Many Thanks
Much appreciation to all those who have plugged, supported, endorsed, checked out, linked, and submitted items to the Self Appointed Fan Committee. The committee is off to a great start, but we know you have many more ideas and laments, so bookmark the site and return often to share your thoughts or browse what everyone else is saying. The Self Appointed Fan Committee is made up of every racing fan who wants to join, so don’t be shy …
SAFC Launches
The Self Appointed Fan Committee, which Dana wrote about here on Green but Game and I mentioned in this post, is now open for your praise, laments, and ideas — check out the site, add your voice, rant away!
Official press release below …
RACING FANS LAUNCH LISTENING SITE:
OUR ONLY AGENDA IS TO MAKE SURE FANS ARE HEARD
No committee meetings, no politicking: Just fan feedback, rants and raves
Each year, racing fans support the sport by wagering nearly $15 billion on the hundreds of Thoroughbred races run across North America and by turning out in the thousands to attend the Breeders’ Cup, boutique meets, bull-ring county fairs and their local racetracks. Yet until now, no organization has existed to provide fans an easy way to participate in the processes of change recently begun across the industry.
On Monday, July 7, the Self Appointed Fan Committee launches, giving all racing fans the chance to express their thoughts on every possible topic, from concessions to marketing, drug rules to whip use. The Self Appointed Fan Committee will also allow visitors to browse the praise, complaints, and ideas submitted by other fans and will develop data visualization tools that show trends in feedback and uncover deeper issues cutting across fan submissions.
In addition, the Self Appointed Fan Committee will compile monthly reports to send to the NTRA, the Jockey Club, the Breeders’ Cup and other racing organizations, sharing its findings with racing’s leaders.
“Pop in to almost any blog or forum and you’ll find a wealth of ideas and/or rants about the many issues with racing. Racing fans are participatory by nature but having all the great ideas spread across multiple channels doesn’t get them in front anyone who can put them into action,” said co-chair Dana Byerly. “We want to give fans a fighting chance by giving them a portable folding chair at the table.”
The Self Appointed Fan Committee will strive to be participatory, transparent and analytical, and to make sure fans’ voices are included in the ongoing discussion of how to improve racing. “Racing fans are committed and passionate when it comes to the sport,” said co-chair Jessica Chapel, “and their feedback and ideas deserve to be heard.”
Yes, Yes, and Yes
“Tired of death? Tired of protests? Tired of strangers analyzing our sport?”
Maddening Media
The situation with Eight Belles has illustrated my disdain for the media.
Unfortunately, most outlets tell the story they want to tell rather than the actual story. The vocal minority gets the soundbytes while anyone who’s really in the mix goes ignored.
A story in the Lexington Herald-Leader commented that the Eight Belles tragedy has turned people off the sport. It quoted one woman who lives in Sunbury, Ohio, who said she didn’t even watch the Derby because of a previous incident at a three-day eventing event.
How could Eight Belles’s death have turned her off if she didn’t watch to begin with?
Now, obviously, I know a lot of insiders, but I have plenty of friends who are casual fans. They tune in to the Derby and don’t mind a trip to the track or two a year. None of them were turned off. Most said, “That was too bad about the filly, but boy did that winner run a great race!”
I haven’t talked to one person who is involved in the business on even a weekly level who has given up on it. Most are asking themselves needed questions, and the incident has brought to light important issues, but the idea that the sport is in (any more) trouble (than it already was) simply isn’t true.
I’m going to go on record and predict record handle for the Preakness Stakes (assuming fast and firm, LOL)!
So Much for the Horses
“People may not identify with a good horse, but they do know a good time” (ESPN).
Bred to Breed, Not to Race
Or, all that’s wrong with racing: “Steve Asmussen, the trainer of Curlin, was even more blunt. ‘Realistically, these aren’t racehorses,’ he said. ‘They’re breeding stock, and someone lets you run them for a little while’” (NY Times). Perhaps Steven Crist’s fantastical vision of “stallions-in-training sales” isn’t so far off (DRF).
Working Backwards
Asmussen, Pletcher, Nafzger — they’ve all made mention recently of working backwards from the Breeders’ Cup in plotting out racing schedules for their talented charges. Sherry Ross writes in the NY Daily News that the approach comes with a cost:
The Breeders’ Cup, designed to keep top horses in racing deeper into the calendar year, has accomplished that goal. But now it is doing it to the detriment of other quality stakes races in the months leading up to the main event.
Why isn’t Rags to Riches running in the Alabama on Saturday, or Curlin or Any Given Saturday in next week’s Travers? Because their trainers are eyeballing the schedule and figuring out the least taxing way to get their charges to the Breeders’ Cup.
It’s not only for the purse money, but for the emphasis — some would say, over-emphasis — that many Eclipse Award voters place on the Breeders’ Cup results, often ignoring year-long achievements.
Yes. So, what is to be done? Standings, a revamped “Win and You’re In,” bonuses — the emphasis needs to be on encouraging competition through the year, not just one day.
Sporting Greatness
Eight were inducted into the Racing Hall of Fame on Monday, including recently retired Funny Cide jockey Jose Santos, who got three standing ovations during the ceremony (DRF), and Boston-connected Triple Tiara winner Mom’s Command (Herald). With 11 victories in 16 starts, the champion filly’s place in the Hall of Fame is well deserved, but Bill Finley raises a good question about future equine honorees in his ESPN column:
Do the stars of the modern era, a period in racing’s history where the majority of top horses have had very limited campaigns — deserve to be enshrined alongside the true greats and warriors of the game?
It hardly matters. Hall of Fame rules stipulate one horse, one human inductee from each category every year. So, what will future voters do with Horse of the Year Invasor, one of the best racehorses in recent years, retired with an injury after only seven starts outside Uruguay? Or Rags to Riches, who will skip the Alabama to start in the Ruffian or Gazelle this September and then run in the Breeders’ Cup (DRF)? She’ll almost certainly enter the Hall of Fame on the basis of her historic Belmont win, even if her career ends after two more starts.
Final 2005 Standings
The final 2005 standings ….
2YO Filly:
Folklore (450)
Wild Fit (320)
Adieu (250)
2YO Colt:
Henny Hughes (370)*
First Samurai (360)
Stevie Wonderboy (295)
3YO Filly:
In the Gold (537.5)
Summerly (365)
Memorette (338.75)*
3YO Colt:
Flower Alley (578.75)
Sun King (417.5)
Silver Train (380)
Older Horse:
Saint Liam (715)
Borrego (490)
Sir Shackleton (375)
Sprint:
Taste of Paradise (425)
Silver Train (380)
Lost in the Fog (377.5)
Turf:
Artie Schiller (480)
Sweet Return (445)
Better Talk Now (375)
Filly & Mare:
Ashado (560)
Island Fashion (497.5)
Society Selection (475)
Filly & Mare Turf:
Intercontinental (480)
Megahertz (420)
Angara (412.5)
Explanation of standings
*No Grade 1 wins
Where Not to Go
“Hot date turns cold at Belmont Park” (Telegraph).
If only the couple has gone to the Race Palace: “For a horseplayer, this is heaven” (New York Daily News).
About
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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