Final Turn - All Comments

re: Disney Magic - By Kate Tweedy

Cecilia estrada — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 19:45:45 GMT

I havent seen the yet But i Had the Great luck of havIng met (and touched) Secretariat thru my friendship with Kate, who was as Nice and friendly as the champ But Never ran so fast. Hi Kate! Cecilia

re: Getting a Handle on After Care - By Gary Biszantz

Mary Rose Smith — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 01:43:14 GMT

Bravo, Mr Biszantz you have make excellent points and suggestions.I have often thought of how to fund retirement for these amazing animals. I have asked my brother, who races thoroughbreds,to at least set aside money from winnings to help when they retire.

I currently have four thoroughbreds that were facing very uncertain futures. They will not go to slaughter. I will see to that.

re: It Pays to Advertise - By Jim Benton

Dawn in MN — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 22:26:42 GMT

Me too, Arts and Letters!

re: It Pays to Advertise - By Jim Benton

Dawn in MN — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 22:25:24 GMT

Sherpa, your passion is contagious, and it brought a tear to my eye.

re: Noble Cause - By Kevin Bolling

Michael Jawl — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 05:45:01 GMT

For some twenty years, my family and I were lucky enough to have Noble as our trainer. As a teenager I went to the track with my father and uncles and was constantly warned about the villains that lurked in the backstretch, masquerading as trainers,ready to take your money and sell you a broken down horse. Then we met Mr.Threewitt and all those pre-concieved notions went out the window. Honesty, integrity, and passion for the sport were the hallmarks of our experience with Noble. Most importantly, we learned from Noble

many thngs that went beyond the racetrack. His decency and compassion for his fellow man was an inspiration to all. He showed us that at the track, winning is fun, losing is more likely, but in the final analysis, there are more important things in life. In Noble and Beryl's world, participating in racing was a privilege and an honour. We will do our best to uphold their legacy.

re: Disney Magic - By Kate Tweedy

bipster — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 01:27:14 GMT

Hey mrs. tweedy if you read this im doing a report for a living museum project that my teachers making me do and i doing it on you! you are very inspering(i think i spelled that right:P) and you make me feel like anyone can accomplish something if they really try. After watching the movie i knew it wasent in full deatail and i started some reasearch and you are a very amazing person. i also love horses and hope to be as great as youare when i grow up.

re: Noble Cause - By Kevin Bolling

MH — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 01:19:41 GMT

Cute story about Beryl and the DMV. Wish I could've been around racing when they were.

re: It Pays to Advertise - By Jim Benton

Jim Benton — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 21:31:29 GMT

Mr. Waldrop, I haven't read your blog, I have never read any blog. Just goes to show the problem is real. Thank you and please express your feelings to the powers to be. Maybe we can spark action! Thanks.

re: Noble Cause - By Kevin Bolling

Convene — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 19:00:31 GMT

Integrity, charity, fortitude, honor, dignity ... Those two people are icons of those traits. Don't they make so many people today look pathetic - and they were young in a world much more restrictive than this one, especially for women. They don't make folks like this any more. Thank you for sharing your moments with them and helping all of us to know a little of them too.

re: Noble Cause - By Kevin Bolling

needler in Virginia — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 02:53:09 GMT

The industry is poorer for their loss, and we should mourn the lack of more Threewits in this new century. Bless the work they began, may it long continue, and bless them both. Without the backstretch workers.... ALL OF THEM..how long do you think racing will last??

Cheers and safe trips to Noble and Beryl....quite a pair.

re: Class Dismissed - By Richard Zwirn

The Beav — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 02:50:04 GMT

The first thing to a good breeding program is a fantastic broodmare. Without that you won't get a fantastic foal. How many foals are bred and never get to Kentucky? It is all the odds and we all know they are very small odds that any foal with get to be what we all consider "great". I am of the belief that the "horse Gods" only know who will produce that magic someone. There are soooooo many variables that come into breeding a champion, how can you say that if the mare is considered great that she won't recreate herself? Did she get all the opportunities than its Mom did? Did the moons align just right to make it happen? There is more "luck" to this game than we would admit to. My vote, start with a great mare and you are more likely to get a great baby.

re: Noble Cause - By Kevin Bolling

nina — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 01:36:42 GMT

Heaven is a better place now.

re: Noble Cause - By Kevin Bolling

Rick Arthur — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 01:13:19 GMT

I had the privilege of serving under Noble when he was president of the California HBPA and the CTHF. No one has done more for the backside workers, trainers, and their families than Noble Threewitt. When most of the trainers are taking their late morning naps or out golfing Noble was at the clinic he helped establish doing what he could. He is always there. Noble spent literally thousands, probably tens of thousands of hours doing what he could for backstretch workers and their families. He enjoyed helping people.

Certainly in California, no trainer, or anyone else for that matter, can come close to contributing the time and effort Noble put in with very little thanks from his peers. Younger trainers today have no idea how hard Noble worked or what he accomplished for them.

Beryl was one of a kind. If she would have been born 75 years later she may have been the leading trainer rather than Noble. She was a sharp, articulate, wonderful woman who took a back seat to no one. What a pair.

re: Noble Cause - By Kevin Bolling

txhorsefan — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 23:39:58 GMT

Beautiful. Thank you for sharing.

re: Noble Cause - By Kevin Bolling

Rachel — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 22:35:41 GMT

These were 2 champion people. ♥

re: It Pays to Advertise - By Jim Benton

christy tate — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 05:10:30 GMT

amen. i think that part of racing's problem is trying to compete with all the other sports and forms of entertainment that try to grab people's attention. maybe if more movies like Seabiscuit, Secretariat, and The Black Stallion were made that might help. perhaps also an informational show about horses could be broadcast on a cable network. there are lots of things that could be done but with the econmy the way it is i doubt they will be.

re: Class Dismissed - By Richard Zwirn

dix — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 21:02:42 GMT

barillaro, My thoughts exactly!

Mares at best, baring infection, etc. may have 16 foals, most likely 4. Without something royal, there would be no secretariat.

Males do not reproduce themselves either!

re: It Pays to Advertise - By Jim Benton

Broken Oak Farm — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 02:40:23 GMT

Way to go Jim! Nice article and so true. You need any help, you know how to locate me!

re: It Pays to Advertise - By Jim Benton

sherpa — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 02:52:15 GMT

ok, you want to talk about Advertising? Let's have a JOCKEY on every Wheaties box. Let's have a half-dozen Budweiser Clydesdales watching the BC instead of the Super Bowl (and Hank wins enough to retire because he watches HRTV or TVG and reads Bloodhorse or DRF!); let's have Champion Horse trading cards in every box of CheeriO's; let's let Owners be SPONSORS of their Horses instead of just having sponsors for Big Race Events (i.e., YUM Brands, Grey Goose, etc.) - a la NASCAR. Would Mike Repole go for that in a heartbeat? Let Jockeys endorse products they use to be the fittest athletes on the planet, or the pants and boots and protective vests they wear; let Harrah's and their ilk show commercials of folks at the Track loving the sunshine and camaraderie, cheering for the horse they're betting (instead of a bunch of neon-lit drunks laughing as they dump coins into slots); let the TCA budget advertising to let people know how to adopt OTTBs (if you have the Heart for it, we have the Horses). 30-second spots would do. How many people outside the Community know they could actually own and ride a re-trained thoroughbred ex-racehorse? Betcha, not many.

Last, best idea: Send Steve Haskin or Joe Drape for NPR interviews instead of Andy Beyer. ;-)

Friends, think about the products you use and how advertising them could be adapted to/promote horses/racing. Take those ideas to the masses. Make them THINK horse every time they sit down to breakfast. Make the advertising remind them that they loved horses when they were young. Everybody did! It's never too late to re-live that ardor.

Horses represent the best qualities mankind aspires to: Noble as a Horse. Strength of a Horse. Horse-Sense.

Let the Horse be your guide.

re: It Pays to Advertise - By Jim Benton

Arts and Letters — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 02:10:15 GMT

I also think at least part of the future of racing lies in more online content. There are a few good, official horse racing streams on Youtube, but not enough yet. And where is the rumoured video archive of the great races of the past? There are a few hard-working private individuals that post races to Youtube that they had taped years ago, but these people tend to get shut down for copyright infringement. There's clearly some kind of market for this, so why don't tracks/organizations whet people's appetites with a few free video clips then sell DVDs of the rest? Or set up a pay per download option? I'd pay for a high quality DVD of every Kentucky Derby that exists rather than the tiny, pixelated versions that are out there now. How many people would like to watch their old favourites winning again? It's fairly easy to find Secretariat's Derby somewhere on the Internet, but what about Pleasant Colony's? If the networks would sell copies of their coverage of past races, I'd be first in line. That would also give people a legal option to those individuals who are selling what they technically don't have any right to.

Come to that, I'd pay for digital copies of back issues of Blood Horse and Thoroughbred Record (partially because the darned paper versions take up so much room!).

re: It Pays to Advertise - By Jim Benton

Arts and Letters — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 01:49:31 GMT

Thanks Fran! I also think Bill Nack's beautiful homages to racing that appear in variuos shows would work great as radio spots - and radio is cheaper than TV.

Actually, a lot of elements from racing would work well in radio ads - the call to the post is easily recognized, plus maybe some clips of famous race calls, the sound of hooves mixed with some epic music, and then the information about whichever race and date it is.

How about the race tracks or various organizations putting on more contests for fan-made videos/mashups about racing (I seem to recall one about Zenyatta) with some cool prizes. There are a surprisingly large number of people who are into this.

If any farms were to get involved, name the foal competitions are incredibly popular - I think Win-Star did that last year.

And I mentioned in another blog that it would be fun for racetracks on special occasions to give away copies of kids' horse racing books (Walter Farley, Joanna Campbell, etc) to all the children that show up that day - that's how I got hooked on racing. It's wholesome, fairly inexpensive, and combines literacy and horse racing - how can you go wrong?

re: It Pays to Advertise - By Jim Benton

Equination.net — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 21:16:20 GMT

There is a reason that companies, from small mom and pop operations to massive corporation, try to spend as much as they can on marketing. It works. Why the industry and its many parts fail to see this is beyond me. Especially after how many years things have been on a downward trend.

re: It Pays to Advertise - By Jim Benton

Fran Loszynski — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 17:34:56 GMT

Arts and Letters:

I hope you are applying for a job at the T.V. stations! Horseracing needs you, what great ideas. Wow!

re: It Pays to Advertise - By Jim Benton

Arts and Letters — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 02:01:25 GMT

Wouldn't it be cool, in the run up to the triple crown, to have a series of 20 or so commercials, each about one of the leading contenders? Showcase some of the beauty of the sport and get people interested in the individual horses. Maybe compare them with famous horses from the past who have won the same prep races.

re: It Pays to Advertise - By Jim Benton

Fran Loszynski — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 16:32:32 GMT

It seems like anyone who doesn't follow horseracing knows what the Kentucky Derby is but maybe one horse that has gotten publicity springs to their mind. I'm always hearing-"Oh I don't follow that!" or "Is he a good horse?"

Every horserace of caliber should be televised on local stations. After the three of the Triple Crown, friends that don't follow horseracing want to see more, so these are "potential" fans. It doesn't even have time to bore fans, it's two minutes! and the race is over. I also think they should have a local show that premiers the racehorse thoroughbred farms so people can see how beatiful they are. Not everyone can travel to Kentucky but certainly would like to. Have children submit names for racehorses, take away the "gambling" concept only exists. Many owners treat their racehorses like part of their family. I was glad when Seabiscuit and Secretariat came out. All ages learned to love these racehorses. Not to mention the racehorses that help charities. If we can all gather to watch a football game with popcorn and family ; we can watch a beautiful exciting horserace.