Posts Tagged ‘Breeders’ Cup championships’

By Ray Paulick
Nominators to the Breeders’ Cup program and the Members and Trustees they elected in June have spoken loudly and clearly, and the 13-person board of Directors has five new members from the six positions that were voted on last week. Only one of six incumbents up for re-election managed to retain his position on the board of Directors. That’s a pretty strong statement from the nominators and the 48 Members and Trustees who select the board of Directors.

There may be distinct differences in the two factions that have sought control of the Breeders’ Cup, in areas like governance, transparency and accountability to the stakeholders. There may even be differences in defining who Breeders’ Cup stakeholders or customers are.

But the election cycle is over until June 2010, and whatever differences existed between the two camps—within both the board of Members and Trustees and the smaller operating board of Directors–should be set aside for now, so that the important work on the long-term strategic plan can be done in a collaborative and cooperative manner.

The plan, presented to the Members and Trustees last Thursday, is in itself an example of what can be accomplished if individuals, who may have differences of opinion in many areas, focus instead on what they have in common: namely, a desire to support breeders by promoting the growth of the Thoroughbred racing industry through the staging of the Breeders’ Cup competition. That, in fact, is the new mission statement of the Breeders’ Cup, and I, for one, am glad to see the organization look beyond its late-season championship event.

It’s not enough for the Breeders’ Cup to have a successful day (or two) of racing. Given the ineffectiveness of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association and other organizations like the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association, the Thoroughbred Racing Associations, or the Jockey Club, the Breeders’ Cup may be the only entity that has the critical mass to better organize and promote the sport on a national basis.

Though the 400-page strategic plan has not been released and author William Field of the international consulting firm Value Partners said it is a broad strategy that does not include tactical details, it was revealed that one of the keys to this plan will be to strengthen the road to the championships. This is something that’s been tried before without any measurable success.

Satish Sanan, who deserves a great deal of credit for the cat herding he did as chairman of the Strategic Planning Committee, said racetracks have to be looked upon as partners for a racing series to be effective. “In any business, if you are going to be successful and form long-term relationships, the word partnership means you must be willing to share long-term risks and rewards,” Sanan said in a conference call with Breeders’ Cup nominators and the racing media on Friday. “Your goals really have to be aligned…I think all of the conflicts you hear about really will go away, particularly if it is an all-encompassing partnership. There is a big strategic difference in how we have done it and how we plan to do it in the future.”

That may be easier said than done, which is why it is so important for the Breeders’ Cup board of Directors to support its management team as it attempts to connect the dots the strategic plan has laid out for them. Putting together a financial and implementation plan that includes long-term partnerships with the tracks is on the shoulders of Breeders’ Cup president Greg Avioli and the other Breeders’ Cup executives. Considerations for the plan include what to do with the millions of dollars currently being used to supplement stakes around the country, whether to turn the Breeders’ Cup championships back to a one-day event, to reduce the number of races, or to cut purses. Those are big questions, and they have until December to answer them and finalize a detailed, tactical plan.

There will be time down the road to discuss the issues that divide some of the Members and Trustees and individuals on the board of Directors: election procedures and eligibility, transparency and bylaws. However, the priority between now and the end of the year has to be on turning the strategic plan into something tangible that can help the Breeders’ Cup, racetracks and the sport as a whole.

It’s crunch time.

Copyright © 2009, The Paulick Report

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By Ray Paulick
If the Breeders’ Cup board of directors and management thought the decision last month to reinstate the stakes supplement program in 2009 (less than a week after voting to suspend it) was going to quiet any dissenting voices, they were wrong. A scathing commentary on the Breeders’ Cup, written by longtime owner and breeder Peter Blum and appearing in the Jan. 10, 2009, edition of the Thoroughbred Times, states publicly what a number of nominators to the program have been saying privately for some time: the Breeders’ Cup has lost its way.

Blum’s commentary is a must read. If you’re not a subscriber to the Thoroughbred Times (the article, unfortunately, is not available online), do yourself a favor and beg, borrow or steal a copy of the Jan. 10 issue.

Blum insists the Breeders’ Cup will not be living up to its mission if the board eliminates the stakes supplements after 2009, as many fear will happen. Board chairman Bill Farish said the reinstatement applied only to 2009. Blum suggests some of the Breeders’ Cup leaders “mirror the problems that characterize virtually all of our industry’s leadership; they are uncreative, self-serving, arrogant, out of touch, and not mindful of their constituents.”

He also questions the investment strategy for the organization’s cash reserves, saying the “mismanagement of our money amounts to a serious breach of trust and a failure of fiduciary responsibility.” Blum said he is appalled by compensation packages for and lack of accountability by top management, and believes voting for board of director seats is “skewed.”

His conclusion is a call to action by others who have similar feelings: “We have lost the Breeders’ Cup as it was defined in its original mission statement,” Blum wrote. “It is time for breeders to take it back.”

Blum’s plea should serve as a reminder for breeders throughout the country not to give up on the program and continue to nominate their stallions and foals. The financial backbone of the nominations remains in Kentucky, but every single stallion or foal nominator is a stakeholder in the program who has the opportunity to vote in the annual election of members and trustees. Those members and trustees decide who sits on the Breeders’ Cup board, so the elections are critically important. As citizens of Florida in 2000 and Minnesota in 2008 learned, every vote matters.

It will be interesting to see how the Breeders’ Cup reacts to Blum’s commentary. Will board chairman Farish and CEO Greg Avioli chant a “this too shall pass” mantra and instead focus on a behind-the-scenes strategy to ensure the balance of power on the Breeders’ Cup board of members and trustees remains in their favor when 13 of them are elected later this year? Will they use a vehicle like Bloodhorse magazine, on whose board Farish sits, to respond to Blum’s criticism?

The Breeders’ Cup is not just feeling heat from breeders. There is more than a little sentiment throughout the industry that the expansion of the former one-day, eight-race program to a two-day, 14-race event has diluted the championships among American fans (while, admittedly, increasing interest for European horsemen). Additionally, many racing fans were vocal in their disapproval of the Breeders’ Cup moving all of the filly and mare races to the Friday program in 2008.

The Oak Tree Racing Association, which opted to guarantee $5 million in revenue to the Breeders’ Cup for hosting the 2008 championships at Santa Anita Park, reportedly fell more than $2 million short because of weak ticket sales and lower than anticipated on-track handle. I imagine Oak Tree officials aren’t thrilled with that deal right now. The two sides have been busy working on a settlement that will not jeopardize the Cup’s scheduled return to Santa Anita in 2009.

The growing criticism of the Breeders’ Cup is no small matter. By many accounts, its creation more than 25 years ago was one of the most positive developments the sport has ever seen. No one – including breeders, owners, jockeys, trainers, racetrack companies and racing fans – wants this enormous industry asset to be lost in a maze created through poor leadership.

Copyright © 2009, The Paulick Report

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By Ray Paulick

Well, it was fun while it lasted, this dream of someday returning to Hialeah Park to enjoy horse racing in its most beautiful setting. Since making my first trip there in 1988, when the South Florida track already was in severe decline, I’ve held out hope that someone, somehow could restore it to some semblance of its past elegance.

At first, I let John Brunetti convince me that everyone really was out to get him and that if he could only get a break from state legislators and regulators he could be the one to bring Hialeah back. But then, as the years went by and I saw Brunetti’s recalcitrance and heard about his disingenuous actions from horsemen and others involved in Florida racing, my expectations were that Hialeah Park would never be reopened after running its last race in 2001.

Then along came Halsey Minor, reigniting the flame of hope many of us hold for Hialeah. The Internet entrepreneur and Virginia Thoroughbred owner and breeder put together a team of experts to appraise the property, map out renovations for the grandstand and clubhouse, design new barns, and develop an operating plan. He engaged Brunetti is discussions that so many of us hoped would lead to a sale of the track to Minor and the rebirth of the “sport” of racing in South Florida.

Turns out Brunetti was only jerking his chain.

Brunetti is one of those guys who has a number in his head that isn’t based on appraised values, or highest and best use of the property. The price Brunetti wants today, the Paulick Report has learned, isn’t even in the ballpark of what he was trying to get previously from the state of Florida. It’s much higher.

There is no rationale for Brunetti’s demands, for he isn’t a rational man. He just has a price, and one that isn’t based on reality – especially the reality of an economy that has seen real estate values plummet, credit tighten and development slow to a crawl.

So the talks between Minor and Brunetti are dead, unless Brunetti has any second thoughts.

Given the nature of the economy, financial markets and zoning impediments that would keep Brunetti from bulldozing the track and putting up a business park or condos, Hialeah Park isn’t going anywhere soon. It will just sit empty as Brunetti gets older and more bitter about his plight. Minor, 43 years old and involved in many other business projects, can simply wait Brunetti out and see if his heirs have more interest in doing something with the track than Brunetti.

As Minor has been quoted as saying, in that scenario Brunetti would “forego any of the recognition of giving back what he took from racing."

For Hialeah Park, it’s back to hibernation, unless Brunetti changes his mind and decides that he wants to be a steward of this Thoroughbred racing gem.

SO HORSE OF THE WORLD CURLIN, GINGER PUNCH AND OTHER STAR THOROUGHBREDS racing on a program that included five Grade 1 stakes could only attract 8,563 fans to Belmont Park. No surprise there, especially considering the rainstorms that swept through the New York metropolitan area. But previous crowds to see Curlin compete at New York Racing Association tracks weren’t exactly overwhelming. For both the Woodward at Saratoga and Saturday’s Jockey Club Gold Cup, NYRA’s marketing team tried to stir up interest in a sporting public apathetic to any racing that doesn’t involve the Triple Crown.

The problem isn’t what NYRA’s marketing department has done over the last few months. It’s much bigger than that. The challenge for the “new” out-of-bankruptcy NYRA (which looks suspiciously like the old NYRA to me) is to redefine itself and somehow overcome a reputation defined by decades of arrogance and indifference to the public.

THANKS TO THE READER WHO TIPPED US TO THE LATE SCRATCH OF SAILORS SUNSET from Saturday’s Grade 1 Ancient Title sprint at Santa Anita. A check with the California Horse Racing Board’s equine medical director, Dr. Rick Arthur, confirmed that there was a scratch on that day’s program because a horse received a pre-race throat flush that involved something other than water, the only substance permitted on race day. Arthur said there appeared to be no performance-enhancing procedure attempted on the horse (i.e., a milkshake), but that a steward’s hearing would be conducted into the matter. If Sailors Sunset was indeed the horse in question, the hearing would involve trainer Marcelo Polanco.

California’s prohibition on race-day of throat-washing products such as Wind Aid that are commonly used in some other jurisdictions could create problems at this year’s Breeders’ Cup for trainers unfamiliar with CHRB regulations. For that reason, Arthur said, the Breeders’ Cup horseman’s handbook will explain its medication rules in detail and an associate steward will be assigned to outline California medication rules to every trainer with a horse in the Breeders ‘ Cup.

 

BEST PERFORMANCE OF A SPECTACULAR WEEKEND OF RACING? Was it Curlin’s victory over Wanderin Boy in the Jockey Club Gold Cup? Zenyatta’s dominating performance in the Lady’s Secret at Santa Anita? Eye-popping turf victories by Grand Couturier in the Joe Hirsch Invitational Turf Classic or Red Giant in the Clement L. Hirsch Memorial? How about the stretch-running victory by the 2-year-old Tapit filly Stardom Bound in the Oak Leaf Stakes?

All were outstanding, without question, but in my book the race that might be the most overlooked was the track-record blowout by Fatal Bullet in the Kentucky Cup Sprint at Turfway Park. This 3-year-old Red Bullet gelding is a synthetic track specialist who could be very dangerous on the Pro-Ride surface at Santa Anita in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint.

Who did you like in these Breeders’ Cup preps?

Copyright © 2008, The Paulick Report

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