Steve Crist | Horse Racing Free Tips

60 Speakers Announced For Global Symposium on Racing

Over 60 speakers will present at the University of Arizona's Race Track Industry Program's 49th annual Global Symposium on Racing, scheduled for Dec. 4-6 at Lowes Ventana Canyon in Tuscon. The event brings together racing industry executives from around the world to explore critical issues and trends across the three racing breeds.

Panels at the 2023 Symposium will include:

Computer Assisted Wagering–The Good, The Bad, and The Future
Out of the Shadows–Shining a Spotlight on Mental Health and Emotional Wellness
The Path Forward–Race Track Safety and the Anti-Doping & Medication Control Program
Strengthening Your Simulcast Content–Maximizing Handle in Diverse International Betting Markets
From Data to Dollars–Understanding Horse Racing's Economic Impact as Racing's Future is Questioned
Land for Sale. How Will Race Track Closures Impact the Industry's Long-Term Sustainability?

One of the highlights of the Symposium will be the “Legends of the Game–Racing's Iconic Turf Writers” featuring esteemed journalists Steve Crist, Andy Beyer and Jay Privman.

Pre-conference sessions will set the stage for the Syposium's opening evening reception on Dec. 4 and will include:

HISA Workshop for State Regulators and Stewards
3rd Annual Racing Secretaries Summit
Track Surface Regulatory Requirements
NTRA Handicapping Contest Workshop

Prospective attendees are encouraged to register by Nov. 17 to take advantage of a $100 discount and Ventana Canyon is offering reduced room rates of $189 for attendees. Registration for the Symposium and hotel reservations can be completed at RacingSymposium.com, where a list of the speakers may also be found.

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An Argument for Dirt: Letter to the Editor, by Steven Crist

To the Editor: The campaign to abolish dirt racing in favor of synthetic surfaces may be well-intentioned, but is a dangerous knee-jerk overreaction that would accomplish little but the destruction of Thoroughbred racing as we know it.

These advocates seem to have forgotten that we tried this a generation ago, when Southern California, Keeneland, and Dubai all switched to synthetic racing–and then tore out those tracks when it became obvious that they were producing misleading results and undeserving Grade I winners and champions. As Bob Baffert correctly said at the time, synthetic surfaces make mediocre horses look good and good horses look mediocre.

Do we really want to return to a randomizing form of racing under which Street Sense struggled home in the Breeders' Futurity and Blue Grass on synthetics, as opposed to his definitive dirt victories in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile and Kentucky Derby? Would Curlin be the breed-changing stallion he has become if his dull fourth-place finish on synthetic in the Breeders' Cup Classic was as good as we had ever seen from him?

The raw data that has led people to conclude that synthetics are safer is deceptive, an apples-to-oranges comparison that disregards the poor condition of the nation's lower-tier dirt tracks and ignores the anecdotal evidence of increased soft-tissue injuries on synthetic surfaces. The more important data is the sharp reduction in breakdowns on dirt tracks in the last decade. That is a record of major improvement that, coupled with other new procedures and technology, can continue to the point where dirt is every bit as “safe” as synthetics without discarding centuries of breeding for dirt and grass.

There have been more catastrophic deaths on grass than dirt this summer at Saratoga. Should we therefore abolish grass racing too, and continue signaling our alleged virtue by urging the rest of the world to uproot its grass courses and go all-synthetic as well?

Switching to synthetics will irreparably harm American racing and breeding and will not placate a single foe of our sport.

Steven Crist

Hempstead, NY

The writer covered racing for nearly 40 years for The New York Times, Racing Times and Daily Racing Form. He was among the inaugural inductees to the Racing Hall of Fame's media honor roll in 2011 and received the Eclipse Award of Merit in 2016.

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Legendary Handicapper, Turf Writer Steve Crist Joins Writers’ Room

Revolutionary handicapper and racing writer Steve Crist has been out of a public eye after retiring five years ago, but still has as much passion and enthusiasm for racing as he's ever had, and Wednesday morning, he joined the TDN Writers' Room presented by Keeneland for an expansive discussion on a variety of industry issues. Calling in via Zoom as the Green Group Guest of the Week, Crist discussed his increasing involvement in the game from an ownership standpoint, racing's progress on detecting and punishing cheaters, the Bob Baffert saga of 2021 and much more.

Asked for his reaction to the FBI indictments of Jason Servis and Jorge Navarro and the potential enactment of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act, Crist said, “The Servis/Navarro stuff, I think every horseplayer knew that these guys were cheating. This was not exactly something you were shocked to learn; you knew what these guys were doing, with the routine form reversals and the accompanying floods of money on their horses. I'm delighted that racing finally went after actual cheaters, instead of continuing to dither about Lasix and accusing every prominent trainer who wins at 25% of cheating. These are two different things, and I hate to see racing having wasted so much time on issues like Lasix instead of going after real cheaters.”

Crist mainly spent his career as a horseplayer and writer, but now owns a handful of horses, and spoke about how that's changed his perspective on the game.

“I've got to say, it's been more fun than I expected,” he said. “It really is. There's a different kind of enjoyment and a different kind of rooting that goes on when it's your horses, I've thoroughly enjoyed that part of it. But I've also had my eyes even more opened to the fact that it's so difficult for people to stay in this game now. Unless you're a plutocrat or a super trainer, this industry had become very, very hard to make a living in. Our trainer, Phil Gleaves, retired at the end of the Saratoga meeting, in part because it's just so hard to make a go of it as a small stable these days. Hiring help, dealing with workman's comp, and all these other issues have made it really hard for smaller trainers to stay in business. That's not a healthy thing long term for the game. And I don't think we want to end up with 10 super stables and no small outfits in American racing. That's not going to be good.”

Elsewhere on the show, which is also sponsored by West Point Thoroughbreds, Legacy Bloodstock and Woodford Thoroughbreds, Joe Bianca and Bill Finley broke down the ramifications of Bob Baffert's loss in court Tuesday, reacted to the strong handle numbers thus far for 2021 and applauded Gulfstream for its suspensions of trainers for clenbuterol use. Click here to watch the podcast; click here for the audio-only version of find it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

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