Customer Service - By Dan Liebman

cdawahare — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 15:33:00 GMT

(Originally published in the August 29, 2009 issue of The Blood-Horse magazine. Feel free to share your own thoughts and opinions at the bottom of the column.)

Though what he was speaking about had nothing to do with the sale of Thoroughbreds, listening to Daily Racing Form publisher Steve Crist Aug. 24 at The Jockey Club Round Table made me recall the 1983 Keeneland July yearling sale. The final price of the sale topper appeared as $200,000 because no one ever thought an eighth digit would be needed on the bid board. Actual hammer price: $10.2 million.

The blog software being used by Daily Racing Form on its Web site never experienced a problem with only allowing 100 comments on a post until Crist asked readers how they perceived medication issues in Thoroughbred racing. Because of that 100 comment limit, Crist had to re-post the blog entry six times. Final number of comments: 550.

Having been asked to speak at the Round Table about the perception of medication issues by racing fans, Crist decided to go directly to the source. He got an earful.
“The response was astounding: in its volume, in its tone, and in its content,” Crist told those in attendance.

And, as he pointed out, these comments were not “the complaints of horseplayers who had just lost a photo, but rather the “sentiments of some of your most loyal and most thoughtful customers.”

Crist read a sampling:
“Drugs in racing are out of control; the inmates are running the asylum.”

“There must be swifter, harsher justice, and more punitive penalties—zero tolerance, three strikes and you’re out of the game.”

“Punish the owners.”

As Crist said, these are “our fans’ perception of what racing needs to do about medication.”

But something interesting happened while Crist was receiving the comments. On July 16, Lone Star Park stewards, following guidelines established by the Texas Racing Commission, handed down a six-month suspension of leading trainer Steve Asmussen because a post-race urine test showed a metabolite of a local anesthetic in a maiden winner in 2008.

“I asked the respondents who had already posted comments, without agreeing or disagreeing with them, if what they really wanted was what they had been suggesting,” Crist said. “Assuming the suspension, which is under appeal, was sustained: Did they really want the trainer to be thrown out of the game? Did they really want all of his horses removed from their stalls and turned over to outside trainers rather than his assistants? Should all of the owners he trains for also be sanctioned? Should the hundreds of horses who have run under his name this year be barred from competition? Should Rachel Alexandra not be permitted to race again this year?”
Only a few, Crist said, even tried to answer.

What he took away from the exercise, Crist said, is that our fans are “completely confused” because “we make virtually no distinction between therapeutic medications that have a proper and even humane role in the treatment of these animals, and the abusive use of serious drugs. We make no distinction between marginal overages of medicine and the deliberate use of nefarious chemicals.”

In other words, the industry needs threshold levels, and the adoption of those levels by all 38 jurisdictions that regulate racing in North America. In addition, standardized testing methods for laboratories would ensure that uniformity not only exists regarding the level at which a drug would not be considered performance enhancing, but also the proper method for testing for such medications.

These ideas have been discussed for years, but Crist’s sampling shows many fans yearn for a day when they can be implemented.

Other sports, Crist said, such as baseball and cycling, are doing brisk business because, “After spending years in denial, officials of both of those sports eventually came clean and said something simple and straightforward that racing’s leaders need to say: We have a problem with medication, and we’re going to do something about it.”

Crist was asked to speak about perception, which he did. But that racing has a problem with medication is reality.

Get a Handle - by Dan Liebman

Blood-Horse Staff — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 14:39:00 GMT

The single most significant number relative to a racetrack’s business is handle. Pure and simple. It not only fuels the second-most-important number—purses—but is clearly reflective of the acceptance of a track’s racing product by the wagering public.

In August 2007, Churchill Downs Inc. announced it would no longer publicly release handle figures for its four racetracks because it did not consider them an important metric of how the company as a whole is performing. Instead, it would discuss its complete financial reports during its quarterly earnings conference calls.

That decision, and the logic behind it, is ludicrous. But now comes an even more preposterous decision.

The Jockey Club Information Systems has discontinued providing The Blood-Horse handle numbers provided it by Equibase, making it more difficult to report racetrack’s meet-to-meet numbers.

Equibase was founded because, prior to its existence, racing’s data was collected by Daily Racing Form, a privately-owned enterprise. Racing wanted to collect and own its data, as it should.

Equibase is a joint venture of the Thoroughbred Racing Associations, an organization comprised of racetracks, and The Jockey Club. To get the business off the ground, The Jockey Club provided $3.6 million in 1990, and the collection of data began the next year. Today, countless tracks provide their fans programs displaying Equibase past performances.

For several years after Equibase came into existence, it had chart callers at racetracks along with those from Daily Racing Form. This meant each race had two data collectors, which caused discrepancies in information. In 1998, the two reached an agreement for Equibase to collect the data; Daily Racing Form shut down its track and field operations.

Until now, there never appeared to have been a conflict of interest between the racetracks and Equibase. But obviously with TRA member tracks owning half the company, it can exercise leverage over what data is made available.

Equibase and Jockey Club officials claim there is a distinction, with racing information being data it collects and handle being data supplied by racetracks. In fact, the tracks are still supplying handle figures, but The Blood-Horse, rather than obtaining those numbers through a previously provided tool, would now, it is told, have to add the figures from race charts.

The Blood-Horse news story in August 2007 announcing Churchill’s change in policy contained comments from company spokeswoman Julie Koenig Loignon. According to the story, though Churchill would not release the numbers, Koenig Loignon noted the figures are public information and available through other sources, such as Equibase and state racing commissions.

They are available from Equibase, if one wants to add up numbers from hundreds of charts. As for state racing commissions, they do not get the information in a timely manner.

Handle numbers are important to handicappers wishing to see the size of pools they have wagered into. But they also are important to owners, trainers, and breeders who wish to see how a track’s business is doing. And they are important to the media, which not only has a duty but an obligation to report statistics and trends to the industry.

In the last week, numbers were released by several racetracks following the close of meets, among them major players such as Saratoga and Del Mar, and a smaller track, Evangeline Downs. Others also routinely provide similar figures.

Tracks that release such information, understanding the industry’s right to know, should be applauded. Those that do not, such as those owned by CDI, despite being a public company and government regulated, should have a board of directors that insists it do what is right.

Equibase and The Jockey Club Information Systems should realize they are not helping the industry by their decision.

What's Going On Here : daily racing form

Customer Service - By Dan Liebman

Get a Handle - by Dan Liebman