Posts Tagged ‘travers’
Friday, February 26th, 2010
The Paulick Report is pleased to once again offer the pedigree insights of Edwin Anthony in the weeks leading up to the Kentucky Derby. Ed has lifelong experience in the Thoroughbred industry, has practical experience planning matings for his family’s stable and formerly as a pedigree adviser to Three Chimneys Farm. His perspective is straightforward and refreshingly opinionated, and I advise anyone interested in Thoroughbred pedigrees to pick up a copy of his book, “The American Thoroughbred (Volume One)”—available for purchase here.
In this first of a series of articles, he looks at the pedigree of Fasig-Tipton Fountain of Youth winner Eskendereya. – Ray Paulick
ESKENDEREYA (Giant’s Causeway—Aldebaran Light, by Seattle Slew)
By Edwin Anthony
I wrote a series of eight pedigree profiles for horses on the “Triple Crown trail” starting about this time last year, and recent Fountain of Youth (G2) winner Eskendereya will serve as the first horse in our series this season. It’s interesting to look back at the horses we profiled last year (Friesan Fire, Quality Road, Pioneerof the Nile, Dunkirk, I Want Revenge, Papa Clem, Chocolate Candy, Rachel Alexandra) to see how they fared.
Quality Road is obviously a top horse (he missed the Triple Crown with quarter cracks), while Dunkirk and Pioneerof the Nile were each able to place in one classic race, and I wrote a token piece about Rachel Alexandra because she looked like a very special filly, even though she had not won anything more than a G2 race at that stage. Only a fortune teller could have predicted Rachel Alexandra’s Horse of the Year campaign after changing hands or the rapid ascension of Birdstone (sire of longshot classic winners Mine That Bird and Summer Bird) as a major classic influence.
Even though I have studied Thoroughbred pedigrees for going on 25 years, no one can get around the folly of bad luck, injuries in training, or the fact that many horses look dominant going nine furlongs (a mile-and-an-eighth) but simply aren’t up to the demanding task of running classic distances at a competitive speed.
That’s the mystery of stamina and genetics that we’re constantly trying to figure out. Of course, even a horse that is capable of competing at classic distances still needs to put out the effort, and sometimes horses have off-days just like people.
If nothing else, we strive to learn about the strengths and limitations of the stallions and ancestors under discussion and hope to come out smarter on the other side. At the very least, we want to learn what strategies are working in pedigrees, even if some of them aren’t up to the classic standard. Who are the soundest horses, where is the stamina coming from, and what ancestors are best to inbreed to? These are the answers we’re looking for.
Pedigree analysts (like myself) try to identify patterns in graded stakes results as a way of predicting the future. Given that the Storm Cat line has been a poor source of classic winners, then you probably wouldn’t want to lean heavily on Storm Cat’s sons (or stallions out of Storm Cat mares) in your stallion recommendations for breeders that want to breed for the classics. The Storm Cat line hasn’t had a winner of a Triple Crown race since Tabasco Cat in 1994, although Bluegrass Cat was second in the Kentucky Derby, Belmont, and Travers in 2006. You should note that Bluegrass Cat is out of a mare by classic influence A.P. Indy and his dam is heavily inbred to the foundation mare La Troienne, including being from the Numbered Account (champion 2YO filly by Buckpasser) branch of that important family.
So, while the Storm Cat line is dominant in 2-year-old racing and in races contested at distances of 9 furlongs or shorter, it does not appear capable of producing classic types, unless there is a LOT of help on the dam side of the equation. Of course, when you start to speak in these kinds of absolutes, a special horse can come along and provide us with the exception to the rule.
Storm Cat’s son Giant’s Causeway was a tough campaigner in Europe out of a good racemare by Rahy, with a second dam by English Derby winner and classic influence Roberto. He was undeniably consistent and high class, winning a series of Group 1 races at more than a mile. In his final start, he gave classic distance specialist Tiznow a real run for his money in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, that being his only start on dirt. So, Giant’s Causeway was sound, very fast, and capable of competing with top horses at the American classic distance of 10 furlongs (a mile-and-a-quarter). This makes him an exception among sons of Storm Cat, as most of his sons that have found any measure of success at stud were much better at a mile or less and have passed on this penchant for speed among their progeny.
Giant’s Causeway has already sired Grade 1 winners in America over 10 furlongs like Heatseeker (Santa Anita Handicap), Frost Giant (Suburban), and Red Giant (NWR, Clement L. Hirsch Memorial Turf Championship), so you can see that if there is a son of Storm Cat capable of siring an American classic winner, then Giant’s Causeway is probably the one.
The runaway win by Eskendereya (by Giant’s Causeway) in the Fountain of Youth (G2) was more than visually impressive. You could see that the horse really relished the opportunity to go two turns, and he is now 3 for 3 on the dirt, his only losses coming in his first start (a maiden event on turf at Saratoga) and a poor effort in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1), contested over the synthetic surface at Santa Anita. He was reported to have a troubled trip in that race as well.
I have often thought that a true classic type horse is able to simply get into a steady gallop and carve out “12’s,” which is to say that he can consistently complete each furlong of a race in 12 seconds. It becomes increasingly difficult to do with each furlong, as the muscles begin to tire, and Secretariat’s world record time of 2:24 in the 1973 Belmont (over 12 furlongs) is the best example of a horse being able to accomplish this feat over such a distance. It’s not about an explosive move or “turn of foot” with classic horses; it’s steady horsepower over a distance. Classic horses “stay” (as the Europeans like to say), while horses more suited to shorter distances simply run out of gas, unable to maintain a steady stream of “12’s” on the toteboard teletimer.
This is exactly what Eskendereya did to the field in the Fountain of Youth (G2)—he galloped them into submission. After taking over after a half-mile in a soft 47.92, he completed six furlongs in 1:12.41, a mile in 1:36.54, with a final time for nine furlongs of 1:48.87, echoing the many 12-second furlongs before the last one. So, like several other sons of Giant’s Causeway, Eskendereya looks capable of running a distance of ground as far as 10 furlongs at a competitive rate of speed. Let’s look at the bottom side of his pedigree to check for more stamina.
Eskendereya’s damsire, Seattle Slew, won the Triple Crown and has been a very successful classic influence, with descendants like A.P. Indy (Belmont, Breeders’ Cup Classic), Bernardini (Preakness, Travers), Cigar (Breeders’ Cup Classic, Dubai World Cup), Lemon Drop Kid (Belmont, Travers), Mineshaft (Jockey Club Gold Cup, Suburban), and Slew o’ Gold (Jockey Club Gold Cup twice) serving as notable examples.
Alydar (second in all 3 Triple Crown races to Affirmed) is the sire of Eskendereya’s second dam, and beyond the fact that he sired two Kentucky Derby winners (Alysheba and Strike the Gold) and a Belmont winner (Easy Goer), Horse of the Year Point Given (Preakness, Belmont, Travers) was produced by a mare by champion Turkoman, he being a son of Alydar.
We know that inbreeding to the family of Almahmoud (second dam of both Halo and Northern Dancer) has been quite successful, and Giant’s Causeway is a very good example of this, as Storm Cat is a grandson of Northern Dancer and Rahy (his damsire) is out of a mare by Halo. The pedigree of Eskendereya shows why a six-generation computer program is a good investment, as his third dam carries intensive inbreeding to the Almahmoud family as well. His third dam is by Northern Dancer himself (giving Eskendereya “balanced” inbreeding to Northern Dancer—through a son and a daughter), and while his fourth dam was sired by the stout stamina influence Ribot (winner of the 12-furlong “Arc” twice) his fifth dam is actually the mare Cosmah, she being the dam of Halo and a daughter of Almahmoud. Thus, Eskendereya is not only inbred to Northern Dancer through a son and a daughter, he is inbred to Halo’s dam, Cosmah, 6 x 5 and carries four total crosses of Almahmoud.
As the ancestors Northern Dancer, Halo, and their granddam Almahmoud get further back in pedigrees, this reinforcement strategy of crossing horses inbred to Almahmoud should continue to find success and revive their influence in classic pedigrees. My parents bred and raced Preakness winner Pine Bluff (inbred 4 x 4 to Almahmoud), and I have noticed him working well with reinforcement of Almahmoud’s genes, crossing successfully with stallions like More Than Ready (by Southern Halo—closely inbred to Almahmoud), Menifee (by Harlan—closely inbred to Almahmoud), and Jules (from the Northern Dancer family and carrying Halo in his pedigree). So, it seems to be a strategy that is paying dividends with stallions and mares already carrying inbreeding to Almahmoud.
Given the fact that Giant’s Causeway has already proven capable of siring runners that excel at classic distances, and the fact that Eskendereya carries a number of other classic influences in his pedigree (Seattle Slew, Alydar, Ribot, and intensive inbreeding to the influential Almahmoud family), I’d say that his classic prospects look very bright indeed. His clear preference for dirt racing and ability to string together one 12 second furlong after another only boosts his stock, in my opinion. If Eskenereya can arrive in Louisville with a solid Florida Derby (G1) effort under his belt, he should be a very strong contender.
Edwin Anthony was the staff pedigree consultant at Three Chimneys Farm for six years and has penned dozens of articles on pedigree research. He also published The American Thoroughbred (Volume I) in 2008, which can be ordered via the banner ad link on this web page or on his web site at www.thoroughbredadvisor.com.
Tags: A. P. Indy, affirmed, Aldebaran Light, alydar, Alysheba, belmont, Bernardini, Bluegrass Cat, breeders' cup classic, breeders' cup juvenile, Chocolate Candy, cigar, Clement L. Hirsch, dubai world cup, dunkirk, Easy Goer, Edwin Anthony, Edwin Anthony Pedigree Report, English Derby, Eskendereya, fasig-tipton, Fountain of Youth, Friesan Fire, Frost Giant, giant's causeway, Heatseeker, I Want Revenge, jockey club gold cup, kentucky derby, Lemon Drop Kid, mine that bird, Mineshaft, Northern Dancer, Papa Clem, Paulick Report, Pioneerof The Nile, Point Given, preakness, Quality Road, Rachel Alexandra, Rahy, Ray Paulick, red giant, santa anita handicap, seattle slew, Slew o' Gold, storm cat, Strike the Gold, Suburban, The American Thoroughbred, three chimneys farm, tiznow, travers, Turkoman
Posted in Edwin Anthony Pedigree Report | 9 Comments »
Wednesday, July 29th, 2009
While Ray Paulick is dipping his toes into the Pacific Ocean and enjoying summer racing at Del Mar, another big race meeting is set to begin in Upstate New York. In fact, Saratoga is more than a race meeting; for many people it’s a tonic to cure, at least temporarily, what ails the racing industry. The Paulick Report has asked Brendan O’Meara to provide his impressions of Saratoga as the Spa meeting is set to begin. O’Meara covers horse racing in the Upstate New York region and blogs at The Carryover at www.brendanomeara.blogspot.com. He is currently working on a book of narrative nonfiction chronicling the 2009 Saratoga meet through various threads capitulating at the 140th running of the Travers Stakes.
By Brendan O’Meara
There’s a scene in the 1994 movie “Beautiful Girls†where Willy C, played by Timothy Hutton, and Paul, played by Michael Rapaport, are sitting in Paul’s room. Both are in their late 20s and Willy becomes both disturbed and vocal with Paul’s obsession with the super model pinups he has tiled all over his wall. Paul then goes into a rant, as if he has had to defend himself on this canon more than just this time.
“The super models are beautiful girls, Will. A beautiful girl can make you feel dizzy, like you’ve been drinkin’ Jack and Coke all morning. She can make you feel high, full of the single greatest commodity known to man. Promise. Promise of a better day, promise of a greater hope, promise of a new tomorrow. This particular aura can be found in the gait of a beautiful girl; in her smile, in her soul, and the way she makes every little rotten thing about life seem like it’s going to be okay. The super models, Will, that’s all they are, bottled promise, scenes from a brand new day, hope dancing in stiletto heels.â€
Soon Willy gets up to leave, saying he plans to check the freezer for human heads. To which Paul belches out one last line, “A beautiful girl is all powerful and that’s as good as love. That’s as good as love.â€
And isn’t Paul, in a manner of speaking, the estranged horse racing fan, not knowing quite where to turn, but choosing to hang his or her pinups on the wall, images of racing’s past an escape of necessity, of something that could, maybe, be claimed yet again?
There seems hardly a moment of cheer left in the “Sport of Kings,†what with Ernie Paragallo’s utter contempt for the equine species. How is it that Pete Rose gets banned from baseball for gambling on his own team, yet Paragallo is still allowed to own and breed horses
Slot machines were squashed in Kentucky and VLTs seem to hang like the proverbial carrot in front of the mule in New York. Those same slots baited the Kentucky Derby winner, Mine That Bird, to run in the West Virginia Derby for $750,000 as a prep for the Travers.
In a story in the Charleston Gazette, it was said that Mine That Bird trainer Chip Woolley owes slot revenue as the reason for having trained the little Birdstone gelding. After the purchase of Mine That Bird for $400,000, the owners had their eye set on an $800,000 purse in New Mexico, of all places. “Without slots, I wouldn’t have a horse like this,†Woolley told the Gazette.
And, Dios mios, the economy. Bloodstock prices are plunging, new owners can be seen playing bocce instead of the races, stocks are skimming murky waters with catfish, and mortgages are worth more than houses, but that doesn’t mean that all is lost.
Sure, for 46 weeks, this type of pessimism and negativity is both expected and welcomed. But for six weeks, those feelings will undoubtedly be kept in check because the Spa is open, Saratoga Race Course, a month-plus morphine drip. Without slurping the Spa too, too much, it is worth noting that the energy is ramped up. Entries for Opening Day at Saratoga are at 134 horses — 107 running, 27 also-entered. Del Mar had 92 racing on its opening day card on July 22.
Rachel Alexandra is stabled next to Steve Asmussen’s office with a little souvenir New York license plate nailed above her stall door that says RACHEL. She is under constant surveillance since Stonestreet Stable’s Jess Jackson bought a majority interest in the filly.
Rachel is even on Twitter. At long last this is how horses can use toe grabs, for typing. Within 24 hours, she went from following five people and having just a few followers to following 763 people with 186 followers. Talk about networking. Every Monday, much to the chagrin of her handlers, there are throngs of media arriving as early as 5 a.m. to watch her groom, Javier, brush her down and tack her up. As hot walker Juan Gonzalez circles the trees at Barn 65, letting the Medaglia d’Oro filly gulp water five chugs at a time, people gape and awe as if her walking stride were somehow more magisterial than the next horse. They may be right. She is taking on the boys again in the Grade 1 Haskell Invitational this Sunday. More appropriately, the boys are taking on her.
She has a stablemate, Kensei, winner of the Dwyer, who is pointing to the Jim Dandy. Should Kensei win and Rachel win, does that put two Stonestreet horses at odds with one another? Do they both run in the Travers? Who has preference? Is this a subtle cue that Kensei has a Travers edge? If Stonestreet wants Horse of the Year, the Travers will be a nice scratch on the bedpost. So too could a win in, say, the Woodward.
Mine That Bird, should he come out of the West Virginia Derby sound and victorious, is going to the Travers. Summer Bird, the Belmont winner, should he come out of the Haskell in good order, is going to the Travers. Which leaves Rachel. This could be the first time in 27 years that all three winners of a Triple Crown race could square off in the Mid-Summer Derby. Not to mention the Florida Derby winner, Quality Road, and whoever should so happen to win the Curlin Stakes and Jim Dandy. There could be as many five or six Grade 1 winners come Travers Day.
There’s also the claiming races with $30,000 purses. Walk up to one of these claimers and borrow a line from The Boss, “You ain’t a beauty, but, hey, you’re all right.â€
The best of the best are here in Saratoga Springs for 36 days of racing to bury the thoughts of poor sales and animal neglect. Think of it is an escape. Money can be had at the windows and what sport offers its fans the option of bringing in their own beer and the opportunity to take cash home? And don’t say jai alai. It is a venue where, for a blink of an eye, the sport’s elite are on the grounds, where history is made every day, where known stars come and new stars emerge. Where society’s elite brush shoulders with the $2 bettor, and where the manure … still smells like manure, but that’s all right!
If nothing else, it offers hope, 36 individual pinups, and that, one might say, is as good as love.
Tags: Beautiful Girls, Brendan O'Meara, chip woolley, ernie paragallo, haskell, jess jackson, Michael Rapaport, mine that bird, Rachel Alexandra, saratoga, slots, steve asmussen, Stonestreet Sta, TImothy Hutton, travers, VLT
Posted in New York Racing Association, saratoga | 9 Comments »
Wednesday, June 24th, 2009
By Ray Paulick
Jess Jackson, the principal owner of star filly Rachel Alexandra, said during a New York Racing Association media teleconference on Wednesday afternoon he has no intention of ever running the Kentucky Oaks and Preakness winner on “plastic,” or synthetic racetracks, and ruled out any chance she would compete in this year’s Breeders’ Cup World Championships.
However, Jackson did say that if the daughter of Medaglia d’Oro remained healthy there was a very good chance she would remain in training in 2010 as a 4-year-old, with the Breeders’ Cup at Churchill Downs a year-end goal.
Jackson and Rachel Alexandra’s jockey, Calvin Borel, answered a wide range of questions from the media in advance of Saturday’s Mother Goose at Belmont Park, in which Rachel Alexandra will be heavily favored. NYRA is offering free admission for women and giving away 10,000 pink bracelets embossed with Rachel Alexandra’s name in conjunction with the announcement by Jackson and his wife, Barbara Banke, to give a portion of any prize money won by the filly to the Susan B. Komen Race for the Cure for breast cancer.
While he gave no indication where Rachel Alexandra would surface following this weekend’s race against fellow 3-year-old fillies, Jackson said he wanted to run her against colts again, and included the nine-furlong Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park Aug. 2 and 10-furlong Travers at Saratoga Aug. 29 among the possibilities for her this summer. Each race for 3-year-olds carries a $1-million purse. He also listed as possible starts the $300,000 Coaching Club American Oaks for 3-year-old fillies going 10 furlongs at Belmont Park July 25; the $1-million Delaware Handicap , a 10-furlong event for fillies and mares, 3 and up at Delaware Park July 19; and the $600,000 Alabama for 3-year-old fillies going 10 furlongs at Saratoga Aug. 22. The spacing of her races was important, Jackson said, along with her physical condition.
Jackson said he would love to meet reigning filly and mare champion Zenyatta, but that it would have to happen outside of California. “I would hope we’d meet, but if it’s not in the stars, it’s not going to happen,” he said. “They’re going to have to come east or to some neutral track,” he said. “I’m not going to run on plastic (all of California’s major tracks have a synthetic surface instead of dirt). We don’t need to risk her that way.” Jackson said synthetic tracks tend to favor turf horses and that Rachel Alexandra has proven herself on the dirt. “You can’t predict the outcome of a race on plastic,” he said. “You see horses all finishing in a bunch.” Also, Jackson said the various synthetic manufacturers (Pro Ride, Cushion Track, Polytrack, Tapeta) each produce varying surfaces. “Man is interfering with nature,” he added.
Borel said he is confident the drop back to a one-turn nine-furlong race for Rachel Alexandra will not be a problem after going around two turns in her recent races. “She’s very versatile,” he said. “I’m going to ride that filly with confidence. For me to go out there and not ride her with confidence would be stupid.”
In other news, Jackson, a Californian who is a major contributor to both the Democratic and Republican parties in Kentucky, said he supported recently defeated legislation in Kentucky to bring video lottery terminals or slot machines to the state’s racetracks, though he admitted he “didn’t work hard for the bill because I was back working in California on the wine business. When I support a party or candidate, I do it so they can vote their own conscience. I look at the slots and gambling as an interim or short-term solution. The long term is best served if we can get together and voluntarily form a major league office with a commissioner.”
Jackson also said he “has been approached and am involved in trying to save Santa Anita Park,” which is scheduled to be sold as part of the Magna Entertainment bankruptcy proceedings. The Thoroughbred Owners of California recently confirmed it is planning to bid on the track in a bankruptcy auction. Jackson added that he is considering sending both mares and stallions to his home state in order to improve California’s breeding industry.
Copyright © 2009, The Paulick Report
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Tags: alabama, Calvin Borel, coaching club american oaks, delaware handicap, haskell invitational, jess jackson, kentucky slots, Magna Entertainment, medaglia d'oro, mother goose, New York Racing Association, nyra, Paulick Report, Rachel Alexandra, Ray Paulick, santa anita park, susan b. komen race for the cure, travers, zenyatta
Posted in Breeders' Cup, Kentucky, New York Racing Association, Rachel Alexandra, Slot machines, Synthetic surfaces | 30 Comments »
Tuesday, November 11th, 2008
By Ray Paulick
To hear Carl Pascarella tell it, you’d think corporate marketers would have lined up from Louisville, Ky., all the way to New York’s Madison Avenue to bid on the Triple Crown sponsorship that Visa USA dropped in 1995 after a 10-year run. The relationship between the Triple Crown and Visa ended the same year Pascarella retired as the credit card giant’s chief executive officer.
Pascarella, speaking at a Tuesday afternoon session on Marketing & the Customer Experience at the 32nd Asian Racing Conference in Tokyo, used the familiar introduction from ABC’s “Wide World of Sports” to describe sponsorship of American racing’s highest-profile series, which begins with the Kentucky Derby on the first Saturday in May, continues two weeks later in the Preakness, and concludes three weeks after that with the Belmont Stakes.
First, there is the “thrill of victory,” Pascarella said. “From a sponsor’s standpoint, nothing gives you more of a thrill than the Kentucky Derby winner driving down the Preakness stretch with a three- or four-length lead and knowing, as a sponsor, that you’ve got legs, with another three or four weeks to promote in and outside the world of sports. It was something we could use from April on through to June.”
On the other hand, he said, there is “the agony of defeat. In six of eight years we had horses that won the first two legs and didn’t win the Belmont.” That defeat eliminated the possibility of further promotions congratulating the winner of the Visa Triple Crown Challenge and the accompanying $5-million bonus, as well as any additional races the winner might compete in, including the Travers Stakes or Breeders’ Cup.
The Triple Crown was one of several world-class sponsorships for Visa in the sports and entertainment world. “Each one of them,” Pascarella said, “had a common focus on a couple of very important things: understanding who their fan and audience was; and secondly, they understood how to drive value to that fan base. They had an unwavering commitment to both things. At Visa, we looked more to sports as being the pinnacle of entertainment for fans, or our customers. No other form of entertainment brings the same kind of excitement or elation as sports does.
“The sports that are best for our sponsorship,” Pascarella continued, “put the fan in the center of the activity. They create deeper relationships because it’s a fan-centric approach. They give the fan a way to get into the event itself.”
Pascarella recalled how much value he was able to give to Visa’s best customers — bankers and merchants — who would come to Louisville for the Kentucky Derby. “We’d bring them on a backside tour of Churchill Downs on the day before the Derby,” he said. “They’d see the horses who would be racing in the Derby the next day, meet trainers like Bobby Baffert and D. Wayne Lukas, and these people felt like they were part of it all. We were giving them something special because of a sponsorship that was invaluable. That’s what we were paying for, that extra feeling that allowed our customers to get inside the sport.
“We’re not looking at fan numbers, we are looking at fans who are engaged, fans who will be engaged with us and our products and services,” Pascarella said. “We look at selecting and evaluating sponsorships based on being able to drive consumer behavior. How have we lifted the brand, how have we changed behavior, how have we made the consumer closer to us as a result of the association? The more we win, the more we put into a sponsorship. But it’s not just about the money. It’s about the relationships you can build with your sponsor and what you can give your sponsor in return. You need mutually beneficial objectives.”
Interestingly, while Visa dropped its sponsorship of the Triple Crown, it entered into a five-year agreement with Churchill Downs to sponsor the Kentucky Derby. No company has stepped forward to sponsor the Triple Crown since Visa’s exit from the series. One reason may have been a decision by the New York Racing Association to end its association with NBC Sports, and put the Belmont on ABC/ESPN. Another may have been fragmentation within the three tracks that comprise Triple Crown Productions and a power struggle over how sponsorship revenues were divided. Currently, of course, they have nothing to divide from a Triple Crown title sponsor.
Pascarella, now an executive adviser to TPG Capital, also cautioned racing associations that the current economic climate will cause nearly every major corporation to reevaluate its advertising, marketing and sponsorship budgets. “Every economist projects a very deep and long recession,” he said. “That means your sponsors are going to be under a great deal of pressure. You need to reach out to them, even though your revenues also are going to be under pressure. If you reach out to them, and say, ‘How do we work together to get through this?’ that will go a long way.”
BRANDING GURU DAVID AAKER , professor emeritus of marketing strategy at the Haas School of Business at the University of California-Berkeley, talked about how racing can build its brand.
At a time when brand trustworthiness and quality perceptions of most brands are down significantly in the minds of the public, Aaker said there are opportunities to improve branding through increased energy. He cited the Nintendo video game brand as one recent phenomenon in the branding world. Five years ago, Aker said, Nintendo ranked 165th among brand names in Japan, moved up to 65th three y ears ago, fifth two years ago, and now ranks as the country’s leading brand, thanks to the energy created by the Nintendo Wii platform and games.
He cited five other very diverse brands that have energized themselves in recent years: 1) the Memphis Redbirds minor league baseball team; 2) the Indianapolis Motor Speedway; 3) PGA Tour golf; 4) Harley Davidson; and 5) Avon cosmetics.
All of those brands used one of two methods: energizing the business itself, or finding something with energy that is interesting and involving and attach it to the brand. “Both options are really powerful,” Aaker said.
The Memphis Redbirds, Indianapolis Speedway and Harley Davidson energized their brand by engaging their customers in multiple activities that built on the customer experience. The PGA Tour and Avon tied themselves to something with energy. The PGA Tour used Tiger Woods to its best advantage, and Avon linked its products to a breast cancer crusade and created the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer, with millions of people engaged each year. Similarly, Aaker said, Lowe’s home improvement stores attach their brand to Habitat for Humanity. In the case of Avon, he said, “Breast cancer is so important an issue and involving to the target audience that it provides Avon a way to get energy that it could never do through their products and services.” Aaker said companies seeking to strengthen their brand should “find role models, companies in related or unrelated industries…someone who’s done it well with a brand people are talking about. What can you learn from them?”
In addition, he said, self-reflection is necessary. “What about the customer experience is boring or unpleasant? How can you mitigate that? What can be added to en rich and improve the customer experience.” To find what he calls “branded energizers” like Avon’s breast cancer campaign, Aaker said companies should examine “what existing program has energy that fits your brand and can be connected to your brand…programs that aren’t part of the experience people are currently buying? What new program with energy can be developed that fits the brand and can be connected to the brand?”
“You have one of the most exciting events in sports and entertainment,” Aaker said. “But you need to ask yourself, ‘How can I add energy to my brand?’”
TELEVISION ADVERTISEMENTS PROMOTING RACING around the world were shown to the group and audience members were asked to vote on their favorites. The ads were divided into five categories: Celebrating the Horse; Sex and Glamour; The Punt; A Good Laugh; and The Buzz.Most provocative were ads from Australia promoting sex and glamour. Other countries featured included France, Turkey, Japan, Hong Kong, Germany, Ireland and the United States (two ads from Santa Anita were featured). Details tomorrow on the winning ad.
Tags: 32nd asian racing conference, asian racing federation, avon, avon walk for breast cancer, belmont stakes, Bob Baffert, brand energizers, brand marketing, branded energizers, Breeders' Cup, carl pascarella, churchill downs, d. wayne lukas, david aaker, dentsu, haas school of business, harley davidson, Horse Racing, indianapolis motor speedway, kentucky derby, Marketing, memphis redbirds, New York Racing Association, Paulick Report, pga tour, presakness, racing sponsorships, Ray Paulick, sports sponsorships, tokyo, travers, triple crown productions, visa, visa usa, wide world of sports
Posted in Horse Racing, Industry Conferences, International Racing, Marketing, Sponsorships | 3 Comments »
Wednesday, August 27th, 2008
By Ray Paulick
WinStar Farm’s Colonel John may have had an advantage over his 11 rival 3-year-olds in last Saturday’s $1-million Travers Stakes when it was learned that jockey Garrett Gomez was carrying an angel on his shoulders.
Gomez, who miraculously put Colonel John’s nose on the wire millimeters in front of Mambo in Seattle (who was in front a jump before and a jump after the finish), was wearing WinStar’s green and white silks that were bearing the initials “KC,” in memory of Karri Casner — the daughter of WinStar co-owners Bill and Susan Casner — who was among the 202 people killed in the Oct. 12, 2002, terrorist bombings on the Indonesian island of Bali.
The WinStar silks designed in memory of Karri Casner are not technically permitted at New York Racing Association tracks, the only ones in the United States that follow the strict guidelines established by the Jockey Club for racing colors. No lettering or asymmetrical designs are permitted on silks at NYRA tracks, according to the guidelines. Somehow, the “wrong” silks ended up on Gomez before the Travers, a race that resulted in the closest finish of a New York stakes since 1991, according to NYRA’s photo finish camera operator.
Karri, the younger of two daughters of Bill and Susan Casner, was just 23 years old when she was killed during a visit to Bali. A day doesn’t go by when her parents and her older sister, Kayce, don’t think of her. The Casners designed the silks with the “KC” on the left shoulder as a memorial to Karri. The idea came from Kenny Troutt, who with wife Lisa are partners in WinStar with the Casners.
Colonel John was named after Army Reserve Lt. Col John Geider, a longtime family friend of the Casners and Troutts. Geider assisted the Casners in the aftermath of the bombing when they flew to Bali in search of their missing daughter.
Kathy Harty, wife of Colonel John’s trainer Eoin Harty, produced a short video documentary of Travers day that can be viewed at Youtube.com. The video, set to the sound of Green Day’s “Time of Your Life,” concludes with two photographs of Karri Casner.
"I feel like she’s with us all the time," Susan Casner told a reporter for Daily Racing form earlier this year as Colonel John was preparing for the Kentucky Derby. "Karri loved horses, and she loved horse racing."
And she would love to have been at Saratoga last Saturday to witness Colonel John’s tenacious victory in the Travers.
Perhaps she was.
Tags: bali, Bill Casner, colonel john, eoin harty, garrett gomez, green day, Horse Racing, john geider, karri casner, kathy harty, kayce casner, mambo in seattle, Paulick Report, Ray Paulick, susan casner, time of your life, travers
Posted in Horse Racing, People | 6 Comments »
Sunday, August 24th, 2008
By Ray Paulick
Turns out that wasn’t an illusion earlier this year when Colonel John seemed to catch another gear just as the wire was approaching in the 1 1/8-mile Santa Anita Derby. The rest of the field looked to be in deep water and the muscular bay son of Tiznow was skipping along on the surface as if he had just entered the fray. His margin of victory that day was only a half-length, but it was the way he did it that was so impressive.
That’s why I thought the mile and a quarter of the Kentucky Derby would be right up Colonel John’s alley. There was some skepticism because it didn’t appear to be a very strong group of 3-year-olds in California prepping for the Classics, and the horse he caught in the final sixteenth of a mile, Bob Black Jack, was a stretching-out sprinter. Nevertheless, I thought Colonel John had what it took to become the 134th winner of the Run for the Roses.
Big Brown ran Colonel John and everyone else off the track that first Saturday in May. It was no contest, really, especially when you consider how much ground Big Brown lost. Colonel John had a nightmare trip, getting virtually eliminated right after the start, when he was pinched back and steadied, then raced into a wall of flying dirt down the stretch the first time. Midway down the backstretch, Colonel John put in a strong run from 16th in the 20-horse field to get as close sixth, but he had nothing left for the final quarter mile.
The team of WinStar Farm and trainer Eoin Harty went back to the drawing board after Colonel John’s disappointing sixth-place result in Kentucky, bringing him back two months later in the Swaps Stakes at Hollywood Park (he finished a close third in a four-horse field) but circling Aug. 23 on the calendar as THE day to seek redemption in the 139th running of the Travers. For despite winning four of his first six races, being a Grade 1 winner, and going into the Kentucky Derby as the second betting choice, Colonel John was still carrying that dreaded new moniker: Synthetic Horse. He had yet to win on a racetrack made of real dirt.
Outside of Churchill Downs, no dirt is more hallowed than that which covers the main track oval at Saratoga racetrack in upstate New York. But Harty kept Colonel John in California almost up to the last minute, working him like clockwork every six or seven days on Del Mar’s Polytrack. Garrett Gomez, racing’s current “go to” big race jockey, would travel east for the mount after replacing Corey Nakatani in the Swaps following the disastrous Kentucky Derby run.
In the crowded, 12-horse Travers field, Gomez didn’t get the smoothest of trips, either. Belmont Stakes winner Da’ Tara led for the first mile of the mile and a quarter “Midsummer Derby,” with Gomez and Colonel tracking him all the way. At the top of the stretch, Colonel John was ready to take off, but Gomez was in tight and had to angle out sharply to avoid clipping the heels of Tale of Ekati to his inside and Da’ Tara, who was directly in front of him. Once clear, Colonel John took dead aim at Da’ Tara and put that stubborn rival away. But quickly joining the fray after rallying around horses on the turn for home was Mambo in Seattle, a late-developing Kingmambo colt who ran on Derby day at Churchill Downs, finishing second in an entry-level allowance race. He breezed through his allowance conditions after that and won a restricted stakes at Saratoga in late July, his first-added money effort. Trainer Neil Howard, who is always dangerous with a loaded gun, had Mambo in Seattle ready for the race of his life, and the colt did everything but win the Travers.
In fact, jockey Robbie Albarado thought he’d won the race, waving his whip in celebration at the wire, and ESPN commentators took the bait, interviewing him as the apparent winner as he jogged back to have his picture taken. But the bob of the head went to Colonel John, whose margin of victory could be measured in millimeters.
The Travers is the second most coveted race for a 3-year-old colt after the Kentucky Derby – at least among breeders. The victory, though the margin could not have been narrower, was huge for the stallion potential of Colonel John, who threw the synthetic monkey off his powerful shoulders. The result also sets up the potential for a most interesting Breeders’ Cup Classic on Santa Anita’s new Pro-Ride synthetic surface, if (and it’s a big if) Big Brown shows up. Right now, the connections of Big Brown say that’s where they are heading after the son of Boundary preps in a specially created turf race at Monmouth Park next month.
As for Mambo in Seattle, he is a colt of great talent who was unlucky to lose. He’ll have his chance at Grade 1 glory down the road, and will be to a force later this year and in 2009 for co-owners Will Farish and Mrs. William Kilroy. His pedigree (Kingmambo out of Weekend in Seattle, by Seattle Slew) assures that he will have every opportunity at stud when his racing days are over.
Copyright © 2008, The Paulick Report
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Tags: Big Brown, Breeders' Cup, breeders' cup classic, colonel john, da' tara, eoin harty, espn, garrett gomez, kentucky derby, kingmambo, mambo in seattle, neil howard, polytrack, pro-ride, robbie albarado, santa anita, saratoga, Synthetic surfaces, tiznow, travers, winstar
Posted in Horse Racing, Synthetic surfaces | Comments Off
Saturday, August 23rd, 2008
By Ray Paulick
WinStar Farm homebred Colonel John won Saturday’s Grade 1 Travers Stakes by a nose in a head-bobbing finish with William S. Farish and Mrs. William Kilroy’s Mambo in Seattle. Pyro, the 7-2 favorite, finished third, 5 1/4 lengths back, with Harlem Rocker fourth in the 139th running of the $1-million "midsummer classic" for 3-year-olds.. Time of the race on a fast track was 2:03.20 for the mile and a quarter on a fast track.
(VIDEO)
(Today’s Saratoga charts)
Colonel John, breaking from the two post, saved ground as Belmont Stakes winner Da’ Tara set all the fractions under Alan Garcia, the opening quarter-mile in :23.91, the half-mile in :48.06 and six furlongs in 1:12.12. When the field turned for home, Gomez had to alter course sharply behind Da’ Tara, then went to his outside, taking the lead inside the furlong pole. Mambo in Seattle, under Robbie Albarado, was forced to take the overland route, rallying from well off the pace but avoiding a scrum to his inside at the head of the stretch that may have compromised the chances of Harlem Rocker and Pyro. The Kinbmambo colt ranged up alongside Colonel John nearing the sixteenth pole, and the two raced to the wire together. Colonel John appeared to be edging ahead, but Mambo in Seattle made one final, valiant run, losing the victory in a head-bob. The official margin was a nose, but the photo finish showed it to be no more than an inch.
The victory was Colonel John’s first on a traditional dirt track. He had previously won four of eight starts, all on synthetic tracks, including three stakes. He came into the Kentucky Derby off a half-length victory in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby, and was the 9-2 second choice behind Big Brown at Churchill Downs. The son of Tiznow out of the Turkoman mare Sweet Damsel was never a factor that day, finishing sixth, 14 1/4 lengths behind Big Brown. He skipped the rest of the Triple Crown, then returned to action with a third-place finish behind Tres Borrachos July 12 in the Grade 2 Swaps Stakes at Hollywood Park.
Colonel John did all of his serious preparation work before the Travers on Polytrack at Del Mar for his trainer, Eoin Harty. The win could set up a rematch between Colonel John and Big Brown in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Santa Anita Park, which will be contested on that track’s new Pro-Ride synthetic surface.
The winner paid $10.40 and earned $600,000 to increase his earnings to $1,468,830.
IN THE GRADE 1 NETJETS KING’S BISHOP, a race for 3-year-olds going seven furlongs that immediately preceded the Travers, Team Valor International and Vision Racing’s Visionaire, benefited from a hot pace and rallied from last to first to win going away by 2 1/4 lengths under Alan Garcia.
Gentleman James, Golden Spikes and 8-5 favorite J Be K threw down fractions of :22.39 and :44.73 for the opening half mile, with J Be K taking a narrow advantage when the 10-horse field turned for home, and it looked like anyone’s race. Desert Key, had to await room on the inside, then found an opening to gain the lead in the final furlong, but Garcia had Visionaire picking ‘em and mowing ‘em down on in the middle of the track after rallying widest into the stretch.
The son of Grand Slam hit the front in the final 70 yards and drew off, with Desert Key holding second by a nose from I’m So Lucky. The winner, bred in Kentucky by Eaton Sales co-owner Reiley McDonald and trained by Michael Matz, paid $15.60 for the win after covering seven furlongs on a fast track in 1:21.94.
The win was Visionaire’s fifth from 10 starts and second starts victory, following a win in the Gotham at Aqueduct in March. Visionaire ran fifth in the Blue Grass Stakes and 12th behind Big Brown in the Kentucky Derby.
SHADWELL STAALE’S IRISH-BRED SHAKIS won the Grade 2 Bernard Baruch by three parts of a length over War Monger, with Operation Red Dawn finishing third. The 8-year-old by Machiavellian was ridden by Alan Garcia and is trained by Kiaran McLaughlin. He covered nine furlongs on firm turf in 1:46.78.
Tags: colonel john, eoin harty, garrett gomez, mambo in seattle, Paulick Report, pyro, Ray Paulick, saratoga, shakis, team valor, travers, visionaire, winstar farm
Posted in Horse Racing | 2 Comments »
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