Colins Ghost

Last week I wrote about the Daily Racing Form Online Archive Project, this week I am going back to the first Breeders Cup through the pages of the DRF that are now online courtesy of the Keeneland Library and the University of Kentucky.

IMAGE: Front page of the Daily Racing Form, November 10, 1984

We are a few days away from this year’s Breeders Cup — one of the highlights of the year for racing fans. As much as we might complain about the direction the BC has taken over the years, the racing is always top notch and the opportunities for wagering are unmatched by any day on the racing calendar.

On November 9th 1984, the day before the first Breeders Cup, the Daily Racing Form published a letter of appreciation from Cup originator John Gaines. In the letter, he included a quote from Ben Franklin on the notion of cooperation and, in his own words, laid out his vision for what the BC represented in 1984. Here are a few selections (read the full letter here):

“…for the first time in the history of the sport the owners and breeders have taken charge of their own destiny and accepted responsibility for both the improvement of the breed and improvement of the sport…”

“Racing has acquired a powerful new working partner in the visual media that firmly believes that the Breeders Cup will become one of the premier events in the world of sports….The challenge to the visual media in presenting the Breeder’s Cup for this year and for future years is to transcend entertainment and, like the great artists of the past, reveal with honesty and freshness and insight the relationship of a man to his horse…”

“…At times we have all been dismayed by how the visual and written media have portrayed both the image and substance of our sport. Racing must accept its share of responsibility for this profound problem. From our public’s viewpoint Racing somehow seems frantically at once in focus and then out of focus. The excessive commercialization of racing and our sins are many and the disgraceful lack of uniform rules of Racing has created confusion, resentment, misunderstanding, and malaise. If we are unable to understand ourselves, who we are, why we are here, and where we are going, then we cannot expect Racing’s public to comprehend the true nature of our sport.”

“The fundamental purpose of the Breeders Cup is to institutionalize Racing’s value system and to establish permanent priorities that once and for all place the sporting aspect of Racing first. The simple single mission of the Breeders Cup is to discover who has the best horse.”

“May future generations of horsemen say that today a new tradition was born within our sport today…”

On race day, November 10th, 1984, the late, great Joe Hirsch dedicated the majority of his article to the words of the late, great John Gaines. Here are some selected quotes from the BC founder (read the full article here):

“Taking the long view, I hope expectations are not so high for the first Breeders Cup that people will be disappointed with the results….it took several years for the Super Bowl to become part of the national psyche.  It will take at least that long in this case because money does not buy tradition.  Tradition must be earned in front of the crowd.”

“Racing has only one thing to present to the public. Simply, it is, ‘who has the best horse?’ We in racing find the answer to this question interesting and perpetually challenging. I think the public will eventually find the answer as fascinating as racing men and women, but this won’t happen over night…”

“…The Breeders Cup could be a potent weapon against racing’s major enemies, casino gambling and all-sports betting…At the least, the Breeders Cup is providing some hope for racing and the timeliness of that should be very apparent.”

What is most striking – reading the words of John Gaines twenty-six years later – is what is missing here.  In his bold declaration on the foundation of the BC he does not acknowledge gamblers and racing fans as major players. Instead, we hear about the amorphous “public” and the only reference to gambling is in the context of “racing’s major enemies.”

The Breeders Cup is one of the best things to ever happen to American racing and everyone involved in making it a reality deserve the highest of praise but looking at the goals set forth by John Gaines it has failed to live up to some of its initial expectations.  Hopes to see the BC become a significant media event on par with the Super Bowl; enhance the reputation of the sport in the public mind; or generate new interest for racing as a “sport”, have not come to pass.  In reading the words of John Gaines, it is clear that some of the founders intentions for the Breeders Cup are no closer today then they were in 1984.

New forms of media, accessibility to wagering, and shifting attitudes towards gambling are a few of the changes that make some of the original goals of the Breeders Cup in need of revision. The hopes and dreams for making racing a mainstream “sport”, should to take a back seat to the realties that one of the key components to racing’s popularity is (and always will be) gambling. Gamblers (large and small) make up the core of the current (and future) fan base.

This year has seen some indications that the BC leadership is beginning to understand that fans/gamblers are the keys to the future success of the Breeders Cup. We as fans want the BC to succeed just as much as the owners, breeders, and executives. The dedicated race fans who invest their time, energy, and hard earned money into the Breeders Cup should be the focus moving forward. The people in charge of racing and the BC need to understand that the key to creating more fans is making sure the ones you already have are happy.

NOTES, SOURCES, AND OBSERVATIONS
“Letter of Appreciation from Breeders’ Cup Chairman John Gaines”, Daily Racing Form, November 9, 1984
“Gaines, Cup Originator, Says It’s ‘Here to Stay’”, Daily Racing Form, November 10, 1984

Best of luck to everyone making wagers on the Breeders Cup. I might make a bet or two on Friday but will focus much of my attention on Saturday. For the first time in many years, I am going to forgo a trip to Delaware Park to watch and wager on the big races. I am a bit resentful about the amount of marketing effort that they have put into sports betting when they do little to nothing for the Breeders Cup. This is yet another case of race fans being taken for granted. They won’t be seeing a dime of my bankroll this year, I’ll be watching from home and making plays via TwinSpires.

If you are in the hunt for information about this year’s Breeders Cup, be sure to check out http://www.breederscup360.com/.  And, of course, the Daily Racing Form Breeder Cup section is always a great source.  I have also been keeping an eye on the Thoroughbred Times site this year — they have put together a well organized portal for BC info.

Thanks For Reading and Good Luck!

On December 16th and 17th, legendary trainer John Nerud spoke with Steve Byk on Byk’s outstanding radio show. Over the course of his conversation, Nerud, at age 95, provided some profound insights into the current state of the game. Nerud, the Hall of Fame trainer of Dr. Fager, is the sage of American racing. His lifetime in racing as a trainer, breeder, owner, and one of the founders of the Breeder’s Cup makes him a goldmine of wisdom.

Image: John Nerud and Dr. Fager in an advertisement from the Thoroughbred Record, January 13, 1968

Nerud’s ideas about the Breeders Cup are especially insightful. Nerud worked closely with Breeders Cup founder John Gaines to develop and sell Gaines’s idea and then served as the chairman of the BC marketing committee for the first 10 years of its existence. Nerud understands the original intent of the Breeders Cup because he was there at the beginning.

I transcribed portions of Nerud’s interview with Steve Byk below.

On the founding of the Breeders Cup, Nerud said:

“As you know John Gaines dreamed this up…When this was born he and I both agreed that the Breeders Cup is only a marketing tool for racing – nothing else. You have one big day to draw attention to racing and its a marketing tool…Without racing breeders don’t have a place to sell their horses but I don’t think the breeders have ever realized that. Anyhow, we wanted to spend everything on one day…. I think they have lost their way with the Breeders Cup. The Breeders Cup is only an event. It wasn’t put together to bring a lot of money back to the breeders. They were expected to fund it so they would have a market to sell their horses but the people in Kentucky think it belongs to the breeders and they should make a profit off it, which is wrong…”

When asked about the expansion to two days and the addition of races like the Marathon and Turf Sprint, Nerud replied, simply, “Who is the Worlds Champion Boxer? Who knows anymore. Why? Because they diluted it.” A perfect analogy, in my opinion, as boxing and horse racing had an equally high level of popularity in the 1950s. Both made disastrously poor decisions since then that have pushed them to the fringes just 50 years later

On the current leadership at the BC:

“I haven’t been to meetings and I don’t know what their ideas are but we have never had a CEO in charge of the Breeder’s Cup that is independent. Every CEO we have ever had running the Breeders Cup has been an inside man. If the Breeders Cup is to be run right they have to get an outside person with the ability and the education – I don’t care if he has never seen a horse – he has to be a strong executive and not part of the good old boys club. That is what is wrong with the Breeders Cup, it is run as a good old boys club. Until we get rid of that attitude, its not going to work…I don’t think we will ever get it straightened out. The Kentucky breeders are a very close knit group. They are the center of the breeding world and they know it. It is very difficult for an outsider to get in and make a very big splash. I did. I was on 5 committees and chairman of the marketing committee for 10 years. I had a pretty strong voice but they got rid of me…”

In addition to specific discussion about the Breeders Cup, he also had some general thoughts on the state of the game.

In talking about the true stakeholders in the game:

“The jockeys and the trainers and everybody are takers. The only two people that put up the money are the owners and the customers who come to the races. The rest of them are takers…”

And, finally, on the opportunity for racing considering the current financial situation:

“Well, you see it right now. The handle has not fallen off a great deal at Belmont, Aqueduct, and Hollywood…The racetrack is the last place for the depression to hit. When I was racing in the 30s – when we came into town we were popular with the girls because we were the only ones that had any money. We haven’t priced ourselves out of the market — I think the Breeders Cup and the (Kentucky) Derby are foolish but I am whistling in the dark. They are overpricing it to the point where it will get to them — You can come to the races, you can look at the trainer and holler at ‘em, you can talk to the jockey who might even sign your program. You go to a baseball or football game and try to talk to the manager and you might wind up in jail. So its a nice afternoon. You go to Aqueduct this winter and go into that grandstand it is amazing how beautiful and well kept it is…it is a great place to spend an afternoon.”

I encourage everyone to listen to the interview in its entirety. Nerud had much more to say on the Breeders Cup and other racing issues. It can be found below as streaming audio or you can subscribe to the podcast:

Streaming audio:
Decemer 16 (Begins about 8 minutes into the first hour)
December 17 (Begins about 31 minutes into first hour and continues into the second hour)

Subscribe to the At the Races podcast

Seth Merrow clipped a portion of an interview with Steve Haskin relaying a great story about a recent yearling purchase made by John Nerud. Listen here…

SOURCES, THOUGHTS, AND OBSERVATIONS
A quick word on At the Races with Steve Byk: If you are a fan of thoroughbred racing, I guarantee you will love this radio show. For all the marketers, journalists, bloggers, and track executives trying to figure out how to sell the game – listen to the show to see how it is done. Byk covers all angles of the game and does it brilliantly. With regular guests like Steve Haskin, Rich Eng, Jon White, Seth Merrow, Lauren Stitch and a steady stream of jockeys, trainers, owners, and industry heavy hitters, it is the best show (TV or radio) dedicated to the sport of thoroughbred racing. It is broadcast on Sirius satellite Monday to Friday at 4pm EST on channel 126. If you don’t have Sirius it is streamed online and available via podcast (I listen to the podcast which is usually available for download the following day and sometimes earlier).

I have been enjoying the end of the year coverage from everyone. The book lists by Maryjean Wall and Larry Lee Palmer had me adding a few more books to my ever-expanding reading list. The series at Mary Forney’s blog by historian Leonard Wynne on racing in southern California has been very enjoyable. Seth Merrow from Equidaily did an interesting look back at a 1987 issue of the Daily Racing Form. Teresa at the Brooklyn Backstretch put together a nice piece on Henry of Navarre and Domino at the Gravesend racetrack. Dana at Green But Game has posted part one of her look back at racing in 1994. The lack of racing during this time of year makes for some fascinating reading by all of the dedicated writers covering the sport.

Be sure to check out the new look at the Throughbred Bloggers Alliance site — with news feeds, free past performances, and other fun stuff.

The updated Colin’s Ghost site is still a work in progress. I was hoping to have it done before 2009 but it appears to be a long term project. Hope you like the new look.

This is the last post for 2008. Hope everyone has a happy, healthy, and safe New Year. Looking forward to 2009!

Thanks for Reading and Good Luck!