Hello Race Fans
Spotted
There’s a new section on Hello Race Fans, and it’s stylish.
Make Yourself Welcome
Dana Byerly, aka superterrific, is this week’s Breeders’ Cup Forum subject on the Paulick Report, talking about Hello Race Fans. The whole Q&A is great, but I really like this point:
So much of the material that’s out there for new folks who want to engage more deeply with racing assumes that everyone’s goal is to become a serious, long-term player who must show a profit. That can be off-putting for folks who just want to spend some summer afternoons at their local track, having a good time whether they come home with extra money or not.
Maybe those folks will eventually want to get serious with their game or maybe racing will be an increasing part of their entertainment budget with no expectation of getting a return. I guess the short answer is “create a welcoming environment for people to learn about all aspects of Thoroughbred horse racing.â€
I’ve always been pro reaching out to all segments of potential fans, regardless of whether or not they’re likely to become dedicated bettors, because without a broad base of people who associate going to the track with a fun afternoon or a delightful family activity, horse racing will struggle (more than it does) with popular support. We need the casual fans as much as the hard-core horseplayers, and we shouldn’t underestimate the interest of those more casual fans in knowing something about the game. Everyone likes to look smart at the track — even if they’re playing $2 to show.
Positives
No, not for frog juice. (I’ll leave the negatives for another day.)
Grantland published a terrific interview with musician-chartcaller-reporter Bob Nastanovich that includes this great quote about why he’s working in racing:
So I started working thinking that I could make a positive impact on the sport at different levels, just because I love it so much.
Love the attitude, Bob.
Also praiseworthy: The Breeders’ Cup and Hello Race Fans, two organizations I believe are working in horse racing’s best interests (and not just because they both pay me), are partnering up on fan education. Nice work, all.
He Was the Best
I’m heading up to Saratoga for the Whitney Handicap, which is a Breeders’ Cup Classic Challenge race and a stakes I best remember for 2006, the year Invasor won by digging in and outlasting Sun King by a nose. There is no Invasor in this year’s field, but the winner will get a guaranteed spot in this fall’s Classic, a race Invasor also won in 2006 at awesome odds of 7-1. If I’m missing, just a little, a horse retired more than four years ago, it’s probably because I recently wrote a profile of Invasor for Hello Race Fans, which includes several replays from his career, including — of course! — the Whitney.
Friday Notes
It’s mid-February, the weekend of Sam and Bob, the weekend Derby preps get serious. Forgive the plug, but if you’re looking for analysis of Kentucky Derby and Oaks preps this spring, consider signing up for the weekly Hello Race Fans! Derby Prep Alert, which this week covers the Sam F. Davis at Tampa, the Robert B. Lewis at Santa Anita, and El Camino Real at Golden Gate. Subscribers last week were tipped off to Zazu’s upset potential in the Las Virgenes.
I’ve been a little preoccupied this week (to readers who are not Suffolk Downs fans, my thanks for sticking around through what’s been a series of minutiae-filled posts about a track on the ropes), and haven’t done much more than glance at the entries for the preps — enough to notice that Jaycito isn’t in the Lewis, a race in which Tapizar seems a solid favorite — and to skim Jeremy Plonk’s exhaustive Countdown to the Crown column, which mentions a few allowance races that bear watching for Derby prospects. [Jaycito will start in the San Vicente on February 20. “He’s ready to go,” said trainer Bob Baffert.]
Suffolk certainly isn’t the only racetrack struggling, and that it’s my local track isn’t all that makes the dispute with the New England horsemen over the 2011 meet purses, days, and simulcasting split so fascinating to me — it’s also that what’s happening here is of a piece with what’s happening in California, where annual handle is down and horseplayers are revolting. It’s all part of the Great American Racing Contraction, a reapportionment of power and money that isn’t going to leave a track, horseman, or horseplayer untouched.
Looking for a Price
Mike Maloney on how he plays superfectas:
I’ll structure bets with my key horses in third and fourth. There’s probably as much probability in the third and fourth spots as in the first and second. If you’re lucky enough where you get a price horse to win along with a key horse for third and fourth that is also a price — and a lot of them are — you’ve got a great chance to cash a monster ticket. Sometimes a dime super can pay into the thousands.
That’s from an interview with the noted big bettor in last fall’s Horseplayer Magazine, available as a PDF via HANA. Looking past the top two for wagering value is also an approach I enjoy, as I wrote on Hello Race Fans last year.
Hello!
Congratulations to Dana and Adam on the launch of Hello Race Fans, a new kind of fan education site for racing. I’m a contributor, but even if I weren’t, I’d recommend checking out the Letter to a New Horseplayer collection (featuring several top turf writers and bloggers) or the first edition of the HRF Index.
Wednesday Notes
– Congratulations to Dana of Green but Game and her pal Swifty on the launch of the Hello Race Fans Network. Neither Railbird nor Raceday 360 is currently part of the racing ad group, but I do support their goals and wish HRF, member sites, and their charter advertisers much success.
– John Pricci reblogs without links reaction to trainer John Shirreff’s announcement of a conservative campaign for Zenyatta. (Original post and comments here.) I suspect Ed at Big Event Blog is onto something: “[M]aybe Shirreffs is just playing coy with the media.” It is early in the year …
– Brooklyn Backstretch recounts our Saturday trip to Monmouth. I can’t say enough good about spending a day at the New Jersey track — the visit was my first since the 2007 Breeders’ Cup, and I left raving about what a jewel of a place it is to enjoy the races. Another visit this summer is certain.
About
Jessica Chapel writes and edits in Massachusetts. Railbird is a Thoroughbred horse racing blog published from June 2004 to July 2019. More / Contact
Elsewhere
Find Jessica on Pinboard and Instagram, Railbird on LibraryThing and Twitter.
Etc.
Links
Search
Boston Racing
Spreadsheets/Data
← Home
Copyright © 2000-2023 by Jessica Chapel. All rights reserved.