podcasts | Horse Racing Free Tips

Letter to the Editor: Racing Owner Conversations

by Edd Roggenkamp, Versailles, Kentucky

Racehorse owners are the lifeblood of this industry. Without owners, there is no need for breeding farms, sales companies, consigners, vets, feed companies, et al. But the number of licensed racehorse owners is declining in most states, which is a seriously negative trend for the horseracing industry.

Over the nearly 30 years that I have owned and raced Thoroughbreds, I have always found it most interesting to sit down and have a candid conversation with another racehorse owner. It lets me find out how they manage their stable, design their tactics and adjust their racing strategy. Universally, their love for the sport and enthusiasm is contagious. These conversations, often over coffee in the track kitchen, have been a big help as I climbed up the steep learning curve of owning race horses. I was lucky early-on to meet some knowledgeable owners, that were enthusiastic, but realistic, and willing to share their “how to” tactics. Some of my best conversations were with small guys, often operating on a budget, but smart, careful, and having great fun owning racehorses and winning races. But such conversations are not always easily available to folks that want to own a race horse, or a new owner that wants to learn fast, or even a veteran who wants to hear different ownership strategies.

There are lots of articles and videos covering high-flying trainers and jockeys talking about their Grade 1 racing success, but how about the day-to-day ideas and strategies of the dedicated people that own the horses and write the checks?

So, the idea was hatched. Let's record a series of candid and freewheeling Racehorse Owner Conversations with all kinds of experienced and successful owners. We'll ask them to share their strategy, their level of involvement, how they acquire good racing stock, and how they find and develop relationships with quality support people. Then we will share these conversations freely with anybody interested in owning racehorses.

Luckily, modern podcast technology makes this possible. The first of these conversations (podcasts) are now available free on major podcast sites: Spotify, Google podcasts, Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts and many others. Anyone can download and listen to these conversations at their leisure.

The conversations will not be just about winning graded stakes races because 80% of our sport is claiming races, and thousands of ardent owners, enjoy winning races at their local track. Ownership situations are generally the same…only the budget is different. Our first three podcast conversations are with successful owners that have won major graded stakes races (Texas-based Jerry Namy, a Grade I-winning owner at Keeneland; 2022's leading owner in Maryland Larry Johnson; and West Coast-based Grade I-winning owner Jack Hodge), but all three have started a claimer within the last year.

So go to a podcast site, search for Racehorse Owner Conversations and listen in for free to the first 3 Episodes available now. More conversations will be added shortly, and all podcasts will be archived and available indefinitely. We think you'll find these sessions with the candid, thoughtful and colorful people who share their ideas on Racehorse Owner Conversations interesting, helpful and enlightening.

The post Letter to the Editor: Racing Owner Conversations appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Lisa Lazarus Joins the TDN Writers’ Room Podcast

In less than 12 weeks the Horse Racing Integrity and Welfare Unit (HIWU), a branch of the Horse Racing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA), will get to work, handling all drug testing and enforcement across the country. With that in mind, the TDN Writers' Room presented by Keeneland called on HISA Chief Executive Officer Lisa Lazarus to bring us up to speed on the latest developments regarding her organization. Lazarus was this week's Green Group Guest of the Week.

Lazarus said that seven of the racing commissions in the 14 states where racing will be held on Jan. 1 have reached an agreement with HISA and are ready to pay the assessment fee necessary to be involved with the program. In states where no agreement has been reached, HISA will have to hire its own staff to perform services like drug testing that used to fall under the racing commissions. She said she has been pleased that the tracks and racing commissions seem to grow more comfortable with HISA by the day.

“Honestly, I certainly can't sit here and say that everybody is on board now,” Lazarus said. “But I definitely feel that each day we get closer and closer to acceptance and support. And I think that's really about the tone that we set and that my staff sets in terms of wanting to help make the industry better. We're not looking to make things more difficult or more complicated. We're looking to provide this foundation of safety and integrity that everyone in racing can build their businesses around.”

She reiterated that HIWU will rely on more than drug testing to police the sport. They will work closely with 5 Stones Intelligence, which was instrumental in the arrests of Jorge Navarro, Jason Servis and more than two dozen others in 2020.

“The Horse Racing Integrity and Welfare Unit is also building their own internal capability, their own internal investigations team, which is very strong and is going to include some well-known and well-established faces,” she said. “I think probably why you ask the question, and it really resonates with me, is that you want to know if the new program is going to be very much intelligence and investigations based. It's not going to be based solely on conducting a whole lot of tests. If you look at all the top-end programs in the world, equine and otherwise, you'll see that the successful ones that really deliver integrity to their sports rely heavily on investigations. That's great. What 5 Stones has uncovered over the past couple of years has really changed this industry for the better. They truly have. They have certainly done a terrific job and we're lucky to have them as part of the sport.”

On a related subject, Lazarus said she was pleased that jockeys seemed to have adapted to HISA's rules regarding the whip.

“When (the new whip rule) was first introduced back in July, there was a learning curve to get all the jockeys on the same page and fairly so because they've been operating with different rules across multiple jurisdictions,” Lazarus said. “But now a number of months in, we're seeing a lot of very encouraging signs. First of all, if you watch the Breeders' Cup, I think it was an extraordinary display of why excessive crop use is not necessary and doesn't enhance the sport. Second of all, we're seeing a real plateau on the number of violations across the country. There had been concern and negative feedback, most of which revolved around the fact that if you were over nine strikes, you would face disqualification. We believed, or at least the Racetrack Safety Committee believed, that if you were going to actually genuinely have an impact on properties, you'd have to bring in stakeholders who had more at stake than just the jockeys. And those are only 6% of our overall number of of crop violations, which I think is quite a low number. So I think over time, we'll be able to prove that these sort of balanced crop rules are better for the sport. They don't change the sport and they haven't changed anything with the betting public.”

Elsewhere on the podcast, which is also sponsored by Coolmore, XBTV, West Point Thoroughbreds, Lane's End, Adena Springs and the Kentucky Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders, panelists Zoe Cadman, Randy Moss and Bill Finley reviewed the Breeders' Cup and all things Flightline (Tapit). The crew all agreed that the GI Breeders' Cup Classic was the best race of his six-race career and that he deserves to be considered one of the all-time greats in the sport's history. Flightline got a 121 Beyer in the Classic, five points lower than in his win the GI Pacific Classic. Moss, who makes speed figures for the Beyer team, explained why his number fell off a bit. The domination of the European-based horses brought out some interesting insights from the trio and had Finley declaring that he will never again pick against any horse Charlie Appleby sends over to run in North America. The group also looked at the few Eclipse Award races that are not complete no-brainers and all agreed that Modern Games (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}), War Like Goddess (English Channel), Epicenter (Not This Time) and Elite Power (Curlin) should be named champion in their respective divisions.

Click here to watch the show.

Click here for the audio-only version.

The post Lisa Lazarus Joins the TDN Writers’ Room Podcast appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Luck Bringing Podcast to U.S.

Well-known international broadcaster Nick Luck will bring his new Nick Luck Daily Podcast to a U.S. home and distributor, In the Money Media, beginning immediately, the company announced Monday.

“Starting a daily podcast was a pretty daunting task, but one that I’d been passionate about undertaking for quite a while,” said Luck. “While the focus of our attention is obviously going to be on the goings-on in the UK, I was keen to have a global outlook as well.”

In addition to his work in racing in the UK, Luck also a key part of the NBC Sports horse racing broadcast team.

“I’ve known [In the Money Media Founders] Peter [Thomas Fornatale] and Jonathon [Kinchen] for a good few years now and hugely admire their work and expertise in this field,” Luck continued. “I’m absolutely thrilled that we can join forces and help open a window into each other’s worlds.”

The new podcasts, which are typically around 20 minutes, will drop episodes early morning Eastern time Monday through Friday. The shows will be a mix of a news digest of the latest happenings in UK racing, along with interviews with luminaries in the sport. Early guests in his UK “soft launch” have included jockeys Frankie Dettori, Kieren Fallon and trainer William Haggas.

“It’s difficult to articulate what a thrill it is to have Nick Luck on our team,” said Fornatale. “I’ve admired his work since my days of watching English racing every morning in the mid 2000s and truly believe he is the best at what he does.”

Luck’s show becomes the sixth show on the network, following the In the Money Players’ Podcast, the Matt Bernier Show, Jonathon Kinchen’s one-on-one talk show JK+1, Naomi Tukker’s industry-focused Talk Racing to Me, and Spencer Luginbuhl’s nuts-and-bolts handicapping show, Redboard Rewind.

The podcast may be found at here starting immediately.

The post Luck Bringing Podcast to U.S. appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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