Dispute With Colonial Downs-It Could Be Worse

From the "It could be worse" files of history, comes this story of horsemen at the Tulsa Fair Grounds in 1914 trying to conduct a meet. Well, somebody do gooder who thought gambling was a sin, or would increase crime or increase traffic (all real reason given by modern day horse racing haters) or whatever, sued and successfully convinced a judge to place a restraining order on the meet. Well, the Fair Grounds basically told the judge to stick it and went ahead with the meet. Somebody then told the Governor about the defiance and well, I will let you read the newspaper article from here about what happened next...

Ian Stewart's April 8, 2014 Letter to Virginia Horsemen-Annotated

President and CEO of Colonial Downs Ian Stewart has been a waging public relations war with Virginia horsemen over the current dispute over racing dates and purse levels. He somehow believes this will win us over by making the public put pressure on us. I am not really seeing the Paris mob outside my farm. His latest letter (published online and in public for everyone to see) sounds like his "final offer," if you will, as he done dealing the VHBPA. Here is the letter, he wrote and I will warn you, it is long and boring. So, for your pleasure, I have annotated Mr. Stewart's letter because he left a few things out (typos I am sure). The executive summary of his letter is this: Mr. Stewart and his team knows nothing about horse racing, the business of horse racing, and are trying to place blame on the people who stand to loose the most. Click the image to enlarge the letter (in two parts).

Colonial Downs to install new statue in honor of Virginia horsemen

Yeah the meeting went that well. Last ditch effort to salvage something is this Monday at 10 am at a VRC meeting (at colonial downs backstretch).

In all seriousness, Colonial refused to bargain in good faith. They came into the meeting with an already ridiculous proposal of twelve days of racing. They doubled down, stating six day/$500,000 per day purse at the mediation. $3 million, sounds like alot of money to be walking away from, right? Wrong.

Here is the problem with six or twelve days. Lets say our horse, Marq Your Bible, a certified Virginia-bred horse is ready to race. Guess what? Under a six/twelve day meet, he will get to race once and what if he flops as horses tend to do. He will need another race. For stakes horses this is not a problem, they race one or two stakes races at the meet and leave. For allowance and claiming horses like ours, frequency of racing is just as important as the purse itself. Hence, why the VHBA proposal of stretching out the number of days was important.

Now, we hear that Colonial is looking for scabs, another horseman's organization who will bow down to Ian Stewart (President of Colonial Downs) every demand.

Colonial Downs and VHBPA Heading for Meditation

So has to come to this. The Virginia Racing Commission is telling (not asking) Colonial Downs and the VHBPA to submit their arguments to a professional mediator. This is the latest attempt to end the impasse on the number of racing days and amount of money to dished out each, that each side must agree to. There is no word on whether or not this mediation is binding or just another way talk things out. If it is binding, the horsemen are going to get screwed.

Here is Colonial's argument in a nutshell: we are losing too much money horsemen and we want you to pay, among other things, for cleaning up your horseshit (no, really, manure removal is one of the things they want horseman to pay for).

The argument that Colonial is losing money therefore they need to change the business model is an old, old, old sports owner's arguments. Given that Colonial is owned by a privately-held company, they do not have to open up their books to show how much money they are loosing. NFL, NHL, and Major League Baseball clubs do this all the time when negotiating collective barraging agreements with their players' union or when they claim they need a new stadium and want the public to pay for it. They whine about their loses, when in actually they are making money hand over fist. Its only when you take deprecation into account that their balance sheet looks bad.

So Colonial, in my opinion, is doing the same thing. They of course, attempted to put public pressure on the horsemen by shutting down the OTBs in the western part of the state, stating we were to blame. Now they are saying their balance sheet is worse. Why? Because of the OTBs shut down out west.

There is one thing about racing in the Mid-Atlantic that Colonial management should remember. We can take our horses elsewhere. There are six tracks within driving distance. In our case, we have decided to prepare for the worse. Marq Your Bible is currently in South Carolina training to be a steeplechase horse.

Colonial Meet Over

Marcus finished 10th out of 11th, wrapping up the Colonial meet with a grand total of $330 earnings! (insert rendition of Stars and Stripes Forever here).  Normally, I would not blame the weather for a horse performing poorly, but in this case, I am going to blame the weather.  Marcus made four trips to Colonial and only got actually run twice.  He is being checked over by the vet today at the trainer's farm to see if he can race again towards the end of the month.

Second race, Try #4

Marcus is go for second race today...hopefully no storms!  Race #9, post 14...30-1....ACK! :0 No word yet from Colonial about protest/whine fest.

Now, excuse me, I have to go figure out how Marcus' sister, Prepare the Way a.k.a. Glory, ended up in a field that was closed off to her by a locked gate and a five foot fence.

Between Heaven and Hell

So, after the drama that ensued that last week at Colonial (and the public meltdown I personally led that I am waiting for someone to post on You Tube), Marq Your Bible is doing OK.  The vet has looked him over and X-rayed his front legs.  He only has some minor swelling and is doing so well, that he has been entered for this Saturday! (Race 9).

Furthermore, even after all the antics Marcus pulled, his name did not land on the stewards' national list of misbehaving horses.   If it did, he would have had to prove to the stewards that he will behave in the future and thus delay any return to active racing.  Nonetheless, I have filled an official protest (OK, more like a whine fest) with Colonial Downs.  I will let you know what they say.   

To say this is a miracle straight from Heaven would be understatement.  There was a strong possibility that Marcus' racing career was over.  Instead, he gets another chance.Horse racing is a sport where there are no spiritual fence sitters.  You either accept and believe in God's message of salvation and accept His help or you hit the bottle and/or start abusing drugs. 

Horse racing is among the most spiritually challenging sport around.  One does not have teammates to fall back upon, there are no guaranteed contracts, and are thousands of variables that are out one's control.     Fortunately, many in the industry have accepted Christ and are very open about their Faith.   I reject the notion that horse racing is somehow the ultimate sin and I will explore that topic in more detail later.  It is a sport like any other and one that will make you learn real quick how little control you have over Life.

Members of the Sports Media, Listen...For Once

Is it any wonder that horsemen get mad at the likes of Joe Drape of the New York Times, Sally Jenkins of the Washington Post, or Barry at Deadspin.com (whose second post on horse racing in two months simply read "Three Dead Horses at Saratoga) when people like them write insulting, slanderous, and seriously misguided articles about horse racing.  What happened tonight at Colonial is an example of why I personally get mad.

After several months of training and waiting, Marcus was being prepared for his second race ever at Colonial.  There were some very serious storms in the area, similar to the ones that happened a few weeks ago.  He flipped out in the saddling area, kicked the assistant trainer to the ground and took off. .
He is caught 5 mintues later and then somebody did the one thing they shouldn't have done...they brought him back to the saddling area.  With only half of a lead line, the assistant trainer  (who is an experienced steeplechase rider) had no chance with  Marcus.  Marcus broke loose again and through the middle of the post parade.

Needless to say, he was taken out of the race. Though the blessings of God, despite all the acting up, Marcus came through with only two minor bumps.  He was fit and ready to go.  Our trainer had him ready and a fluke storm made the horse act up.
That is why I get mad at you Barry, Sally, and Joe.  You have no idea how much we put into this sport and how much we have to put up with.

My Short Tribute to Sham and Pancho Martin

Word has come out that Frank "Pancho" Martin, long time trainer on the New York Racing circuit has died at the age of 86.    I did not know Mr. Martin or his most famous client, Sham, the horse that went toe-to-toe with Secretariat in 1973.  Chances are most people's incorrect opinion of Mr. Martin and Sham come via the train wreck of a movie Secretariat.  In the movie, Sham, Mr. Martin, Sham's owner, and Sham's jockey, Laffit Picay, jr., were all portrayed as arrogant jerks.  Sham in particular was portrayed as a horse straight from the pit of Hell.  To say the movie was "Disneyfied," (i.e. watered down plot that removes complex issues from the script and not necessarily because the movie was released by Walt Disney Pictures, Inc.) would be an understatement.

Thus I present a picture of my wife with the evil that is...SHAM!

Yep...real evil.  My wife said that when she met him, Sham was about to fall asleep in her arms.   It is my understanding that Sham's owner was also a kind hearted person as well as Mr. Martin and well, Laffit Picay has been one of the great ambassadors of the sport.

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Equally short Marcus update:  We are go for launch on his second race.  Race #6, post position 1.  Stretching him out to one mile.

Marq Your Bible First Race-Take 2

Marq Your Bible (a.k.a. Marcus) got to race very late on Saturday, July 7, with Ryan Fogelsonger as his jockey. Marcus entered the gate well. He left the gate well. He finished six of eight. Being that this his first start ever, I was nervous that he would refuse to get in the gate and give the assistant starters a hard time. Turns out, I had nothing to worry about. Even with one horse flipping out, Marcus stay perfectly calm the whole time.

The race was 5f on the turf and this is clearly not his distance. Given that he was only starting his run at the top of the stretch and that Ryan said that Marcus wanted to keep racing after the finish line, he needs at least a mile.

Marq Your Bible-Countdown on Hold...

So...everything was going great yesterday...

That's my daughter's stuff horse "Cute" at the near the finish line at Colonial...

Colonial's pony horses and their riders were as gracious as ever...

Checking out the competition....

Then, 10 minutes to post time....this arrived. A tornado touched down nearby along with some of the most surreal weather I have ever seen. There were lighting strikes across the sky about every 10 seconds. Needless to say, management cancelled the rest of the card. So...we wait until later in the week.

Marq Your Bible-All Systems Go for First Race

June 30, Race 5 at Colonial- Maiden Claiming $25,000. He has posted at 15-1 for his morning odds. Its a full field of 14 horses and there are some good horses in the race. Horse number 7 for example-Big Dutch: By War Chant out of Dutch Girl, by Holy Bull) and #9-Mott: By Artie Schiller out of Divine Diva, by Theatrical (IRE).

The above picture is Marcus' sister Prepare the Way when she made her first start at Laurel Park in 2009. She had post time odds of 70-1 and ran like a 70-1. But she look good doing it! She improved over time.

Thus, whatever happens in this first race, I am happy Marcus has made it to the track. Diana has done a wonderful job getting him into racing condition and we could not be more pleased.

Marq Your Bible-Gates His Gate Card!

The bay colored horse on the right is Marq Your Bible with his most awesome trainer Diana McClure. The big new is that "Marcus," as we call him, just got his gate card today! The plan, at the moment, is to enter him in a race at Colonial Downs. Marcus is by Marquetry and out of Red Devillette (by Oh Say). Marquetry (now living out his life at Old Friends) is sire best known for producing sprinters. His two best off spring were Squirtle Squirt and Artax, both Eclipise-awarding winning sprinters. However, as my wife continues to remind me, the female side of any horse must be taken into account. A seemingly obvious fact that escapes many in the thoroughbred business. In this case, Marcus' dam, Red Devillette, excelled at long distance races. We currently are racing Marcus under a partnership (hi Mom!). He was born at Perfect Peace Farm LLC and we still have his mom and one of his sisters.