The Ides of Farch

Tweet We've hit the midpoint of Farch. You know that time between February and March in the Northeast where there is nothing but slush and dirty snow outside. No holidays in sight until the tulips show up...it can get to you if you aren't working 10 -12 hours a day. But I digress and need to keep farching ahead...

I tried my hand in the Equibase Handicapping Tournament this Saturday and had it rolling for a while hitting winners in three of the first four races. Unfortunately I fizzled out in the final four races with two seconds, finishing with $65.60, good for 26th place out of 1,986 entrants. My two big winners were Screenplay ($16.20) and Beckham Bend ($21.20), both of whom I didn't bet a dime on. That's what happens when you're chasing little Space Kids around the house. I was sniffing it with two races to go, I had long shot Little Drama (40-1 at post!) in the Hutcheson who finished a game third and Gourmet Dinner in the FOY who finished second. If I sweep those two....who knows?

I had been in a horrible slump getting beat at the wire it seems every weekend at Gulfstream in Pick 3's and Pick 4's. That finally ended yesterday when Marquet Madness, 8-1 on the morning line, anchored the final leg of a nice P3, to get me off the schneid. He drifted up to 16-1 and won by a nose hair over 2009 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf champ Tapitsfly (who I left off my ticket) avoiding yet another bad beat. I loved his back class winning at Monmouth and couldn't believe when his odds started soaring. The Space Kid got a kick out of the happy dance I did for him after the photo result was announced. Have I mentioned that I love Elvis Trujillo? It was nice to hit one and I'm starting to feel better about my handicapping. My betting just sucks.

Look for Volume III of the Wireplayers.com Derby Dozen, of which I am an honored pollster on Wednesday. I submitted my selections early and they show up at my Post Time blog today in The Buffalo News.

Booked my flight for Preakness weekend today, thank you Southwest for your low internet fares! I will be attending my first Black-eyed Susan Day, after enjoying my inaugural Preakness invasion last spring.

I've not rooted for an NBA team since Dr. J's 76'ers back in the early 80s, after being a Big O/Lew Alcindor fan of the Milwaukee Bucks as a child. Now that Melo is a Knick, I think I'll start following them pretty regularly. I've always wanted to like them, and I was a fan of Earl the Pearl and Clyde when they dueled the Lakers in the early 70s. So call me a bandwagon guy if you like. Go ahead.

Some very good posts by some of my TBA comrades over the weekend. Patrick goes off at the current "leadership" over at the NTRA in the TBA's Bloodhorse Blog Stable and former Buffalonian Scott Jagow puts together a nice piece on how to market our sport in his Horsepuckey blog.

Now farch along...

Going Postal, Volume 2

Tweet In early December of last year I rolled out the first edition of Space Mail, so based on the level of emails I've received over the last quarter we have enough for a quick blog post to answer a few of your questions. There's been a lot of fodder to chew on over the last three months so here goes....

Q: So your first Space Bag talked about Top Chef All-Stars, who did you end up with in your gambling pool and are you still alive? My guess is you went down in flames (no pun intended). ~Nick from Saratoga.
A: Sorry, Nick, we're alive and kicking with bad ass Richard Blais. That nitrogen-toting chef has been lighting up the quickfires and he only needs to outlast Carla to reach paydirt for the Space Gal and I. Know when you have a problem? When you gamble on a reality TV cooking show.

Q: Rachel/Curlin foal or Zenyatta/Bernardini foal, who will be the better racehorse? ~Carl from Altoona.
A: I'm no pedigree consultant so this is purely from a fan perspective. If you look in the top right corner, you'll see Bernardini (winning the Travers) is my profile pic...so you can guess who I'm leaning towards. Zendini, of course.

Q: What do you think of NBC picking up the Belmont? ~Hammerin Hank from Vegas.
A: To be honest, even with the very good Breeders' Cup production by ESPN, I think NBC will do a better job. Plus, they may even show the Manhattan, one of the faux pas that ABC always screwed up and would usually have horseplayers pulling their hair out because the race would be in limbo.

Q: Carmelo as a Knick? ~Lola in Manhattan
A: Good to see Melo in Orange and Blue again.

Q: Have you participated in the players boycott in California? ~Willie the Whale from Windsor
A: Well, indirectly I guess, I've really just focused on the East Coast tracks (Aqueduct, Gulfstream, Fair Grounds) over the past two months. I really haven't followed what's going on out west. Do they have a Derby contender out there? Ahh, I'm just kidding...I like Runflatout to be the west coast surprise horse. But to answer your question truthfully, no I haven't been boycotting, just ignoring.

Q: Who's your Derby horse? ~Flo from Ft. Erie
A: I really liked the way Santiva ran last weekend. I would like to see To Honor and Serve do well. We're probably a couple weeks away from adopting.

Q: Paulick or Equidaily? ~Todd from Alaska
A: Boxers.

Q: TVG or HRTV? ~Matt from Seattle
A: Briefs.

Q: How do you think your RTTR stable will fare this year compared to prior years? ~Skeeter from the South Side
A: I screwed up like I usually do by not doing my homework and reviewing the races and loaded up on horses that will run against each other. I even left Uncle Mo out of my initial stable. I'm just looking to post a respectable score this year and not embarrass myself.

Q: Speaking of Uncle Mo, what do you think of his current tentative racing schedule? ~Vinnie from Tim Hortons
A: Vinnie Vinnie Vinnie. Pletcher knows what he's doing. He's not going to lose his favorite during Derby week like last year. He'll coast in the Timely Writer and finish a disappointing second in the Wood. But he'll be in prime condition on Derby Day, which is what it's all about. That, and the draw, of course. PS I love the Fruit Explosion muffins at Hortons.

Q: I heard about your Futures is a sucker bet article....so are you a sucker? ~Tootsie from Chi Town
A: Yep. $4 on Santiva at 37-1 and $4 on To Honor and Serve at 10-1 (only to show my Derby Dozen No. 1 some love and some good karma going into the weekend).

Q: I heard you went to Aqueduct in January this year instead of Gulfstream, are you nuts?? ~Fred from Watts
A: Umm...yeah pretty much.

Q: Who's your favorite Jersey Shore character? Does Space Gal watch it? ~Jim from Stalkerville
A: I'm mesmerized by Pauly D's hair and yes the Space Gal makes me watch it. They definitely need an episode where they go to Monmouth for the races...tell me that wouldn't be must see TV?

Q: When's the next Space Invasion? ~Martha from Mozambique
A: I'll be taking my talents to Louisville...unless I can steal away for the Wood.

Q: When are you going to end this space mail bag? ~Porky from Warner Bros.
A: I thought you'd never ask. That's all folks.

Keep those cards, letters and emails comin'.

Checking In

Tweet Saturday maintenance post for the weekend. Cleaning the salt off the car and wondering why the check engine light is on at the blog? Here's some odds and ends as we head into a holiday weekend of racing.

I took a look at the Fair Grounds all-stakes Pick 4 for The Buffalo News in my Sports, Ink Blog post yesterday, check it out.

Prayers go out to Eibar Coa who is in surgery this morning after fracturing vertebra in his neck in a horrific spill at Gulfstream yesterday.

I had a nice visit on Wednesday to Fort Erie Race Track to meet with Elissa Blowe, Manager of Media & Marketing for the FELRC who showed me their new RaceBook and shared plans for the 2011 live racing season at the Fort. My article in today's News on my visit can be found here.

The TBA's Road to the Roses League is up and running thanks to new league manager Tony Bada Bing, who writes the A Leg Up blog, and was winner of the 2010 EquiSpace Toga Party contest (like how I plug my contest?). [League Number: 428912689 Activation Code: 2771589346] Sign up and play along with the TBA bloggers. There are some other leagues out there, I plan up signing up for the HRF and Wireplayers.com RTTR leagues this year also. (Feel free to post your activation codes in the comments section!)

Good luck this weekend and let's cash some tickets!

Shoveling It...

Tweet The mercury hit a balmy 40 degrees in the B-lo today. My back hurts. My feet hurt. The bottom of my driveway can only fit one car out due to my less than stellar snow shoveling skills. Of course, Mother Nature waited until our city was holding its annual Winter Fest before melting all the snow, but hey, that's Buffalo for you.


So what's been cooking in the Space Station lately....


- The Space Kid turned two and he's got Keeneland, Churchill, Gulfstream and Saratoga notches on his belt. Not bad for two, eh?


- Posting has been a little light lately due to the time of the year (tax season) and keeping up with my responsibilities for The Buffalo News. My latest article on betting Derby Futures was in Saturday's print edition and can be found here, in case you missed it (h/t to the Paulick Report for the nice linkage).

- ThoroFan Chairman Michael Amo, was one of the invited guests to testify last Monday in front of the Senate Committee on Racing, Wagering and Gaming. The post hearing media has mostly been focused around the NYC OTB's and consolidation, but his speech on behalf of racing fans is a good read. All of the written testimony from last Monday's hearing in Albany can be found here.


- Planning on a visit to Fort Erie Race Track this week to check out what's new on the other side of the border.


- Here's where you can find the RSS feed of The News' Sports, Ink blog to see my weekly posts every Friday.As other posts are included here, other than mine, you can filter them on the right hand sidebar under "horse racing." Check it out.


- I was very impressed watching Brethren smoke the Davis field, and was surprised to see the 83 Beyer. The best recap I've read is at the outstanding SB Nation Down The Stretch blog, where Matt explains why he thinks Brethren was issued such a low Beyer.


- Suffered my second bad beat of the year on Saturday when edged out of the Gulfstream Pick 4 beaten by a head in the final leg when my 9-1 choice Safety Squeeze couldn't get past 8-1 Green Bluff and $1,200 went up in smoke. I was at a friend's house who has his own kegerater..so that made it all better. GP hasn't been very kind to me this winter. Earlier in the meet, Tar Heel Mom kicked me out of a carryover Pick 5 in the fourth leg (paid $4,200), with double digit winners on the front and back end, picking up a 4/5 conso. I had Hilda's Passion that day...of course she beat Mom today in the Hurricane Bertie. Needless to say, they were both on my ticket today.


- The El Camino Real Derby must have been bittersweet for Steve Asmussen, who had the prohibitive favorite Comma to the Top, falter, but his stablemate Silver Medallion picked up some solid graded earnings. It'll be interesting to see where both of them end up next.

- I am looking forward to next weekend's Risen Star, with Machen, Rogue Romance, Santiva and Wilkinson all probables to run at the Fair Grounds.

Things are starting to heat up (literally) and....we're not dead yet...and, by the way, if you see any of those 50.6 million fans, can you have them stop by this blog? (PS - I vote Fiction).

Space Invasion: Buffalo Raceway

Tweet On Saturday night, I made my inaugural Space Invasion to a harness racing track, which happens to be in my own hometown. It was an invasion of different sorts for this thoroughbred racing fan who trekked through the snow flurries blowing around on the New York State Thruway on his way to the Erie County Fair Grounds, where Buffalo Raceway is situated, 14 miles south of our fair city. The night started out on a good note, once I reached my destination, given the free parking and free admission. Free is good for the racing fan.

I grabbed a cheap $2 program and was met by track COO James Mango and Publicity Director Sam Pendolino and broke bread with them while watching a few races in the Restaurant right in front of the toteboard where we broke bread and chatted about the difficult weather conditions that the track was facing that evening. We had an enjoyable meal and if not for a slip by a horse in the 4th, I would have cashed a nice exacta on my first ever harness bet.

Sam helped me with reading the past performances, which are very similar to the thoroughbred's racing lines, including the different race conditions at Buffalo. Most of the races are run at a mile distance, which happens to be exactly two trips around the half mile track first opened in June 1942. The races had mostly eight to nine starters in each race and I learned about the Niatross series, which cut down 64 entrants to 32 entrants for next week's races. The series will culminate the last weekend in February with a $31,000 purse structure.

We then headed upstairs to meet the racing secretary, Robin Burns, who doubles as the track announcer for the call of Race 6, which had a shipper taking most of the money at 4/5. I definitely have respect for race callers after watching Robin call the sixth, with a blustery snow falling and difficulty seeing the leaders, but he did an unbelievable job. I thanked him for letting me watch the race upstairs (a terrific vantage point) and I was off.

I next ventured downstairs to meet with a local business owner who was treating his office to a "night at the races." He had 50-60 employees and spouses for a buffet dinner and drinks and the track named the fifth race after their group. He had contacted me earlier in the week to ask me if I could help his group out (somehow he thought I was an expert of sorts). I helped explain the running lines to those who sought out my advice and how to structure some simple wagers. It was fun and the people seemed to be enjoying themselves. I'll definitely be jonesing to bring my firm or one of the charitable groups I'm involved with out for a night at the races. Or better yet, an afternoon with the boys playing the simulcast in the nice bar area leading into the night harness racing.

Some things that I noticed were different from the thoroughbred experience:

1 - The inside posts definitely have an advantage, particularly the #1 spot (and the program stats backed that up).
2 - I was initially confused by the saddle cloth covers (for example, the 2 is blue and the 3 is white).
3 - The time between races is much quicker, I found that they would be going off while I was still looking at my form.
4 - Many more races than your normal t-bred card, 13 races in all were run on Saturday night.
5 - Maybe it was just the night, but a 40-1 (in the sixth - he beat the odds on rail horse/shipper) and a 17-1 both hit.
6 - The BRIS cheat sheet I brought was pretty good and had some good information to bet my wagers on. I never bring selections to the track with me, but as a newbie I thought all the info I could have the better.

I didn't bring my camera, but will next time as there are some cool seating areas and vantage points throughout the clubhouse. All in all I had a great evening and look forward to going back and learning more about the harness game as the meet goes on. It didn't hurt that I walked out in the black, either! Who knew the harness game was so cool?

The Boondoggle that is the NTRA Safety Alliance

Tweet If you're a follower or occasional reader of this blog, you probably know that I have been an outspoken critic of the results of the NTRA Safety and Integrity Alliance. I had been wondering where this initiative, which commenced in October 2008, was headed after Churchill Downs pulled out of the NTRA earlier in 2010, and since I hadn't heard of any tracks achieving accreditation in recent months. Well, I found out through reading the Report of the Independent Monitor released yesterday by the Washington DC law firm Akin Gump et al.

While 55 tracks aligned to show support for the Alliance back in 2008, only 25 have actually ponied up and undergone the review of the Code of Standards established. Only five (5) went through the process in 2010, which had to be a very humbling statistic for the NTRA, and none since July. The report cites "economic challenges," wherein "tracks are struggling to remain financially viable." To the credit of the Alliance, a sliding scale for fees was implemented to entice the smaller or "B" level tracks to comply. However, none of these smaller tracks (other than Finger Lakes) appears to have jumed on that train.

The proof will be in the pudding in 2011, as the initial 19-20 tracks will be up for re-accreditation as the 2-year window expires (and we know Churchill won't be one of them).

The reasons for the program not catching on or increasing in breadth isn't earth shattering:

1) The Program Has No Teeth. - There is really no motivation for tracks to participate. In essence their are no prohibitive factors for not participating. Even the independent monitor states the obvious in its recommendations to "Create Incentives for Racetracks to become Accredited." One suggested option by the monitor included "engaging state regulatory authorities to consider requiring accreditation as a condition of licensure." Good luck with that.

2) The Program is Bleeding Cash. - One look at the NTRA's 2009 Annual Report shows that it lost over $500M (or $25K/track audited) in both 2009 and 2008 (all in start-up costs, no revenue was earned per the Annual Report). Again the monitor highlighted the budget issues in its report stating there is only one full-time employee and all of the rest of the monitoring/testing is performed by outsourced industry consultants. To have a fully rigorous process, you just can't get away charging the small fees that are being charged, and now a sliding scale can only lead to lower revenues. The program is clearly bleeding.

3) Safety > Integrity. - The entire program was a knee-jerk reaction (with no dedicated funding) to the Eight Belles incident and has had almost a 90% emphasis on safety. One read of the report shows that wagering integrity, which only was introduced into the Standards Code in 2010 (See Section III of the report), attained only two paragraphs in the entire 12-page report. And you're trying to endear yourself to the horseplayer how? The monitor calls for more education of fans to the Alliance's work, recommending that "if fans understand what Alliance accreditation means, they may only want to wager on Alliance facilities." Ok, Tommy, can I get some of what you're smoking?

I'll speculate that possibly 50% of the 2009 accredited tracks sign up for the next go-round, depending on the arm-twisting that surely will occur. Has it helped safety, yes, but at what cost? Most business plans and decisions are made with a cost-benefit analysis. Are there any tangible and measurable results from the process? The "independent" report has statistics, but it provides the economic excuses for non-participation showing declines in handle, purses and race days. How about how this program has increased safety, such as reduced on-track injuries or lowered workers compensation claims experience. Just give us something that shows results. Until that happens, folks like me will continue to question the overall program.