We Put the World in Championships

Tweet So I was reflecting on my World Series of Horse Racing post on my dream race run on dirt which would include all of the classic race winners, the BC Classic and Ladies Classic champs and various other horses who qualified via points/standings to determine the annual champion a la the NCAA tournament or the Super Bowl. The original post which appeared at the Blood-horse (as well as here) generated quite a bit of commentary, but one comment that resonated with me the most was one by Gina from the very fine Gallop France blog who stated "Ah, and once again the Americans want to call something a "World Series" and not invite anybody from - well, the world (you know, that small bit that exists OUTSIDE the United States....)" Now, while I was flattered that she considered that I was representing the good ole' USA, she was properly corrected by Ms. Backstretch that yours truly is certainly not the be-all, end-all of American racing. Whew, by the way. Today, however, this comment is one that has me chuckling that the Breeders' Cup folks represent that they are holding the "World Championships" in three weeks. I guess if the world is invited, but they don't show up (or qualify?) one can justify calling it the World Championships.

With a little bit of unscientific research, last year's races included 156 BC starters, wherein only 33 were bred or ran predominantly outside of North America prior to the Cup. That's 21% of the total starters. No horses from Australia or Japan and two from South America. Can they (we) really call it the World Championships? Maybe it's just us Ugly Americans thinking we rule the world and we can call it whatever we want, and maybe Gina has a point to make here, also. Then again, maybe it really doesn't matter and I should move on to a different topic and stop breaking the BC's nuts, but with three weeks to go until the big weekend and no idea who's racing where, there's gotta be something to be snarky about.

Which brings me to the Eclipse Award for the American Horse of the Year. Actually, I won't go there, because I really could not care less, since it's not something that will be decided on the track, and I don't have a vote, so my opinion really doesn't matter anyway. Stay tuned elsewhere for further blather for the next three months on the HoTY topic. I can't wait.

Big Idea 2.0 (Giant Dork Version)

Tweet So my embattled post on the World Series of Horse Racing generated some good conversation (and some bad conversation - first registered F-bomb comment - holla) and being the giant dork that I am, agreed that there were some obvious flaws in my post, but hey I'm just a dreamer....so here are some follow up thoughts on some of the concerns and comments:

1) Maybe Christmas Day would be better....2 months after the Breeders Cup....remember folks I was just saying it was a made-for-TV exhibition to promote racing to the mainstream. (JB had a thought, that the big BC race should be moved to T'giving or Xmas...not bad). This would satisfy a lot of commenters worried about running back in 3-4 weeks. In between the two big NBA games on ABC/ESPN instead of Thanksgiving Day halftime??

2) Rename it the Grand Slam of Racing. The three classic winners and the BC Classic winner get auto-invites...real grand slam, fill the other 10 slots based on standings....hmmm....takes care of the ugly American shot by calling it "World Series" and keep it to ourselves (sticking tongue out). Or if to be politically correct invite the Canadian, Japanese, and British TC champs and really make it an international spectacle. (Apologies in advance if I missed your country and you have a triple crown). Ironically I labeled my word document Grand Slam, but used World Series because of the golf reference, but I digress.

3) Big Purse - wretch some of the dough out of the NTRA or Jockey Club coffers (waiting for those 2008 Form 990's to be filed, with bated breath...especially the salary and investments info!) and who wouldn't want to sell some advertising for the Big Event - the King of Beers for the Sport of Kings....has a nice ring to it...OK....I promise I'll let it go...but sometimes you have to dream....

More dorkdom. This is how my wacky mind thinks sometimes. Was thinking about Calvin Borel and his agent based on recent developments. Calvin Borel's initals are CB. Started thinking about CB's and what the hell happened to them and if truck drivers still use them. Started thinking that the CB radio was the twitter of the 70s ("the CB allowed people to get to know one another in a quasi-anonymous manner"). Looked up CB's on Wiki, saw that the 11 year sunspot cycle has affected them. Read that there was an overabundance "of users jamming onto frequencies during the mid-to-late 1970s and early 1980s, channels often were intolerably noisy and communication became difficult." Looked up 11 year sunspot cycle. Decided I was definitely in dork territory. Must be the squirrels again. Decided to stick to horse racing.

Have a great holiday weekend, will be checking in from all points Western and Central New York.

World Series of Horse Racing?

Tweet While checking out some of John Daly’s funky golf pants the other day, I started thinking about the Skins Game, a made-for-TV golf event, usually held around Thanksgiving which would bring together that year’s hottest names in golf. This led me to thinking about what kind of made for TV event could bring horse racing back into the mainstream again after the Triple Crown Season is put to rest. Also, in my thought process was how can we get Zenyatta and Rachel Alexandra into the same race. Golf used to put together its four major winners into the World Series of Golf match that was a made-for-TV event, which is now the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational. This got the gears (squirrels) spinning in my head even further. Using Ernie Munick’s idea of a race during halftime of the Thanksgiving Day Lions game, which would be the perfect time to produce my dream event called the World Series of Horse Racing, which could be held during the fall meet at Churchill Downs. Can you think of a better time slot for promoting horse racing to the masses?

Here’s how a horse would qualify:
1) Must win a Grade I over 8.5 furlongs
2) Must be at least 3 years old
3) Field limited to top 14 qualifiers based on set criteria (i.e, standings, earnings)

Based on the above criteria, here is the list of the top 20 horses through June 30th that would qualify for the WS of Horse Racing event if we used the Thoroughbred Bloggers Alliance Standings based on a point system for graded wins:


That’s a pretty impressive list of horses vying for the national championship of racing. You’ve got the Classic winners, you’ve got the Dubai Cup winner, you’ve got Zenyatta, in addition to quality 3 year olds like I Want Revenge, Quality Road and Pioneerof the Nile and quality older horses like Einstein and Macho Again. Talk about a monster race that would generate some unbelievable chatter, not only in horse racing land, but in the main stream.

Of course there are a slew of other issues to work out like weight assignments, purse money, distance (1 3/16ths?) television rights, my vig (thought I’d slip that one in there), how it affects the Breeders Cup (too close?), etc. Of course, Wayne Lukas will probably put this out there next year as his idea anyway.

Could it work?