American graded stakes races with their own rich history which now serve as preps for the Breeders' Cup. Similarly, Friday night's features at Rosehill have become stepping stones to The Championships at Randwick (April 9 & 16). The Group 1 Tancred Stakes includes the Queen of New Zealand turf, Melody Belle, and other key contenders at The Championships. Be sure to catch all the action live on the new Sky Racing World App or watch on TVG (First Post: 9:45 p.m. ET / 6:45 p.m. PT).

The Tancred Stakes will be the first Australian stop on the farewell tour by mighty New Zealand mare Melody Belle, whose career is of elite status. Striking at a 50% win rate across 38 starts, she recently set a New Zealand record for most G1 wins (14) and will likely set another record when offered at public auction upon her retirement.

Now in the second half of her 6-year-old season, Melody Belle will appear in the catalog for the National Broodmare Sale at the Gold Coast on May 25, where she could attract global interest. Prior to the curtain coming down on her fabulous racetrack career, Melody Belle (5-1) will strive for a 15th G1 triumph in the Tancred, where she will be tested at 1 1/2 miles for the first time. Trainer Jamie Richards is adamant that his superstar mare, who has won from five and a half to ten furlongs, will appreciate the added distance in the twilight of her career. Between the Tancred Stakes and Broodmare Sale, plans call for Melody Belle to contest an undecided race during The Championships at Randwick, before a pair of races in Queensland – her swan song would be a mere three days prior to being auctioned.

Melody Belle will be ridden for the first time by James McDonald, fresh off winning last week's Ranvet Stakes on Verry Elleegant. In the space of a week, “J-Mac” is poised for G1 success on Australia's and New Zealand's best mares – and the 29-year-old would become the fastest rider in Australian history to reach 50 G1 wins. Chief opposition to Melody Belle in the Tancred is expected from Sir Dragonet (9-2) and Angel of Truth (7-1), who were left in the wake of Verry Elleegant and Addeybb in last week's spine-tingling Ranvet. (That pair will renew their intense rivalry on April 16 in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes, showpiece race of The Championships and possible target for Melody Belle).

Trainer Peter Moody and jockey Luke Nolen, who enjoyed global fame thanks to the undefeated sprint phenomenon Black Caviar, combine again for the Australian debut of Irish stayer Nickajack Cave (18-1). In stark contrast to the dazzling speed of Black Caviar, each of Nickajack Cave's ten career races have been at 1 1/4 miles and beyond. Moody believes the horse can be competitive in the weight-for-age Tancred, but admits to still learning about him.

“This will give us a guide, as everything we are doing is to try and qualify him for the Melbourne Cup later this year,” he said.

Dreams of the world's biggest two-mile handicap are not misplaced, because Nickajack Cave defeated 2020 Melbourne Cup winner Twilight Payment at level weights last June in Ireland. The 5-year-old gray had previously finished two lengths behind Sir Dragonet, who won the Cox Plate in his Australian debut last October and is favorite for Friday's Tancred. Nickajack Cave (Irish-bred and now Australia-based, yet named for a cave in Tennessee!) has not raced since winning a G3 in his native land last August.

Moody and Nolen also have an intriguing presence in Friday's other G1 event, the Vinery Stud Stakes (Race 6). Princess Rhaenys (15-1) impressively broke her maiden at her second start, but at a relatively nondescript “provincial” track. Unusually in Australia, she competed at a mile off a layoff (19 weeks after debuting). Moody now thrusts her into a Group One at 1-1/4 miles, so obviously feels the filly is an untapped staying talent. Wagering is logically headed by Harmony Rose (9-5), returning to her own sex after a third place finish in the Randwick Guineas (runner-up Mo'unga subsequently won last week's Rosehill Guineas).

The Vinery Stud Stakes is the key prep race for the Australian Oaks at 1 1/2 miles during The Championships at Randwick. The Vinery's equivalent for colts and geldings is Friday's third race, the Tulloch Stakes, a final lead-up to the Australian Derby.

The Rosehill card will be broadcast live on TVG this Friday night (First Post: 9:45 p.m. ET / 6:45 p.m. PT) alongside cards from Kembla Grange, Gold Coast and Eagle Farm. All races will be live-streamed in HD on the new Sky Racing World App, skyracingworld.com and major ADW platforms such as TVG, TwinSpires, Xpressbet, NYRABets, WatchandWager, HPIbet, and AmWager. Wagering is also available via these ADW platforms. Fans can get free access to livestreaming, past performances and expert picks on all races at skyracingworld.com.

A native of Brisbane, Australia, Michael Wrona has called races in six countries. Wrona's vast U.S. experience includes; race calling at Los Alamitos, Hollywood Park, Arlington and Santa Anita, calling the 2000 Preakness on a national radio network and the 2016 Breeders' Cup on the International simulcast network. Wrona also performed a race call voiceover for a Seinfeld episode called The Subway.

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Letter To The Editor: Racing Officials, Investigators Need To Be Accountable For Their Mistakes

“Ganas…all we need is ganas.”

-Jaime Escalante, Stand and Deliver

Pretty simple words to say, but much harder to truly live by, and the racing industry is at the point now where it needs to truly not only say these words, but to live them.

(The Spanish word “ganas” translates in English to “desire.”)

If we look around rulings made by stewards and/or racing commissions, we often see cases that are overturned on appeal (either at the commission level of the public court level). Many times it can all be due to a technicality or a lack of proper work being done on the part of the investigators.

Sometimes rulings or decisions are made with no obvious basis in legal reasoning (as many have argued in the ongoing saga of the “Justify” positive case that is on its way to the courts). More baffling is when we see no proper investigative work being done at all. Look no further than the bizarre case out of Louisiana, where a groom was sanctioned for stealing a prohibited compounded medication from a trainers barn, yet the stewards never even decided to do a search of the trainer's barn to look for possible other illegal substances. No action was ever even taken against the trainer in the case.

(Read more about the Louisiana case here.)

We cannot blame defense attorneys for getting their clients' cases dismissed on these premises, for that is their job. You can, however, hold the investigators and stewards more accountable for not thoroughly investigating and prosecuting cases. Do the job right and the loopholes disappear. (Yes, I know this will not be true in every single case, but it will be for a vast majority of them.) No fan, new or old, will tolerate such incompetence at times when their gambling dollars are on the line.

I will admit I do not have all the answers to fix this problem, but routine requirements such as a mandatory level of training and continuing education are an easy basic start. Perhaps all those who are stewards, investigators, and commission members should be held to the “Kranz Dictum” that went out from NASA flight director Gene Kranz after the tragic Apollo 1 launchpad fire that killed astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee in 1967:

“From this day forward, Flight Control will be known by two words: “Tough” and “Competent.” Tough means we are forever accountable for what we do or what we fail to do. We will never again compromise our responsibilities. Every time we walk into Mission Control we will know what we stand for. Competent means we will never take anything for granted. We will never be found short in our knowledge and in our skills. Mission Control will be perfect. When you leave this meeting today you will go to your office and the first thing you will do there is to write “Tough and Competent” on your blackboards. It will never be erased. Each day when you enter the room these words will remind you of the price paid by Grissom, White, and Chaffee. These words are the price of admission to the ranks of Mission Control.”

Simply replace some of those space related terms with racing locations, and the names of the astronauts with the names of the horses and humans who have died because of lack of giving 100%, and the dictum more than fits for racing.

It should be mandatory that all stewards, investigators, and commission members to have “Tough” and “Competent” written in places where they can always see it, shouldn't it? It probably should be mandatory for all participants in the racing industry. All it takes to make this happen is “ganas.”

–Dr. Bryan Langlois, past president of the Pennsylvania Veterinary Medical Association, board of directors of Animal Care PA and Thorofan

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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