Open Letter to TOBA AGSC

I believe that the Breeder's Cup Ltd (BC)and their program "Win and You're In" (W&YI) is watering down the the American Graded Stakes program and marginalizing what the AGSC does on a yearly basis. The BC has now expanded to include 49 races. This is over 10% of the races that the AGSC grades, in just the BC's first expansion. W&YI races all result in the winner getting a spot reserved at the BC, thereby equating all races on the same plane. As a racing fan and as a person who is interested in bringing casual viewers to the sport I don't believe this to be in the best interest of the sport. The long term fan realizes the races aren't of the same caliber and the casual fan is not given a way in to understanding the heritage of the sport. Furthermore, the W&YI selection process for races is much more opaque than the AGSC and leaves some important voices out of the process. That process might become moot in the very near future as breeders/owners focus in on the advertisment sheet rather than their catalogue page. The W&YI races will have deeper fields and oppurtunities to beat horses of reputation which can be listed on an advertisement. Yes, these races are currently also Graded Stakes, but the impetus to race is the W&YI, not TOBA nor AGSC thus marginalizing their importance. I implore you and the AGSC to do something proactive about this. Sincerely, Handride I have solutions, but first you have to admit a problem.

Bloodhorse Chat

Full Transcript Sea Girt, NJ:You've said prior, "We've always wanted a series--or a tour--to move the sport forward," do you think that Win and You're In is sufficient? Also, with the BC creating "Win and You're In" are you worried that the BC is encroaching on the AGSC and their ability to label stakes? Metzger:A racing series or tour leading up to racing’s championship day, that has the proper context and competitive integrity, will move the sport forward. Breeders’ Cup Limited has stated that “Win and You’re In” is a marketing program aimed at non-racing fans and hopefully they will be very successful in their efforts. Only time will tell if “Win and You’re In” broadens Thoroughbred racing’s appeal to the general public. We’re rooting for it to bring new fans to the racetrack or in front of their television screens. The sport desperately needs it. BCL’s efforts do not affect the ability of the AGSC to grade races. I wish I could have a follow up: What's the biggest race of the seaon? The BC. What connects the BC to other races during the season the most concretely with proper context and competitive integrity? W&YI and the ability to guarantee a spot in the big dance. What's more important to owners starting in the BC or winning a Gr II or III? Tough question. Do you think W&YI might be watering down your product? Uh, no, I don't think so. Do you have any input in what races they choose? No. Are you happy that they are equating winning Gr I's w/ Gr III's? Uh, never thought about it. That's for casual fans not the owners/breeders. The focus of owners and breeders is to win the BC, don't you think they'll follow the lead of W&YI more and more as they add more races? Nah, that's not gonna happen. (I hope) Do you know that it is watering down your product?

Win and You're In Expanding

This will be a little of a follow up on why people should leave messages over at AGSC Do Something... Anything. (Gary West, yes that Gary West, left a message yesterday of support, why can't you do the same?!) Messages were also posted @ ThoroughbredChampions, Final Turn, Pace Advantage, Turfnsport, NYRAOnline, even ESPN. I've been a supporter of the W&YI situation since November 2006. That support was based on the presumption that W&YI only changes the perception of the sport and not the sport itself. However, if W&YI expands, as is their want, then they will change racing. W&YI is run by the BC Ltd, and by expanding they are laying down what are the important races leading up to their Breeders' Cup in their eyes. I'd rather that job stay in the hands of the AGSC which is compromised of owners, breeders, and track secretaries, rather than marketers and people who may use it as leverage for other causes unforseen today. Unfortunately, the AGSC holds on to an antiquated system that was set up prior to the internet, pp's, television, possibly the phone, who knows, just know it's old. It was set up back in the day when racing was the money maker and breeding was icing on the cake. Today, you have horses whisked away to the barn after a graded stake win to recoup their ever increasing cost as yearlings and juveniles. The owners are the ones laying out the cash in this sport, and in no way would anyone suggest anything that takes money or the ability to make money out of their pocket. However, recently some of started asking for different ways to assess their stallions, namely in durability. I read that as buyers, who are compromised of owners/breeders/trainers/pinhookers, want more specific information on what they are buying. Add in the fact that the BC Ltd is moving in on the AGSC turf and you have to believe it's now or never for the AGSC. The AGSC already knows the value of every stake in a more accurate manner than the 3 categories we see. So, why not open up the playbook a little and give these stakes their values. W&YI could still exist, but the AGSC would be in control. The catalogue page would be more accurate (which is what your charter says you should do) and you all could take the credit. Again, do something... anything. At the site you're free to put down your own ideas (Gary left his). Here's mine: Each race is given a value by the AGSC, and the WPS alsoran is given different weights of that value (100%, 60%, 40%, 15%). I would like to see every BC race at the same value and using that as par go through the other graded stakes. Now that means the Haskell and the Norfolk might be worth the same amount. True, in each category their will be stakes that have the same value, however when moving those points to the HOTY category they will be cut by a certain %. Meaning that 2 horses; one with the same amount of points in the F&M Turf as the other has in the Sprint would not be equally ranked on the HOTY page. I would do this because if you did it before the HOTY category it would appear that some categories might not be worth following or some might read it that you are slighting the Fillies and Mares. The AGSC then tallies the points at the end of the year and gives out awards. People love awards shows. The catalogue page gets a boost by being able to say you were in the top 10 of Sprinters in 2005, but it doesn't stop anyone from saying you were the Florida Derby Champion. It's just an enhancement. It also makes a little easier to market races (#4 vs #8 in the 3yo filly division). Finally, you get a reason to tackle the harder competition as a loss wouldn't be seen as an end to a chamionship campaign. Notice this is not at all like the TBA. The TBA just proves even the most basic standings can work to a degree while trainers and owners pay no attention to them. If the AGSC doesn't do this, they'll be out of business in 3 years.

Again w/ the Cooperation for Cooperation's sake

I'm only bringing this topic up again because Anonymous said I was bitter and what I was writing about wasn't real journalism (even though I've said numerous times that's not my goal). But, Crist is at it again (sorry sub req'd). Pointing fingers saying what's wrong with the sport then giving a Utopian result with no basis on how to get there. I'm not being bitter, I just want more out of him. My favorite sentence: "Instead, the well-intentioned "Win and You're In" program continues to stub its toe by overemphasizing the true importance of some of its races, pretending that anything being shown on an ESPN telecast should guarantee a horse a berth in the Breeders' Cup." This is the beauty of Win and You're In and w/ this sentence Mr Crist flat out proves he doesn't get it. People who watch horse racing on these weeks are given an automatic rooting interest and a reason to tune in come the big day. Who does it hurt by giving a long shot an entry into the worlds biggest race? Let's say there are real rankings, number 12 doesn't get in, who's upset other than their connections. Is losing the #12 ranked horse for a horse that might have somewhat of a fan following a bad thing? That's the extreme too. Most horse racing fans know that this W&Y in is just a show, and in the end most of the qualifiers would be going anyways. Steven, can I call you Steven? I think you have done wondrous things in the sport; have seen the game from every angle. I have a hard time believing you don't get this, or at least you're not willing to frame your arguments in a positive manner. Why not use your column to give solutions. How would you get tracks to cooperate? What would you do to connect the races to the BC? What do you make of the AGSC? These questions have been answered by the TBA ad naseum (check out label standings below), but the TBA amounts to a hill of beans compared to the media that you control. Here's an idea. Hijack the AGSC. Beyer gives out numbers for a what an individual horse achieves in an individual race after the fact. Why doesn't the DRF put up some bucks, and give values to every Graded Stake before the fact. At your control you know historically what the horses eventually won, money earned, and what path they took. Quantify it and use it and give it the BC wrapped in a bow. I'm not being bitter I promise, I just know that someone in your position can do something in a week of meetings that I've dreamt of for 4 years.

Fixing Win and You're In

Blog reader Steven Crist recently pointed out that "Win and You're In" isn't perfect (sorry sub req'd). Really it isn't, breaking news? Yeah, I don't think it's perfect either, and I was wondering what Mr Crist's solution would be. However, after 8 paragraphs of real journalism he lays out his big idea for fixing it. You ready?... Cooperation. Really? We can sit all these track owners and secretaries down in front of Mr. Rogers and in 30 minutes it will all be sorted. Huzzah! In more detail Crist would like to see only Gr I's used, and use the format to put the final nail in the handicap coffin. In fact, he sees the "Cup qualifying program ...streamlining and improving [the National Gr I schedule]." Couple of problems & Solutions: I don't know how happy Saratoga is putting all their eggs in one proverbial weekend basket. Wouldn't it make more sense to have 2 maybe 3 sites per weekend, and within the 2 hours show 6-8 races (maybe one per BC race category). Mr Crist would approve. Cooperation needs one thing:money. To get money "Win and You're In" has to be successful getting TV ratings. TV ratings mean ad dollars. And, ad dollars will turn horse racing on TV from being a cost to a source of revenue. And tracks like revenue. Horse racing needs not only to string together races, but horses in those races. "Win and You're In" works against this principle by allowing horses to win one race and possibly take the rest of the months off. It has to be tinkered to bring back horses more than once. What I'd like to see, and what I think "Win and You're In" is heading towards is something I first pointed out a couple years back: Standings. Crist is for standings & points, in the Derby. I honestly believe something akin to the TBA standings will be adopted. The TBA standings are hampered by 2 things: The current (totally flawed) graded stakes schedule and trainers that don't know it exists. However, with those 2 flaws our standings still work. What I'd like to see is in July when the sports world is absolutely dead and ESPN is begging for any news story not involving the police "The BC Challenge sponsored by WHOEVER" starts with standings already in place based on the years entire Graded Stakes. This gives the casual sports fan a jump start, and encompasses all the tracks to get a little good publicity. Then you continue with the standings up until the BC where the top 3 or 5 in each category have automatic births and/or gate choice. This will happen, and sooner than you think. Just keep supporting Win and You're In, it has to make money. Without money based on advertising the idea of a coherent season is dead. Prior ideas of getting owners to sponsor it, like the TCT, are dead in the water.

Win and You're In, duh

For those keeping track at home, but really if you want to keep up with the top horses you know where to go: Able One (NZ) - Mile Diabolical - Sprint Ginger Punch - Distaff Lawyer Ron - Classic My Typhoon (IRE) - Filly & Mare Turf And Bobby Frankel doesn't get it. Saw this first off Super's Blog, but had already started to write something about W&I that I've now trashed and you're seeing this. Win and You're In is not for you, Bobby Frankel it's for the fans. Everyone who has watched horse racing prior knows that this program is there to change the perception of horse racing and not the game itself. I'm sorry you don't get this, and it's probably not your fault, maybe the BC & NTRA didn't do a good job selling it to the trainers, which they should have done so you don't have Top Level trainers trashing it on any level. I can just see Mr Avioli reading Frankel's comments and slapping himself in the head, this was not what he wanted. Mr Avioli would have like to have read, "I really like this Win and You're In. Ginger Punch is a great filly and the BC is in the back of every trainers head when they have a good one like this. This takes a little pressure off the whole situation, but now I have to get back to work and make sure she stays fit and can perform again like this." Frankel I guess cooled down a little later for these comments.

New Car Smell

The Breeder's Cup had a lot of announcing to do these past couple of days. They have a new site and a new format. Let me give you my opinion. The Site Pluses - The emphasis on purple is way down. That's not a good thing, but a GREAT thing, it no longer looks like Prince designed the homepage. It's unfortunate that purple is the color of royalty, and since this is the sport of kings it was adopted by the BC, you just have to live with it. Content, content, content. This site is loaded with cool videos and pics sorted creatively but easy to find. Speaking of easy, ease of use is way up. It doesn't do everything I want, but compared to the old site this site is truly in the 21st century. Highlighting pics tells you the headline or the name of the race and you are presented with all your choices up front. It gives the Kentucky Derby site a run for its money. I think I might like this site a little more. The emphasis on the standings is way up, and I'm scared at some point the TBA standings will be a relic, but for now the BC standings aren't that useful and they don't use them to the degree the TBA does (ok that last bit should be in the minuses, so I guess I should start being a Debbie Downer). Minuses - The site doesn't grab you right away. You show up at BC.com and you are faced with choices, lots of them. The choices are top notch, but for someone going there for the first time, there's not much of a grab. ESPN does this the best with the large picture and about 5 stories text linked to that subject, those stories exist on the BC site, but they aren't as nicely related visually on the front page. After watching a "Classic" video it won't let me choose amongst the categories on top; like top stories or top contenders, there's a bug in there somewhere, in fact it won't let me choose those top tabs once I get off the front page, I keep having to go back to the main page. The flags don't link to anything, and I was hoping for an Easter Egg to maybe that countries top prospects. What happened to the time capsules? I see BC classics, but I liked going back and seeing the entire meet too. I'd like whole pages dedicated to the divisions. Overall - I know the minuses is a bigger paragraph than the pluses, but this is a good site. I don't know how much content will be created for this site alone or will they rely on other sites stories, but that is a factor for me and how often I come to this site, but to a casual fan it might not matter. The blogs are good, though they aren't really blogs (whole 'nother can of worms). The site is solid all the way around, and my complaints are just nit picks. B Format Is it "Win and You're In" or "The Breeders' Cup Challenge"? Oh I know it's the Breeders' Cup Challenge with the Win and You're In format. That's simple. (please read sarcasm in that). Why is it that the BC has to name everything twice. Remember this is the Breeders' Cup & The World Thoroughbred Championships (update from comment: The Breeders' Cup dropped "World Thoroughbred Championships" from its name years ago. It's just the Breeders' Cup World Championships now, and it's not two different names-- it's one name. BCWC on first reference and just BC thereafter. - yeah that's easy enough). This is just proof that people over there aren't that great at sharing. I like "Win and You're In" Hell I was talking about it last November, and even have a tag for it, it just disappeared for the last 7 months. I'd like to see more trainers talk about it I guess, and I think for next year they have to get some races moved into July. Why? Because it is a graveyard for sports. ESPN has literally nothing to cover (hence the "Who's Now" cringe fest), so why not give them something to cover. I like Alan's idea of not only rewarding the horses with automatic births but letting the gate choice spring from this. As I said in his comments Win and You're In will eventually lead to standings in this sport. Avioli said he needs to be like other sports, and while W&Y isn't really playoffs the BC isn't really a championship because THERE ARE NO STANDINGS. The points the BC currently use are nonsense because they don't reward running in Gr I's and because TOBA's Graded Stakes schedule is laughable, but the sport does what it can, and is doing a good job. wow I can't believe I said that, I'm going to go swallow some Drano.

Update

No changes on the leader board, except the date. With big weekends of Gr1 racing at Aqueduct and Hollywood Park,there could be some change next week, but for now it's like the weekend never happened. And I'm sure Giants, Rutgers, and Wake Forest Fans all feel the same; just a bad karma week all around. However, there is some good news. The Ramsey Silk shirt will go back on sale some time this week as the half sister to Kitten's Joy is keeping up the family tradition on the turf. (email me direct if you want a shirt M-XXL, $25+$5 shipping). Don't forget Dreaming of Anna is in the same family. The conundrum of racing: I actually got to speak w/ Mr Avioli last week about Win and You're In, and I'm still excited. Mr Avioli believes in our sport, but it's just that thoroughbred horse racing faces a catch-22. The industry needs money to attract fans, money which could come from advertising, but advertisers don't spend the money because horse racing doesn't have fans, it has gamblers (for the most part). The predicament is that advertisers tend to stay away from percieved bad activities. Horse racing fans are percieved as dumb, single, and poor. Unfortunately, that perception is incredibly wrong, lkike 180 wrong. But, it's the perception that counts and horse racing is a hard sell to advertisers. So, the NTRA needs to spend money to change the perception of racing, and Win and You're In, is a step in that direction. Standings are a harder sell, because they'd have to come w/ a monetary prize at the end, and that prize would most likely come from an advertiser, which right now doesn't exist. However, if you're the CEO of a fortune 500 firm and have, let's say 5 million laying around, maybe you could save horse racing.

The direction of our sport

Some facts - The perception of horse racing fans are that they are NOT family orientated, intelligent, or wealthy (NTRA annual report) - Racinos haven't seen a signicant up tick in on track handle, i.e. there hasn't been a cross pollination of gamblers. - There are 2 types of people who enjoy horse racing, gamblers and sportsfans who happen to gamble Some Opinions The NTRA has mostly concerned itself, up until now, with the gamblers: lobbying Washington, safety of electronic transactions, nationwide medication efforts, new wager creation, Racinos popping up in every town. And they've been very succeful so far with many of these endeavors. I hope the creation of "Win and You're In" is a beachhead to bring in the casual sports fan, and the start of a new push. The NTRA has a lot going for it right now between ESPN and no other legal forms of gambling, what the sport does over the next 2 years could shape the next 20. It also has a fact going for it that I left off at the top. Horse racing fans are intelligent, wealthy, come from families, live in the Northeast, and are found across all age demographics. Link to DRF publication stats. Marketing wise it's better placed than NASCAR which is skewed more southern, only with less eyes watching it. So, advertisers would flow in once the perception of what a horse racing fan is changed. So, what's the next move NTRA? How will they change the perception of racing? Howsabout standings?

Win and You're In

Breeders' Cup Challenge: Win and You're In I've been waiting to comment on this, I needed to let it settle in first. You know what? This is the best idea that has come out of the NTRA ever! The TBA, and I can't say I speak for all of them, is about changing the perception of horse racing. Racing fans aren't all hardened gamblers, with a fractured family life, who never went to college (NTRA annual report 2003 I think said that is the perception of people who go to the track). They are people who enjoy the sport of racing, just like any other sport. THe misperception of it's fans is due to a couple things, but one is ignorance. It's unfortunate that you can only enjoy the sport of racing by watching it more than once and figuring it out yourself. There is no season of racing, there are no standings, there are few structured events that have a continuity to them. An outsider might just see every horse race as a spin of the roullette wheel, and not as an event that has further implications. The idea of continuity in horse racing was only in the heads of fans who knew what to look for. I congratulate the NTRA for not changing anything about the sport. The winners of the W&YI races would have most likely been included in BC fields anyway. True a few longshots might win these races, but that doesn't mean the owner will sacrifice a horse to the wolves come BC day. The fans all know that the winners of the Arlington Million, Whitney, and Pacific Classic usually go to the Classic, but to new fans it might not be as apparent. I congratulate the NTRA for changing the perception of the sport. And by showing to the new fans (and there are new fans out there now that we're on ESPN) what exactly is going on you make the sport more exciting for everyone. The key to bringing in the casual fan is to make horse racing less of a one day event fractured by all the different tracks and make it more of a "seasonal" feel. No one is ever going to be able to cut racing days or force tracks to create a national stakes calendar, but there are ways to encourage that sort of activity. I think Win and You're In is a phenomenal first step for horse racing, and I think all fans should be excited and encouraged by it.