Op/Ed

Since Hollywood Park closed at the end of 2013, all of California racing has suffered. Attendance and handle have declined despite two historic crops of 3-year-olds and a good amount of world-class racing. In 2014, Derby and Preakness winner California Chrome, champion Shared Belief, and Breeders Cup Classic winner Bayern made enormous impacts on the national racing scene. This year, we had the long awaited Triple Crown winner and California based American Pharoah, plus Kentucky Derby 2nd and 3rd place finishers Firing Line and Dortmund. Throughout this time we have...

Judging by what has been done and what has been said, Sheikh Mohammed's decision to consolidate his racing and breeding operations under the Godolphin banner conveys a restlessness with the status quo. It remains to be seen how it will differ from a rebranding exercise. In the press release which announced the restructuring on Godolphin's own website this week, there appeared at least one interesting quote by their newly minted supremo John Ferguson. "Our long-term objective is to improve on Godolphin's results on the racetrack," he said. Much of the...

Following on from my piece a fortnight ago regarding the question of whether breathing operations should have to be formally declared, it is perhaps worth having a similar discussion about the common question of whether it should have to be declared when fillies/mares are in foal whilst still racing. It is a debate that arises every season, and, in common with the breathing operation debate, the fact that the public generally doesn't hear that a filly/mare is in foal until after they win means that the general perception is that...

There is a cautionary saying in trading circles that goes, "The graveyards of Wall Street are full of traders that were right too soon." Essentially, it is a warning that it isn't necessarily enough to be right, one must be right at the right time in order to succeed. The same wisdom can very much be applied to commercial breeders who are looking for value at the lower end of the nomination fee ladder. Groundwork and research can lead to the identification of a stallion that is underrated based on...

The debate over whether trainers should have to formally declare that their horse has had a breathing operation since their last run is not a new one, but the momentum behind such a move seems to be growing. Indeed, the British Horseracing Authority announced during the summer that they had started to formally consider the merits of the proposal. This news was greeted with great enthusiasm from many followers of racing that take the view that there is no such thing as too much high-quality information. However, there was also...

The 2014 GI Wood Memorial was approaching and Dr. Russell Cohen not only wanted to win the race with Effinex (Mineshaft)--he wanted to make a statement. Cohen is a veterinarian who practices at the NYRA tracks, is a breeder and manages Tri-Bone Stables for his mother, Bernice, and he's an outspoken hay, oats and water advocate. He was determined to succeed without any drugs, particularly Lasix, and prove that it could be done. "That horse is probably 10 Beyer points below the top group of 3-year-olds and putting him on...

No need to stop the press, there is no secret being revealed when it is stated that Kodiac (GB) (Danehill) is one of the hottest commercial sires in Europe right now. In the last two years in particular, he has really come to the fore and his best days are very much ahead of him, with him having covered 232 mares at a fee of €25,000 in 2015 and set to stand for a career-high of €45,000 in 2016. Inevitably, such a rise in nomination fee will put him out...

We've all seen the statistics. We've studied them, debated them, and have our theories on them. Thoroughbreds make fewer starts today than in decades past. They make far fewer starts; noticeably fewer starts; alarmingly fewer starts. All of which makes it well worth noting the results of North America's graded stakes on Oct. 3, a huge day of prep races for the Oct. 30-31 Breeders' Cup. Hail the geldings; hail the "old" mares. There were 10 graded stakes that day for 3-year-olds an up, three restricted to fillies and mares....

I know what you're saying: Oh boy, another column about young people and racing. 'They have short attention spans, so we need to give them action, like slot machines do.' 'They like concerts and bands, and night clubs, so we have to change the on-track experience to meet these needs.' 'Once we get them in the building, they will get the "bug" just like we did when we were their age.' I promise you won't read anything like the above in the following as a solution. Scouts honor. "Millennials" is...

On Dec. 25, a San Francisco non-profit company named Augur is scheduled to roll out a beta version of something it calls a "decentralized prediction market platform." The Christmas holiday launch will go practically unnoticed by anyone in the racing industry, and Augur is very likely to remain under the sport's radar for months or even a year or two after its unveiling. That would be a mistake, because the repercussions of Augur's initial public testing could rock horse racing's economic model as we know it. My bet is that...

Ten years ago, in an Op-Ed written for The Blood-Horse, I strongly suggested that only by installing USADA to oversee drugs in American racing could our game hope to restore its lost credibility as a sport played on a level playing field, thereby giving our industry its best chance to regain alienated horseplayers and a dwindling fan base because of a public perception that racing was stained by rampant drug use. Sadly, the same dynamics that were in play in October of 2004 are exactly the ones that continue to...

Last week, I made a presentation on the Dynamics of the Horse Industry in the United States to a group of horsemen at the Equine Congress in Bogota, Colombia. It was sponsored by UNAGA, a division of the Department of Agriculture which oversees the cattle, horse and goat industries in Colombia. The Equine Congress was part of the Agroexpo, a major agricultural event in Bogota which resembled a state fair in America with attendance of more than 10,000 each day. Colombia is a country with a human population of 48...