Posts Tagged ‘international horse racing’
Tuesday, December 1st, 2009
By Ray Paulick
TOKYO, Japan—I’ve been coming to the Japan Cup every year but one since 1993 and have yet to see an American-trained horse win. The first couple of years were promising: Kotashaan finished second, a length and a quarter behind Legacy World in 1993, and Paradise Cre ek was nosed out by Marvelous Crown in ’94. Since then, only one American-trained horse has even hit the board—that being Sarafan, who was beaten a nose by Falbrav in 2002.
I’m beginning to wonder if an American horse will ever win this race again. Americans won three of the first eight runnings from 1981-’88 and took a fourth Japan Cup when the Charlie Whittingham-trained Golden Pheasant won the 1991 renewal. But that was the last American victory in this major international race.
The Breeders’ Cup, inaugurated in 1984, has certainly had an impact on the Japan, with most of the best American turf horses staying home. So has the introduction of the early December international race meeting at Hong Kong. But there’s more to the story; Japanese runners have simply gotten better, the result of a concerted effort in the 1980s to improve the breed, when the American bloodstock market was in a down cycle and the Japanese yen was strong against the dollar.
We have a similar condition today.
THE DISAPPOINTMENT I have felt watching one American horse after another go down to defeat in the Japan Cup is nothing compared to the feeling I experienced Sunday morning at the Tokyo race course when a representative of the Japan Racing Association told me that Summer Bird was injured and would be forced to miss this Sunday’s Japan Cup Dirt.
 The Birdstone colt, the probable 3-year-old male champion of 2009 in North America, is almost certainly the best horse sent from the U.S. to Japan for the Japan Cup Dirt. The race was inaugurated in 2000 and has been won just once by an American horse—the longshot Fleetstreet Dancer in 2003.
This is a race American horses should be able to win, since the best Japanese horses compete on turf and there have been virtually no European contenders in the Japan Cup Dirt. Yet the winner’s share of the $3-million prize is not likely to go to an American runner this year, unless the Tiznow colt Tizway, fourth in the Whitney and third in the Jockey Club Gold Cup, pulls off a big surprise.
Some horsemen go through an entire career without having the opportunity to train a horse the quality of Summer Bird. Tim Ice had the good fortune of having Summer Bird in his barn shortly after going out on his own as a head trainer. Ice took the injury in stride, saying you have to accept the bad with the good that comes along, but you know the injury had to hit him like a punch to the gut.
Ice did an outstanding job with Summer Bird all season long. Let’s hope surgery is successful on the colt’s injured leg and he returns as good as ever in 2010. If not, as Ice said, Summer Bird “owes him nothing.”
Japan Racing Association officials were devastated by news of the injury, too. Summer Bird was a heavily promoted international star in the Japanese media and his defection from the Japan Cup Dirt will have an impact on both on-track attendance and handle, two economic indicators that have been trending in the wrong direction for a dozen years in Japan.
 Over the last several years, the JRA has added new bet types, and plans to introduce a pick five wager in 2011. But nothing the JRA has attempted so far has boosted business.
Despite the grim economic news (if attendance of 98,000 and handle of over $300 million for the Japan Cup is grim!), Japanese racing fans continue to show an incredible affection for the sport and its equine and human stars. On Japan Cup morning (and on almost all days when important Grade 1 races are run), the gates of the JRA tracks open at 8 a.m., and there is a ritualistic “mad dash” to desirable spots along the rail just p ast the finish line by hundreds of amateur photographers, many of whom have camped outside the track for several days to be first through the gate, The enthusiasm of these fans is infectious and can serve as a tonic to jaded souls who feel racing has lost its connection with the public.
Tomorrow, I’ll be heading to Osaka and Hanshin race course in anticipation of Sunday’s Japan Cup Dirt. I’ll report from there on Thursday.
A FINAL NOTE: There have been some unfortunate rumors floating through the internet that this reporter was spotted at a Tokyo karaoke studio on Sunday night, warbling with a trio of Japanese racing journalists. Unless you have pictures or a recording of the event, it is nothing more than a rumor. What happens in Tokyo…well, you know the rest.
Copyright © 2009, The Paulick Report
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Tags: Birdstone, Horse Racing, international horse racing, japan cup, japan cup dirt, japan racing association, jra, Paulick Report, Ray Paulick, Summer Bird, tim ice, tizway
Posted in International Racing, Japan | 10 Comments »
Friday, January 2nd, 2009
Gina Rarick and I grew up as neighbors of sorts – she on a Wisconsin dairy farm and I amidst the cornfields on the Prairie State side of the Illinois-Wisconsin border. We both gravitated toward journalism and the Thoroughbred industry, though her life’s work carried her across the Atlantic Ocean to Paris, France, while mine only brought me a few hundred miles down the interstate to within a half-hour’s drive of Paris, Kentucky.
 Rarick (pictured, left) began her career in journalism nearly a quarter-century ago at the Milwaukee Journal and she wound up as the turf writer for the International Herald Tribune in Paris, France, covering major race meetings around the world. She never completely lost her rural roots, taking riding lessons while working in Chicago and later in Paris. She got serious about horses in France, getting her jockey’s license and riding into the winner’s circle in her first race in 2001 at the age of 38.
One year later, Rarick took out her trainer’s license, juggling a small stable with her journalism career, finally giving up the latter in 2008 to work full time as a trainer in Maisons-Laffitte. She hasn’t total abandoned writing, however, maintaining a frequently updated blog at her web site, www.gallopfrance.com. You can contact Gina at grarick@gallopfrance.com.
Rarick has been reading about American racing’s problems and offers her international perspective in the following commentary, arguing that the Thoroughbred industry in the U.S. needs a strong central governing body. Let us know your reaction to Rarick’s assertion in the comments section at the end of this article or by taking the Daily Paulick Poll, found on the left-hand column of the Paulick Report home page. – Ray Paulick
By Gina Rarick
There has been endless debate over the past year about how to save racing in the United States, and the focus has turned lately to how to pay for it all and who gets what size piece of an ever-dwindling pie.
For my money, cleaning up the sport and turning the focus back to the well-being of the equine athlete is the first and only way to go forward, but for those who insist on dwelling on the business model, I’d like to offer a little international perspective that may be of use.
In France, where I train, the betting handle has nearly doubled over the past decade. It rose to 9 billion euros in 2007, the most recent year for which figures are available, from 5.5 billion euros in 1997. In the United States, the handle fell to 10 billion euros in 2007 from 13.7 billion in 1997. The figures are from the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities, which converts all figures to euros for ease of comparison. The takeout in France fell to 26% in 2007 from 30% in 1997, while in the United States the takeout has been steady at about 21%. Both countries return about 8% to the sport.
In Great Britain, things are far more complicated because of the bookmakers. The overall betting handle rose to 15 billion euros in 2006, the latest numbers available, from 7.5 billion in 1997. But most of that betting was done with betting exchanges or bookmakers, who return just 1% to the sport, compared with the already-paltry 4% from the pari-mutuel Tote system. Overall takeout fell to 16% in 2006 from 22% in 1997.
Lies, damn lies and statistics. What does it all mean? First off, bookmakers and any sort of fragmented market are mortal for the sport.
Racing in Britain is in horrible shape, with breeders producing far more horses than the sport can support, counting on a lucrative export market that is drying up. The average purse in Britain last year was 15,000 euros (and that’s the total purse, not the win prize). But that tops the average 12,000 euro purse in the United States. In France, where the pari-mutuel PMU system has a monopoly on betting, the average purse was 21,000 euros.
One of the big arguments that bettors make is that lowering the takeout will increase the betting handle. But the takeout in the United States has remained constant for the past decade, while the handle has fallen.
True, the takeout in France and England has dropped, and the handle has risen. And it’s also true that big players are cognizant of this sort of thing. I’m a trainer, not a gambler (or at least not a serious one), but it’s my impression that most casual bettors, and certainly new, small players, pay absolutely no attention to the takeout. They’re here for the spectacle and the horses. When the pretty gray filly shatters her ankles and is euthanized on the track, they’re disgusted and they’re not coming back.
And as much as we like to think the whales run the sport, it’s the small players that provide the lifeblood. In France, the average bet last year was 11 euros; 40% of the players were women, and one in four were under 35 years of age. The PMU operation in France has a stunning marketing campaign, and the daily “Quinte Plus” handicap, where the object is to pick the first five past the post in order, has a huge national following. Many people who play don’t know beans about horses – they pick random numbers. That bet alone – offered on one race a day – was responsible for 23% of the handle last year.
The other misconception seems to be that the sport needs to draw fans to the track. Again, as a trainer, I would love to see more people in the stands other than the 10 guys and a cat that show up on any given day here in France. But the numbers in the United States and France show us that most people prefer to bet at home or at off-track facilities. In the United States in 2006, only 11% of the betting was done at the track, compared with 39% in Britain, where people have to show up to get the best odds from the on-course bookies.
In France in 2006, only 2% of the bets were made at the track. I’m not kidding. The only people who show up here are the ones who have to actually saddle the horse or ride it. But advances in technology and ever-better television coverage (at least in France) make it too enticing to curl up on the couch and bet by remote control. Accepting this, rather than trying to change it, seems the only logical way to proceed.
The powers that be in racing – both in France and abroad – seem to be focusing on the top end of the game rather than the bottom, which feeds the top. Your average race-goer (or racing couch potato) doesn’t know the difference between Curlin and a 10,000 euro claimer. These guys want to see full fields to make the betting interesting. Sure, it’s nice to have a good story with a horse running in Group or Grade 1 races to use as a marketing tool. But those stories are few and far between these days, and concentrating on building up only those top races, at the expense of the bottom end, will further eat into the handle.
No one wants to encourage breeding unsuitable horses, but maintaining a good program through all levels will keep people betting. I have rarely seen a card anywhere in America that features seven races with at least 10 runners each. In France, there have been hundreds of horses eliminated from spots during the Deauville winter season this year because of a glut of entries. Rarely is there a race that doesn’t have a full field of 16.
I’m not saying we have a racing Utopia over here. Every jurisdiction has its problems, and ours is the cold north wind blowing from Brussels that is pushing France to open the betting monopoly. If this happens, our purses are likely to go the way of the rest of the Continent, and the sport will begin to die, just as it is in Germany, Belgium and, unfortunately, Great Britain. As it is, runners from all those countries are regular visitors here, trying to earn some money the old-fashioned way – by crossing the line first.
I can’t see how American racing can save itself without some sort of nationwide governing body. I know this idea is anathema to many and downright offensive to some, but I can’t see how the sport can survive with a different set of medication rules and different betting systems for every state. Only with a unified front — and a total ban on race-day medication — can the United States truly participate in the sport on an international level and build confidence at home.
Copyright © 2009, The Paulick Report
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Tags: betting exchange, betting takeout, british bookmakers, drugs in racing, francegallop.com, gina rarick, Horse Racing, international federation of horseracing authorities, international herald tribune, international horse racing, maisons-laffitte, milwaukee journal, off-track betting, pari-mutuel wagering, Paulick Report, pmo, quinte plus, racing medication, Ray Paulick, Simulcasting, turf writing
Posted in Horse Racing, Industry Reform, International Racing, Medication, Racing Media, Thoroughbred Business | 29 Comments »
Sunday, November 30th, 2008
By Ray Paulick
Teruya Yoshida’s Screen Hero pulled off a huge upset in the 2,400-meter Japan Cup at Tokyo Racecourse on Sunday, taking the lead in the final 100 meters and holding off a fast-closing Deep Sky, winner of this year’s Japanese Derby. The 4-year-old filly Vodka, winner of the Japanese Derby of 2007 and the wagering favorite in the North American pool, was third. A third Japanese Derby winner, Meisho Samson, battled for the lead into midstretch but faded late.
A 4-year-old son of the Silver Hawk stallion Grass Wonder out of Running Heroine, by Sunday Silence, Screen Hero was bred in Japan by his owner’s Shadai Farm. He is trained by Yuichi Shikato and was ridden by Italian jockey Mirco Demuro, who one day earlier was issued a 30-day license to ride in Japan. Demuro has ridden at Japan Racing Association tracks on a temporary license every year since 1999.
The win was the fifth in 17 starts for Screen Hero and his first in a Grade 1 race. He was coming off a victory in the Grade 2 Copa Republica Argentino over the same Tokyo grass course. Click here to see past performances for the race.
Screen Hero covered the distance (about 1 ½ miles) in 2:25.50 and paid $122.80 to win in the North American pools. The race was televised in North America by TVG.
There were no North American horses in the race following the scratch by trainer Neil Drysdale of Canadian International winner Marsh Side due to a fever.
Copyright © 2008, The Paulick Report
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Tags: deep sky, grass wonder, Horse Racing, international horse racing, japan cup, japan racing association, japanese derby, japanese horse racing, jra, marsh side, meisho samson, mirco demuro, Paulick Report, Ray Paulick, shadai, silver hawk, sunday silence, terry yoshida, teruya yoshida, tvg, vodka, yuichi shikato
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Monday, November 10th, 2008
By Ray Paulick
The challenges that confront racing seem to be the sport’s universal language, and potential solutions, it seems, are similar from one continent to another. Winfried Englebrecht-Bresges, CEO of the Hong Kong Jockey Club and chairman of the Asian Racing Federation, outlined those challenges and proposed some solutions during his opening address of the 32nd Asian Racing Conference in Tokyo on Tuesday morning.
Looking back on the last conference, held in Dubai in January 2007, Englebrecht-Bresges referred to the “racing without borders” theme that required a strategic plan to deal with the harmonization of regulatory issues and business strategies. Some progress has been made on the regulatory front, he said, but many hurdles remain before international commingling of pari-mutuel wagers becomes commonplace. “It must be a winning proposition for all stakesholders,” Englebrecht-Bresges said, including customers, governments and operators. "Currently," he said, "we are not structured correctly to deal with the challenge."
Among the hurdles are laws in some countries, most notably Hong Kong and Japan, that prohibit or restrict commingled betting; double taxation on commingled bets; marketing and sponsorship issues; TV and data rights questions, and software challenges among tote companies that will require investment and commitment by the various stakeholders. “We will struggle if we won’t change,” he said.
Englebrecht-Bresges outlined what he called “three guiding principles” to address the challenges. Racing must exert influence on the regulatory side, he said, because “the integrity of the sport is a fundamental issue. Drugs will bring the sport to its knees if we don’t proactively fight this problem.” He referenced cycling and how the burden of doping could cost the sport dearly in lost television rights if not addressed.
Secondly, Englebrecht-Bresges said, the industry must facilitate the sharing of best practices in racing and in other outside industries by bringing together stakeholders who have common interests.
Finally, he said, bigger organizations must mentor smaller organizations, especially those countries who are in the early stages of expanding their racing and/or breeding industries.
While some countries are in that early stage, Englebrecht-Bresges said, overall there is stagnancy for the Asian Racing Federation members, with six-year projections that show pari-mutuel wagering turnover declining while other forms of gambling enjoy moderate growth. “We will be a dinosaur,” he said, adding, “it’s not that we are unattractive. But we have to offer different value propositions.”
Not surprisingly, those value propositions are predicated on knowing what customers want, especially new customers that racing needs if it is to survive. He called for all jurisdictions to conduct strategic assessments, and outlined some of the findings the Hong Kong Jockey Club discovered in its own research. Non-racing fans see no relevance in the current racing schedule/fixtures, programs and bet types; much of the activities are not appealing to young people, women, families, and the middle class. Racing lacks innovation, and has a poor approach to its “channel strategy” and customer loyalty programs. Furthermore, he said, industry fragmentation is a key reason for slow response to the challenges.
Regarding channel strategy, Englebrecht-Bresges said racing is “catering to its current customers” through its web sites, where new customers “get lost. We need an integrated channel strategy” that will appeal to existing, new and potential customers, he added.
Englebrecht-Bresges said racing must reach the next generation, but that the strategy of attack must be powered by customers, especially the new customers with which the industry must learn how to better communicate.
“We are in a race,” said the German native who has been with the Hong Kong Jockey Club for 10 years. “Is it a race we can win?”
Englebrecht-Bresges then showed a slide of America’s new president-elect, Barack Obama, featuring the campaign theme of change that stated “Yes, we can.”
“I say," Englebrecht-Bresges concluded, "‘Yes, we must.’"
THE REST OF TUESDAY MORNING’S conference program was baffling. Following Engelbrecht-Bresges was Hiroshi Okuda, who rose through the ranks of the Toyota Motor Corporation to become president and later chairman and is now chairman of the board of governors for the Japan Racing Association.
It’s possible Okuda brought the wrong speech to the Asian Racing Conference, for he devoted his entire talk to "global warming issues." I guess if we all rode horses instead of automobiles, we could help develop a low carbon society, as Okuda said is necessary. But I’m not sure what major impact racing executives could have on global warming.
If that talk didn’t cause the conference focus to jump the tracks, the next two certainly did. Robyn Williams (no, not that one), described as a "mad cap science presenter" from Australia, enlightened (?) the audience about how the world will be changing due to technology. You know, robotics, energy and transportation. Hell, I learned that from watching too many episodes of "The Jetsons" as a kid. In truth, Williams was at least entertaining, and would have made a good lunch-time speaker. But he added little to the serious issues at hand among the Asian Racing Federation delegates.
Andrew Main, the morning’s final speaker, likewise, had little to say linking racing to his area of expertise as business editor of The Australian newspaper.
Filling the opening morning with three speakers who had little relevance to racing left many in the audience scratching their heads and wondering who thought this was a good idea. Copyright © 2008, The Paulick Report
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Tags: 32nd asian racing conference, asian racing conference, asian racing federation, barack obama, commingled pools, englebrecht-bresges, hong kong jockey club, Horse Racing, international commingling, international horse racing, Paulick Report, Ray Paulick, thoroughbred racing, tokyo, winfried englebrecht-bresges, yes we can
Posted in Industry Conferences, International Racing, Simulcasting, Thoroughbred Business | 2 Comments »
Sunday, November 9th, 2008
By Ray Paulick
I knew I wasn’t in Kentucky anymore when I went out for an early morning walk and came across a group of about 20 people standing at a nearby intersection. It was only a two-lane road, and there wasn’t a car in sight in any direction, yet everyone stood patiently for what seemed an eternity, waiting for the crosswalk light to change from red to green.
I resisted the temptation that any American who’s ever jaywalked across a city street surely would have had.
When the light changed, everyone broke into a brisk walk, as if, all of a sudden, they were in a hurry. It is one of the strange .jpg) idiosyncrasies of the people of Japan, this nation of talking elevators, American fast-food, on-time trains and silly television commercials. Its natives honor Japanese laws, yet many of them complain privately about the nature of their traditions.
I’ve come to Tokyo ostensibly to cover the 32nd Asian Racing Conference, which began on Sunday with a trip to the Tokyo Race Course and runs through Thursday. (The time frame of some of my reports may seem a bit odd since I’ll be writing in the past tense about days that haven’t yet arrived in most of the U.S., since Tokyo is plus 14 hours from Eastern Standard Time.)
In truth, however, I’ve decided to cash in some frequent flier miles and come to Japan to meet and hear from officials representing racing countries that have faced challenges, worked cooperatively and developed strategies they hope will succeed and help them grow and prosper. I’ve come for a shot of optimism after nearly drowning in the sea of pessimism that saturates American racing these days, where the efforts seem to focus on stopping the bleeding and the only strategy relies on subsidies from other forms of gambling. Most American tracks have given up on the idea that they can be competitive anymore.
One example: In Hong Kong, where the stock market has fallen by nearly 50% in the current financial crisis, betting is off by about 6%. But the Hong Kong Jockey Club, instead of wringing their hands over the dreadful economy, has developed a new program to give bettors a 10% rebate on individual losing bets that exceed a certain amount.
Another story: When on-track business peaked at Japan Racing Association tracks in the mid 1990s, the JRA looked at its aging flagship track, Tokyo Race Course, and rebuilt the main grandstand, giving it a much more inviting design, one that in some ways resembles the Forum Shops of Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. When they began losing fans, their strategy was fixed on giving on-track customers a better experience.
There are more than 600 delegates here from at least 30 countries. The Asian Racing Federation, which presents the conference, consists of racing nations from Asia, Australia/New Zealand, Africa and the Persian Gulf. These countries represent 36% of the world’s prize money, 32% of the international foal crops and 47% of global wagering on pari-mutuel racing. Europeans and Americans are welcome to attend the conference, though only a handful of them do. Only five Americans are scheduled to be here, two of whom are journalists.
 Among those I ran into at the track was Michael Dickinson and his partner, Joan Wakefield, who are here as exhibitors for Tapeta Footings, the synthetic surface developed by Dickinson that has been used so successfully at, among other places, Golden Gate Fields, Presque Isle Downs and the Fair Hill Training Center in the U.S., and as a training track in Dubai. Dickinson, of course, is hoping to find new clients among the Asian Racing Federation’s membership.
It was the couple’s first visit to Japan, and as someone who’s been to Tokyo a number of times for the Japan Cup and other major races, I gave them a walking tour of the massive, yet elegant new building. They were amazed at the cleanliness and bright, friendly design, the variety of comfort levels, and the size and length of the nine-story main structure, which is nearly a quarter-mile long.
.jpg) In the bowels of the grandstand, there is a maze of tunnels for horses to use as they leave the paddock, go onto one of the three tracks, or return to the stable area. We took one tunnel up to the winner’s circle, where Dickinson gazed wistfully out onto the main turf course and dirt track, desperately wanting to walk the courses to get a feel for them. The former trainer is a man long obsessed with the conditions and safety of racing surfaces, and his new calling as a proponent of synthetic tracks comes to him naturally.
“Do you think it would be okay for me to walk out there, after all the races have run, just to see what the dirt and grass tracks are like?” Dickinson asked. And he wasn’t kidding.
I’ll try to find out tomorrow whether the man known as the “mad genius” found his way out there to sample the footing of the Tokyo turf and dirt. I’ll be reporting from inside the meeting and presentation rooms of the conference, and working the unofficial meetings and break rooms for the latest news and gossip throughout the racing world.
I’ve come here in search of some optimism for our sport, to learn more about how other countries have achieved their success. I’ll be disappointed if I return home empty handed.
Copyright © 2008, The Paulick Report
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Tags: 32nd asian racing conference, asian racing conference, asian racing federation, betting rebates, dubai, fair hill training center, golden gate fields, hong kong jockey club, Horse Racing, international horse racing, japan racing, japan racing association, joan wakefield, jra, michael dickinson, Paulick Report, presque isle downs, Ray Paulick, synthetic racing surface, synthetic surface, tapeta, tapeta footings, tokyo race course
Posted in Horse Racing, Industry, Industry Conferences, International Racing, Synthetic surfaces | 10 Comments »
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