Posts Tagged ‘Haiti’

By Ray Paulick
The good news on this Friday is that Oaklawn Park owner Charles Cella appears to have pulled it off, getting commitments from the owners of 2009 Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra and undefeated two-time champion Zenyatta to contest the Apple Blossom Invitational, which is being moved from April 3 to April 9 at the Hot Springs, Ark., track and will carry a $5 million purse if both compete.

But that’s just one race, and it is hoped the two champion distaffers will face each other a number of times before the year is over. How can racing, an often dysfunctional industry, pull off this even bigger challenge?

I have a proposed solution to this challenge, whether the Apple Blossom dream match comes to fruition or not.

Remember when Barack Obama was campaigning for president and promising to deliver on health care reform, in part by avoiding backroom deals and pledging transparency? He said the negotiations for legislation could be televised on CSPAN. Well, we’re 13 months into Obama’s presidency, and that promise was broken. It was business as usual in the nation’s capital as legislators, lobbyists and the Obama administration went back and forth on health care, winding up with separate bills in the House and Senate that are unlikely to be reconciled with enough support to be voted into law. He should have stuck to his promise.

Jess Jackson, the majority owner of Rachel Alexandra, has been an advocate for transparency in many aspects of Thoroughbred racing in the few years he has been active as an owner. But Jackson, in a press release issued on Wednesday night in which he said Rachel Alexandra would not compete in the Apple Blossom on its original date of April 3, admitted that he had been secretly working behind the scenes with the National Thoroughbred Racing Association to come up with a series of races between his filly and Zenyatta. Those talks were taking place without consulting with Jerry and Ann Moss, the owners of Zenyatta, trainer John Sherriffs or his wife Dottie Ingordo, the racing manager for the Mosses.

Jackson, according to sources, has been pushing for three races, with purses ranging from $3 million to $5 million for each race. I thought Jackson was keeping Rachel Alexandra in training for the benefit of the sport, not for the good of his bank account. In my opinion, this is not the way to get a deal done that’s in the best interests of the industry.

So here’s the proposal.

Instead of backroom deals, let’s negotiate this racing series in the light of day. More specifically, on racing’s version of CSPAN—either TVG or HRTV. The two racing networks can bid for the right to televise the negotiations. Of course, we’d want the races to be televised on more widely distributed networks.

We’ll need a tough facilitator with some experience in racing, and I’ve got the perfect candidate: Tom Meeker, the former CEO of Churchill Downs. Meeker is a former U.S. Marine lieutenant colonel who did three tours of duty in the Vietnamese conflict. He’s a no-nonsense leader who speaks his mind. Meeker has just returned from Haiti, where he assisted in logistics for a surgical team sent into the earthquake ravaged nation by Thoroughbred owner and breeder Earle Mack, a philanthropist, businessman and former U.S. Ambassador to Finland for President George W. Bush. Come to think of it, if Meeker can’t serve as facilitator, perhaps Mack could. The lives he helped save in Haiti would call him a miracle worker.

Racetracks and associations interested in luring Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta would be required to put together detailed written proposals for a race that include the two champions, along with their plans to promote it. Each proposal would be accompanied by a non-refundable deposit of $50,000.

The money from the rights to televise the negotiations, along with those non-refundable deposits from tracks would all go to a racing charity chosen by the connections of the horse that does best in the head-to-head matchups. (Update: this proposal is not for match races of just two horses,)

The facilitator would lay out all the proposals to Jackson and the Mosses and their respective advisers (limit of three, please). He would then put on a pair of brass knuckles, lock the doors, and not let anyone out of the room until an agreement is reached on where and when they will try to meet—all while the cameras were rolling.

Racing has a rare opportunity to make something very special happen in 2010. Please, let’s not allow this one to slip through our hands.

Copyright © 2010, The Paulick Report

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By Ray Paulick
Earle I. Mack, a successful Thoroughbred owner and breeder who is well known in the world of arts, philanthropy and business, was horrified when he first saw the news reports coming out of Haiti, with estimates of up to 500,000 deaths, hundreds of thousands more injured, and as many as 1.5 million homeless in the island nation’s capital, Port-Au-Prince, following the devastating earthquake that struck Jan. 12.

“One million homes had completely collapsed,” Mack told the Paulick Report, “and I was trying to envision those people trapped under buildings, calling out for help, and no way to get them out.”

Mack, a former Ambassador to Finland during the administration of George W. Bush, had never been to Haiti, but felt a responsibility to help in whatever way he could.

“Haiti was in very bad shape before the earthquake,” he said. “Our American ethic is to help and to give. We were born that way. Our ancestors on the Mayflower gave that to us. It is part of our culture.”
 
The more he learned about the situation, the more he realized how dire it was. People with injuries ranging from minor cuts to severe trauma and damaged limbs were in desperate need of medical help, and relief of any kind was slow in coming. Several hospitals were destroyed by the tremors. There was a decimated infrastructure, organizational red tape and a distribution system for supplies that was slow to develop.

“They couldn’t get the medical equipment and doctors there fast enough—not for lack of trying but lack of organization and coordination,” he said. “The one runway at the airport didn’t have lights, though it’s finally set up to land planes 24/7. Roads from the airport to the city are virtually impassable. The only way to move supplies around is by helicopter. After more than a week, there still are only a few bulldozers being used to help rescue people.

“Giving money to the Red Cross wasn’t going to get there on time (to provide immediate medical help),” he continued. “Even Doctors Without Borders was having trouble getting in and being effective. So I decided to do my own mission. I got a self-contained hospital team, led by Dr. Joseph Debellis. They went in after the tsunami hit several years ago, and have acted in other international emergency situations. They are a world famous team: they come with surgeons anesthesiologists, nurses, tents, generators, painkillers, antibiotics and other medical supplies. These doctors have their own infrastructure, their own points of contact. They don’t have to go through the morass of Army and regulations.”

Mack chartered three flights into Haiti so far and is working to enlist more doctors and nurses, flying them in whenever the slots to land are available. “We’ve filled the planes with doctors and supplies,” he said. “On our last flight there wasn’t room for 150 loaves of bread donated by Publix.”

The situation remains grim, Mack said, citing a New York Times article that said as many as 20,000 people are dying every day because of the lack of medical attention. “Imagine that you fell and cut your leg open,” he said, “not seriously, but serious enough that you need stitches.  You go to your local doctor, get a few stitches and some antibiotics and you’re on your way in 25 minutes.

“The Haitians, even with minor injuries, with infections and gangrene setting in, can lose their limbs or die. We’ve got to get as much medical help and supplies there as possible.”

The surgeons brought in on the charter flights, Mack said, “are operating in parks, basements, anywhere there can be a hospital. They are working around the clock.”

Dr. Debellis is a board member of the organization International Surgical Mission Support, which was formed in 1996 and has traveled to world hotspots to lend a hand where and when it is needed most.  They consider that every life saved is important. The group lives by the motto: “To the world I may be one person, but to one person I may be the world.”

I tried to thank Mack for stepping up and taking such heroic strides to save the lives of people he’s never met in a country he’s never visited. He stopped me, saying: “Look, I’m not a hero. It’s these doctors and nurses that are the heroes. These people dropped what they were doing and took the time to trek down here with their equipment. They didn’t know where they were going to live, they’re going at it 24/7, and they are doing incredible work.

“But it’s a life or death situation.”