Online Only
Pull the Pocket points to interesting news on the sulky side: The magazine Harness Edge is going online only beginning in August, a move its publisher is phrasing in positive terms:
“No longer will be there be a subscription charge. And the new format is a major bonus for advertisers because there are no longer limitations. Anyone, anywhere in the world can view the publication which means unlimited exposure,” said publisher Harold Howe.
“Now that there are no printing or mailing costs we are able to dramatically reduce advertising charges. In this embattled economy that is terrific news for the Standardbred horse industry.”
While merely the latest in what’s an ever-growing general list of print publications shifting to web-only models due to cost pressures and declining revenues, Harness Edge is the first publication in racing, thoroughbred or harness, to make the jump.
In other web news: Noticed this a few days ago, but NYRA announced today that house handicapper Andy Serling can be found on Twitter. According to the press release, “Serling’s Twitter entries will use the hashtags #belmont, #saratoga, and #aqueduct depending on to what track the tweet pertains. There will also be messages with hashtags corresponding to other NYRA topics, such as #travers and #alabama.” Savvy! What’s not is that Serling isn’t (yet) following a single tweeter back. Maybe once he settles in …
Speaking of Twitter, DRF makes its first foray onto the service with @DRFInsidePost, the feed for its new blog, Inside Post, which promises “real-time racing information” Wednesday through Sunday. So far, the DRF handicappers and reporters contributing to the site are showing a lot of gusto for the live-blog form. It’ll be interesting to see if they (or their readers) can keep up such an enthusiastic pace five days a week.
In other racing news: Now that Rachel Alexandra is declared for the Haskell, Monmouth has a new goal for its big summer race. “Now that we have Summer Bird and Rachel Alexandra,” said track president Bob Kulina, “we’re going after Mine That Bird again.” A rematch, all three? That would be must-see.
Opening
How Chris McGrath begins an article on Steinbeck missing the July Festival:
John Steinbeck once claimed that his own profession made “horseracing seem a solid, stable business”, but the colt named in his honour seems determined to charge the writer with exaggeration.
A foal from the first crop of Footstepsinthesand, Steinbeck looked a brilliant prospect when beating previous winners on his debut at Naas in May, and is already quoted no better than 14-1 for next year’s Stan James 2,000 Guineas. But while a series of targets have been proposed in turn, he has failed to resurface since, and last night his trainer, Aidan O’Brien, disclosed that Steinbeck is now unlikely to be seen before the autumn.
No real point, other than to share such a superb lede.
Eastern Gallop
Nearly 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Guardian begins running a series of short stories by East European writers. The first involves a trip to a racetrack, neatly tying together two of my great interests …
He had no idea about horse races and betting, but an old friend of his had spent a lot of time at the racetrack in the old East German days and up to the middle of the 90s, and told him a lot about it. And he thought he remembered that this old friend, who he hadn’t seen for almost ten years, had won a stack of money. And as he walked home now, past the bars and kebab places and the snack bar where he’d drunk two beers and a shot last night, he knew this was his last chance. Piet and Rolf and the horses.
Light Reading
At 7:15 this morning, I looked up from my laptop screen, glad to have finished so early with my daily news-RSS-racing reading. And then I thought, how is that possible, less than five weeks out from the Kentucky Derby? Isn’t this the time of year when profiles, preps, commentary, and endless angle analyzing from the tiniest niche publication to the biggest newspaper start taking up three or more hours a day? (Yes, I’m obsessive, and I try to read everything.) It occurred to me that coverage seemed a little light this year …
My impression may not be that far off. According to (a quick) database search of 240 mainstream media outlets (no trade press, no blogs), in 2003, 518 articles including the phrase “Kentucky Derby” were published between January and June. In 2004, 574; 2005, 556; 2006, 1171; 2007, 1315 (I assume ’06 and ’07 are partly attributable to a Barbaro bump); and in 2008, 963. So far in 2009, the article count totals 117. For 2009 to hit the same level as 2003, an average of about 50 articles a week for the next eight weeks has to appear.
I’m not booking any bets on that happening.
So Simple
… and yet so effective:
I’ve been trying to avoid too many Twitter mentions in this space, even though I believe the micro-service is a disruptive, adaptable form of communication that’s reshaping how networks and groups exchange information, because this is still supposed to be a blog about racing, not social media, but I can’t resist pointing out these recent posts from @NYRAcomm. Each illustrates well how a racetrack can engage its audience in just 140 characters, conveying information directly to the people most interested in it. As a supplemental marketing or news channel, it doesn’t get much better, or much easier.
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Jessica Chapel writes and edits in Massachusetts. Railbird is a Thoroughbred horse racing blog published from June 2004 to July 2019. More / Contact
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