Posts Tagged ‘ladies’ classic’

While Ray is traveling back from Osaka (hopefully we won’t have to hear too much about jet lag once he returns to the United States), he wanted to reignite the debate over Horse of the Year. The following piece was submitted by Jeff Shapes, a marketing communications consultant, freelance writer and horse racing enthusiast, not necessarily in that order.

By Jeff Shapes
There’s one overriding reason Zenyatta should win the Eclipse Award as Horse of the Year over Rachel Alexandra, and it has nothing to do with their comparative records on the racetrack. No, Zenyatta has earned the honor because her electrifying performance in the Breeders’ Cup Classic flew in the face of the general negative assessment of her chances to win the event, while at the same time capping off a brilliant, undefeated career that put her into the discussion of who is history’s greatest female race horse. Now, if that doesn’t make her Horse of the Year, they might as well retire the award.
 
Yes there had been speculation that if Zenyatta ran in the Classic and won, there’d be a Horse of the Year debate. But in their heart of hearts, not to mention their racing opinions, those speculators, whether in public or not, didn’t believe Zenyatta had what it took to beat the “big” boys in the big race. Indeed, there were some who said she shouldn’t even run in the Classic, since there wasn’t really anything to gain. Better to protect her legacy as an undefeated champion with another romp in the Ladies’ Classic, than to go out with a loss chasing an unattainable goal.
 
Need some proof of how little regard the experts had for Zenyatta in the run up to the Classic? Despite being tabbed the pre-race wagering favorite, not one of the 11 media members whose selections were published by USA Today in its Breeders’ Cup preview picked Zenyatta to win. And east coast bias wasn’t in play. Joining writers from the New York Daily News, New York Post, Lexington Herald-Leader and Albany Times-Union in giving Zenyatta the thumbs down were the national correspondent of the Daily Racing Form, horse racing writers from the Associated Press and USA Today, an editor of the Thoroughbred Times, an on-air personality from HRTV and racing writers from the Los Angeles Daily News and San Diego Union-Tribune, in whose backyard Zenyatta ran all except one of her career races.
 
Want to bring in some more exulted names? Joe Drape of the New York Times did not pick Zenyatta, and neither did Steven Crist of the Daily Racing Form. The Washington Post’s Andy Beyer, inventor of the Beyer Speed Figure, the acknowledged statistical method for comparing racetrack performances under different race conditions? He labeled Zenyatta a throw out.

Luckily, Zenyatta’s connections had much greater faith in their magnificent mare than the experts.  Questioned for not shipping Zenyatta to a traditional dirt track to take on Rachel Alexandra head-to-head, team Zenyatta stuck to their guns of getting her ready for the Breeders’ Cup the best way they thought how. If that meant staying in Southern California and competing exclusively on synthetic surfaces, well that’s how it would be done. And though they never stated it, the guess here is that winning the Classic as a finishing touch on a Hall of Fame career, not to mention the historical achievement such a win would represent, was probably the long-range goal of those who guided Zenyatta’s career.
 
Of course, Rachel Alexandra’s connections, like most others in the racing world, assumed their filly had a stranglehold on Horse of the Year when she concluded her 2009 season with a win in the Woodward Stakes at Saratoga in early September. It was Rachel’s eighth victory in eight races, accomplished at seven racetracks in six states, with three coming over male competitors. Her campaign encompassed eye popping performances in such keystone events as the Kentucky Oaks, Preakness Stakes, Mother Goose Stakes, Haskell Invitational and the aforementioned Woodward, and was highlighted by either record breaking victory margins or historical firsts just about every time she left the starting gate.
 
With such a resumé, who could blame Jess Jackson for putting Rachel away for the winter, especially since she probably needed a rest after an exhausting year (visible in the Woodward). But, had the Breeders’ Cup Classic not been held on a synthetic surface, there’s little doubt Rachel would have continued her season and run at least one more race to conclude a campaign for the ages. After all, it was Jackson himself who announced his intention to run Rachel in next year’s Breeders’ Cup at Churchill Downs at the same time he said he would not run her this year on Santa Anita’s Pro-Ride because of his distaste for synthetic surfaces (or plastic as he labeled them).
 
Can we know how a Zenyatta-Rachel Alexandra showdown in the Breeders’ Cup Classic would have played out? Is there a certainty that had Rachel been entered in the race, Team Zenyatta would have taken her on? Would Rachel have performed as poorly on the synthetics as last year’s Horse of the Year, Curlin, and as other “dirt” horses seem to? These questions can never be answered. But what is fact is that Zenyatta showed up on Championship Saturday and won the most important North American race that’s open to all Thoroughbreds regardless of age or sex. This was no Raven’s Pass swooping in and leaving nothing behind but a few footprints.

Copyright © 2009, The Paulick Report

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What’s that old expression: When the cat’s away the mice will play? Well, while Ray Paulick is en route to Cape Town, South Africa, for an international Thoroughbred breeders conference, Patrick Patten was asked to put his keyboard and mouse to good use and look back at the National Thoroughbred Racing Association’s 2008 marketing summit, during which a group of bloggers and racing fans presented a marketing proposal they were solicited to create and submit to the organization.

Patten has been writing Handride for five years and is an original member of the Thoroughbred Bloggers Alliance. He does have a real job in the natural gas industry, and, contrary to the stereotype given many bloggers, does not live in his mother’s basement. He in fact lives in Monmouth County, N.J.,  20 minutes north of beautiful Monmouth Park where he has spent many summer weekends over the last 25 years.—Ray Paulick

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By Patrick Patten
One year ago I was part of a group given the task to create and propose a new marketing plan for the National Thoroughbred Racing Association. It was about six weeks of hard negotiating, yelling, and writing with a group of other bloggers and passionate fans.  In the end I think we produced a professional document many consultants would be proud of, and the price for the financially-challenged NTRA was right: free. I think this guy charged $500,000 for pretty much the same thing. The document we created is still online (pdf warning) and more importantly still waiting for someone to implement it.

Getting up on stage at the NTRA’s marketing summit in Las Vegas was a dream come true. I had started my blog in hopes that someone, anyone, would say, “Hey, that’s not a bad idea” and that’s exactly what happened. It was the culmination of four years of writing and thinking. And, while it would be easy to label any blogger as a tinfoil-hat-wearing-mama’s-basement-living-crazy-person who thought after one presentation the world of racing would bow down at his or her feet… I knew change wouldn’t come fast, my expectations were decidedly low. However, a year later I thought there would be somewhere that the group could claim “That’s our idea.” This has not been the case.

I won’t rehash the ideas, I can’t really blame anyone directly, but I sure can be disappointed with everything involved. First, I’ll give credit where credit is due. Race-day medication laws in this country are a mess and give the sport a black eye; the work here (NTRA Safety & Integrity Alliance and the new Breeders’ Cup race day rules) should be commended. However, you have to think, what horse has to die in order to get the overall house of ours in order? And, you have to wonder why banning drugs and getting tracks to adhere to common sense practices are MARKETING successes in the first place. How screwed are we?

The largest complaint I have is with the lack of cooperation at the highest level; this was one of the main points of the report. The NTRA and the Breeders’ Cup share the common goal of expanding the brand of our sport, and yet they compete with each other. Our marketing report was about sharing information, and putting in place ideas where common ground could lead to growth. Allow me to cite the perfect example of how this is NOT happening. It should also be noted that I was part of a BC advisory committee recently convened to talk about and have ideas bounced off of about the BC, and I definitely advised on this glaring problem.

On July 25 the Eddie Read Handicap was held at Del Mar. The race was shown on ESPN2. It is a Grade 1 race and has major implications when it comes to the Breeders Cup Mile. Its field included Artiste Royale and Thorn Song and was won with an upset by Global Hunter; all well known horses to regular players; a great race to put on TV to say the least. However, to the casual fan it’s a bit confusing. The week before, two races were held, the Greenwood Cup Handicap and the Delaware Handicap, and neither was shown on TV.  However, their winners were guaranteed a spot in the Breeders Cup. So, are the races not shown on TV more important? Why is this race on TV if it doesn’t lead to anything important? This was a Grade 1 race, but the previous week’s Grade 2 was more important to get into the Breeders’ Cup. I think I’ll go back to watching Dancing With The Stars.

The rallying cry of our marketing plan was “Take Back Saturday” and to do this the BC and the NTRA have to work together. The solution we proposed was to have all graded stakes (and some non graded races for the newer BC categories) count toward standings with the top horses awarded gate choice. We saw it as a home-field advantage, a small change that would have a large impact. Everything in the report after that was based on this “Take Back Saturday” mantra. A little cooperation would be a small hurdle to jump over, and we’d be on our way to relevancy in the sports world.

We were wrong. There is no cooperation in this sport when it comes to marketing. When a horse dies and millions of people are yelling everyone is on their best behavior: Pumping water out of a sinking ship. When do we fix the ship?

The people in charge are still getting rich, and everyone else is still willing to give them even more money and power, so no changes will occur. What really hammered this home recently was Headless Horsemen, the new book by Jim Squires. If a man that well known can point a finger at everyone and have nothing happen, not even a discussion on whether he’s right or wrong, what could a bunch of bloggers do?

It’s disappointing because of the hard work put into that report. The goal of that project was marketing, and I made sure we stuck to that cause. We didn’t tackle the high level of take-out, or drugs, or security–it was only marketing. And, I think we did a fantastic job at keeping the report realistic. We did this because we knew we were up against the perception of what a blogger is, and we didn’t want to come off as asking for the moon or for being too broad or for being tinfoil hat wearing crazy people. We didn’t.  We hit that report out of the park  Was it too good? I wonder now, after being on an advisory board that supposedly had a hand in the Breeders’ Cup saddle cloth color change, what is expected of these panels and groups. I mean seriously, they need a bunch of outsiders to tell them that saddle cloths were a big issue? Meanwhile all that was talked about last year was the renamed Ladies’ Classic (not the saddle cloths) which I’m sure will take another group to fix next year so they can put out a press release saying, “Look we listen to our fans! Have fun at the Filly & Mare Classic” I digress.

I was told directly to hold Alex Waldrop’s feet to the fire. Here it is:

Alex, the NTRA has done a good job of putting out the fires that seem to come up so frequently for this industry. But, how long can this industry be reactive instead of proactive?  How long can tracks sit idly by protecting their own “turf” at the cost of cooperation and getting real reform? How long can the industry get by on contracts written decades ago because no one has any faith in real negotiation and cooperation? How long will you allow yourself to be pushed and pulled in a myriad of directions when I believe you want to move forward?

The marketing report, for me, was hope that someone was looking forward. Are you?

 

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By Ray Paulick
Mr. and Mrs. Jerome Moss’ Zenyatta kept her perfect record intact in Saturday’s Grade 2 Milady Handicap at Hollywood Park, rallying from last in the field of six fillies and mares to win by 1 3/4 lengths over her John Shirreffs-trained stablemate Life Is Sweet, with Allicansayis Wow third.

Jockey Mike Smith never went to the whip on the 5-year-old daughter of Street Cry, the 2008 Breeders’ Cup Ladies Classic winner and Eclipse Award champion who was making her 2009 debut. The Kentucky-bred mare was taken far off the early pace set by Gambler’s Justice, attempted to move through along the rail past Life Is Sweet down the backstretch, but jockey Garrett Gomez closed the gap, forcing Smith to check slightly and take Zenyatta back and around Life Is Sweet.

Smith asked Zenyatta to pick it up around the three-eighths pole, and the long-striding mare burst toward the front in a flash as she has done in so many of her previous victories. Once the win was secured in the final furlong, Smith eased up on Zenyatta and she cruised to the wire. Life Is Sweet got through on the rail all the way, edging a hard-trying Allicansayis Wow for the place.

This was the 10th consecutive win by Zenyatta and a repeat victory in the Milady. She covered the 1 1/16 miles on the Cushion Track in 1:42.30. Early fractions were :23.79, :47.14, 1:11.32 and 1:35.96. She paid $2.40 to win as the heavy favorite. Click here for the Milady chart and here for video of the race.

"We were just playing some serious jockey games out there," Smith told TVG’s Christina Olivares after the win. "It was great. It was all clean and fair and not to hurt the horses any. (Gomez)  was just trying to keep me out. … I coulda shot myself in the foot there, but she’s so handy that whenever he did come over I just eased back on the pedal, she backed up for me and I got to her outside and it was pretty much over then."

"I really wasn’t happy with the way she was traveling down the backstretch," Gomez said of Life Is Sweet, a full sister by Storm Cat to champion filly Sweet Catomine, owned and bred by Mr. and Mrs. Marty Wygod. "Usually she is taking me somewhere and she wasn’t taking me today. … My filly ran a respectable race, but she didn’t run the races she was running (at Santa Anita, where she won three consecutive graded stakes)."

Gomez said after he forced Smith to go around him Zenyatta passed him "in three jumps. It was unbelievable. For a big mare to have that kind of acceleration power, it was quite impressive. She’s a huge amazon that covers so much ground."

"There was a little games playing," Jerry Moss told TVG, though he said he wasn’t aware of it during the live running of the race. "Whatever happened, happened and the race is done and we’re happy with the outcome."

Zenyatta began her career with a maiden victory at Hollywood Park Nov. 22, 2007, going 6 1/2 furlongs. She followed that with an allowance win the next month, and has run in Grade 1 or 2 races ever since. Her 2008 ledger includes victories in (chronologically) the El Encino, Apple Blossom Handicap, Milady Handicap, Vanity Handicap, Clement L. Hirsch Handicap, Lady’s Secret, and Breeders’ Cup Ladies Classic. She was entered to race at Churchill Downs in the Louisville Distaff May 1 but was scratched when the track came up sloppy.

She carried high weight of 126 pounds in the Milady, conceding from four to 14 pounds to her overmatched rivals.

Zenyatta, a $60,000 yearling purchase, has won over $2.2 million. She was bred in the name of Eric Kronfeld’s Maverick Productions Ltd.

Copyright © 2009, The Paulick Report

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By Ray Paulick

Somewhere down the road we hope Ginger Punch and Zenyatta meet. It truly will be a championship bout.

On Saturday, one week after reigning female champion Ginger Punch fought through an opening to win the Go for Wand at Saratoga, Zenyatta floated like a butterfly and then stung like a bee to score a most impressive victory in the Clement L. Hirsch Handicap to remain unbeaten in seven career starts. Zenyatta’s win came around 9:20 p.m. Saturday night on the East Coast, when most folks had retired from the dinner table and many turf writers were ordering another round at the bar. Just as West Coast college teams are often overlooked by the Eastern media because of the late hour of their games, Zenyatta might not be getting all the respect she deserves because of when her races are run.

If you haven’t had a chance to see the replay of the Hirsch, you can do so here. It’s must-see TV.

If Ginger Punch and Zenyatta continue their path and go head-to-head in the renamed Breeders’ Cup Ladies’ Classic, they will command all the headlines on the new female Friday program Oct. 24.

(Note: Commenter Tiznowbaby correctly pointed out that Zenyatta defeated Ginger Punch earlier this year by eight lengths earlier this year in the Apple Blossom at Oaklawn Park.)

THE WEEK BEGAN WITH AN EXCLUSIVE FROM THE PAULICK REPORT showing that National Thoroughbred Racing Association CEO Alex Waldrop is taking federal intervention very seriously http://www.paulickreport.com/blog/exclusive-ntra-confidential/. Some may question the secrecy of the meeting that was called at Keeneland to discuss industry reforms and whether or not the same three or four decision-makers were calling the shots, but Waldrop should be encouraged and applauded for pushing an agenda of change. Three days after we published his memorandum and discussion document page 1,  page 2, page 3  page 4  to the NTRA board, an NTRA committee met in Saratoga to further discuss the issue and hear some very frank and tough results of public opinion surveys about drugs and welfare issues facing the sport.

IT’S BEEN NO SECRET THAT RACING CHANNEL TVG would be put on the auction block by new owner Macrovision, which acquired TVG’s parent company, Gemstar/TV Guide earlier this year. But the Paulick Report broke the news that Swiss-based financial services company UBS is shopping the company around to potential buyers and that it’s likely a group or individual from within the racing community will end up buying TVG. We added that we hope logic prevails and that some industry group will have the vision to merge TVG and HRTV, and then consolidate the numerous wagering platforms to make it less confusing to horseplayers, many of whom have to keep more than one account to wager on their preferred tracks.

One rumored potential TVG buyer outside of the racing industry is cable TV pioneer Marc Nathanson, who in 1975 founded Falcon Cable, which became one of the largest cable operators in the country, and is currently on the board of directors of Charter Communications, which purchased Falcon. Nathanson is the father of TVG senior vice president David Nathanson, who runs the network. Marc Nathanson understands cable, has enormous clout to gain distribution, and has the resources to purchase TVG, which a stock analyst contacted by cable trade publication Multichannel News valued at $112 million. Industry insiders say it may be worth more.

We sounded off this week on the saga of Hialeah Park, beginning with a Dear John letter to current Hialeah Park owner John J. Brunetti and continuing with a profile of Halsey Minor, the Internet whiz who wants to revive the grande dame of South Florida racing. Based on the numerous comments to the profile, Minor has widespread support from people in the industry anxious to have someone bring a new business philosophy to the racetrack experience. 

The week ahead: On Tuesday, Jess Jackson announces where Curlin will race next. Monday and Tuesday night’s boutique yearling sale at Fasig-Tipton Saratoga will either heighten or soothe the nerves of consignors looking ahead to the massive Keeneland September yearling sale. A spike in buybacks at FT Kentucky July and a dearth of new money players have many breeders on edge. 

Copyright © 2008, The Paulick Report