Comments on: PAULICK LIVE BLOGS BC STRATEGIC PLAN TELECONFERENCE

By: Don Reed

Don Reed — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 22:01:52 +0000

The BC was destroyed when it went to a two-day event.

As far as I’m concerned, it doesn’t even exist any longer.

Why get involved in all this when what is obvious is ignored?

“OOOOO - let’s set up a Facebook account. Problem fixed.”

Even major league baseball executives - some of the deadest mental electrical sockets in the country, at the time - figured out that two All Star games in one year was a mistake.

Keep dancing, you wealthy fools. The music you hear is only in your head.

By: Garrett Redmond

Garrett Redmond — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 23:55:07 +0000

Questions that have not been answered. Never will be, unless someone screams FRAUD.

By: Bob Hope

Bob Hope — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 22:55:41 +0000

yes evertt, your point is well taken but if our high priced leaders can derail the BC that had a $40 million dollar reserve invested with friends of the groupies, how can we rely on the others who were spun off to allow the BC to function with all of the money. Let’s stick to history here and revisit what has happened politically between the NTRA and the BC. Once these folks “join up” they are reluctant
to study the “facts of failure”. It becomes similar to tax dollars and politicians that play with other peoples money. No one is culpable except Bernie Madoff ! Try identifying who the money was invested with. Was it a reputable firm. Did the board know the relationship in the industry. These are easy questions that have never been answered.

By: bernborough

bernborough — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 21:00:53 +0000

please exuse my dreadful typing error…i meant sanan - both times!

By: Everett

Everett — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 20:14:49 +0000

Handle is plummeting. Medication is a major perception issue. The simulcasting tank is running dry. Gaming subsidizes purses but brings no new fans. MEC is bankrupt. NYRA just emerged but is still waiting for gaming revenue. Tracks in major US markets are going out of business or holding on by a thread. The bloodstock market is getting killed by the economy and there are those who argue it has been artificially propped up for years by the Maktoums and the Coolmore crowd.

And we’re all worked up over the Breeders’ Cup, its governance and strategic plan?

By: Garrett Redmond

Garrett Redmond — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 17:47:10 +0000

Mr. Ed (#19),

Up to this moment it seemed to me I was the only voice calling for effective action by refusing to nominate foals. Happy to read you are pushing the same policy. Moreover, we need to apply the same pressure to The Jockey Club. Charging $200 to register a Thoroughbred when Quarter Horses can get registration for less than half that, is robbery. Of course, it takes $200 a foal to pay the top executive nearly one million dollars a year. That is correct - $1,000,000.

You write: “Join up with Wilbur and me”. I’m willing. Where is the recruiting station?

By: bernborough

bernborough — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 14:19:35 +0000

great comments here and thanks again ray for superb blow by blow coverage we would not normally get. i like satan. he has a stake in the industry, has good ideas and he is trying to shake up a moribund industry. but…but…but….this conference should not have been held. they had nothing to say. seemed held just to justify the expense of hiring field in the first place and examining a report only insiders got a chance to read. i don’t know field or his background, but his comments as recounted here seemed empty and insubstantial, bereft of insight. more bromides we don’t need.

to me, medication is front and center for a host of reasons, not the least of which is that every time there is a break down now, the question arises: should this horse be allowed to run in the first place? what drugs was it on? does this trainer have a pharma record? and this is magnified in tc or bc events. until they ban race-day medication, the industry will be in retreat, with fans leaving in droves and new fans unenthused. the bc could address questions of integrity and confidence by introducing a race-day medication ban immediately. zero tolerance. but, as pointed out in messages above, not a word on medication. it is as if they are tip-toeing around the elephant in the room and re-arranging the cutlery. pointless.

satan has worked hard to shine the light on 2yo in training. he should exert the same effort on the bc and forget consultants who feed us the same tripe, year after year. co-operation with racetracks is not i would call profound!

By: mr. ed

mr. ed — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 14:11:52 +0000

horseracing fans,
please, please, please.
instead of all this well-intended venting over mission statements and business plans, why not start with a simple plan of action.
let’s take the breeder’s cup existing business plan (if they can find it) and start measuring the success or relative failure by breeders cup officials to implement it.
seems like a reasonable suggestion.
isn’t that what SERIOUS business excecutives do.
any business plan that dodges accountability is worthless—a sham. (i loved that horse!)
but it ain’t gonna happen is it racefans.
breeder’s cup officials refuse to accept accountability for their own failings and we continually leave them off the hook, elect new players, and foolishly expect that we will see different results.
einstein said you can’t keep doing the same thing and expect different outcomes. i think he said “dat’s retarded”, or something to that effect.
what we have learned since the inception of the breeder’s cup board is that they THINK they know best.
we have patiently watched pratfall after pratfall.
these are good men. they mean well,
they are just in way over their collective heads. their arrogance gets a bit tedious too.
the inherent structure of the board was never designed to effect change, or show an appreciation for transparency.
that is not just opinion. after a quarter of a century it has become fact.
wake up horseracing nation.
you are not going to fix this travesty of leadership.
“brilliant,” creative solutions to our problems will not come from breeder’s cup officials.
changing players will not bring your hoped for results.
instead of grousing about who sits in what chair or leads what committe— do something meaningful that will illicit their undivided attention–stop registering your foals.
see how quickly they listen up then to our views about their excuse making and leadership ineptitude.
make a committment to make the breeders cup what john gaines and others invisioned.
a one year boycott of foal registration should do the trick.
many of us have all ready begun the boycott, we need to reach a critical mass for a successful protest.
the board refuses to acknowledge the sliding numbers of registrations as proof of our commitment to reinventing a successful breeder’s cup.
it is about time they give us credit for having the courage of our convictions.
join up with wilbur and me.

By: Bob Hope

Bob Hope — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 11:49:36 +0000

There is some very good thinking here. It is interesting that we have some high priced consultants from England touting some high priced BC folks with no mention of a high quality presentation. The way this is going, the Claiming Crown will soon take precedence over the BC. The British consultant only had to look at what happens in Europe to see the difference. Why not put claiming tags on the remaining 5% of the horse herd and get it over with. Then we make it completely classless. Let’s play a game here and apply (overlay)the BC conference(substance) to a meeting of the executives of the Masters, the British Open, the Super Bowl or the Indy 500. Don’t Laugh….its that ridiculous! With 90-95% of US racing content supplying a daily diet of claiming races how in the hell do you effectively fuel a BC ? Intelligent change does matter !

By: Noelle

Noelle — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 05:06:16 +0000

Further to my comments above, after this year’s KY Derby, racing had a publicist’s dream story landed in its lap. Mine That Bird was a cheap horse - disrespected, unheralded - a loser who made it to the Derby by a fluke. And then - against all odds - Mine That Bird WON the Kentucky Derby - with every expert against him and all saying it was impossible that he might win.

How great was that? What stories could have been told about this horse? What a wonderful horse he was, no matter how he was judged by the “experts” before the race. How many kids in America could have made a champion of the “little horse”?

So how was the story handled? Badly. From the moment MTB won, all the talk was of Calvin Borel. As if the horse - Mine That Bird - had nothing at all to do with the win. As if Calvin Borel had run the race himself.

Here, in Mine That Bird, racing had an equine “little engine that could’ to promote. Instead, racing gave the story to Borel and threw away whatever good will might have accrued to the sport.