A sport worth saving

Few things have infuriated me lately as did the callous editorial published by the Newark Star-Ledger on January 15, entitled “It’s Like Beating a Dead Horse.”  To read it, here's the link: http://blog.nj.com/njv_editorial_page/2011/01/its_like_beating_a_dead_horse.html

In this editorial, New Jersey’s largest newspaper calls for Gov. Chris Christie to “end the handouts” to the state’s horse racing industry, stating it has “siphoned more than $215 million in taxpayer money and casino subsidies over the past six years.”

The Star-Ledger, which for decades covered both thoroughbred and harness racing extensively, as well as accepted millions of dollars in advertising from state racetracks, called racing “the state’s welfare sport,” as well as “the dying sport on public life support,” in its editorial.

If we could, we’d like to sit the editorial board of the Star-Ledger down and give them a lesson in the proud history of horse racing in New Jersey, a sport which still has great appeal, given the results of Monmouth Park’s “elite meet” this past summer.  And what better way to show the importance of racing and breeding in the state than to just take a look at the past.

We did some digging around in the files recently, and came across a rare booklet called “Five Years of Racing in New Jersey,” by Marshall Bainbridge, Jr., and published at the behest of the Garden State Racing Association in 1947.

The booklet chronicles the spectacular growth of the sport in the five years since Garden State Park opened in 1942, as well as some statistics about Monmouth Park and Atlantic City, which both opened in 1946.

“Five years of racing in New Jersey have shown a constantly growing public interest in the sport, an annual increase in tax revenues to the State, three fine tracks for running races where only one existed the first year and a sponsorship which has placed racing in the Garden State on a par with the best in the country,” it states.

In 1942, its first year of operation, Garden State Park had an average daily attendance of 8,977, which quickly grew to 11,447 in 1943, and 13,493 in 1944. In 1945, as World War II came to an end, Garden State’s average daily attendance was 18,360 for 50 days of racing.

Here are some photos from the booklet which show the crowds that packed Garden State Park on a daily basis:

They were standing elbow-to-elbow back in 1945.

Crowds stream from the trains into Garden State Park's grandstand.

The parking lot at Garden State Park was jammed beyond belief, with many cars bearing Pennsylvania license plates.

Perhaps most poignant in this little booklet are the words of the State Racing Commission in a 1947 report to N. J. Gov. Walter E. Edge:

“The racing season of 1946 brought to New Jersey some of the best racing in the East. Its two new tracks increased the State’s revenue beyond expectation. Popularity of this sport is clearly indicated by the fact that in New Jersey alone, one and one-half million people passed through the turnstiles during the year.


“In accepting the mandate of the people, the State became a partner in racing and will profit or lose according to the attitude with which the industry is surveyed. Because the investment in this industry, new to New Jersey, represents many millions of dollar, every effort must be exerted to afford it the protection and supervision it requires.

“It must be remembered that purses to horsemen must be maintained if we desire to conduct other than mediocre racing; improvements must be made to the plants if we are interested in progress, and breeders and owners must be encouraged if they are to survive.”

While more than 70 years have passed since these words were written, there are many people in New Jersey who still feel that the sport is worth saving.  Will the daily crowds ever be as large as what is pictured above?  There is no doubt that they are gone forever, as casinos and the lottery have siphoned off the dollars once reserved for pari-mutuel gambling.  But surely there can be a better solution for New Jersey's thoroughbred and standardbred industires than to just pull the plug, as the Star-Ledger's editorial suggests.  Let's hope that the current Governor does not heed this editorial's call.

The envelope, please

As we inch closer to the Eclipse Awards ceremony and the widely-anticipated announcement of Horse of the Year for 2010, I thought I would use this blog to reveal the horses I voted for, even though I was not originally planning on doing so.  This is my 15th year as an Eclipse Award voter, and I still find the task as enjoyable as my first time, way back when I was the turf writer for The Trentonian newspaper in Trenton, N. J., though I remember I did not write a column about how thrilled I was to be a first-time voter, even though I personally thought it was a big deal. 

Anyway, the sport of horse racing has changed over the years (not for the better, in my opinion) as has the media who cover it (anybody who creates a blog is now considered an expert) but the process of deciding what horses and people should receive an Eclipse vote has not, thankfully.  As an aside, if there were such things as blogs, web pages and the Internet when I was still in high school, I could have become a bona fide turf writer years before I first started pulling down a legitimate paycheck for an honest-to-goodness publication.

Here are the votes, and as you will note, there are no surprises here:

2-year-old filly - Awesome Feather
2-year-old colt - Uncle Mo
3-year-old colt - Lookin at Lucky
3-year-old filly - Blind Luck
Older Male - Blame
Older Female - Zenyatta
Male Turf - Gio Ponti
Female Turf - Goldikova
Male Sprinter - Big Drama
Female Sprinter - Dubai Majesty
Steeplechaser - Slip Away
Trainer - Todd Pletcher
Owner - WinStar Farm
Breeder - Claiborne and Dilschneider
Jockey - Ramon Dominguez
Apprentice - Omar Moreno
Horse of the Year - Zenyatta

Taking Flight

Millionaire It's a Bird, who captured four stakes and placed in three more, will be entering stud at Judy Barrett's Godstone Farm in Littlestown, Pa. for the 2011 season.  A stud fee has yet to be announced.

A son of Birdonthewire, It's a Bird won the Gr. 3 Lone Star Park and Spend a Buck handicaps, as well as the $1 million Sunshine Millions Classic and the Plagiarize Stakes.  He also crossed the wire first in the Gr. 2 Oaklawn Park Handicap, but was disqualified after testing positive for naproxen.  It's a Bird had been owned by the late Edmund Gann, and his estate appealed the ruling, but ultimately had to return the first-place prize of $300,000.

Barrett was Pennsylvania's leading breeder in 2007, and she was also Pennsylvania's top breeding fund award winner through November 30.  The final totals for 2010 won't be available from the Pa. Horse Breeders Association until the end of January.

Here is It's a Bird's web site: http://www.its-a-bird.com/.  You can link to Godstone Farm from there.

Barrett will also be standing Activist, a son of Wild Again and a proven sire of stakes horses, as well as Baronial, a winning son of Kingmambo out of Broodmare of the Year Personal Ensign.  Also standing will be millionaire Cetewayo and Harley Quinn.

The Year in Review

The year 2010 certainly was a rollercoaster ride for this author, plenty of ups and downs with each passing month. Fortunately, we survived it all and are looking forward to an exciting 2011, with our yearling Baby Chips turning 2. Rather than re-hash what has happened in the sport of racing (much of it bad news), here are some of our personal highlights, as well as lowlights, from the past 12 months:

* January and February – My daughter Katie and I spent these two months traveling across Pennsylvania on the weekends, attending stallion shows and open houses. They’re always fun excursions and we’re able to meet new people and reconnect with old friends, as well as see some very nice stallions.

Lido Palace (Chi) at Northview-PA's Open House

* March – In the wee hours of March 19, my broodmare foaled a filly by Partner’s Hero, a very, very large foal who took a while to be able to stand and nurse on her own. In keeping with a new family tradition, we started calling her Baby Hero, just like her older half-brother is fondly known as Baby Chips.

Here is Mama Malibu, looking for a carrot

* June – At the midway point of the year, my broodmare visited the court of Sir Shackleton (and got in foal, carrying the future Baby Shack), but that good news was tempered about 10 days later when my mother passed away due to Alzheimer’s Disease. My mother enjoyed the racetrack, too, even though she was a classic $2 bettor and only played horses with interesting names. The month ended on a sour note when our 3-year-old filly Harvest of Hope bucked her shins while preparing for her first race at Parx, requiring several weeks on the shelf.

My mother pushes me (on right) and cousin Georgie at playground in Bayonne, N.J.

* July – The girls and I managed to get away from it all with a wonderful week-long vacation in Avalon, N. J., during which we had beautiful, but very hot, weather. And what better place to be during a heat wave than at the beach! Later in the month, we drove to upstate New York for a three-day weekend in Saratoga. The Saratoga spree was during one of the hottest periods of the year; even up in the Adirondacks, it was hot and humid. But we had a great time at Saratoga Race Course and spent several hours in the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame.

 Secretariat statue at the Nat'l Museum of Racing in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

* September – Harvest of Hope returned to training, and Baby Chips attended racehorse kindergarten at Twin Ponds Farm in Oxford, Pa. It was very exciting for the whole family to see Baby Chips with a rider on his back, and he did just fine.

Baby Chips takes a spin around the track at Twin Ponds

* November – Baby Chips went to a Delaware farm for three months to get Delaware Certified, while we were saddened by the loss of our old friend Steve Schwartz, the former media relations manager at Monmouth Park and Meadowlands. Schwartz was a funny guy who loved to handicap the ponies, and we kept in frequent touch, usually about what horse to bet and where. We took a beating at the Breeders’ Cup, but the whole family was wowed by Zenyatta’s performance, even though we got into some heated debates about her with my husband, who is not a Zenyatta fan.

* December – Harvest of Hope made her first start at Parx on December 11, and she ran a good race to finish fourth. The chart footnote said, “split horses, closed.” We finished out the year on a quiet note, hopeful that Baby Hero continues to show improvement, Baby Chips makes it to the races, and Mama Malibu foals a healthy and correct Shack baby. We’re also keeping our fingers crossed that the sport of horse racing has a better 2011 than it did in 2010.

Hope gets ready to race at Parx

Happy holidays!

The holidays are not only the time to practice the spirit of giving, but to be thankful for what we have received throughout the year.

This author has many people to thank for their kindness and cooperation during the past 12 months, not only with articles we’ve written, but also in the care of our thoroughbreds.

To name each and every person would be a daunting task, but suffice it to say that we offer our sincere appreciation to those in the Pennsylvania horse racing industry, and many in New Jersey and Delaware, too. It is a joy to write about the farms, horses and people in the Mid-Atlantic region.

May the New Year bring health and prosperity to you all.

* * * *

Letters, we get letters. One of the most interesting ones to cross our desk came about two weeks ago from H. R. M. Hobson in Sherman Oaks, Calif. 

Hobson writes of his belief that Zenyatta should be Horse of the Year, but he also makes an interesting observation.  In the moments before the Classic, one of the ESPN announcers spoke directly to jockey Mike Smith via wireless microphone, but not to any of the other jockeys.

Hobson is of the opinion that the announcer planted "last minute ideas in Smith's head that would be hard for anyone to shake and disregard.  The announcer's faceless voice behind the microphone mentally distracted Smith's concentration, which should have been solely on the race and nothing else."

Hobson then goes on to call for a "total ban on any media contact with jockeys before a race."  "This should be a standard operating rule of proper conduct and applied to all sports," he wrote.

I have often been appalled at ESPN's interview strategy after the race - having the winning horse and jockey amble up to the booth where Jerry Bailey and his colleagues sit and answer questions, while the horse should really be kept moving, taken to the winner's circle, and then cooled out properly.  This, combined with Hobson's view that ESPN's pre-race interview strategy is also flawed, should make the suits at that network take a long, hard look at how they are covering the Sport of Kings.

Bet and breakfast ... and lunch, too.

Ron’s Backstretch Cafe, located on the backside of Parx Racing, has received a makeover. The once-grimy horsemen’s watering hole has been freshly painted and outfitted with new furniture and booths.

It wasn’t that long ago that the Parx kitchen, located adjacent to the racing office, contained possibly the worst air quality in the state of Pennsylvania, as smoking was allowed inside its close confines. In mid-afternoon, a thick haze hung in the air, and the stench was horrific. Current owner Ron Finley deserves high marks for imposing a “no smoking” ban soon after he took ownership of the facility, and years before it was mandated by Pennsylvania law. Finley also staged a massive clean-up and vastly improved the menu, and recently installed additional flat-screen monitors to watch live and simulcast racing.

All in all, Ron’s Backstretch Cafe is a nice place to hang your hat and catch up on the latest Parx gossip while you're enjoying a delicious hand-carved roast beef sandwich on a round roll with plenty of gravy. It's no wonder that horsemen are eagerly awaiting the annual free Christmas dinner next Saturday.

Here's a shot of the Cafe in its newly-renovated glory:

* * * *

Glenn and Becky Brok’s Diamond B Farm in Mohrsville, Pa., now home to three stallions, will be holding an Open House on Sunday, February 6, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Last year, Diamond B stood the talented Grade 1-placed sprinter Talent Search for Ramsey Farm, and he proved extremely popular with regional breeders, attracting 57 mares. That was the fourth-highest total in 2010, behind Jump Start (116), Fairbanks (77) and Toccet (62).

For 2011, Diamond B will stand two additional stallions – Ecclesiastic and Senor Swinger - both of which stood the last two years at Reigle Heir Farm in Grantville. Reigle Heir was sold last year to the non-profit Star Barn Thoroughbreds.

The first foals by Ecclesiastic, a son of Pulpit, and Senor Swinger, a son of El Prado, will race next year.

* * * *

We were stunned and excited to learn that Eclipse and Sovereign Award-winning jockey Emma-Jayne Wilson has decided to call Parx Racing her home for the winter. The talented reinswoman has already booted home her first winner, that being Kirkland Lake in Friday’s 7th event for trainer and fellow Canadian Scott Fairlie.

Wilson cited the generous purses at the Bensalem oval as one of the main reasons she’s decided to ride there, and no doubt trainers will soon be beating down her door in order to engage her services. Let’s hope she has a SAFE and productive few months ahead of her.

On shutdowns, synthetics and snowstorms

Random thoughts concerning the thoroughbred world:

* We attended the Open House last Sunday for the new Mountain Trail Training Center in Grantville, Pa., which is being operated by Penn National’s leading trainer Murray Rojas and Ronald “Jeff” Greener, of RJG Racing Management, LLC. The facility has received a lot of TLC since Rojas and Greener took ownership in September, including a newly-refurbished swimming pool, new fencing, rehabbed barns, and the addition of an AquaPacer, with many more changes to come. Mountain Trail is located right across the road from the Penn National stablegate.

* It is a shame that New York City OTB has shut down, and taken with it a large chunk of revenue. But racing history buffs will recall that, back in the 1970’s when the first parlors opened, it was NYC OTB that effectively drove a stake through the heart of on-track attendance at Belmont and Aqueduct. Remember those big crowds at Aqueduct on a Saturday afternoon in the spring, or during the summer at Belmont? Those crowds by and large shrank to one-quarter of their former size, especially during the week, as bettors began frequenting the convenient OTB parlors.  Here's what it looked like before:

...and after:

* Being a Jersey girl, my heart goes out to those involved in that state’s racing and breeding industries as the state begins the process of “getting out of the business.” Since Monmouth Park was the very first track I ever attended, I hold it with special reverence, and pray it continues to offer live racing for many decades to come.

While we're on the topic of Monmouth Park, our dear friend Steve Schwartz, the former media relations manager for Monmouth and the Meadowlands, passed away recently. Steve truly loved this game and was a devoted and skilled handicapper. We will sorely miss his frequent e-mails touting 3-5 shots that “can’t lose.”

* Just one person’s opinion here - we’re not a big fan of synthetic racing surfaces, but Philadelphia Park … er, Parx Racing … and Penn National seem to be prime candidates for a switch to the plastic. Both tracks race year-round and lose several days each winter due to unsafe conditions caused by snow and ice, freezing and thawing. Even when racing is able to be conducted during the dead of winter, morning training can be treacherous when the track “balls up” overnight.

* Speaking of snow and ice, thank goodness the live racing season at Presque Isle Downs in Erie, Pa. has concluded for the year. Monster snowstorms have enveloped the area recently, with more snow in the forecast this weekend. Check it out:

* Our 3-year-old filly, Harvest of Hope, is making her career debut in tomorrow’s last race at Parx Racing. Needless to say, there are some “nervous Nellies” in the Dougherty household! Win or lose, it’s been a lot of fun.