Posts Tagged ‘Paulick Report’

By Ray Paulick
In an earlier Paulick Report visit to Gulfstream Park in January, temperatures were in the 40s, the track and casino were mostly empty, and the Village at Gulfstream Park shopping mall was a ghost town, with only a couple of stores having opened.

Well, two months later, a lot has changed.

On Saturday, under glorious sunny skies, Gulfstream was almost coming apart at the seams with a bustling racetrack crowd estimated at 14,414. (How does one estimate such a precise number? More on that later.) Every seat in the place was sold out, despite premium pricing in the Silks simulcast center, outdoor seating and in the dining rooms. Picnic tables and benches in the north and south “beach” areas were scooped up early. The apron was packed with enthusiastic fans. Betting, food and beverage lines were long, parking and traffic flow, well organized on the north end of the track, was chaotic on the south end. Not enough programs were printed and late arrivals were unable to purchase one.

Yet, as I wandered throughout the plant with a racing newcomer, my veterinarian brother who was visiting from California, I heard no complaints.

Gulfstream Park was, once again, the place to be on Florida Derby day.

Most of the slot machines in the Gulfstream casino were humming, many of the previously vacant spaces in the recently completed Village Mall were filling up with bars, restaurants, boutiques and retail shops, with more on the way. The concept of a racetrack/casino/shopping and entertainment center, one that I described as half-baked back in January, might just work after all.

Earlier in the day, we stopped by the former Calder Race Course (renamed Calder Casino), to take a look at how parent Churchill Downs planned to mix horse racing with its newfound slot machines and poker rooms. Unlike Gulfstream, which built a mixed-use grandstand with different rooms for slots players, racing and simulcast bettors, and upscale restaurants, Calder chose to erect a separate building for its slots parlor. There is a covered walkway from the casino to the racetrack, which has not had any upgrades other than a low-rent poker room on the ground floor. Calder’s simulcast area was typical of many racetracks–rows of uncomfortable chairs and cheap desks in front of a bank of television monitors. The floor was littered with tickets and trash, in contrast to the immaculate Calder Casino a furlong away.

After we arrived at Gulfstream and worked our way around the different parts of the track and casino, I asked my brother to compare the two racing and gaming venues. “Who would want to go to that other place?” he said of Calder. “It’s sleazy.”

I explained that Calder was more of an old-school racetrack, with plenty of seats (most of which are empty all the time) and that Gulfstream was trying to integrate different forms of entertainment in one area. He also understood, of course, that Calder is lot more active when there’s live racing taking place. He still said he would much prefer Gulfstream because it had more options to occupy his time and because of the far superior ambiance.

Gulfstream Park still has a ways to go to reclaim its past glory as a racing operation because many of its regular patrons, including horsemen, were alienated when Magna Entertainment chairman Frank Stronach tore down the old grandstand and built the new one. It was a long and painful construction process, and still has its share of problems, foremost among them being the lack of permanent seats to watch live racing. Ken Dunn, the longtime executive at Calder who was named Gulfstream Park president and general manager last November, understands those concerns. Dunn hopes he can convince the new owners of the track, MI Developments (which, like the bankrupt Magna Entertainment is controlled by Stronach), to make additional investments so Gulfstream can do a better job taking care of its racing customers.

“We need another 2,000-3,000 seats,” Dunn told the Paulick Report on Sunday, the day after the Florida Derby. “We are missing seats in front of the action.”

Dunn said his top priority will be to “continue to put together a racing program that will take a bigger piece of the wagering pie that’s out there.” He said he will continue to tweak the stakes program and believes the decision to move the Florida Derby back one week—six weeks before the Kentucky Derby instead of five—was the right one. “There was a lot of second guessing when we made the change,” he said, “but this year we had no competition on the calendar anywhere in the country. It was a big day for us.”

Total handle on Florida Derby day was $21 million, an increase of 14% overall and 24% on-track.

The date change may or may not have prompted Grade 2 Fasig-Tipton Fountain of Youth winner Eskendereya to forego the Florida Derby at the last minute and point instead for the April 3 Wood Memorial  at Aqueduct. With the loss of Eskendereya, the Florida Derby came up particularly weak this year. Of the 11 starters, there were two stakes winners, two-time Grade 3 winner Rule and European Group 2 winner Radiohead. Two starters, including longshot winner Ice Box, had won an entry-level allowance race, and seven had never won more than a maiden race.

By contrast, the previous weekend’s Grade 2 Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn Park drew three Grade 1 winners.

Dunn, like owners and breeders throughout Florida, is hoping Florida legislators this session will approve a 15% tax cut on slot machines from 50% to 35%, a move that will significantly improve purses. “I’ve tried to explain to people that it’s like the New York Yankees,” Dunn said. “If you can put up more money, you’re going to buy greater talent and increase the quality and the competition of racing.”

Cross-promotions with the retail tenants of the Village at Gulfstream Park is another area of opportunity that Dunn sees for the racetrack and casino, along with creative new uses for the facility during the off-season. The directory for the mall lists more than 55 businesses that have moved in or are committed to leasing space. Every one of the businesses will be a short walk to the track and casino.

There are a lot of areas where I do not agree with Frank Stronach, but he has put an experienced and knowledgeable racing executive in charge of Gulfstream Park, and for that I applaud him. I hope Dunn is given the support and the opportunity to refocus the track’s efforts on horse racing, because the industry needs a strong Gulfstream Park. I am confident if given the chance, he will get the job done.

“We had a great day yesterday,” Dunn said. “I wish we had a greater opportunity to handle the crowd that was there, but there are limitations. I hope I can convince the new owners to invest more money in helping us do more.”

Now about that crowd count of 14,414. With free parking and free admission and multiple entrances without turnstiles, there is no way of knowing how many people attended. The mutuels department estimated the number using on-track handle and a projected per capita wagered; it’s the same formula used the last several years. Dunn said it did not include people in the Village bars, restaurants and shops or those in the casino.

I think the estimate was low, because so many of those in the apron area where I spent most of the day didn’t even try to make wagers because the lines were so long and the available mutuel windows so few. It was an exceptional day—far from perfect—but the kind of afternoon Gulfstream Park and horse racing needed.

Copyright © 2010, The Paulick Report

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Today’s first race at Aqueduct was cancelled due to a horsemen’s boycott designed to draw attention to their plight and the failure of Gov. David Paterson and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, among others, to agree on an operator for video lottery terminals or slot machines at Aqueduct, which has been delayed a decade.

Gary Contessa, a leading New York trainer, told the Paulick Report more than 1,000 horsemen attended a rally at Belmont Park Sunday morning calling for action by the governor and others to make a decision on the VLT contract.

Following are Contessa’s comments to the Paulick Report:

“We are trying to get the attention of Albany to let them know what a catastrophic situation we have with New York racing right now, the political ineptness, the absolute inability to get anything done. We are in support of racing. We had a thousand or more people at Belmont today. We had a big rally and cancelled the first race. We did this the right way. We let NYRA know we weren’t coming long before today.

“Hopefully we can wake somebody up, get the governor out of bed, get him to move, get him to do something, or there is going to be more. There is going to be more. We need to move.
 
“We have an absolute political nightmare in New York right now, and I hold the governor and Sheldon Silver personally responsible for this mess. The bottom line is the state is losing a million dollars a day by not having VLTs in new york—a million dollars a day that would go to education, and all we want to do is survive.

“We get a small piece of that and it would help us immensely, just to be competitive. We don’t want to be second–the second best in racing to New Jersey or second best racing to Penn National or Philadelphia Park. We want to be the best. We want to stay on top. We’re not.
 
“We’ve fallen from grace, and without the governor getting off his behind and making a decision about these VLTs, we are never going to regain what New York is supposed to be, which is the capital of American racing. The bottom line is we are just trying to get someone’s attention. It’s all about getting these politicians getting off their hands and doing something.
 
“The bottom line is we are just trying to get somebody’s attention today.

Read more about the rally at Thoroughbred Times

Then come back to the Paulick Report and let us know what you think

- Ray Paulick

Our good friend Joy Rose Murphy who rolled out the red carpet for the Paulick Report when we swung through Oklahoma City for the Breeders’ Cup or Bust tour will be participating in the Mrs. Oklahoma pageant this April. True to herself, Joy has chosen the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund as her platform.

Below is the press release on her entry. Please feel free to write well wishes to Joy as she tries to bring national attention to an incredibly important issue to our industry.

Choctaw native to compete for title of Mrs. Oklahoma America
Joy Rose Murphy will represent the City of Choctaw at the official state preliminary for the Mrs. America Pageant
 

CHOCTAW, Okla. – Joy Rose Murphy, a committed volunteer and local horse racing personality, has been chosen to compete for the title of Mrs. Oklahoma America from a field of applicants received from throughout the area. Murphy is the promotions coordinator at Remington Park in Oklahoma City, where she hosts a televised race-day program.
 
The 2010 Mrs. Oklahoma Competition will take place April 16 and 17 at the historic Guthrie Scottish Rite Temple. Murphy will compete in three categories for the Mrs. Oklahoma title: personal interview, swimsuit and evening gown.
 
If selected as Mrs. Oklahoma America she will use her title to bring state and national attention to her platform, the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund (PDJF), for which she recently raised $25,000. The organization works to provide financial assistance to former jockeys who have suffered catastrophic on-track injuries.
 
“Oklahoma has a thriving horse industry, and my husband and I are so proud live and work here,” says Murphy. “By supporting PDJF and bringing awareness to this cause, I hope to promote the welfare of all jockeys, who are pound-for-pound the best athletes in the world.”
 
In her free time, Murphy is devoted to community service. She is a Sunday School teacher at St. Philip Neri Parish organizing and directing the curriculum for second grade students. She has held the position for five years.
 
Her husband, Glen, is a top thoroughbred jockey in the Midwest region. The couple makes their home in Choctaw.
 
About the Mrs. Oklahoma Competition
Mrs. Oklahoma is the official state preliminary for Mrs. America, the only nationally televised pageant for married women in the country. Mrs. America celebrates the achievements, poise and personality of today’s married women. Mrs. Oklahoma delegates are judged on their communication skills, achievements, poise and appearance.

After a depressed infield at last year’s Preakness due to the ban on the tradition of bringing your own beer, executives have made a move to try and bring back the crowd that abandoned Pimlico last year. Organizers are cutting the cost of admission and offering all-you-can-drink-beer.

For only $20, each infielder can purchase a refillable cup along with a $10 cut in admission. "We were boycotted by the college kids, but we still believe that was the right decision," said Mike Gathagan, spokesman for the Maryland Jockey Club. "Obviously, we took something from them last year. This is trying to give something back."

Will this bring back the college kids or has the damage already been done? I suspect where there’s all-you-can-drink-beer, college-aged and college-minded folks of all stripes will be there in droves.

Read it at the Baltimore Sun

Then come back to the Paulick Report and let us know what you think

- Bradford Cummings

Is it possible that a fracture has occurred between Kentucky State Senator Damon Thayer and Senate President David Williams? It seems the recent Instant Racing bill that included two other measures to help the racing industry has brought some conflict between the two Kentucky Republican Senators.

"It’s very difficult when one week President Williams is supporting the bill and lobbying Senate members, and then less than a week later, he changes his mind," said Thayer in an article from the Blood-Horse. "That’s a pretty challenging situation I find myself in. I’m drafting yet another amendment and have to decide very soon if there is a way forward with this. I know what I believe is right—passing Instant Racing by statute.”

Read it at the Blood-Horse

Then come back to the Paulick Report and let us know what you think

- Bradford Cummings

By Bradford Cummings
It’s a young person’s world. With the advent of computers and the web infusing every corner of our lives, every industry must strive to reach younger and younger audiences in order to stay relevant, much to the chagrin of the ever aging Thoroughbred industry. According to the superbly written and researched R2Collective, our demographics are trending in the opposite direction. A super majority of 91.7% of racing’s audience is 40 or older and 49.7% is over 55 while a whopping 0.3% is under 25. With the knowledge that most people make their lifetime purchasing decisions by the age of 30, these numbers are depressing, no matter how you look at them.

But enough of the bad news. After all, this is Good News Friday sponsored by Liberation Farm. Instead, we’d like to share a strong kernel of hope for the future of racing. Despite the downward trends we are currently seeing, there will always be an opportunity to recapture the imagination of our youth. Because even in the face of basketball, football, poker, baseball and other endeavors, we will always have one advantage on the rest of the competition. At the center of our industry, we have the opportunity to celebrate one of the most beautiful and elegant creatures known to man…the horse.

An eight-year-old giving up birthday presents is like Jess Jackson passing on a press conference but that’s exactly what Logan Resnick did this year. I had the distinct pleasure of speaking with Kimberlee Resnick, this selfless boy’s very proud mother.

A family from a northern suburb of Chicago, Northbrook, the Resnicks have a passion for racing. The majority of their stable are Thoroughbreds who run at Arlington Park and Oaklawn Park with a few Standardbreds featured at various parks around the country. As with many owners, racing is not the family business but instead a hobby. When asked if it was a money making opportunity, Kimberlee chuckled and simply answered, "No, like I said, it’s a hobby and a passion."

And they have effectively handed this excitement down to their young son Logan who absolutely delights in being around the horses, helping to take care of them and watching them run. "He was a year old when we started into it," said Mrs. Resnick in a familiar fast-talking Chicago dialect. "He developed the passion along with his dad."

"Like father, like son?"

"Yes, exactly."

So when they were planning Logan’s birthday party this year, they were discussing their options and a friend’s party came up that had left an impression on Logan. Apparently, his friend Rachel had asked her friends to make a donation to a local food pantry in lieu of gifts. When Kimberlee brought this up to him as an option, he showed some interest but had the natural questions one might suspect an eight-year-old would have about a potential birthday party without presents. More on that later.

Quickly, Logan decided to go with the charity idea. "When we asked, do you have any place you want to give money to, he said ‘The horse mommy, the horses that get hurt," said Resnick.

After some research, the Resnick’s landed on Thoroughbred Charities of America.

As of yesterday, the TCA has received 17 donations totaling $318. When his donations started to be received, the TCA noticed and sent Logan a care package as a thank you for his support. In the care package included a letter that thanked him for his support and indicated he was helping to save horses. "The money people are sending are actually helping the horses?" Logan asked. It’s then that it really sunk in the positive effect his generosity was having. One friend Jacob even got into his piggy bank and found $20 to give with his parents matching him dollar for dollar.

Is $318 going to turn the TCA upside down? Of course not, but that’s also not the point. It’s just so refreshing to hear the tale of a little boy who is so selfless that he would sacrifice a part of the biggest day of his year to help a cause he cares about so deeply. We should make it our mission to celebrate every Logan out there. After all, they are the ones who will one day grow up to help make our industry stronger.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, he still received gifts from his family. There are some things even the greatest of eight-year-olds can’t give up. This thirty-two-year-old completely understands.

Copyright © 2010, The Paulick Report

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By Ray Paulick
 What’s that old expression often repeated in the legal world: He who represents himself has a fool for a client? I think a similar statement can be said of some horse owners: He who makes decisions on where and when his horses should run has a fool for a trainer.

That phrase came to mind, not once, but twice this week when the owners of two of America’s highest-profile Thoroughbreds, Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra and early Kentucky Derby favorite Eskendereya, made the type of decisions that are better left to their trainers. And the real trainers of these two horses, Steve Asmussen and Todd Pletcher, respectively, are anything but fools. Both are locks to someday be inducted into the National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame.

Jess Jackson struck first when he issued a press release Sunday declaring Rachel Alexandra out of the April 9 Apple Blossom Invitational at Oaklawn Park, less than 24 hours after she was defeated in the New Orleans Ladies at Fair Grounds.

“Yesterday’s race while a disappointment, helped us define Rachel Alexandra’s racing condition,” Jackson said. “While she is healthy, just as I had anticipated, she is not in top form. Therefore, I decided today she will not be going to the Oaklawn Invitational on April 9. Steve and I discussed this fully and we now regret we tried to accelerate her training in order meet the Apple Blossom schedule. We have a whole season before us to help define her greatness. She will tell us when her next race will be.”

The key phrase in the above paragraph is “Therefore, I decided…”

Only a few hours earlier, the Fair Grounds media office sent out the following comments from Asmussen, a two-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer: “We don’t have any negative indications yet today. Like anything, you want to be 100% and if you’re not you go from there. We don’t have any negative this morning other than the loss and the hurt feelings of yesterday. Our main concern is how Rachel feels and her well-being and we’re very pleased with her today.”

Two days later, Ahmed Zayat made a decision to pull his Fasig-Tipton Fountain of Youth winner Eskendereya from an intended start in this Saturday’s Florida Derby and have Pletcher instead send him to Aqueduct for the Wood Memorial on April 3.

“The main issue is timing,” Zayat was quoted in Daily Racing Form as saying. “I’m not really comfortable off the six weeks (the gap between the Florida Derby and Kentucky Derby). If I’m genuine about the Kentucky Derby, I need to give the prep I want to make sure he peaks on the right day.”

Zayat, who has been sued by Fifth Third Bank over alleged delinquency on a $34-million loan and has put his racing stable in Chapter 11 bankruptcy, like Jackson has owned racehorses for only a few years. Apparently, he thinks he knows more about training a Thoroughbred than Pletcher, a four-time Eclipse Award winner.

Earlier in the week, Pletcher was quoted in the Miami Herald saying he thought six weeks between starts was just right for Eskendereya. “He won an allowance (at Gulfstream) six weeks out from the Fountain of Youth,” Pletcher said. “So, six weeks seems like good spacing for him.”

Cynics may be thinking Jackson and Zayat–two owners with immodestly sized egos—might be fibbing about their decisions. In the case of Jackson, the real reason to skip the Apple Blossom could be based more on the winning performance by unbeaten champion Zenyatta at Santa Anita the same afternoon Rachel Alexandra lost. He can’t be blamed for wanting no part of Zenyatta at Oaklawn, and for that I say he’s nobody’s fool.

Zayat’s reason could be entirely different. The beleaguered owner has been entertaining offers to sell all or part of Eskendereya to help satisfy his loan obligations, and it’s possible he wants to finalize a deal before the son of Giant’s Causeway makes his next start.

I hope that’s the case. If Zayat thinks he can train a horse better than Pletcher, he really is a fool.

Copyright © 2010, The Paulick Report

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By Ray Paulick
Damon Thayer, the Kentucky state senator from Scott County and a Thoroughbred industry consultant, reminds me of the fellow with one foot on a dock and the other on a boat that’s ready to set sail.

Standing with both feet firmly planted on dry land is Thayer’s good buddy, fellow Republican David “Blackjack” Williams, the Senate president who seems bent on destroying Kentucky’s signature industry. Aboard the boat are members of that horse industry, people Thayer worked alongside for years during professional stints at Turfway Park in Northern Kentucky and later with the Breeders’ Cup. The boat is starting to pull away from the dock, and Thayer has to decide which side he’s on, or he’ll wind up in deep water with no one willing to throw him a life preserver.

That’s where Thayer finds himself today, having to choose between doing what’s right for the horse industry and standing up to the big, bad Senate president, or turning his back on his old friends and hiding under his mommy’s skirt.

Thayer, whose ill-conceived and poorly timed constitutional amendment calling for slot machines at Kentucky racetracks was always a non-starter, tried to redeem himself by inserting language permitting pari-mutuel Instant Racing machines in a bill being heard by the Senate State and Local Government Committee that he chairs. The committee approved the language, amending House Bill 368, sponsored by Louisville Democrat Larry Clark. That bill was designed to add a 0.5% tax on advance deposit wagers made by Kentucky residents, but the Senate committee amended it with additional language that could make Kentucky’s simulcast export signal weaker and result in even less revenue for Kentucky’s tracks and horsemen.

The Instant Racing language was added with the blessing of the Senate president, and seven Republicans including Thayer voted for the bill. Then, last night, Williams did an about face, saying the Instant Racing provisions would be removed from the bill by Thayer’s committee or it would not pass the full Senate. (So much for even attempting to disguise Thayer as anything but a puppet of the Senate president.)

Williams indicated that he wants the governor or Kentucky Horse Racing Commission to approve Instant Racing, but what he really wants is for the issue to wind up losing in a court battle, similar to what has happened with Instant Racing in Wyoming and Maryland. The legislative language proposed by Thayer would likely have allowed Instant Racing to overcome a court challenge.

Plain and simple, Williams is trying to set Instant Racing up to fail.

On Wednesday, the Senate State and Local Government Committee declined to take action on the Instant Racing provisions of HB368 because of a lack of consensus.

Where we go from here is up to Thayer and his fellow Republicans. Does the Senator from Scott County have the fortitude to stand up to Williams’ bullying tactics and tell him he is wrong? Instant Racing could be very beneficial to an industry that has been put at an extreme disadvantage by the presence of casino gambling on nearly every border of the state. The efforts that have brought the bill this far represent rare bipartisan cooperation in the Kentucky legislature.

Thayer could emerge a hero to the horse industry by telling Williams he is wrong, and by keeping the coalition together that supported the Instant Racing language in the committee vote.

Or he could end up all wet. It’s his choice.

Copyright © 2010, The Paulick Report

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Only a few days after his Senate committee approved a KY horse industry aid bill including Instant Racing, Damon Thayer has withdrawn his bill from consideration. He now prefers that Governor Steve Beshear sign an executive order to bring the popular alternative to slot machines to Kentucky’s racetracks after opposition from anti-gaming groups.

It appears that Senate President David Williams has put the pressure on Thayer to withdraw the bill even after expressing the sentiment that it had bipartisan support.

"There’s still a chance (at passage)," Thayer said. "I just didn’t feel comfortable moving forward in its current form."

It begs the question, what has happened between six days ago when it came out of your committee and today Damon?

Read it at the Blood-Horse

Then come back to the Paulick Report and let us know what you think

- Bradford Cummings

By Ray Paulick
One of the most interesting and encouraging developments of the young 2010 racing season was the recent announcement in New Jersey that Monmouth Park will slash the number of racing days but increase daily average purses to $1 million—the highest ever in the United States for a regularly scheduled race meeting. A daily average of $1 million is roughly triple the daily purses offered in previous years at Monmouth Park.

Most weeks, Monmouth will run Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, offering 12 races per day, rather than a more traditional Wednesday-Sunday schedule. A weekends only fall meeting at Monmouth will replace the previous Meadowlands Thoroughbred meeting.

Click here to learn more about the 2010 Monmouth Park schedule and here for the stakes schedule.

How to pay for this? A large chunk of the money, $20 million, comes in the way of a subsidy from the New Jersey casino association, a deal that expires this year. The hope of New Jersey Sports and Exposition and Monmouth Park officials is that higher quality racing with bigger fields will substantially increase handle. Average daily handle in New Jersey has dropped from $5 million to $3.2 million over the last five years.

Longtime Monmouth Park executive Robert J. Kulina, the track’s vice president and general manager, talked with the Paulick Report about how he is planning to put Monmouth Park back on the map of major league racetracks.

This is a pretty dramatic step. Reminds me of the lyrics to Neil Young’s “My My Hey Hey”—“it’s better to burn out than to fade away.” Is that that the scenario you felt as though you were facing with New Jersey racing?
You’re the second one to mention that great song. It’s true. First of all I don’t think any other state would have had the horsemen that allowed us to entertain this concept. It’s almost been two years we’ve been working on this.

It boils down to a couple of things. Everybody in the industry understands what we are doing is not working. I liken our industry to Detroit, where the auto industry is almost gone. They had a monopoly, we had a monopoly and it’s not working. This is the last year of our purse supplement (from New Jersey casinos). We needed to come up with a model to show the racing can be successful and give us a vehicle to ask for future funding for purses. If we went with the same day-in and day-out cards, the reality for additional funding would be more doubtful. It’s a big picture thing. Dennis Drazen (former New Jersey Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association president), myself and John Forbes (current NJ THA president), we talked about any number of dates scenarios. Finally we decided we wanted to cut it to the point where there would be were no excuses left; it’s  the least common denominator, with the hope being that in the future we can add. I am very appreciative of the horsemen. There was a lot of hard work on their part.

Did you look outside of the United States? This looks an awful like what Japan or Hong Kong is doing.
There are no geniuses here.  Less is better. We looked at foreign models. We added the fall dates to see if there would be any life at Monmouth that time of year. It’s been 30 years or more since we raced that late at Monmouth. For one year, it’s something we had to do, but there are a lot of negotiations, a lot of issues that still need to be resolved.

You’ve said you need to double handle to sustain these purses of a million a day. What are the realistic chances of that?
That’s not what I said. My projections were soft, 20% to 25% increases. What I tried to allude to is that Saratoga is still the best in the country. We looked at the model–$13 million in daily handle at Saratoga). We are at $3.2 million. Somewhere I said can I grow toward that Saratoga number. Can I double my number this year? I don’t know. We made very soft projections just to maintain where we were: 20% increases on live handle, 20% on transmission of races, and that’s adding two or three races per day, ans assuming our field size will increase from under 7.5 horses per race to 8.75 or maybe nine. We think we’ll sell more races to California. Philadelphia Park won’t be running on Sundays, so how much can we pick up there? It’s a big gamble.

In 1970s when I was racing secretary here and New York was dark on Tuesdays, I’d put an overnight stakes on Tuesdays and we were doing $3 million a day in handle just in that building.

One thing that’s important to understand is that I want the other guys to have a good product, because I’m selling bets on it. I want racing across the country to be strong and good and competitive. I think one of our problems is that we are trying to become a slot machine in our wagering mentality.

Have you put more into the marketing budget?
We’re doing a lot of new things. We’ve had success adding events the last few years. We’ve had a crab cake event, we’re adding a jazz and blues festival, adding a burger event with the Newark Star-Ledger on Memorial Day weekend. We are doing more food events, adding a second music event. We’ve reintroduced the Monmouth County Hunt meet and believe that can become a big event. These things take two or three years to build. There are 16 weekends during this time and we’re trying to create an event every weekend. There is a lot of excitement among people who are lapsed fans. The upside can be big; I remember what it’s like to have 17,000 here every Saturday.

In addition we are real close to getting the Haskell televised on ABC, a one-hour show. You know we have a record of trying to be aggressive with our 3-year-olds.

What’s the impact on the stakes program?
Mostly minor things. Our graded stakes are right at $5 million, pretty much the same as before. We’re bringing the Meadowlands Cup to Monmouth and running the Pegasus as a Haskell prep. Our overnight stakes, something I created a long time ago, will start at $100,000. We are really focusing on the high end.

I have a great relationship with the horsemen, and they bought into the concept. We’re now trying to work on the purse schedule. Part of the plan is to put meaningful money back to last place. Right now we are talking about $2,000 for the last-place horse. That’s a lot of money. Too many small owners can’t make it, and just because you’re small doesn’t mean you’re not good.  If you can run a horse, and you perform, the $2,000 helps pay some of the training and offsets part of your losses. We’ll try to stop people from abusing the system by running just for $2,000.

You can’t finalize your purses until you write the condition books. We’re still working on it, but the purses are going to be very good at all levels. The first condition book is almost finished. It’ll be on our website soon.

What’s been the immediate reaction?
The stall applications look like when I started in 1977 as racing secretary, and it’s a who’s who of American racing. There are a lot of interesting things going on.
 
The comments on blogs from different people have been very encouraging. The game needs to do something different, and a lot of people are wishing us good luck. Hopefully, we can find something that works. There’s a lot of hope and enthusiasm out there.

Copyright © 2010, The Paulick Report

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