Shared News | Horse Racing Free Tips

Is AI About to Steal My Job? Not So Fast

We've been told that artificial intelligence is going to take over the world while also taking over the jobs currently being done by humans. I would imagine that would include the press coverage of horse races. I might have 35-years experience on the job, but that doesn't mean I match up to computers or machines being able to simulate human intelligence to perform tasks or solve problems. They say that within our lifetimes, artificial intelligence (AI) will have altered our world more significantly and faster than any other technology since the discovery of electricity.
But can AI do a better job writing a story for the Thoroughbred Daily News than I can and wouldn't that make me expendable? It turns out I have nothing to fear.

Perhaps some day this will change, but when it comes to horse racing coverage AI isn't ready for prime time. I have turned to ChatGPT, which is a large language model-based chatbot developed by OpenAI and launched on November 30, 2022. It is notable for enabling users to refine and steer a conversation towards a desired length, format, style, level of detail, and language used.

I've asked ChatGPT to write several stories based on recent occurrences in racing. Every time, the result is nothing sort of gibberish and nonsense and factual errors. Let's take this example, when I asked ChatGPT to “write a story about Forte winning the Jim Dandy.”

Here's what the computer came up with:

“Once upon a time in the world of horse racing, there was a magnificent thoroughbred named Forte. He was a striking chestnut stallion with a strong and muscular build, and his eyes gleamed with a fiery determination. Forte was known for his incredible speed and relentless spirit on the racetrack, and he had captured the hearts of racing enthusiasts around the world.

“The Jim Dandy Stakes was one of the most prestigious horse racing events of the year. Held at the historic Saratoga Race Course, it attracted the finest three-year-old horses in the country. The anticipation was electric as the day of the race approached, and Forte's name was on everyone's lips.

“Forte was owned by Mr. Richard Anderson, a passionate horse lover who had invested his heart and soul into raising and training Forte to be the champion he was. He had a team of skilled trainers and jockeys who worked tirelessly to prepare Forte for the big race.

“As the morning of the Jim Dandy Stakes dawned, the Saratoga Race Course was buzzing with excitement. The grandstands were packed with cheering spectators, and the atmosphere was charged with anticipation. Forte's presence was captivating, and whispers of his victories from previous races circulated among the crowd.

“The gates opened, and the horses thundered down the track. Forte's jockey, a talented and experienced rider named Mike, guided him skillfully through the pack. As they rounded the first turn, Forte's stride was powerful, and he surged ahead, taking the lead.

“But the Jim Dandy Stakes was no ordinary race, and the competition was fierce. Other top-class horses were vying for the win, and they were not willing to let Forte have an easy victory. The race intensified as they entered the backstretch, and Forte faced the challenge of maintaining his lead.

“In the final turn, two formidable opponents closed in, and the race became a neck-and-neck battle. The spectators held their breath as the horses charged toward the finish line. Forte's heart pounded, and he could feel the determination of his jockey urging him forward.

“In a display of pure grit and determination, Forte found another burst of energy. With every ounce of strength in his powerful legs, he surged ahead, crossing the finish line in a triumphant burst of speed. The cheers from the crowd were deafening as Forte was declared the winner of the Jim Dandy Stakes!

“Mr. Anderson, tears of joy streaming down his face, rushed to embrace his beloved stallion. The victory was not just a testament to Forte's exceptional talent but also a celebration of the incredible bond between a horse and his owner. Forte had earned his place in racing history as one of the greatest champions of all time.

“The Jim Dandy Stakes victory was a turning point in Forte's career. He went on to win many more prestigious races, solidifying his status as a legendary racehorse. His story inspired generations of racing enthusiasts, and his name became synonymous with greatness.

“As the sun set on the day of the Jim Dandy Stakes, Forte stood proudly in his stable, bathed in the golden light of his accomplishments. He had proven that with courage, dedication, and a heart of a champion, any dream could be realized – a true testament to the spirit of horse racing and the indomitable Forte.”

So he is owned by Mr. Richard Anderson and his jockey is an experienced rider named Mike. Okay. And where was Todd Pletcher, Mike Repole, Irtad Ortiz Jr. and the DQ that was not? But I'm sure Repole and Pletcher will be pleased to know that Forte's “story inspired generations of racing enthusiasts, and his name became synonymous with greatness.”

Secretariat wins the Belmont. But where is Henry? | Bob Coglianese photo

Okay, so maybe ChaptGPT just had a bad day. I decided to give it another chance, asking it to write a story explaining why Secretariat was such a great horse. Bet you didn't know that much of Secretariat's success was due to his unmistakable bond with his caretaker Henry. Who?

“But it wasn't just his physical attributes that set him apart; it was his unique relationship with his caretaker, Henry, a wise and gentle stable hand,” the AI-generated story read. “Henry had spent his entire life working with horses, and he had a special connection with these noble creatures. He treated them with respect and love, understanding that their greatness came not just from their physical abilities but from the bond they formed with those who cared for them. With Secretariat, he saw something extraordinary—an intelligence and understanding that went beyond the ordinary.”

Two stories, both ridiculous. I'm here to stay. In fact, maybe it's time to ask for a raise.

The post Is AI About to Steal My Job? Not So Fast appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Aug. 1 Insights: Pricey Candy Ride Filly Unveiled at Ellis

5th-ELP, $70k, Msw, 2, f, 5 1/2fT, 2:45p.m. ET
Unveiled on a Tuesday, CANDY LANDY (Candy Ride {Arg}) will go to post for conditioner George Arnold not only carrying Martin Garcia but also the hopes that come with a $500,000 FTSAUG price tag. The bay has been seen religiously on Churchill Downs's work tab and has been given 6-1 odds on the morning line. The half-sister to MGSW & GISP Messier (Empire Maker), who was last seen finishing fourth in the GII San Pasqual S., will take on a field of ten with a full docket of also-eligibles. TJCIS PPs

6th-ELP, $70k, Msw, 3yo/up, f/m, 6f, 3:18pm ET
In this six panel dash of 3-year-old fillies, HAPPY CHARGER (Super Saver) and Port Townsend (Uncle Mo) will be separated by a single runner between them. The former is the full-sister to GISW & MGISP Happy Saver and hails from the female line of the great A.P. Indy through third dam Weekend Surprise. The latter is not lacking for family either as the first to the races for an unraced half-sister to two-time champion MGISW Songbird (Medaglia d'Oro). Port Townsend's female line includes the dam of GSW Mico Margarita, and GSW Dean Delivers (Cajun Breeze), who most recently ran third in the GI Alfred G. Vanderbilt H.. TJCIS PPs

The post Aug. 1 Insights: Pricey Candy Ride Filly Unveiled at Ellis appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Backstretch Dinners Draw a Crowd in Saratoga

Sunday evening dinners have always been a hit among the many backstretch appreciation events that go on throughout the Saratoga race meet, but this summer the affair has become an ever bigger attraction now that Morrissey's Lounge and Bistro at the Adelphi Hotel is catering the weekly celebration.

Every Sunday just before 6 p.m., upbeat music and savory smells reach Union Avenue as a crowd gathers at the Marylou Whitney Pavilion. With dozens of volunteers on hand, the vast smorgasbord of food remains open until 8:30 so that workers who were busy in the later races on the day's card have plenty of time to join the party and sit down for a warm meal.

The team at the Adelphi has planned a different cuisine for each week and attendees are always eager to find out what will be on the menu.

“We work with all fresh food and ingredients and we cook everything to order,” said the Adelphi's Director of Restaurants Patrick Toomey. “We picked different theme nights–like Mexican, Carribean, and Southern–so we have a lot of fun with it. I love the community that you see back here. I love to hear the chatter and see their faces enjoying good food.”

The Adelphi Hotel is owned by the Roth family of LNJ Foxwoods Stable and their partner, fellow horse owner and philanthropist Michael Dubb. Toomey said that when the Roth family was first presented with the opportunity to support this event, they were eager to participate.

“The Roths have been big backstretch contributors before in other ways at different tracks and this was an easy one,” he said. “We were definitely going to give it our all and provide great dinners here every Sunday night.”

After the passing of his wife Marylou Whitney in 2019, John Hendrickson has remained active in supporting a multitude of backstretch initiatives. In addition to the organization of the Sunday evening dinners, as a tribute to his late wife he funded construction for the Saratoga Backstretch Clinic, which is also new this year and is located across from the pavilion.

“We've been doing [dinners] for 16 years as part of the Backstretch Appreciation Program that Marylou and I started,” Hendrickson said. “Marylou always said that this should be the summer place for everyone. They should have the best food and now they have the best health care as well.”

This summer, the Sunday evening dinners have been attracting crowds upwards of 500 backstretch workers.

“This year, there's new energy,” said Hendrickson. “Everybody dresses up and everybody is happy. It's first-class food. The Roth family is very generous and they've really put on a great show.”

Every evening with the exception of Saturday night when racing runs late, an event is on the schedule for the backstretch workers. In addition to the Sunday evening dinners, Wednesday night bingo also draws a crowd. These events are made possible through the work of the Race Track Chaplaincy and the Backstretch Employee Services Team (BEST) in New York.

BEST'S Program Director Nancy Underwood said that events like the Sunday dinner allow their team to check in on members of the backstretch community and invite new workers to join their community.

“We really try to create a sense of community and we're able to do that because of John and his donors,” said BEST's Program Director Nancy Underwood. “Everything we do with this population is really about trust and relationship building. We believe that a connected person is a healthier person. We bring everybody together. We're able to serve them, celebrate what they do and really appreciate what they do for the industry.”

The post Backstretch Dinners Draw a Crowd in Saratoga appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Flay’s Two Colts–A Homebred and a Pinhook–On Target for Saratoga Sale

The last few years of the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Yearling Sale have been very profitable ones for Bobby Flay's boutique breeding operation. In 2019, he topped the sale with First Captain (Curlin) out of his homebred mare America (A.P. Indy). In 2021, his Uncle Mo–Dame Dorothy colt brought $1.6 million, the second-highest price of the week. In 2022, First Captain's full-sister was the top filly at $2,000,000, and the second-highest price overall.

And it's no wonder: Flay admitted that he targets the sale, and calls the experience “one of my favorite weeks of the year.”

“I love the environment. I love the atmosphere. It's a giant cocktail party, and selling seven-figure horses that are handpicked as the top of the crop. Some of the best eyes in the business have picked those horses out physically and from a pedigree standpoint and said, `These are the top of the crop.' You can't really bring up a horse to Saratoga that doesn't really have some serious shine to it. All the best judges in the business look at every single horse, and a handful of times, so there's nothing slipping through the cracks. If you don't have a horse that people are going to get excited about, it's probably not the right place for it to be.”

But this August will mark a big shift for Flay, whose racing and breeding program was dealt a serious blow in September with the death of his long-term advisor James Delahooke. Delahooke, an industry icon who played a key role in the creation of the Juddmonte bloodlines, was not just an advisor, but a mentor and friend to Flay.

As such, his two on offer this year with consignor Stone Farm represent a little bit of the traditional, and a little something new.

Justify–Blossomed sells as hip 6 | Thorostride photo

Hip 6, a colt by Justify-Blossomed, by Deputy Minister, was selected for him by his new bloodstock advisor Tom McGreevy out of the Keeneland November Sale for $350,000; while hip 217, a half-brother to his Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf winner Pizza Bianca (Fastnet Rock {Aus}) by Not This Time, is a homebred out of White Hot, a purchased advised by Delahooke.

Pinhooking has not been a big part of Flay's playbook up until now, and has been an aspect of the game in which he has dabbled “very minimally” with “break-even to moderate success,” he says.
But if Delahooke taught him about pedigrees and families, McGreevy's forte is physicals, and Flay is benefitting from their expertise in each realm.

“James is not replaceable,” said Flay. “He taught me so much about this business. Every time that I spent time with him, I learned something new. James saw the whole picture. When you look at Juddmonte pedigrees and you look at the third and fourth dams of some of these great horses, James picked them out as yearlings. And so having James as one of my mentors in terms of buying fillies and mares is never going to be replaced.

“Last September, I had a conversation with Tom about coming onto my team, and the thing I love about Tom is that he is focused on what he wants to do. He wants to look at every horse at every sale, and he wants to find great physicals. That's what he cares about. He loves the physicality of the horse. He doesn't have to worry about the pedigrees. I'm going to take care of that. He doesn't have to worry about matings or anything like that. He tells me who he thinks are great physicals in the sale, and then I use that information to make decisions. And so far, it's been a great year. Now that I have Tom, I would consider all kinds of things that maybe I didn't consider before, just because he is such a great judge of physical. And so having him on my team gives me a tremendous amount of confidence.”

Hip 6, the Justify colt, is just one example.

“The typical horse that I look for, especially, has that great walk along with a lot of other things the agents look for–the conformation, the balance and everything,” said McGreevy, recalling his purchase of the colt as a weanling in November. “And there are intangibles, too, that we look at is; his attitude, how he handles the pressure of the sale. And he had all those qualities, I thought.”
McGreevy said that to him, the walk trumps everything.

“I still think the toughest thing to find on a horse is a really, really good walk, and he has that,” he said. “And I don't just mean they walk correctly, but they have that great athletic walk. I believe that to be able to do that, they have to have all the parts working together. That translates on the racetrack. That's how they move and how efficient they are.”

If the weanling and his page looked good last November, they look even better now. A half-brother to Grade I Spinaway winner Sippican Harbor (Orb) and the graded stakes placed Bodacious Babe (Mineshaft), the colt has received a timely update on his page with his full-sister, Awesome Result, now two-for-two in Japan since the November catalogue. And there's not a hotter sire than Justify, who has sired graded stakes winners in Europe and Australia in 2023, along with two Grade I winners in America-Arabian Lion and Aspen Grove.

“Justify is doing so well,” said McGreevy. “He's really on fire not only in the United States but in Australia and England, France. So (hip 6) has a lot of encouraging things about him, not only as an individual, but he has a lot of star power going for him and the pedigree on the bottom side, as well.”

Said Flay, “Listen, this is why somebody like Tom McGreevy is so important to a program like this, because he sees things that I'm not going to ever see. It's like cooking. You need to know your limitations. Just because you can cook Italian food doesn't mean you can cook Chinese food. I really rely on him to pick out physicals that are developing. Obviously, these horses are young. You're trying to predict the future. Obviously, no one can do that 100% of the time, but I like his batting average a lot.”

Hip 217, Not This Time–White Hot colt | Thorostride photo

Like with all his mares, Flay planned the mating for hip 217.

“I became interested in Not This Time pretty early in his success,” he said. “You could see that something good was happening early on.” At the time he planned the mating, early in 2021, Pizza Bianca hadn't yet made her first start.

“I took a calculated risk with Not This Time, and then Pizza Bianca became Pizza Bianca, won the Breeders' Cup, and then at the same time, Not This Time has developed into one of the most important young stallions we have.”

Flay has retained both White Hot and Pizza Bianca, and both are at Stone Farm, in foal to Into Mischief.

There's no telling what buyers might find (hip 217) appealing, said Flay. “It's Saratoga. It's a hot, now somewhat-proven stallion, a young, exciting stallion. It's the physical, and it's the pedigree. And it's also now the race record under the first dam. So, up close, but also in terms of history, going back four dams, five dams, six dams, it's tough to beat this pedigree. Even if you didn't have Pizza Bianca in there, it's one of the best pedigrees in the world.”

It's a pedigree that could appeal to a broad cross-section of the yearling-buying market.

“If it were five years ago, I would say to you it's going to be somebody from Japan or it's going to be somebody from Europe. But now that grass racing is so incredibly important in this country and getting more and more important, it could be anybody. Not This Time can certainly get a dirt horse, and just because it's a Galileo mare doesn't mean they can't run on dirt at some point. I would just say don't try to figure out before the horse is running where the horse is going to run. The horse will tell you where it's going to run. But this is one of the world's great pedigrees, and if I'm buying a yearling, this is the pedigree that I'm looking at, for sure.”

This week, Songbird will be elected into the Hall of Fame, and Flay will be on hand to support the man who picked her out as a yearling at this sale nine years ago for owner Rick Porter-his new advisor, McGreevy.

“Songbird was one of my favorite fillies of all time,” said Flay. “Just the fact that I get to work with the guy that picked out the horse and the horse is now being inducted into the Hall of Fame, I feel really lucky. Losing James, as I said, is never going to be something I'm going to be able to replace, from a business standpoint and also as a friend standpoint. The guy was amazing, but I'm lucky that this new chapter is with Tom.”

The post Flay’s Two Colts–A Homebred and a Pinhook–On Target for Saratoga Sale appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post