Harmonising the rulebook - how can racing be improved?
A harmonised rulebook across the globe would benefit racing, writes Katie Roebuck, but with the world unable to agree on more pressing issues such as climate change or the economic crisis, how easy would it be to implement?
Katie Roebuck (European Trainer - issue 29 - Spring 2010)
Swedish Racing - the head of Taby Galopp suggests inner-city racing
Imagine a handful of race meetings every summer in Richmond Park in London or Central Park in New York, writes Geir Stabell, on turf strips that have simply been rented by the racing authorities, to show off the sport to a wider audience. A sort of a science fiction idea, far removed from the realities of horseracing? Not necessarily.
Täby Galopp, the principal of three racecourses in Sweden, sits less than 20km from the centre of the capital Stockholm, and is thus closer to the heart of the nation than most other racecourses in Europe. Still, plans are in motion to move the racecourse. There are both fascinating and interesting plans, based on new ideas, as Täby Galopp's new managing Director Dag Johansson explains: "We may one day have one venue right in the middle of the city, for three to four big events per year, supported by a 'bread and butter' venue further away from the city.
Geir Stabell (European Trainer - issue 29 - Spring 2010)
NYC OTB: The fight for survival
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Sid Fernando First Published: (14 April 2010 - Issue Number: 16)
EQUINE VISION - HOW IT WORKS, AND HOW IT CAN AFFECT A HORSE'S CAREER
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From Good to GREAT - the pain of losing a good horse to another trainer
Losing an under-achieving horse is a reality trainers live with daily. But how do you lose a horse who performs spectacularly in his debut? How do you lose a horse you’ve waited your whole lifetime to train?
Bill Heller (14 October 2008 - Issue Number: 10)
Palm Meadows - the best training center in the country
For all the criticism Frank Stronach has received for turning Gulfstream Park from a racetrack into a casino/concert hall/shopping mall that offers racing, he's received very little credit for developing the best training center in the country, 49 miles north of Gulfstream in Boynton Beach: Palm Meadows.
Bill Heller (14 October 2008) Issue 10
By Bill Heller
For all the criticism Frank Stronach has received for turning Gulfstream Park from a racetrack into a casino/concert hall/shopping mall that offers racing, he’s received very little credit for developing the best training center in the country, 49 miles north of Gulfstream in Boynton Beach: Palm Meadows.
What drives appetite?
Owned and operated by Stronach’s Magna Entertainment Corp., Palm Meadows is just off the Florida Turnpike. The immaculate 304-acre facility has received rave reviews from horsemen since it opened in 2003.
“It’s very nice; it’s the best training center in the world,” trainer Dale Romans said. “For one, everything is so new. The racetracks are in good shape. Everything is state of the art. The barns are nice. They’re airy for the horses. The upkeep is great. It’s as good today as it was the day it opened.”
But Palm Meadows has more than just the fine facilities offered to horses and horsemen from November 1st through May 1st. Under Stronach’s direction, the living quarters for exercise riders, hotwalkers and grooms resemble college dorms rather than the rundown slums found on many racetracks’ backstretches.
Four three-story dorm buildings each consist of 52 rooms. Each 12-by-20 foot room has two beds, its own shower, toilet, microwave, refrigerator, heater/air conditioner and storage locker. Each building has a laundry room equipped with three washers and three dryers. In the courtyard, there are two sand volleyball courts and a patio with benches and barbecue grills.
Imagine that: backstretch workers living like human beings.
“That’s Mr. Stronach,” Palm Meadows General Manager Gary Van den Broek said. “He wanted to provide better living facilities for the people who work here. There’s nothing fancy about them, but they’re better than other facilities.”
Just about everything at Palm Meadows is better than other facilities.
“From the creation and design of the training facility to the creation and design of dormitories for the backside help, Frank continues to show a genuine and unique concern for those who play such an important role in this sport,” Gulfstream Park President and General Manager Bill Murphy said.
There are three training surfaces for horses on Palm Meadows’ spacious site: a 100-foot wide, mile-and-an-eighth dirt track, a 176-foot wide, seven-eighths mile turf course and an 80-foot wide, one-mile, L-shape jogging track which borders the main track. The dirt surfaces are similar to the ones at Gulfstream Park. “We have a little less clay content than what Gulfstream has,” Van den Broek said. “We’re here to leg up horses.”
That’s an option that trainers employ. Romans had a 32-horse barn stabled at Palm Meadows as well as a barn at Gulfstream. “So we go back and forth,” Romans said. “Most of the horses here at Palm Meadows are getting ready to run. They’re young horses, not quite there yet.”
Other horses at Palm Meadows already have amassed impressive credentials. Last winter’s 1,100-horse population at Palm Meadows included Hall of Fame trainer Nick Zito’s then-undefeated War Pass, the 2007 Two-Year-Old Champion Colt, as well as an unheralded runner in Rick Dutrow Jr.’s barn named Big Brown, who had won his only start in 2007 by daylight.
Dutrow kept Big Brown at Palm Meadows as he prepared him for this year’s Triple Crown run. “I have about 80 horses in New York, and I talk to my people up there every day,” Dutrow said last spring. “But I’d rather be here with this horse because it’s so much fun. He wants to be here at Palm Meadows.”
Palm Meadows’ configuration may have been one of the reasons why. The barns at Palm Meadows are connected to the main track by a system of horse paths designed so that a horse doesn’t have to walk on pavement to get to the track.
Though Dutrow spent much of the spring denying that Big Brown had ongoing foot problems, the quarter crack he developed before the Belmont Stakes became the hottest story in racing and certainly did nothing to help his chances of becoming the first Triple Crown winner since Affirmed in 1978.
Before the Kentucky Derby, Big Brown’s major works were at Palm Meadows. He breezed five furlongs in 1:00 3/5 – galloping out six in 1:14 2/5 – on April 18th, then five furlongs in :58 3/5 on April 24th nine days prior to the Run for the Roses.
Big Brown’s powerful victory in the Kentucky Derby, and his triumphs in the Preakness and Haskell Stakes, will do nothing to diminish Palm Meadows’ stature.
When Big Brown was eased in the Belmont Stakes in the only loss of his career, the longshot winner who beat him, Zito’s Da’ Tara, had also wintered at Palm Meadows.
The quickly growing list of Palm Meadows’ alumni who have had tremendous success include 2003 Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Funny Cide, 2004 Belmont Stakes and Travers Stakes winner Birdstone, 2004 Horse of the Year Ghostzapper, 2005 Horse of the Year Saint Liam, 2006 Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro, 2006 Horse of the Year Invasor and 2007 Kentucky Derby winner Street Sense.
Street Sense’s success last year helped propel his trainer Carl Nafzger into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame this summer. Nafzger remains enthusiastic about Palm Meadows. “This training facility is great,” he said. “It’s fantastic. It’s quiet. You can do so much here to train a horse. You’ve got the chute. You’ve got the turf. You can do everything in the world to train a horse. Of course, everybody comes to Florida because of the weather.”
Zito is well aware of the difference in the weather between Florida and New York every winter. “You always say you’re a product of your environment,” he said. “Obviously, this is a great facility. The surface is good. It’s quiet. It’s a good place to train. That’s the main thing.”
Van den Broek defers accolades to his boss: “All of the credit has to go to Mr. Stronach,” he said. “Ninety-nine percent of the facility was his design. We didn’t do a thing until he approved it, anything from the color of the screws to the color of the turf to designing the stalls. Everything. It was all him.”
Among the 66 trainers who were stabled at Palm Meadows last winter in addition to Dutrow, Nafzger, Romans and Zito were Jim Bond, Dominic Galluscio, Stanley Hough, Jimmy Jerkens, Steve Klesaris, Michael Matz, Kiaran McLaughlin, Kenny McPeek, Graham Motion, Angel Penna Jr., Linda Rice, Tom Skiffington, Barclay Tagg, John Terranova, Jimmy Toner, Rick Violette, John Ward and Marty Wolfson.
There are 40 barns at Palm Meadows, each with 36 12-by-12 foot stalls with rubber mats. Every other stall is lined with rubber on the walls. Each barn contains an office, a private restroom, two tack rooms, a second restroom for staff, provisions for a washer, dryer and ice machine and a storage loft for light equipment. Twenty 40-foot-wide sand rings allow horses to roll in for fun. A 55,000 square-foot composing plant processes horse waste into compost.
A three-storey administration/lodging building has an employee lounge, a kitchen and a trainer’s lounge with men’s and women’s locker rooms on the first floor. The second and third floors have 30 fully-furnished, one-bedroom efficiency apartments for trainers and assistant trainers with approximately 480 square feet of living space.
Stall rent is $1,200 per stall for the season; dorm rooms are $500 per room for the season and trainer apartments are $1,000 per room with a six-month lease only.
Training hours are from 6:30 to 11am. with one harrow break at 8:30 a.m. The turf track is available for breezing on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 10 to 11 a.m., and numbers are limited. The starting gate is available on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays from 7 to 9:30 a.m. Free horse-shuttle transportation is available to Gulfstream Park on race days.
Last spring, Tagg had Triple Crown hopeful Tale of Ekati stabled at Gulfstream Park, but transferred him to Palm Meadows. Romans and many other trainers shuttled horses back and forth. A training facility completely separate from a busy, crowded racetrack is a nice option for any trainer.
Nationalizing the Rulebook - can it be done?
The Autumn 2008 issue of our sister publication European Trainer includes an article on Worldwide Rules, in which Katherine Ford examines European efforts to establish a worldwide ruling system for governing horseracing. When we looked at running the same article in this issue we realized that America had to first look at coordinating their own rules of racing at a national level before joining in the international debate.
Frances J Karon
(14 October 2008 - Issue Number: 10)
Hong Kong - Far Eastern racing run by an American
By Paul Moran
The view in one direction frames an expanse of the endless Hong Kong skyline, in another the emerald Happy Valley Racecourse, but this is unmistakably the working domain of an American. Portraits of Man o' War, Spectacular Bid and presentation photos made after races at Belmont Park, Aqueduct and Saratoga decorate the walls, the occupant standing beside Orientate, Sulamani and Funny Cide.
Paul Moran (14 February 2008 - Issue Number: 7 )
The view in one direction frames an expanse of the endless Hong Kong skyline, in another the emerald Happy Valley Racecourse, but this is unmistakably the working domain of an American. Portraits of Man o' War, Spectacular Bid and presentation photos made after races at Belmont Park, Aqueduct and Saratoga decorate the walls, the occupant standing beside Orientate, Sulamani and Funny Cide.
In the early years of the Breeders' Cup, which remains a young event when considered within racing's historical context, Bill Nader would leave his various duties at Rockingham Park in New Hampshire, where he took his first racetrack job as a press box aide while still a student, for an assignment on the event's notes team, which gathers information concerning the participants for dissemination in the media. The world looks much different from the corner office on the top floor of the Hong Kong Jockey Club headquarters.
The executive director of racing in Hong Kong - the first American ever appointed to a position of such influence in what is a unique racing and gambling enterprise that has for more than a century impacted on the life of almost every citizen of the former British colony (returned to Chinese control in 1999) – is less than a year removed from New York, where at times it appeared that Nader was single-handedly guiding the daily business of a listing ship that has for years been imperiled.
Nader was the face of the New York Racing Association and its most reliable voice at a time when every day, it seemed, brought new crisis. Five years of tumult began with the turn of the century and a scandal spawned among betting clerks that progressed upward through what most consider the most important of American racing organizations. The guilty clerks were imprisoned on various tax fraud and money laundering changes as were two mid-level executives. Key people left the association, retired or resigned voluntarily, some on the day they qualified for a pension. Highly placed executives were forced to resign. Barry Schwartz, the outspoken and sometimes controversial chairman of the board, stepped down in frustration. The state's politicians and media turned the association's troubles and the question of franchise renewal into a public circus. Nader was left, usually alone, in the storm's eye.
The Association faced an array of threatened federal indictments avoided only by a long period of operation under the thumb of a court-appointed monitor and eventually filed the papers necessary for reorganization within the framework of bankruptcy law. Nader, originally hired to head the simulcasting network, watched the New York Racing Association's workforce shrivel and took up the slack left by manpower and expertise that once departed was not replaced. As the morass thickened, Nader rose to the position of senior vice president and chief operating officer calling on experience and skills honed in the heat of political, legal and financial battle for survival learned in New Hampshire.
Thoroughbreds no longer have a home at Rockingham Park, which now conducts only harness racing.
It was always a bootstrap operation, a fine place for the education of a young person with designs on a career in racing, and Nader steeped himself in a curriculum impossible to duplicate in the traditional halls of academia. He worked in the publicity department, developing relationships with the media; sharpened handicapping skills when charged with assigning morning-line odds; developed relationships with horsemen while working in the racing office, gained an understanding of their concerns and needs; couriered videotape to the local television station for the evening replay programs; negotiated simulcast contracts; learned to call races when the principal announcer was absent. It is also the place in which the direction of his life first took shape and form.
"I lived a bicycle ride away from Rockingham and worked in the press box as a summer job while attending the University of New Hampshire," Nader said. "When I was 21, I became the track oddsmaker. In that role, I further developed my handicapping skills and also my strong interest in the sport.
"I first became interested in racing through one of my best friends, my father, and we would go racing once a week. Racing helped our father-and-son bond and we spent a lot of time together discussing and enjoying the sport, especially in his later years of life and that is something I will always treasure. I had always turned him down when he asked me to go to the racetrack because I was active playing sports and being a horse racing spectator had no appeal to me. It took Secretariat to open my eyes in the 1973 Belmont Stakes. I watched on network television and that was the turning point.
"Rockingham provided a foundation because out of necessity you got an idea of how every department at the racetrack should work. And we had some good races there – the New Hampshire Sweepstakes and the Spicy Living Handicap, races that New York trainers and others would send horses to, so I was exposed to what was at the time a higher level of racing. Still, the move to New York was an awfully big step.
"When I was first offered the job in New York, I turned it down. I didn't feel as though I could leave Rockingham in the middle of a meeting. But when the meeting was over, the job was still open and I moved to New York at the beginning of the fall meeting at Belmont in 1994. Luck. If they'd found someone else during that time, I may never have had the opportunity in New York. The people at Rockingham didn't believe I was going to a place that big, but if you love racing and the New York Racing Association calls, that was it."
New York, however, besieged by posturing politicians and those who sought to take over the racing franchise upon expiration at the end of 2007 quickly became Kafkaesque, far from the utopian professional environment Nader envisioned.
"The problems and politics surrounding NYRA and its franchise were personally challenging and incredibly frustrating at times," Nader said, "but, in all honesty, I could fight the fight with the best of them. I came from a humble racing background and the privilege of being intimately involved with the high quality of racing in New York was a great equalizer. I could take the punishment as long as I knew there was a Grade 1 on Saturday and that Saratoga was only a few months away. With all of the personnel changes over my 14 years at NYRA, I knew there were many people in that organization that looked to me for leadership and for someone they could identify with. There was no chance of my leaving NYRA or so I thought, until the Hong Kong Jockey Club called. I had long admired the HKJC from a distance and I knew I would not get a second chance at the opportunity of a lifetime."
The move from New York to Hong Kong was for Nader like walking through a looking glass. He left pathos, which continues in his absence, for an organization unlike any in the world. In a city of seven million people among whom gambling is central to the culture, racing is not the sport of kings but the king of sports and membership in the Jockey Club, a requirement for those who aspire to ownership of racehorses, is a symbol of status considered almost priceless.
With the possible exception of the Japan Racing Association, the Hong Kong Jockey Club is easily the world's most prosperous racing enterprise, made more so by a gambling monopoly that includes the lottery and wagering on international soccer matches. Originally established as the Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club after the introduction of racing in the region by the British, who constructed a racecourse in 1845 on the only suitably flat land on the island –f a drained malarial swamp with the whimsical name, Happy Valley – the Jockey Club, after the Chinese government, is the region's most important organization and in real terms perhaps the most important based on its impact upon the lives of Hong Kong's citizens.
Though the British first brought racing to the island, the native Chinese have taken the sport to heart in a way that has no frame of reference outside Asia, participating with a fiscal enthusiasm unprecedented elsewhere. In 2006, Hong Kong bettors wagered $63.86 billion – $8.2 billion in U.S. funds – though the Jockey Club holds just two days of racing, or 16 races, per week, from September through June. This is more than half the $15.6 billion wagered on 58,851 races run in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico – population 338.5 million – during the same year
The people of Hong Kong, only an hour by ferry from the explosion of opulent casinos in Macau, wagered another $30.2 billion -- $3.9 billion U.S. – on soccer matches and $6.6 billion – more than $848 million U.S. – on the lottery. The Club, conduit for all money wagered legally in Hong Kong, is the region's largest taxpayer and supports the majority of charitable institutions, research organizations, medical facilities and recreational programs. It is impossible to travel far in Hong Kong without seeing the Jockey Club logo on everything from hospitals and schools to parks and animal shelters.
The two Hong Kong racetracks are pristine and in almost perpetual renovation. The management, a multinational team of highly experienced executives imported by the Jockey Club, is progressive, deeply interested in maintaining an atmosphere in which the integrity of racing is beyond question. It meets challenge with action, as it did last year when in response to the migration of high-level bettors to offshore bookmakers offering rebates, the Club responded with its own rebate program, which effectively reversed the trend.
The Club takes virtually every facet of racing into its own hands and employs everyone required for the conduct of racing except trainers, who under the circumstances suffer no burden of payroll or slow-paying owners. The Club maintains testing laboratories and veterinary hospital, pays for feed and medication and though only eight percent of bets are placed on-course, when the gates open at Happy Valley or Sha Tin, the tracks are animated by huge crowds of people with a collective focus – betting, which is in turned shared in the most remote corner of Hong Kong, where the speculators and the tote are joined by wireless device.
In the 16 hours of flight time between New York and Hong Kong, Nader went from holding a finger in a crumbling dike to occupying one of the highest positions of authority in a racing organization that is boundlessly successful, astoundingly affluent and held in a position of almost reverent esteem by the members of the community it serves.
"The thing that impressed me immediately was the attention to detail and the commitment of the people," Nader said. "There is a refusal to settle for second best. Everything is first-class. Then came an appreciation for Asian racing and its structure, which I found fascinating, much more so than I ever expected."
Eight months after arriving in Hong Kong, Nader celebrated his 50th birthday on the day of the Cathay Pacific-sponsored International Races, four Group I events run at the end of a week of lavish parties at the expansive and electric Sha Tin. "Before I moved here, the man I replaced (Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges, who was promoted to chief executive officer) told me that it would take two years before I really had a handle on job. I don't think it will take two years, but this has been an eye-opening experience. For instance, the betting on the international races will be less than you would expect because the bettors don't know the foreign horses. But we're running two races after the Hong Kong Cup and the last race of the day has the potential to generate more betting handle than the total for the day at Aqueduct and Hollywood Park combined."
The superficies run deep in Hong Kong.
"This is a place of great wealth. The economy is strong, the stock market is strong and many people are able to afford horse ownership," Nader said. The equine population of horses in training is just 1,200 and no owner is permitted interest in more than four. There is currently a 16-month waiting list of those who have applied for membership in the Jockey Club on a level that permits horse ownership. Those eventually admitted to what may be Hong Kong's most exclusive circle will have survived an exhaustive background check and examination of financial resources and paid a $250,000 (HK) initial fee.
The inevitable and enviable denouement is a model for the world that is impossible to duplicate. "The resources here allow you to do things you'd never consider anywhere else," Nader said, "but other things done here are possible to reproduce anywhere. If you can knock down the barriers and wipe the slate clean, these are things that can be done anywhere."
Foremost, Nader said, is attention to the concerns of every segment involved – from owners, trainers and non-owner members to bettors. "We maintain a customer-friendly racing environment and the state-of-the art drug testing is one thing, but the way the racing is governed is a key element. The jockeys and trainers may complain that fines are too stiff, but safety is a key element in the decision making process and the club demands respect for the rules. What separates racing here from virtually everywhere else is the transparency."
At the end of the day, the unfolding international races, with sprinter Sacred Kingdom and miler Good Ba Ba impressive in victory, only strengthened the upwardly mobile position of Hong Kong-trained horses on the global stage upon which the membership of the Jockey Club aspires to excel in the mold of their British mentors.
If Hong Kong will not be duplicated, it can at least be emulated.
"We have great expertise in specific areas that we are willing to share," Nader said. "The Club has brought great talent here from a number of countries. There is also great expertise here in the construction, drainage and maintenance of turf courses, which is important to all the stakeholders, including the public. European horsemen come here knowing that the ground will always be good to firm, no matter what the weather. There are things that can be learned here and people come here from other parts of the world to observe. We're very interested in doing whatever we can to assist those in the industry from other countries."
There is much to be learned in Hong Kong, but it is first necessary to make the trip.
Tampa Bay Downs - from afterthought to success
Slowly, yet surely, Tampa Bay Downs is evolving from that "other track in Florida" into a viable winter/spring option for good and even great horses and horsemen."We were an afterthought," Tampa Bay Downs Vice-President and General Manager Pete Berube said. "But we've been able to dispel that stigmatism the last few years."
Bill Heller (01 December 2007 - Issue Number: 6)
By Bill Heller
Slowly, yet surely, Tampa Bay Downs is evolving from that “other track in Florida” into a viable winter/spring option for good and even great horses and horsemen. “We were an afterthought,” Tampa Bay Downs Vice-President and General Manager Pete Berube said. “But we’ve been able to dispel that stigmatism the last few years.”
Maybe it was the lush turf course added in 1997. Or the continuing development of a three-year-old stakes program highlighted by the Grade 3 Tampa Bay Derby, which attracted Bluegrass Cat in 2006 and Street Sense and Any Given Saturday in 2007. Adding a 22-acre, state-of-the-art golf practice facility - with wagering available in the pro shop - and the Silks Card Room didn’t hurt.
The bottom line is that track ownership and management has made a commitment to make the only track on the west coast of Florida an attractive destination for horsemen from December through May. “It’s changed, and it’s a good thing,” said trainer Jane Cibelli, who has been at Tampa Bay Downs since 1994 and was the eighth leading trainer there last year. “There was no money here before. Horses came from small tracks where the competition wasn’t so tough. Now those horses are having a tougher time. You see a better class of horse.”
You don’t get much classier than Bluegrass Cat, Street Sense and Any Given Saturday. Bluegrass Cat was attempting to give trainer Todd Pletcher his second victory in the Tampa Bay Derby following Limehouse’s win in 2004, but he was upset on the track’s Festival Day by Deputy Glitters. Bluegrass Cat then finished second in the Kentucky Derby, Belmont Stakes and Travers Stakes.
In the 2007 Tampa Bay Derby, Pletcher’s Any Given Saturday and Street Sense, trained by Carl Nafzger, staged an epic head-to-head battle through the stretch before Street Sense prevailed by a nose. Street Sense went on to win the Kentucky Derby, Jim Dandy Stakes and Travers. Any Given Saturday finished eighth in the Kentucky Derby then won the Grade 2 Dwyer Stakes, the Grade 1 Haskell Invitational and the Grade 2 Brooklyn Handicap in his first start against older horses.
Pletcher, seeking his fourth consecutive Eclipse Award as the country’s outstanding trainer, cited two reasons he continues to use the Tampa Bay Derby as an early Kentucky Derby prep for his top three-year-olds. “It has the reputation as a very safe track,” Pletcher said. “And, more important for me, is that they offer a mile-and-a-sixteenth opportunity. To me that’s really important. With developing three-year-olds, you want to go that mile-and-a-sixteenth, and the Tampa Bay Derby is a good one to do that. In some ways, it worked out well for Bluegrass Cat and Any Given Saturday, as well as for Limehouse. They didn’t win the Derby, but I think that it had a lot to do with their positive development.”
Track management, of course, couldn’t be happier to host Pletcher’s three-year-old colts in Tampa. “Todd’s been able to have success over here,” Berube said. “I’m glad were in his rotation. But it didn’t just happen. It’s been a plan we’ve had for a number of years: developing the three-year-old program. It can only help us in the future.”
In the past, Tampa Bay Downs couldn’t even settle on its own name. The track opened in 1926 as Tampa Downs, then became Sunshine Park in 1947 and was frequently referred to as “the Santa Anita of the South.” In 1965, the track was renamed Florida Downs, which stuck until 1980 when the name was changed back to Tampa Downs. When evotook over as owner in 1986, the track was rechristened Tampa Bay Downs.
Thayer, a 66-year-old attorney and native of Tampa, is also the president of the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in Saratoga Springs, New York and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Tampa General Hospital Foundation and the University of South Florida Foundation. Previously, she served as president of the Thoroughbred Racing Association from 1999-2001 and has owned Thoroughbreds with her brother, Howard Ferguson, since 1986.
Under Thayer and Berube’s stewardship, Tampa Bay Downs has prospered. Berube, whose retired dad Paul was a long-time president of the Thoroughbred Racing Protective Bureau, joined the Tampa Bay Downs management team in 1995 as comptroller. He was promoted to vice president of finance in 1998, then to assistant general manager in 2000, and finally to his present positions on May, 2001. He defers credit for Tampa Bay Downs’ growth: “I think it was having the ownership that’s willing to re-invest in the facilities.”
The ownership was also willing to create new facilities, none more vital to Tampa Bay Downs’ growth than the installation of a 7/8-mile turf course with a ¼-mile chute. “Probably the wisest investment we ever made was putting in the turf course in 1997, and it was done by in-house staff,” Berube said. “Within a year, it paid for itself.”
That’s because turf races attracted larger fields, which quickly led to increased handle, especially through simulcasting. “It really put us on the map,” Berube said.
So has Tampa Bay Downs’ program for three-year-olds, which continues to benefit from the absence of mile-and-a-sixteenth dirt races at that other Florida track, Gulfstream Park, because of its remodeled configuration.
To maximize the appeal of its three-year-old races, Tampa Bay Downs increased the purse of the Sam F. Davis Stakes, a prep for the Tampa Bay Derby, from $50,000 to $150,000 in 2007. Next year, it will go for $200,000, which Berube hopes will induce the graded stakes committee to recognize the race as a Grade 3. “It should be a graded stakes,” Berube said. “It hurts us.”
That’s because graded stakes earnings are the deciding factor in determining which horses get to start in the Kentucky Derby.
Tampa Bay now has two graded stakes, both Grade 3: the Tampa Bay Derby and the Hillsborough, a turf stakes for older fillies and mares. The Florida Oaks was a Grade 3, but lost its graded status. “It’s a frustrating process,” Berube said.
Regardless, the track re-packaged its two-year-old stakes races in December and three-year-old stakes leading up to the Tampa Bay Derby. “We’re trying to build a strong three-year-old program,” he said.
Doing so entails maintaining a balance between stakes purses and overnight races. “We understand where our bread and butter is, and that’s in the overnights,” Berube said. “I think there has to be a balance, and, since I’ve been here, we’ve maintained a balance, about 85 percent to overnights and 15 percent into stakes. But you have to be able to attract top horses. And the public has responded.”
So have horsemen, who made a record 333 claims last year during the 94-day meet. “The increase in the number of horses claimed is a positive sign in the barn area, indicating a solid horse population,” said Racing Secretary Allison De Luca, who will be starting his second year at Tampa Bay this winter when racing resumes December 8th.
Last year, leading trainer Jamie Ness arrived at Tampa Bay with eight horses and returned to his base at Canterbury Park in Minnesota with 27.
“I’ll tell you what, I’m a claiming trainer,” the 32-year-old native of Heron, South Dakota, said. “I pay attention to every circuit. It seemed like there are good horses to claim in Tampa. I decided to go out on a limb, pack up and try it two years ago. It worked out very well. I had a good first year. Last year, I had a great year. I claimed a lot of horses. I’ve probably claimed and lost more horses than anybody there.”
He’s going to have to go some way to make a better claim than Lookinforthesecret. Ness, who won last year’s training title with 38 victories, claimed Lookinforthesecret for $12,500, January 5th, 2007, and won three stakes with him: the $75,000 Turf Dash Stakes at Tampa Bay last March 16th, and two others at Canterbury. “He’s a once-in-a-lifetime claim,” Ness said. “I take notes on every horse. It’s been a pretty good ride with him.”
He is understandably delighted to be part of the growth of Tampa Bay Downs, even if means more difficult competition. “It’s gotten tough,” he said. “For the facility and the weather, the track is good. The turf course is second to none, and the main track is good, too. It’s deep and sandy. It’s very good for horses.”
It’s good for Tampa Bay Downs’ business as well. “The bettors love to bet Tampa because there are full fields,” Ness said.
Last year’s average field size of 8.85 led to a record all-sources daily handle average of more than $4.1 million on live races. Records were also set for single-day attendance - when 11,014 showed up on Kentucky Derby Day, a number enhanced by a cooler-bag giveaway - and for all-sources single-day handle when $10.9 million was wagered on Festival Day, last March 17th. Average attendance of 3,437 was down a tick from 3,501.
“Last year was kind of the changing of the guard with a new racing secretary, and a lot of new stables came in,” Ness said.
They may just keep coming.
Stakes purses for the 2007-2008 meet will be a record $2.6 million with total purses a record $16 million. On December 29th, Tampa Bay Downs will offer the Cotillion Festival Day, featuring a variety of races for two-year-olds on both grass and dirt, highlighted by the $65,000 Inaugural Stakes for colts and the $65,000 Sandpiper Stakes for fillies, both at six furlongs on the main track.
Festival Preview Day on February 16th features the $200,000 Sam F. Davis Stakes at a mile and a sixteenth, the $150,000 Endeavour Breeders’ Cup for older fillies and mares at a mile and a sixteenth on turf and the $75,000 Suncoast Stakes for three-year-old fillies at one mile on dirt.
The $300,000 Tampa Bay Derby is the marquee attraction on Festival Day, March 15th, which also offers the $200,000 Florida Oaks for three-year-old fillies at a mile and a sixteenth on dirt, the mile-and-an-eighth $175,000 Hillsborough and the $75,000 Turf Dash at five furlongs.
Six $85,000 stakes races for Florida-breds will be held on Florida Cup Day, April 5th.
The attractive stakes program will allow the track continued growth. Already, more people, both horsemen and fans, are focusing on Tampa Bay Downs than ever before. Asked what he’d like people to think of when they hear the name Tampa Bay Downs, Berube said, “A great track to race on, a very forgiving surface and just a very horseman/customer friendly racetrack.”
What does the future hold for Great Lakes Downs?
Shane Spiess invested his future in the Michigan Thoroughbred industry nearly a decade ago when Great Lakes Downs opened in Western Michigan.
Troy Ruel (01 October 2007 - Issue Number: 5)
By Troy Ruel
Shane Spiess invested his future in the Michigan Thoroughbred industry nearly a decade ago when Great Lakes Downs opened in Western Michigan.
The veteran trainer bought an expansive ranch and moved his breeding and boarding operation across the state following the closure of Ladbroke DRC in Detroit.
“GLD has been good to us and I love this area,” said Spiess, who won the inaugural training championship at GLD in 1999. “I have put everything I have into this place. This is home now.”
For John Drumwright, his expense might be even more. Drumwright came to Michigan in 1940 — and has devoted the last 67 years to the state’s horse racing industry. It’s decades of time spent in a business he loves. “This is all I’ve ever done and all I know,” said Drumwright, 84. “You put a smile on your face and pray for the future, but I’m not sure what I’m going to do.”
As the midway point closes in on Great Lakes Down’s 100-date season, both trainers — along with the hundreds of other horsemen on the GLD grounds — face an uncertain future as the 74-year-old history of Michigan Thoroughbred racing could come to an end when the season concludes on Nov. 6.
Magna Entertainment Corp., which owns the meet license through MI Racing Inc., announced last January that this would be its final meet in Michigan unless there were “significant changes in the regulatory environment that restricts horse racing from competing at a level playing field with other forms of gaming and entertainment.”
The MEC release came early enough with a standing offer that lease agreements on the facility were possible, however, as self-imposed deadlines continue to pass, nothing has been done yet to save Michigan’s only Thoroughbred racing facility.
“It’s frustrating, and even depressing at times, but we’re doing everything we can for the future of Thoroughbred racing here in Michigan,” said Gary Tinkle, executive director of the Michigan Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association. “It’s a tough sell, but I believe it’s vital to maintain dates in 2008.”
A rich traditionThoroughbred racing kicked off in 1933 with a 31-date meet at the Michigan State Fairgrounds in Detroit and has since grown into a $1.2 billion industry statewide.
The industry was riding an emotional high in 1998 with a record-setting combined wagering handle of over $145 million at DRC, but track owners carried out a threat that they would shut its doors if casinos were allowed to be built in downtown Detroit.DRC did just that on Nov. 8, 1998, ending a run of 48 years in the state’s major metropolitan area and leaving the Thoroughbred horsemen in limbo.
The horsemen found some relief when a group of private investors re-opened Muskegon Race Course — a former Standardbred track near the shores of Lake Michigan — and eventually sold the facility to Canadian billionaire Frank Stronach, who was in the process of adding strategic venues across the country to his growing stable of MEC facilities.
The move to Muskegon was thought to be temporary as MEC won the licensing rights to build Michigan Downs, a proposed multi-million dollar entertainment complex in metro Detroit. However, the legislative climate cooled across the state and those plans since have been placed on hold.
The primary reason for the pessimism was the 2004 passage of Proposal 1 — an anti-gambling measure primarily funded by the state’s casino interests. The vote added a law to the Michigan constitution requiring statewide and local voter approval before additional gambling opportunities were added, eliminating the opportunity to add slot machine-like video lottery terminals at the state’s seven pari-mutuel facilities.
Since then, the figures have been staggering as the tracks struggle to keep pace with other states.
The combined wagering handle at GLD dipped to $14 million last year — 90 percent off the final figures from Detroit — and numbers statewide are down an additional 12.4 percent already this year. The purse pool continues to be affected as well, as last year’s total was $6.1 million, half of the 1998 numbers. The first casualty came with the closure of Saginaw Harness Raceway to begin the 2005 season, while GLD appears to be next.
Magna Entertainment Corp. estimates its annual losses to average $1.8 million and stated prior to the current season that it “can not continue to subsidize horse racing in Michigan with no prospect of future profitability.”
“We’re aware this could be the last year,” said GLD general manager Amy MacNeil. “It’s business as usual. We’re striving to make this the best year ever.”
“In a sense, we’re lucky to have Magna’s support even for this one last year,” said five-time GLD track training champion Gerald Bennett. “But, it’s tough not to think about the future. Everyone, so far, is doing their part to make the races go.”
What lies ahead?
The news was devastating — albeit not surprising — to the Thoroughbred horsemen at Great Lakes Downs.
However, the decision could create a crippling ripple effect through the state’s entire agricultural community. Horse owners and trainers are already looking to sell off a majority of their stock — creating voids in filling fields and putting a pinch on the local economy.
According to numbers supplied by the track, GLD generates $3.7 million into West Michigan through its vendors, while the horsemen generate millions more through temporary housing, feed and other job-related expenses.
As the season nears the halfway point, the effects have been noticeable. Trainers already are lightening work loads and jockeys are looking to ride elsewhere.
“You’re starting to see people cutting back or selling off, that’s what I intend to do,” said Spiess. “It’s too expensive to keep them. The drought this year isn’t helping and the cost for feed and fuel has increased. It’s a vicious circle.”
Gerald Bennett, who led the field with 430 starts and over $1 million in earnings last season, is nowhere near the leaders in starts for 2007, while former champion jockey Mary Doser chose to return to Kentucky to be closer to her family farm.
The future of the industry is in jeopardy as horse breeders also are getting out of the game. Rick McCune, who has been breeding horses since 1980 in Michigan, has witnessed the decline firsthand. “The uncertainty is killing the sales and hurting the farms,” said McCune, the acting president of the MHBPA. “When I got into the business, there were 26 farms that do what I do. Today, there are only five in Michigan. There is no market for our animals.”
McCune said he bred just 12 mares last year, down 75 percent from past years. The auction prices for the annual yearling sale saw a decrease of 66 percent from a year ago — averaging just $2,700 a head.
“No one knows what’s going to happen with the track, so a lot of people are cutting their losses and getting out of the business,” added McCune. “They’re cutting back because they just can’t afford to keep the babies.”
If Great Lakes Downs does close its doors, many of the state’s horsemen will leave in search of greener pastures. However, their options remain limited. It’s tough to break into new racing circles, while getting granted stall applications late in the game will be difficult as well.
Many may not have the stock to compete against horses from Kentucky and the East coast. Some trainers and owners are expected to ship horses to established tracks in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Ohio, Louisiana and the fall meet at Fort Erie. Once they leave, it will be hard to draw them back. Meanwhile, others will choose to get out of the business altogether.
“It’s tough to say how many would get out of horse racing here in Michigan,” said Dr. Robert Gorham, the leading trainer at this year’s meet at the midway point. “The smart ones got out of it a long time ago.”
“When you get the horse racing business in your blood, it’s hard to get out,” added McCune, 60. “That being said, there’s absolutely no way I would start all over again. I am 60 years old now and it’s just too much work and a lot of time.”
Guarded optimism
Many of the trainers at Great Lakes Downs continue to go about their daily business and try not to think about the future. Whether it’s a
case of denial or unbridled optimism is a reason for debate.
“It’s like we have our heads stuck in the sand,” said one horse owner. “We don’t want to believe this is happening to us.”
Unfortunately, deadlines are coming quickly on the status of the track. Race date applications must be on file with the Michigan Office of Racing Commissioner imminently.
“We’re all beginning to realize we have to do something soon,” added Gorham. “It’s beginning to get more and more pressing for the horsemen. At some point, we need to all stick together and come up with a solution for the future.”
There are ideas that could impact the track’s status. There’s controversial talk about the possibility of adding instant racing — video game-like machines that offer betting on taped races — while many believe a ballot proposal to add slot machines may not be too far out in the future — even as early as 2008. There’s a growing belief that Magna Entertainment Corp. wants to be around when that happens as they still hold the license for Michigan Downs.
Other possible proposals on running a shortened season or even move to a different Michigan racing facility don’t seem realistic to many horsemen. Purse revenue this year is already down nearly 10 percent, so the track would need to run a minimal amount of dates to make it cost-worthy for Michigan horsemen to remain. And the cost of transforming an existing Standardbred facility into a Thoroughbred track would be too much.
“There’s just too many loose ends out there,” said Tinkle. “We’re trying to do something, but we’re limited in what we can do. We’re willing to work with anyone willing to put a meet on, unfortunately, there’s not a lot of people able to do that.”
Many people believe that if Thoroughbred racing went on hiatus — even for a year — that it would be a crushing blow to the industry.
“Absolutely devastating,” added Tinkle. “We lost a lot of people when we went from Detroit to Muskegon and it would be magnified if we took a year off.”
In addition, the Michigan breeders fund — which helps supply nearly $2 million to the purse pool for state-bred stakes races — is in jeopardy if the track comes to a close. Horsemen groups have petitioned ORC Commissioner Christine White to place that money in escrow, but with the financial troubles within the state, all bets are off.
The Michigan Harness Horsemen’s Association, a group that has been at odds with the Thoroughbred track in the past, has also vocally supported the efforts to keep GLD open. Many people feel that without Thoroughbred racing within Michigan, simulcast signal opportunities, as well as wagering, will fall dramatically.
The key ultimately could fall at the hands of the state legislature.“We’re still wagering the way we did in 1933 — basically it’s win, place and show and that’s it,” said Tinkle. “It’s sad to say, but horse racing has a deep tradition in Michigan and it’s in serious, serious trouble.
“And, so far, nothing’s been done in Lansing to allow us to compete fairly for the gaming dollar.” Jim Griffin, a prominent state owner and breeder, said, “In order to salvage the industry, we’re going to need a minor miracle here. “We need some cooperation from the state to give us something to survive.”