JC / Railbird

The Industry Archive

Late Scratch

Settling in late to watch today’s house hearing on horse racing and catch Randy Moss saying Thomas Jefferson used to keep a stable of racehorses on the White House grounds. Really? That’s an interesting historical tidbit. [Actually, it was Andrew Jackson, who not only kept thoroughbreds on the grounds, but entered runners in the name of his nephew and private secretary Andrew J. Donelson.]
The big news this morning is that Rick Dutrow is a late scratch from the witness list, a change Blinkers Off alerted us to last night. According to the Associated Press, the trainer has been feeling ill since the Belmont (I bet):

Ray Paulick, live blogging from the packed hearing room, reported earlier this morning that subcommittee staff were claiming Dutrow didn’t call to say he’d be a no-show, but Joe Drape whispered to Paulick not long after, “They lie … I know for a fact Dutrow called Whitfield’s office.”
Jess Jackson is up now and talking about Curlin running without drugs — “Not that he didn’t in the past, but we changed that, when we went to Dubai.” You know, this hearing isn’t going to be so dry after all …
11:30 am: First panel concludes without one mention of horseplayers and racing fans as stakeholders in this game or of the $15 billion we push through in handle annually.*
1:25 pm: Checking in on the second panel, see NTRA president Alex Waldrop looking tense, his eyes darting about, while congressman Ed Whitfield is saying, “I don’t think it’s unreasonable for the government to set minimum standards.” That would seem to be the conclusion to which much of today’s testimony and questioning leads, but you don’t have to be Alan “Self-Regulation” Marzelli to wonder if that would truly be the best outcome …
* More on this in the comments section of the Paulick Report’s live blog of the hearing. I found myself feeling irked about the oversight after listening to Jess Jackson declare that owners were “the lifeblood” of the industry (not to knock the importance of owners — this sport couldn’t go on without them any more than it could go on without bettors) and then hearing every group but the fans named as stakeholders in the industry in response to one of the representative’s questions. As the passage of the NY OTB bill this week showed, players pay when they get overlooked. The subject today may officially have been horse safety, but what the committee was really talking about was industry regulation via the IHA and I believe players deserve representation in any discussion of that matter, before someone comes up with a brilliant idea like slapping a 1% surchage on every off-track/simulcast wager made so as to pay for a national commission or drug-testing laboratory. Waldrop at least gave a nod to players in his statement — “The last thing this industry needs is another layer of bureaucracy funded by yet another tax on our long-suffering customers” — for which I extend my appreciation.
** Also, my appreciation to Randy Moss, whose written testimony mentions the bettors. Moss, at least in print, was there partly to represent the fans.

Posted in The Industry on June 19, 2008

Thursday Morning Links

– Racing journalism has its problems, but access to the sport’s (human) stars isn’t one. In this way, at least, being a niche sport benefits fans and writers, unlike baseball.
– The Quick-Pick inquiry spreads, wild finger pointing begins, and a California state legislator notices that there’s no independent wagering monitor. Uh oh.
– Pittsburg Phil, Noted Plunger, Passes Away. Consumption, such a shame. He was just at Ascot last year.
– Dutrow has yet to confirm post-Belmont plans for Big Brown with IEAH, but he’s considering the Travers and the Breeders’ Cup Classic. Curlin vs. Brown — we can dream.
– How they take those pics: Wired at the Preakness Stakes.
– Mike Brunker is looking prescient. Flashback to his April 1 column, in which he not only predicted Big Brown’s Derby win, but went a couple steps further: “This is a colt with the talent to end the 29-year Triple Crown drought …”

Posted in The Industry, Triple Crown on May 22, 2008

I’ll Wait to Join …

So, I’ve been trying to muster interest in the NTRA Horseplayers’ Coalition, which sounded exciting when its formation was announced earlier this year but is decidedly less so now that it has formally launched with the sexy topic of tax reform at the top of its agenda. Horseplayers can join for $25, for which they’ll get legislative updates and discounts from such companies as John Deere and UPS. As Dana points out, the timing is good for what’s essentially a horseplayers’ political action committee, and to be fair, the coalition builds on two things the NTRA does well — Capitol Hill lobbying and managing its purchasing program. I’m certainly not opposed to reforming the unfair taxes heaped on handicappers, having had the good fortune in 2007 to run into the IRS’ outdated and onerous reporting and withholding rules — what was abstractly unpleasant became practically so — and yet, I haven’t rushed to sign up. I can’t shake the sense that this group is more about serving the industry than about serving horseplayers, who care about taxes, but also care about doping, transparency and integrity, takeout, and ongoing ADW disruptions. I’d like to join a coalition that truly represents players on all those matters, not just the one issue that’s in sync with establishment concerns.

Posted in The Industry on April 23, 2008