FERNANDO NA ISSUE 30_Jerkins feature.qxd 24/10/2013 23:31 Page 1
SID FERNANDO
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ERE’S some of what Eclipse Award-winning writer Claire Novak told Business Lexington for its September 27th issue: “When you look at the overall industry in terms of what it does best and what it does worst, what it does worst is low-level racing, and I don’t know how you rectify that with the fact that there are some horses that just don’t compete at a high level. Those tracks do provide an outlet for those horses, but the question is, should they really be competing in the first place? That’s a huge issue.” Elsewhere in the article Novak said, “When people say ‘Oh, the Thoroughbred crop is smaller this year than it was last year,’ I say ‘Good.’ That’s not a bad thing. Hopefully you’ll see a dying off of the mid-level tracks that really don’t contribute anything.” A solution? She said, “To combat lower-level racing, I would start with the breeding industry and the stallions that don’t really cut it. At some point, enough is enough. Move on. I understand that there are bloodlines and sometimes a horse gets hurt and doesn’t reach his full potential, so maybe it does have potential as a sire, but at some point it becomes too much. A horse who’s standing in Oregon for $2,500, is he really helping the game?” All of this prompted Ray Paulick, the former editor of Blood-Horse whose eponymous website frequently tackles controversial industry issues, to tweet on October 1: “How many $2,500 stallions @BH_CNovak wants to get rid of are advertising in @BloodHorse Stallion Register? #elitist” (The hash tag is his.) Paulick’s point is well taken, especially as TOBA is represented on the board of directors of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA) and is a national trade organization for owners and breeders at all levels. Ironically, only two stallions from 12 listed in Oregon in the Blood-Horse Stallion Register actually stand for as much or more than $2,500: Harbor the Gold, at $5,500, and Kentucky Derby winner Grindstone at $2,500. The entire foal crop for Oregon in 2011 (now two-yearolds of 2013) numbered an insignificant 78
96 TRAINERMAGAZINE.com ISSUE 30
Focus on the top tier ignores the bigger picture A well-known racing writer for The Blood-Horse, a publication of the Kentucky-based Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association (TOBA), made some comments recently about small tracks and cheap horses in an interview for a Lexington, Kentucky, business publication that struck some, including the publisher of the Paulick Report, as unusually elitist. foals, down 73 percent from 289 foals in 2001, according to The Jockey Club. During this time frame, the national foal crop was down 36 percent, so Oregon’s breeding industry – never large to begin with – was already twice as worse off when Novak took a swipe at it. To add context, consider that 84 stallions – many of them at elite farms in Kentucky – covered more than 100 mares each in 2011. What all this means is that horsemen in Oregon, who primarily race at the “low-level” Portland Meadows, buy their racing stock in Kentucky at venues such as the last days of Keeneland’s two-week September yearling sale; Fasig-Tipton’s October yearling sale; or at the Lexington winter mixed sales, where cheaper horses can be purchased to fit the track’s lowertier purse structure. The type of high-class racing that Novak champions – especially the elite racing at the Graded stakes level – amounts to only a tiny fraction of all races, and even the “high-level” racetracks card what Novak refers to as “lowlevel” races, which are the claiming races that
“It’s in everyone’s best interest – especially the trainers, grooms, jockeys, and all other horsemen and horsewomen sustained by the industry – to root for tracks like Portland Meadows to survive”
comprise the bulk of the sport. Many of these races are populated by the offspring of both inexpensive and expensive Kentucky stallions. Another reality: Most claiming horses are destined to descend the claiming ladder, which weaves its way from up to six figures at elite tracks down to $2,500 at places like Portland Meadows. To maintain a healthy racing and breeding ecosytem in the U.S., the industry needs to embrace a functional multi-tiered platform of well-managed racetracks that can absorb this trickle down from the top, as well as foster the growth of the sport from the bottom. This is the issue that intersects owners and breeders with racetracks and fans, and TOBA, with legs straddling both sides of the fence, should be at the forefront of trumpeting this point. It’s in everyone’s best interest – especially the trainers, grooms, jockeys, and all other horsemen and horsewomen sustained by the industry – to root for tracks like Portland Meadows to survive; however, only those tracks with the savvy to adapt to a changing landscape of shrinking foal crops, dwindling on-track attendance, and high takeout rates actually will. Portland Meadows, on closer inspection, is a terrific example of small-time success: handle and field size are up since the track went to summer racing and cut back racing dates from three times a week to two, and its takeout on the Pick 4 at 14 percent is the second-lowest lowest in the nation for the popular wager. Furthermore, the track is catering to its live audience with other forms of entertainment between races and has gone to clever advertising and outreach to attract and educate newer fans, with customer service paramount to its ideology. n