Green but Game » Let Horses Race

Maiden Race as Magic 8 Ball?

Hello Broadway, half to No Biz breaking his maiden at Saratoga (budmeister 26.2)

When I saw this today, I remembered immediately that I recently asked if they had announced the inevitable regarding War Pass yet.

Today was the day… they finally came out with it and announced that War Pass has been officially retired and will stand at Lane’s End, a deal that was put in place after last year’s BC Juvenile. No surprise, just check it off the “when will they announce it” list.

Within a half an hour I notice that No Biz’s stud fee has been announced… $7,500. As Jessica put in in her reply to my email question “Is it just me or is No Biz a huge bargain?”

What a great price on a horse that won stakes at two and three, on dirt and turf.

And what do we think the fee for War Pass will be? (Upcoming poll alert!!) Much more than $7,500, that’s for sure.

Just last weekend halfs to No Biz and War Pass duked it out it a classy baby race with No Biz’s little bro, Hello Broadway, gamely defeating Imperial Council (no relation) by a nose while War Pass’s little bro was in the mix for show.

What are the odds of that coincidence? And too bad I didn’t have a few bucks on it!

Posted by dana on Sep 05 2008
Filed Under: 2yo, Injury, 3yo, War Pass, 2008, Maiden, Nobiz Like Shobiz, Breeding, Let Horses Race, Retirement, Saratoga, Racing

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Now That’s Refreshing

Visionaire & Alan Garcia winning the King’s Bishop (budmeister 26.2)

Team Valor has announced that Visionaire, excellent surprise winner of the Kings Bishop, will not be pointed to the Breeders’ Cup this year.

“It has taken us awhile to figure out exactly what this colt is most effective in doing, and he is a terrific one-turn runner at distances just past a sprint,” said Barry Irwin of Team Valor. “We look forward to following a traditional tried-and-true path toward a career as a stallion while shooting for the Jerome (Breeders’ Cup Handicap, gr. II) and (Hill ‘n’ Dale) Cigar Mile (gr. I).

AND…

“Next season, we look forward to racing him in the Carter (gr. I) and Metropolitan Mile (gr. I). This colt possesses the ability to be very explosive on the turn, and we feel he will get even better with age. He is a very exciting prospect and is lightly raced, having run only 10 times.”

Go Barry Irwin… how refreshing is that? I wish Notional’s connections had taken a page out of that play book and kept him at a mile. With early retirement season upon us, it’s nice to count Visionaire as one who will be returning. Thank you Barry Irwin!

Posted by dana on Sep 04 2008
Filed Under: Partnerships, Sportsmanship, 2008, Impressive, Alan Garcia, 3yo, Wooo!, Let Horses Race, Saratoga, Racing

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Ideas & Rants, Now in Pictures!

That’s right, now you can peruse the SAFC’s July reports in handy charts and graphs! Although, if you’re a Safari user there will be a few oddities here and there (like how all the post headlines are now tiny here at GbG… it gets even weirder at SAFC).

Looking for something to do this week? Our “official” timetable for monthly reports is now the 15th of every month and the cut off time for inclusion in the previous month’s reports is the 7th (this coming Sunday). So, there’s still plenty of time to get over there and share your ideas, rants or even notes of praise!

Long holiday weekend have your rant-o-meter out of sorts? Here are few things that I’ve noticed lately…

Lack of coverage national TV coverage for the Woodward… I was able to watch it locally (although the NYC OTB channel aired taped interviews instead of the parade…. arrrrrr) but I know a few folks had a bone to pick. Go pick it at SAFC! And thanks to Geno for getting the ball rolling!

California now has a new fund to assist with rescue and safe retirement of any horse that has raced in California. Submit ideas that other racing jurisdictions should follow suite or that the NTRA should look into spear heading a similar national effort!

Early retirement season is quickly approaching… start submitting your ideas about how to change the economics of the game! You surely have some great ideas about how to create more incentives to race older horses, such a high profile racing series for 4yos & up or even changing conditions of current races, such as Derby preps, to favor entrants who’s sires are at least 5yos.

The Breeders’ Cup is right around the corner! Everyone seems to have a bone to pick with them… even if you’re ok with the name change, you might have an issue with the two day format or the outrageous ticket prices… and there’s always the completely untested surface. This is one event where there’s something for everyone to complain about!

And how about the never ending racing season or just plain old too many races on the card? I saw a cite today (while researching a rant I have in the making) for total races in 2006. The US was top ranked with 51,668 races while the next closest amount was Australia with 19,963 races! According to the Jockey Club we had 1% less racing last year with a total of 51,304 (1989 had 74,071 races!). Think winter racing at Aqueduct is over kill? Or, like Robert, that there should only be 9 races on the card? Great… submit it!

I see valid complaints and great ideas all over the place, there’s definitely no shortage of either! But beyond making the bright idea haver or annoyed customer feel unburdened they’re not doing anyone any good sitting around the internet waiting for someone from who can act upon them to find them.

We offer a 2 fold strategy for getting issues addressed 1) we compile the issues in reports and send them to the folks who can act upon them and 2) by collecting all the information in one place and making it accessible to all, we can start to compile stats and/or build cases for the various issues out there.

Sounds great, right? It’s only great if people with ideas and complaints submit them… so what are you waiting for? It’s not like there’s much else going on this week!

Posted by dana on Sep 02 2008
Filed Under: Mainstream Media, Technology, Aqueduct, Internet, Self Appointed Fan Committee, Industry, You Can Help, Marketing, Let Horses Race, Fans, Retirement, Saratoga, Breeders' Cup, Racing

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New Poll, Marketing to New Fans

How does one go about creating new fans anyway? (E-BAD)

The rumor is true, I’m 42… oh, and I’m on the “newly created marketing task force” empaneled by Social Sphere and NTRA.

In addition to the folks mentioned by name and age in the press release, fellow TBA-ers Superfecta and Alan are involved as well as Alex Brown with an occasional guest appearance by Derek Simon. I’m not entirely sure if the other folks who don’t have web presences want their names out there so I will just say that there are few other bright and passionate folks on the team (and add their names if they mention it’s ok).

We’ve been asked to “Develop a plan to market the sport to a new generation of fans”.

Over the course of about six weeks, the group will be spending dozens of hours meeting, debating, and challenging each other’s assumptions — the results of which they will present to the industry at the NTRA Marketing Summit.

The emphasis is mine. Debating? Check. Challenging each other’s assumptions? Check. You can’t get a bunch of bloggers in a virtual room without there being some disagreement, although it seems by the press release that this is by design. The good news is (not that there’s any bad news) that there’s no shortage of ideas!

One would think it’s easy to answer that question the way we all hold forth on our blogs, taking about how the industry should do this and the industry should do that. Putting it all together in a cohesive plan (as a group) is another story.

So, dear readers, if the NTRA called you up and said “Hey, tell me how you would create new fans… and guess what, you can’t spend any money on it”, what would you recommend?

Should tracks focus on getting their customer service act together? Should there just generally be better communication with fans? Would the ability to watch and wager on all tracks woo new folks to the siren song of horse racing? Would better TV coverage do the trick? How about stopping early retirement or redesigning NTRA.com… or having more mainstream fantasy horse racing? Would having standing save us? Hey, there’s always marketing (but to who? We’ll try to answer that in our next poll!).

Feel free to pontificate, share, hold forth, share photos of burned muffins and/or spout off in the comments (you know, the usual).

In our last poll it was a dead heat, 15/15 for Music Note in Travers vs. The Alabama… ultimately I’m glad she ran in the Alabama but am bummed there will be no rematch with Proud Spell (should this sort of thing be in the poll too?).

As always, thanks for sharing!

Update: many thanks to everyone for sharing your thoughts and ideas! Thanks to Equidaily and Paulick for the links as well!

I highly encourage you to go to Self Appointed Fan Committee and submit your ideas and rants there as well. We compile monthly reports and send them directly to the places most appropriate for the idea or rant (NTRA, various tracks, AGSC, TVG, Jockey Club, etc). Who knows what we’ll end up with as a presentation, but by submitting to SAFC you’re ideas are being sent directly to the folks who could do something about it!

Posted by dana on Aug 20 2008
Filed Under: Proud Spell, Poll, 2008, Industry, Standings, Becoming a Fan, Self Appointed Fan Committee, Internet, TBA, Marketing, Ads, Let Horses Race, TV, NTRA, Mainstream Media, You Can Help, Racing