JC / Railbird

Gray Areas

“To be a horse-racing fan means accepting that along with the occasional true hero and clear-cut villain comes a barn full of men and women whose true character is impossible to discern.” (LA Daily News)

Posted by JC in The Sport on 04/11/2005 @ 7:12 am / Follow @railbird on Twitter

Headlines: April 11

– “George Steinbrenner is the man. Bellamy Road is the colt. And between them, they could become the story of one magnificent spring in Bluegrass Country.” (SL)
– New York OTB is so broke that it can’t make payments to the legislature next year, says it chairman. “David Cornstein said that increasing revenue takeouts by the state are making it impossible for the city’s only legal bookie to break even.” (NYP)
– What’s next for Texas racing? “Was the Breeders’ Cup the start of a great future or the conclusion of a promising past? Or was it both crowning moment and last hurrah?” (ST)
– Maryland governor says slots are dead. Until 2006, anyway. (Sun)
– Send links, comments to railbird at jessicachapel dot com

Posted by JC in Miscellany on 04/11/2005 @ 7:10 am / Follow @railbird on Twitter

Wygod, Canani Don’t Deserve All the Blame

Only after Sweet Catomine finished a poor fifth in the Santa Anita Derby as the 4-5 favorite did owner Marty Wygod reveal that the filly had bled in a workout less than a week before the race and then spent two days in an equine clinic. (LA Times) “I was 50-50 about running her. I was thinking about scratching,” he told reporters after the Santa Anita. The debate over how much disclosure trainers, owners, and tracks owe to fans regarding a horse’s condition is sure to be a hot one for the next week or two. But let’s not put all the responsibility on a horse’s connections. Wygod and trainer Julio Canani aren’t the only ones to blame here:

So, Tim Layden, a working journalist, had information of interest to the public. And he choose to hold it until after the race.
Jay Privman, in his Daily Racing Form article on the Santa Anita, notes that, “None of this [about Sweet Catomine’s bleeding or other problems] was disclosed by Wygod or trainer Julio Canani when asked specifically about the filly’s condition on Wednesday.”
Did Privman ask about Sweet Catomine’s condition on Wednesday — when he did apparently see the filly and subsequently reported on a minor foot problem — because he had an inkling, or heard a rumor that something more was going on with her?
Is it possible that the Santa Anita Derby favorite was vanned off the backstretch for two days’ treatment and that there was no buzz picked up by a reporter — that no writer for the DRF, the LA Times, or the LA Daily News, that no stringer for Blood-Horse or Thoroughbred Times didn’t hear something, didn’t get one little whisper from another trainer or a track official and then didn’t stop by the barn to ask a question or two?
Maybe it is. After 10 months of keeping this blog and reading around 20 newspapers and magazines daily, plus checking with Google news, and a couple of forums, etc, I’ve learned that much contemporary racing journalism is not of the most investigative or aggressive variety. Every Tuesday, for instance, the NTRA hosts a teleconference for the media, and every Wednesday morning, from the Blood-Horse to the Courier-Times to the LA Times, you can read articles that sound remarkably similar, all using the same quotes from the same people. It’s not uncommon to see thinly-disguised rewritten stable notes and press releases published, or to see the same bland Associated Press story run in 15 different places. Rumors are rarely checked out. Clarifications are rarely sought. Problems are reported — after the fact. That has to end. Racing journalists and publications owe it to fans — and to the industry — to be more assertive in their reporting. Wygod and Canani deserve to be called out for not revealing Sweet Catomine’s health problems (and for running the filly if she was so compromised), but racing journalists need to step up and do their jobs too — following leads, asking hard questions, and reporting the news, good and bad.

Posted by JC in Media/TV/Film on 04/10/2005 @ 10:00 pm / Follow @railbird on Twitter