Archive for the ‘Paulick Report’ Category
Friday, September 26th, 2008
We are safe and sound in an undisclosed, dark and damp location. We’re not exactly sure where we are and don’t feel terribly comfortable, but at least we feel pretty good about being hidden from the world of litigation.
Being stuck in a hole in the wall apartment in Lex – er – just kidding – we have started to become contemplative. So, we came up with ten stories we would like to someday see on the pages of the Paulick Report. Hopefully you’ll agree.
10. Sheikh Mohammed purchases several troubled U.S. racetracks; owner John Brunetti says there isn’t enough money in all of Dubai to pay for Hialeah.
9. Disgruntled California owner Jerry Jamgotchian is named chairman of horse racing board; realizes issues more complex than previously thought.
8. New York Times investigative report determines slot machines designed to win money from people who play them; former slots players fall in love with horse racing.
7. The Jockey Club establishes new rules prohibiting Thoroughbreds from being bred until they turn five years old.
6. Racehorse owners rally behind new racing league plan that leads up to the Breeders’ Cup.
5. Frank Stronach horses wins octet of Eclipse Awards. In shortest speeches in history, Stronach says “Three words: Frank’s Energy Drink.”
4. Racing finds a champion in Congress who pushes through effective Thorougbred legislation on drug testing, medication and safety standards.
3. Using newfound operatic skills, Tom Durkin blows out public address system at Saratoga and shatters thousands of window panes in the neighborhood singing Doremifasollatido to victory in the Alabama.
2. Keeneland takes lead role on transparency by holding shareholder meetings at Rupp Arena; opens the books on its financials.
1.The Paulick Report buys out Daily Racing Form, Bloodhorse and Thoroughbred Times to become largest publishing company in racing history.
Well, if you would like the opportunity to read these stories on the Paulick Report, we need to exist for several more years. To that end, we ask you to please consider sending a donation of $2,000, $1,000, $500, $250, $100, $50 or even $25. Any amount is greatly appreciated and rest assured that donor anonymity is guaranteed. Please click the link below to our ‘Support the Paulick Report’ page where you can make a donation either by PayPal or through the mail.
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Thursday, September 25th, 2008
Much to our surprise, it seems we have kept the high-priced fancy lawyers from Letterman and Public Broadcasting off our backs. Don’t tell anyone, but we’ve found a nice hiding spot at Calder racetrack and if Ray’s recent photos of empty stands mean anything, we don’t suspect anyone will come out here to find us.
And that brings us to today’s top ten list. The aforementioned photo seems symbolic of the realistic and oftentimes untold side of the Thoroughbred industry that you have grown accustomed to at the Paulick Report. We have decided to highlight our favorite ten facts you would not see anywhere else in the media. Unfortunately, Ray’s propensity to injure himself with sharp sausages didn’t make the list.
10. Keeneland never formed a sale company; it merely convinced Kentucky breeders to hand over the Breeders’ Sales Company co-op in 1962 and has since profited to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars.
9. Internet entrepreneur Halsey Minor inquired about purchasing Magna Entertainment racetracks in California and Maryland but was led to believe by a Magna executive that despite public pronouncements to the contrary they really were not for sale.
8. Stonewalling and ultimately defeat of the Thoroughbred Championship Tour by the NTRA and Breeders’ Cup boards helped convince Houston Texans owner Robert McNair to get out of the Thoroughbred industry.
7. Simulcast bettors at Tampa Bay Downs bet into the pools of a June 28 race at Philadelphia Park – minutes after the Philly Park race had been run. The industry and tote companies have yet to report on how the past-post-betting was allowed to occur.
6. Board-room politicking by the father-son duo of Will and Bill Farish kept Richard Santulli and John Sikura off the Breeders’ Cup board of directors in an election earlier this year.
5. NTRA president and CEO Alex Waldrop took a “neutral” position on slaughter legislation before Congress despite earlier pledges that the NTRA was leading the way for the industry on horse welfare issues.
4. The National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame is an inefficient and uninspiring facility secretively run by people whose spending oversight rates it “zero stars” (out of four stars) from an unbiased organization that rates charities.
3. The NTRA held secret meetings in Kentucky before circulating a confidential memorandum recommending numerous industry reforms ranging from racetrack safety standards to eliminating timed workouts at 2-year-old sales.
2. Keeneland convinced nearly all of its original investors to turn their shares over to the association; in 2002, it quietly formed a new non-profit holding company called Keeneland Trustees, the de facto “owner” of the Keeneland run by three people: Will Farish, William Lear, and Louie Lee Haggin.
1. A roadmap of how Jockey Club chairman Dinny Phipps, vice chairman Will Farish and their surrogates exert extensive control over numerous industry organizations including the Breeders’ Cup, Keeneland, National Thoroughbred Racing Association, Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association and its American Graded Stakes Committee, Bloodhorse magazine, and the New York Racing Association,
Now that you are reminded of the unique product the Paulick Report offers, we ask you to please consider sending a donation of $2,000, $1,000, $500, $250, $100 or even $50? Any amount is greatly appreciated and rest assured that donor anonymity is guaranteed. Please click the link below to our ‘Support the Paulick Report’ page where you can make a donation either by PayPal or through the mail.
Support the Paulick Report by clicking here
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Monday, September 22nd, 2008
Dear Colleague,
This week we’re kicking off our seven-day Public Broadasting System knock-off quarterly fundraising drive. Like PBS, we depend on viewers like you for the majority of our operational support to allow us to maintain and enhance the Thoroughbred industry’s premiere independent voice. Fortunately for you, we will be deviating from the PBS format when it comes to featuring old British actors in bad wigs and documentaries on the life and times of such stirring historical figures as the 11th U.S. President James K. Polk.
In just over 90 days, the Paulick Report has grown to an online community of 5,000 readers that includes the Who’s Who of Thoroughbred racing and breeding, fans of the industry and my mother-in-law. We have pulled no punches in our quest to become an honest broker for the sport we all love. The feedback you have given us confirms our belief that a truly independent voice has long been needed and will serve to benefit the health and future of the Thoroughbred industry.
If you place value in the independent voice found only on the pages of the Paulick Report and would like to support its continued growth, would you please consider sending a donation of $2,000, $1,000, $500, $250, $100 or even $50 to help further our cause? Any amount is greatly appreciated and rest assured that donor anonymity is guaranteed. Click the link below to our ‘Support the Paulick Report’ page where you can make a donation either by PayPal or through the mail.
Thank you for your consideration and as always, we greatly appreciate your daily support of the Paulick Report.
Regards,
Ray Paulick
ray@paulickreport.com
Click here to support the Paulick Report
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Friday, August 15th, 2008
By Ray Paulick
One of the staples of the Jockey Club Round Table Conference on Matters Pertaining to Racing, to be held this Sunday in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., is a report on the activities of the Jockey Club, whose primary responsibility to the industry is registering Thoroughbreds and approving the names horses are given.
Of course, the Jockey Club wants to do much, much more than that, and its executive team, led by president Alan Marzelli, has focused on building the organization’s “family of companies” to include the collection and commercial sales of racing, breeding and auction data, the sale of handicapping information, software development, and technology services to racetracks, farms and other businesses in the industry. Either Marzelli or chief administrative officer James Gagliano will report on Sunday that every branch of the company is doing an outstanding job.
What you won’t hear in the report is how the tentacles of the Jockey Club and some of its individual members strategically reach into various organizations and businesses in an effort to exert control throughout the Thoroughbred industry.
To quote from the book, “The Right Blood: America’s Aristocrats in Thoroughbred Racing,” by Carole Case: “This is a story about money and power, and about a particular group of rich and powerful Americans—the men (and a very few women) of the Jockey Club. With its founding in New York City at the turn of the twentieth century, the Club took the reins of Thoroughbred racing in the United States, and it has never entirely let them go. For more than a century, then, the Jockey Club has dominated horseracing in this country.”
For better or worse, the Jockey Club, which has been ruled since 1982 by chairman Dinny Phipps and vice chairman William S. Farish, has considerable power over the Breeders’ Cup, Keeneland, National Thoroughbred Racing Association, the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association and its American Graded Stakes Committee, Bloodhorse magazine, and the New York Racing Association, among others.
Here’s a quick rundown.
– William Farish’s son, Bill, is the board chairman of the Breeders’ Cup, which before its governance was changed a few years ago, had been tightly controlled by the senior Farish and his longtime friend and horse business partner G. Watts Humphrey. The battle over control of the Breeders’ Cup board has been detailed by previous articles in the Paulick Report..
– The senior Farish replaced Ted Bassett in 2006 as one of the three trustees who oversees Keeneland’s operations. Keeeland’s president, Nick Nicholson, is a former executive with the Jockey Club. There is some speculation that one of the senior Farish’s goals is to expand Keeneland to the point where it can bid to become a permanent host for the Breeders’ Cup, making it the Augusta National of the racing industry.. An expansion is on the drawing board now, with Keeneland making a possible Breeders’ Cup bid as early as 2011.
– The NTRA board is populated by several Jockey Club members, including Humphrey and Robert Clay, plus Jockey Club president Marzelli, and three racetrack executives — Nicholson of Keeneland, Bob Elliston of Turfway Park (owned in part by Keeneland), and Charles Hayward of the New York Racing Association, which has been controlled by Phipps for more than 30 years. At one point, the NTRA and Jockey Club shared office space in New York.
– The Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association has had some semblance of independence from the Jockey Club in recent years, through its chairman, Bill Casner, who is not a Jockey Club member but has been asked to speak at Sunday’s Round Table. Casner was recently succeeded by Reynolds Bell, currently a steward of the Jockey Club and a bloodstock agent whose major client is Farish’s Lane’s End Farm. Dell Hancock, whose family’s Claiborne Farm boards the Phipps family mares, served as chair of the American Graded Stakes Committee until recently being succeeded by Peter Willmot. Steve Duncker, currently the board chairman of NYRA, was a previous Graded Stakes Commiteee chair.
– Stuart Janney is chairman of Bloodhorse magazine, whose board also includes Bill Farish, G. Watts Humphrey, D.G. Van Clief, and Antony Beck—all Jockey Club members with the exception of Beck, who is very close friends with Bill Farish. Janney is a Jockey Club steward, a cousin of Dinny Phipps, and chairman of Bessemer Trust, the company founded by Phipps’ great-grandfather. He succeeded Humphrey as chairman, who in turn succeeded Bayard Sharp, Farish’s late father-in-law.
– The New York Racing Association’s close relationship with the Jockey Club is no secret. Its tracks serve as playgrounds for many Jockey Club members, most notably Dinny Phipps, who has the most desired finish line boxes at the NYRA tracks. The Jockey Club even has offices at the New York tracks. The Jockey Club once officially ruled New York racing, but lost its official control when a horseman named Jule Fink went to court after being denied an owner’s license. NYRA’s board is populated with Jockey Club members, and its chairman, Steve Duncker, like most chairman before him, is a member of the Club as well.
The tentacles clearly reach into breed associations, regulatory agencies and other organizations throughout racing and breeding.
What isn’t clear is why the Jockey Club, led by its chairman and vice chairman, wants so desperately to control the industry, and what they plan to do with that control.
Copyright © 2008, The Paulick Report
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Tags: Alan Marzelli, american graded stakes committee, Antony Beck, augusta national, bessemer trust, Bill Casner, Bill Farish, bloodhorse, bob elliston, Breeders' Cup, charles hayward, Claiborne Farm, D.G. Van Clief, dell hancock, Dinny Phipps, G. Watts Humphrey, Jockey Club, jule fink, Keeneland, Lane's End, National Thoroughbred Racing Association, New York Racing Association, nick nicholson, NTRA, nyra, Ogden Mills Phipps, peter willmot, reynolds bell, Robert Clay, steve duncker, stuart janney, Ted Bassett, Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association, TOBA, william farish
Posted in Breeders' Cup, Horse Racing, Industry Organizations, Jockey Club, Keeneland, National Thoroughbred Racing Association, New York Racing Association, Paulick Report, Ray Paulick | 8 Comments »
Sunday, June 22nd, 2008
The other day I received an e-mail from a young lady, 18 years old, commenting on an article I had written for ESPN.com in the wake of Big Brown’s defeat in the Belmont Stakes. The passion with which she wrote about the sport reminded me that racing always has and always will have tremendous appeal because of one thing: the horse. As long as the people in racing don’t completely mess things up, there is still hope for racing. The young lady, Emily Patton, said it would be OK to share her email with readers of the Paulick Report:
I just finished reading your article on ESPN.com, and sincerely enjoyed it.
I am an 18 year old girl who fell in love with horse racing as a 12-year-old: a 12-year-old girl falling in love with a sport that attracts many with serious addictions, involving smoking, gambling, and drinking.
I would race to the television to watch Bob Baffert’s horses, watching Real Quiet and Silver Charm race for the crown. I cannot tell you how upset my parents were as I begged them to please, please let me go watch the races. When Smarty Jones came around in 2004, I was sold. I had hit rock bottom. I was in love with a horse.
My parents couldn’t deny it, buying me Blood-Horse after Blood-Horse that had Smarty on the cover.
I plainly want to say, your article is the absolute truth. Every year I choose a Derby horse. I pick it early, around February, and see if “my” horse can do it. I slowly become attached, and by the time they are driving down the stretch at Churchill, I am on my feet, screaming.
I pick a horse who can handle the distance. I like closers, I don’t like horses that go to the lead. I like Kentucky breds. I like a horse with non-corporate owners. And the list continues… I didn’t pull for Big Brown this year, well prior to the Derby at least.
I was alive one month before Secretariat passed away, about ten years before Seattle Slew went, and my gosh, I cannot tell you how I would have loved to be around for the 12th triple crown winner to parade in front of me. I thought, “For once, a team is doing it the right way with a horse in the Triple Crown: racing him lightly before, not running too huge in the Preakness…”
I was getting excited. I even called a sports radio station the morning of the Belmont, excited, talking about how he would do it. I convinced myself that the Sport of Kings, would be that again. I don’t know how I fell in love with horse-racing. I don’t know why as a young teenage girl I found it more appealing to memorize all the Derby winners instead of chase boys around. I don’t know.
Big Brown did what he could.
Thank you for the enjoyment.
–Emily Patton
Let’s hope there are a lot more Emily Pattons out there, young people who bring such passion to our great sport.
Tags: Big Brown, Bob Baffert, Emily Patton, Horse Racing, Paulick Report, Ray Paulick, Real Quiet, Silver Charm, Smarty Jones, Triple Crown
Posted in Horse Racing, Paulick Report | 7 Comments »
Friday, June 13th, 2008
Welcome to the Paulick Report, your new, independent source for news, analysis and commentary on the Thoroughbred industry.
Why, you might ask, does racing and breeding need an independent voice, one that is not affiliated with any of the industry’s numerous organizations and does not cater to a specific segment of the business? We think the answer is obvious: that some organizations, businesses and individuals within the Thoroughbred industry have had too much influence on the traditional role of the press to ask the difficult questions and report the unvarnished truth. That is what the public deserves, and what the Paulick Report aims to deliver.
The Paulick Report is modeled after the success of web-based publications including Real Clear Politics, The Huffington Post and Drudge Report. It will break exclusive stories, featuring reporting and analysis on a wide range of topics by veteran award-winning journalist Ray Paulick, the longtime editor of The Blood-Horse who over the past three decades has developed a trusted and informed network of sources throughout the industry.
The Paulick Report also will feature links — updated throughout the day — to global Thoroughbred news and commentary produced by mainstream media and the growing community of knowledgeable bloggers who keep a watchful eye on the racing and breeding industry. In addition, readers will have the opportunity to provide anonymous news tips.
The Paulick Report promises to be relevant, intuitive and independent. Said Paulick: “We hope to revolutionize the news coverage of the Thoroughbred industry with quality reporting of the large reservoir of uncovered news, emphasis on breaking the big story and by tapping into the talented army of on-line contributors.”
It should be the first and last stop for anyone seeking up-to-date information regarding the Thoroughbred industry. “This industry combines all the ingredients of Wall Street, Washington and Hollywood — and we plan to bring this out with a laser focus on the business of racing, the politics of the industry and the celebrities of horse racing, including the horses themselves,” said Paulick. “This business can be a great deal of fun, and we also aim to reflect that, too.”
We hope you will be a frequent visitor to the Paulick Report. Our mission is to provide you with the news and analysis you want and need. We look forward to your feedback. Also, please keep in mind that this is a reader-supported site, and we hope we can count on your support in the days and weeks to come.
Posted in Paulick Report | 15 Comments »
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