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By Ray Paulick

Bob Evans, president and chief executive officer of Churchill Downs Inc., said during a Friday morning press conference at the company’s flagship track in Louisville, Ky., that the CDI board of directors discussed the possibility of reducing the field size of the Kentucky Derby during a regularly scheduled meeting in New Orleans last week.

The Derby’s maximum field size of 20 is under scrutiny in the wake of the death of the filly Eight Belles in last year’s Derby, even though her fatal injuries occurred after the finish and apparently were unrelated to the number of runners or trouble she may have encountered in the race. The Derby traditionally has the largest field of any race in the United States. No Derby starter has fallen during the running of the race since 1970, when Holy Land clipped heels and fell going into the far turn.

By contrast, Breeders’ Cup fields are limited to 14 starters.

Maximum field size of 14 horses and the prohibition of fillies running against males were considerations in an original discussion document circulated by the National Thoroughbred Racing Association to industry leaders who formed what ultimately came to be known as the NTRA Safety and Integrity Alliance.

Field size or sex limitations were not part of the final recommendations of the NTRA Safety and Integrity Alliance Pledge, which can be viewed by clicking here.

Evans said CDI has devoted a great deal of time and resources to examine a wide range of safety issues since the death of Eight Belles and has adopted all of the safety recommendations made by committees formed earlier this year by the Jockey Club and Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association.

The CDI board discussed the reduction of the field size, Evans said, though he gave no indication whether a change will be made. “For now, it’s the way it’s always been,” he said. Nominations to the Triple Crown races, including the Derby, state that the size of the Derby can be “up to 20 horses.”

A reduction in field size might not be greeted favorably by horse owners and trainers who throughout the winter and spring closely follow whether their 3-year-olds are in the leading 20 contenders, based on money earned in graded or group stakes races. Churchill recently announced a marketing agreement with Kempton racecourse in England that will guarantee one spot in the Derby field to the winner of the Kentucky Derby Challenge Stakes, a 1 1/8-mile race on Polytrack, on March 18.

Handle on the Derby would also decline in the event of a reduction in the field size. Evans said Churchill has researched Derby handle in relationship to field size but would not say how much handle might fall. A reduction from 20 to 14 starters would also cost Churchill Downs $300,000 in lost entry and starting fees ($25,000 to enter and $25,000 to start).

Evans discussed the Derby field size and other safety measures following a media briefing announcing that Oaks and Derby ticket prices, with a few exceptions, would be frozen in 2009. “Our slowing economy is having a pronounced effect, and many of our customers have been affected in various ways as well,” Evans said. “Although the Kentucky Derby occupies an elite spot in the world of sports and tickets are typically in high demand, we want to keep our price points at the same level to help our customers in this challenging economic climate.” Click here to read more about the ticket price freeze.

The only exceptions will be scheduled price increases in the 30-year personal seat license program, which are coming off a three-year price freeze; some luxury suites and Marquee Village accommodations; and reserved seats in the infield.

Churchill Downs is also offering the opportunity for on-track customers to buy Derby reserved seats in a sweepstakes running each day from tomorrow (Saturday, Nov. 22) through Nov. 29. Individuals whose names are drawn will be eligible to buy two Derby tickets ranging in price from $88 to $207. (Derby tickets range in price from $88 for infield reserved seats to $693 on millionaire’s row.) One thousand of the tracks 55,000 seats are being offered in the sweepstakes. For more details, click here.

Copyright © 2008, The Paulick Report

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By Ray Paulick

The Labor Day announcement that Stonerside Stables has been sold by Robert and Janice McNair to Dubai’s Sheikh Mohammed is troubling news – not over concerns that the sheikh’s Darley operation may become a dominating force in American racing and breeding but because of the symbolism of McNair’s departure from active participation in our sport.

With the exception of a few horses they are retaining, the McNairs sold the multi-state breeding, training and racing operation lock, stock and barrel for an undisclosed sum that surely approaches or exceeds $100 million.

The McNairs began development of the farm and racing stable in 1994, a mere 14 years ago. And now, just like that, they are getting out. Pfft!

Why?

The press release announcing the sale said Robert McNair found it increasingly difficult to devote enough time to Stonerside in light of his ownership of the National Football League’s Houston Texans, a franchise that McNair bid $700 million to buy and which played its first NFL game in 2002, five years after the Houston Oilers moved to Tennessee and were renamed the Titans. Despite going their first six seasons without a winning record, the Houston Texans were appraised by Forbes magazine as the fourth most valuable team in the NFL (behind the Dallas Cowboys, Washington Redskins and New England Patriots) with an estimated value of over $1 billion.

To get the Texans and return the NFL to Houston, McNair outbid entertainment mogul Michael Ovitz and billionaire oilman Marvin Davis, among others, who wanted to bring a franchise back to Los Angeles, which had lost the Rams to St. Louis and the Raiders to Oakland. McNair knew that the NFL was the sports world’s most valuable league, and understood the power that a strong league office, with the support of team owners, had in shared media rights, merchandising, sponsorships, and marketing. Stepping up with a bid of $700 million seemed like a big risk, but now it looks like a bargain.

While McNair was busy starting his NFL team, he also lent his support, time, personal resources and expertise to a project that the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association was trying to launch: the Thoroughbred Championship Tour (TCT). The TCT was a property Thoroughbred owners would create through an investment of $25 million, hosting a series of races showcasing top horses in divisions tied to the Breeders’ Cup at tracks throughout the country. The TCT would control media and wagering rights for those races.

McNair was named chairman of the TCT, which after its public unveiling in 2003 was slow to get off the ground for a variety of reasons, including TOBA’s staffing inadequacies. TOBA board members and TCT officials went to the Breeders’ Cup and National Thoroughbred Racing Association (which at that time were effectively one organization) for support, but they were stonewalled by some of the same people who helped kill previous initiatives, including Fred Pope’s National Thoroughbred Association. Leading the charge against the TCT was G. Watts Humphrey, who along with Will Farish controlled the executive committee of the Breeders’ Cup until its governance was changed and its board elected by nominators.

The stonewalling worked. After a series of meetings among racing organizations that went on for years, TCT announced in 2005 that it was “suspending operations” – which might be a stretch. There never really were any operations…only discussions.

The opposition of Humphrey and other “old guard” Thoroughbred owners and breeders to the TCT and its “new guard” supporters had carryover effects beyond this attempt to create a series of races for the best horses in training. There were hard feelings by people like McNair who were trying to bring change to an industry that has long resisted it. Some in the new guard kept pushing for change through the Breeders’ Cup election and governance process, which still remains under the control of the old guard. Others have backed away from industry initiatives after getting a bad taste in their mouth from their experience with the TCT.

McNair is getting out of the horse business almost entirely, instead putting all of his considerable energy into the NFL, where there is more enlightened leadership and, as a result, heightened opportunities to grow a business.

This much we know: the NFL’s gain is the horse industry’s loss.

 

Contact:    Erin Halliwell

                  Director of Marketing and Communications

                  (859) 276-2291

                  ehalliwell@toba.org

 

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association (TOBA) announced today that the Sales Integrity Task Force is the recipient of the 2008 Industry Service Award. The award will be presented at the TOBA National Awards Dinner, Saturday, September 6 at the Lexington Center, in Lexington, Ky.

The Sales Integrity Task Force reconvened in 2007 to develop industry consensus on licensing of bloodstock agents and consignors, transparency in ownership in the sales arena and transparency in medication in the sales arena. The task force recommended a bloodstock agent code of conduct be added to the conditions of sale, voluntary ownership disclosure in an ownership registry, updated prohibited practices and exogenous anabolic steroid testing at the buyer’s discretion. All of these recommendations have been adopted by sales companies Keeneland and Fasig-Tipton. 

Members of the 2007 Task Force receiving the special honor include: John Adger (Stonerside Stables); Mike Akers (Dapple Bloodstock); Headley Bell (Nicoma Bloodstock); Jimmy Bell (Darley USA); Reynolds Bell, Jr. (Reynolds Bell Thoroughbred Services); Wayne Boyd (Western Kentucky Horse Sales); Bill Casner (WinStar Farm); Robert Clay (Three Chimneys); Joe Costa (Tattersalls Sales); Charles “Redd” Crabtree (Crabtree Farms); Bruce Crowe (United Mountain Horse Association); Bill Farish (Lane’s End); Bill Heiligbrodt (Heiligbrodt Racing Stable); Jess Jackson (Stonestreet Farm); Ken Jackson (Kentuckiana Farms); Bill Landes (Hermitage Farm); Norman Luba (Kentucky Quarter Horse Association); Tom Ludt (Vinery); Reiley McDonald (Eaton Sales); Martha Jane Mulholland (Mulholland Springs Farm); Nick Nicholson (Keeneland Association); Denny Nunnelley (Kentucky Quarter Horse Racing Association); Frank Penn (Pennbrook Farm); Walt Robertson (Fasig-Tipton); Earl Rogers (Kentucky Walking Horse Association); Geoffrey Russell (Keeneland Association); Dermot Ryan (Ashford Stud); Satish Sanan (Padua Stables); Fred Sarver (American Saddlebred Horse Association); Fred Seitz (Thoroughbred trainer/Brookdale Farm); John Sikura (Hill ‘n’ Dale Farms); Mark Taylor (Taylor Made Farm); D.G. Van Clief (Fasig-Tipton); John Ward (Thoroughbred trainer); Jack Wolf (Starlight Stables); and Bayne Welker (Mill Ridge Farm). Alex Waldrop, president of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, was the moderator for the task force.

“The individual and collective contributions from all members of the Sales Integrity Task Force must be recognized for their selfless giving of time as well as their expertise,” said Dan Metzger, president of TOBA. “Our industry was facing a daunting challenge and we responded with an unwavering commitment to integrity. The united and overwhelming support

for the task force’s recommendations demonstrated that we can improve our industry by working together.”

            TOBA manages the Sales Integrity Program which implements the task force’s findings, provides public education to sales participants and manages programmatic communications. More information is available at www.salesintegrity.org.