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The Sign, And Signs Of The Times

Posted on by Andrew Champagne

Golden Gate Fields had its second dispersal auction not long ago. The Northern California track closed its doors in June and had an initial auction in the fall, but there were enough leftovers to justify a second go-round.

The first auction didn’t go well for me. I got outbid for everything but several sets of glasses celebrating renewals of the Kentucky Derby and Santa Anita Handicap. This time around, though, there was an item I simply had to have.

Up for bids was a green sign that included four white, magical letters representing the TV network that launched my career. To me, they represent a much happier, more innocent time in the game.

The sign brandishing the HRTV logo now resides in my office/guest room. And it’s brought up a lot of nostalgia, especially over the past few days.

We’ll get back to that, but first, it’s time for a trip down Memory Lane…

– – – – –

I desperately needed a reset (for both personal and professional reasons) in the late-summer and early-fall months of 2013. On a whim, I sent my resume to HRTV, and a few weeks later, I interviewed for a job on their digital media team. It went well, and in October, my dad and I stuffed my Chevy Impala with everything it could hold and drove it cross-country.

A lot of things changed over the next year and a half. I met the woman I’m going to marry next year, I worked with some incredibly smart people, and I did plenty of things I’m very proud of. I’ve told a few of these stories elsewhere, and you may have seen them, but they’re worth telling again.

Jeff Siegel and Aaron Vercruysse were some of the best allies one could ask for. They gave me opportunities to help them with a lot of HRTV’s “over-the-top” coverage. With the approval of my then-supervisor, Phil Kubel, these “Santa Anita Uncut” and “HRTV Extra” broadcasts helped establish the blueprint for the streams you see on YouTube, Twitch, and other social media outlets today. I’m forever grateful to them for that, and, in one particular instance, for going to bat for me when they didn’t have to (that’s a story for a much, much different time).

I helped Jeff with a stream from the 2014 Belmont Stakes, when California Chrome went for the Triple Crown. At some point that week, I found myself in the HRTV trailer with Caton Bredar, who I’d only met a few times before then. She smiled at me and said, “are you trying to steal our jobs? You were really good!” I’ll never forget that.

The team, as a whole, was one of the most talented I’ve ever been on, and not just in live production. The folks who put together the “Inside Information” documentary series did brilliant work telling some of the sport’s most interesting stories, including ones that were off the beaten path. In particular, the one discussing the Saratoga WarHorse Foundation was an all-timer, and it’s an absolute shame most of the documentaries in that series aren’t accessible online in some form or fashion anymore.

(Paging anyone with access, either at FanDuel TV or XBTV: Can we rectify this somehow? That’s a VERY easy way to get quality programming out there!)

I remember Millie Ball establishing herself as one of the toughest people I’ve ever met just by showing up. Her husband, Tim Yakteen, trained 2013 Breeders’ Cup Sprint contender Pointsoffthebench, a horse that suffered a fatal injury training for the race. It was a terrible breakdown, and nobody would’ve blamed Millie for going home. Instead, just a few hours later, “Race Day America” went live with Millie sitting next to Peter Lurie, and she gutted it out on the air.

I also remember one of the all-time great pivots in the history of sports television. Gulfstream Park had scheduled a mandatory payout of the Rainbow Six jackpot pool. Officials anticipated a final pot of more than $20 million, and HRTV’s programming included extensive analysis of that sequence.

There was just one problem: Dan Borislow etched his name in the handicapping history books by scooping that pot the day before the big one (to this day, horse racing Twitter refers to a jackpot hit right before a mandatory-payout day as a “Borislow”). This, of course, meant that Gulfstream Park missed out on a record-breaking handle day. It also meant that a TV network owned by the same parent company needed to alter its programming on the fly!

They somehow got Borislow on the phone while Kurt Hoover was on the desk. Kurt’s a pro’s pro who still does a fantastic job on FanDuel TV and FanDuel Racing, but he got a bit frustrated when Borislow didn’t seem to understand a question about the construction of his ticket. The lucky handicapper finally got the message and said something to the effect of, “that’s a great question!”

“Yeah,” I remember an annoyed Kurt saying, “that’s why I asked it twice!!!”

Horse racing makes it hard to be a fan sometimes. For the most part, HRTV made it easy.

– – – – –

HRTV was purchased by the company then known as Betfair in early-2015. To Betfair’s eternal credit, they hired many more HRTV employees than any of us thought they would. I wound up there for a bit more than two years.

(My first two years there were fabulous. It took quite a while, but my last two months were avenged by karma earlier this year.)

After a stop at The Daily Racing Form, my full-time work ceased to be in the horse racing business in late-2018. I still, of course, do quite a bit of freelance work in the industry with outlets like the Hong Kong Jockey Club, The Paulick Report, and The Saratogian, and that, combined with a full-time job elsewhere in the gambling world, is enough to keep me happy.

One other freelance assignment I’ve had materialized after I moved to Northern California. The NorCal fair circuit’s then-announcer, Chris Griffin, was looking for guests to help with handicapping seminars at Pleasanton’s Alameda County Fair. I responded, one thing led to another, and I’ve spent part of the last several summers on stage offering my analysis and selections.

The fair circuit was a breath of fresh air. I love tracks like Saratoga and Santa Anita, but they’ve housed plenty of extraordinary races where one could hear a pin drop on the apron. If it’s a nice day at Pleasanton and a field of $2,500 claimers spins into the stretch with each horse having a shot, the entire grandstand starts roaring.

I was on-site for Pleasanton Mile Day in 2023. It was the first-ever renewal of that race, and it was the richest event in North America that day. The weather cooperated, the track’s apron was jammed, and I couldn’t help but repeat the same axiom a few different times, to a few different people.

“A lot of places make it hard to be a racing fan sometimes. This place makes it easy.”

A few weeks after that day, a bunch of NorCal power players were in Sacramento for a charity poker tournament benefiting autism awareness efforts. A “breaking news” article by the LA Times’s John Cherwa dropped a bombshell: The Stronach Group (or TSG, as I’ll refer to them going forward) was pulling the plug on racing at Golden Gate Fields.

This was a Sunday afternoon. A few prominent people got about five minutes’ notice. Many got none.

The way this was communicated was unforgivable, and efforts to half-apologize during subsequent meetings and conference calls did not go over well. Ultimately, Golden Gate Fields ran a bit longer than TSG desired, closing in June of 2024 instead of December of 2023.

In an effort to fill the void, the fair circuit unified as Golden State Racing and proposed a new year-round Northern California circuit located at the fair tracks. TSG, predictably, was dead-set against this idea and, in response, floated a possible sale of Santa Anita Park.

To say that wasn’t well-received would be an understatement. TSG’s Craig Fravel, who has since left that company, was skewered over the threat at a mid-year CHRB meeting. Golden State Racing didn’t just get fall dates. It won them with unanimous approval.

I was there a few times during the fall meet, which will officially conclude Wednesday. Most notably, I guest-hosted the simulcast feed on Breeders’ Cup Saturday (combined with that night’s Sha Tin card, it made me, I believe, the first person to appear on two simulcast feeds, across two continents, on the same day; that’s a cool legacy to have!). It wasn’t the same as during the fair, when families popped in and out between going on rides and sampling fried food, but it was fun, and people wanted it to work.

News broke Monday, however, that Pleasanton will not run dates prior to next summer’s fair season. This leaves Northern California without a full-time circuit, and depending on how many horses stick around, the fair racing season encompassing stops in Pleasanton, Sacramento, Santa Rosa, Ferndale, and Fresno from June to October may be in doubt, too.

There’s no way this doesn’t stink. Fans in NorCal don’t have a full-time circuit to follow. Horsepeople need to make tough decisions, even if TSG makes good on plans to shuttle horses downstate. Will Santa Anita run lower-level claiming races than they’ve ever run at the Great Race Place? Will they offer races restricted to NorCal shippers? Or will their stock be forced to sink or swim against that of SoCal supertrainers who have consolidated most of the circuit’s fastest horses into a few select barns?

We don’t know these answers yet. However, these come from tough conversations the industry has shown it doesn’t want to have. If you’re not optimistic about this, I can’t say I blame you.

– – – – –

This brings us back to the sign. It’s the one that hung from the inside rail near the wire at Golden Gate for several years, and in addition to advertising HRTV, it also contains the logo of California Thoroughbred Trainers, which still shows its NorCal headquarters as Golden Gate Fields.

I won it at auction for $25, and I picked it up earlier this month. After being directed up the track apron by a lonely security guard, I parked across from the track’s main video board and took a look around.

The track’s Tapeta surface had been scraped up and plowed to the side, moreso resembling a brown snow bank than anything else. The infield’s grass wasn’t a pretty sight, the flags had long ago been removed, and the track that, just three years ago, saw eventual Preakness winner Rombauer capture the El Camino Real Derby was hauntingly quiet.

I picked up my sign, as well as a framed picture of a jockey covered in mud. The sign had a few cracks from being moved around, and I’m sure those didn’t get better as I figured out how to fit it into my Hyundai Sonata. I finally succeeded, bringing something that reminded me of such joy out of a place that reminded me of the very real hardships facing the industry at the moment.

Golden Gate’s gone. The NorCal fair tracks may follow suit. In addition, these events don’t necessarily ensure the survival of the SoCal circuit. Even if there’s no NorCal circuit to compete with, horses still aren’t being bred the way they once were, the horses that are bred still don’t run as much, and more lucrative racing options exist in other states.

Everything that’s happened in California makes it harder to be a horse racing fan.

I miss the days, the places, and the people that made it easy.

Justify, The Hall Of Fame, Historical Context, And A Hard Answer

Posted on by Andrew Champagne

Earlier this week, the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame announced its 17 voting finalists for its 2024 class. Those with a vote (self included) will receive ballots soon, and the top vote-getters will be enshrined in Saratoga Springs this summer.

The most polarizing name on the list is Justify. Acting as though this is straightforward either way is naive at best and biased at worst, and when I tweeted that I had absolutely no idea what I was going to do with him, I wasn’t blowing smoke.

What do writers do when things get puzzling? We write through it. With that in mind, let’s discuss the 2018 Horse of the Year and a fascinating question: Is Justify a Hall of Famer?

– – – – –

It makes sense to start with a primer on why we’re here. The case for Justify is quite simple and can be summed up in four words: Undefeated Triple Crown winner.

Justify didn’t make a single start as a 2-year-old. Instead, he broke his maiden at first asking in January, won an allowance race, beat Bolt d’Oro to the wire in the Santa Anita Derby (more on that later), and became the 13th horse to sweep America’s three marquee races for 3-year-olds (and just the second since Affirmed did it 40 years earlier).

He was retired a few months after the Belmont Stakes, and a mild Horse of the Year debate ensued when Accelerate rampaged through California’s biggest races for older horses and annexed the Breeders’ Cup Classic. Before any member of the ever-present Bob Baffert fan club goes after me, I want it noted that I strongly believed Justify was the easy Horse of the Year choice (and wrote about it on this very website).

Most voters agreed. Justify won the trophy and went off to the breeding shed. However, in the past few years, new details have come to light about a positive drug test that came after the Santa Anita Derby. The California Horse Racing Board opted not to disqualify him due to environmental contamination, but in December of 2023 (nearly six years after the race), the Los Angeles County Superior Court ordered the CHRB to set aside their ruling, DQ Justify, and install Bolt d’Oro as the race’s winner.

Without the Kentucky Derby points he earned in the Santa Anita Derby, Justify would not have made the field on the first Saturday in May. Churchill Downs has said it has no plans to alter the results of the 2018 Kentucky Derby, but it’s not illogical to wonder if he should have been in the gate.

Additionally, Justify retired after the Belmont and never faced older horses. Not running in races such as the Breeders’ Cup Classic opened the door for another runner to be considered, by some, a viable threat for Horse of the Year, and in an age where horses don’t run as much, a longer career would have certainly been more appreciated by some in the voting bloc.

– – – – –

To try to make some sense of this, I dove into the history books. On Tuesday, I asked if any Hall of Fame horse carried as much “baggage” as Justify. When in doubt, some degree of precedent helps, and I wanted to see if there were any comparable situations.

The answer: Not really. A couple of horses went through strange situations before being immortalized. Grey Lag raced at age 13 against claimers after falling into the wrong hands. Bewitch’s signature win as a 2-year-old, over Calumet Farm stablemates Citation and Free America, may not have been entirely on the level. Safely Kept may not have made it into the Hall of Fame had Dayjur not jumped a shadow late in the 1990 Breeders’ Cup Sprint. Unfortunately, that list also includes Exceller, who was enshrined in 1999 (two years after being sent to the slaughterhouse).

Those stories, though, are pretty different from the one Justify carries, so no dice there. I was, however, able to find a few answers to the “never faced older horses” question.

For the most part, horses enshrined in the Hall of Fame have some longevity to them. However, Justify would be far from the first horse to go in having never faced older rivals. I count at least five honored horses who share that distinction. That list includes another Bob Baffert trainee, Point Given, as well as Tim Tam, Count Fleet, Colin, and, sadly, the ill-fated Ruffian.

That list mainly features horses who suffered career-ending injuries. Justify did require time off, but probably could have continued racing as a 4-year-old. However, as I’ve discussed time and time again on various platforms, the breeding industry is the tail that wags the dog in racing, and there was simply much more guaranteed money to be made sending Justify to stud.

(One quick note: I’m seeing some pro-Justify people support his case by mentioning his early success as a sire. One’s breeding career should have absolutely nothing to do with a Hall of Fame case. The Hall of Fame is for what happens from the starting gate to the wire, not for the results of activities in the breeding shed. Please stop.)

I’m fairly old-school. I like when horses run for long periods of time and do so at racing’s top level. Having said that, while Justify’s short career isn’t ideal, I also can’t hold it against him too much. Add in the likelihood of fellow six-time starter Flightline being a first-ballot Hall of Famer in a few years, and it’s entirely possible longevity just doesn’t matter much anymore.

– – – – –

A unique convergence of events makes this one of the weirdest Hall of Fame questions since the institution opened its doors in the 1950’s. Bob Baffert, of course, has dealt with multiple high-profile positive drug tests. In addition to Justify, a drug test on initial 2021 Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit showed betamethasone, and Gamine was disqualified from a third-place finish in the 2020 Kentucky Oaks due to the presence of that same substance.

Baffert is in the Hall of Fame. In addition to Point Given, other former Baffert trainees such as Arrogate, American Pharoah, Silverbulletday, and Silver Charm all have plaques in Saratoga, too.

To call the situation awkward would be an understatement. Nothing about this feels particularly clean. A “yes” vote seems ignorant of an awful lot of facts. A “no” vote…also seems ignorant of an awful lot of facts.

In the absence of much precedent (other than “a few horses with short careers are in”), I keep coming back to the decision made by Churchill Downs. That entity, which has made zero friends in the Baffert camp over the last several years, has opted not to revisit the results of the 2018 Kentucky Derby. Given everything that’s happened since Medina Spirit crossed the wire first in 2021, CDI doing that would have been far from shocking.

Without that race on Justify’s resume, he’s almost certainly not a Hall of Famer (perhaps that incentivizes his connections to run the horse as a 4-year-old, but that’s strictly hypothetical). It being there, however, pushes Justify to a level of rarified air. The previous 12 Triple Crown winners are all enshrined in the Hall of Fame. Only one, Seattle Slew, was also undefeated when he pulled it off.

No, it’s not pretty.

No, it’s not an easy decision.

No, anyone involved in the nearly-six-years-long process to figure out what happened with the post-Santa Anita Derby positive test, and how it should affect the result of the race, should not be involved in such a decision, at all, ever again.

Yes, Justify is a Hall of Famer.

Alix Earle Went To The Pegasus. Horse Racing Twitter Lost Its Mind.

Posted on by Andrew Champagne

I write today not to bury Gulfstream Park, nor to praise it. My latest entry in the “does anyone actually read these?” files instead strikes a familiar refrain that can be applied to a staggering number of situations.

Some background, for those unfamiliar with the situation: Influencer Alix Earle attended the Pegasus World Cup Saturday. Her social media content from the event reached a staggering 6.5 million people in 24 hours. This, of course, drove horse racing Twitter bananas, with fanatics grumbling about how Earle’s presence contributed nothing to the event.

Some further background, for those unfamiliar with me (and because, the last time I did this to establish myself as an “expert witness” of sorts, a few people missed the point and lost their minds over it): I have more than 13 years of experience in digital and social media marketing. Outside of horse racing, I’ve grown brands in the non-profit and college athletics sectors. Inside of this particular industry, I’ve shepherded online outlets for some of the most well-known news and entertainment operations in the game and, of course, had Lord Miles at 59-1 in the Wood Memorial (and the reaction that gets is why I still bring it up; I know my audience!).

All of this is to say I’m as well-qualified as anybody to discuss the layers of this, and that familiar refrain I mentioned earlier is a simple one: Almost everyone is wrong in some way, shape, or form.

The first thing you do, when you want to present your product as “cool,” is find people who others think are “cool” and use them to your benefit. Given the media landscape in 2024, the best way to do this is influencer marketing, and it’s a really simple concept provided you’ve got the money to do it.

As a sport, we talk about needing to try new things to get the sport in front of new fans. Given how many people saw Alix Earle’s content, that box was checked, multiple times over. Sorry to say it, folks, but industry channels and publications aren’t reaching 6.5 million people a day. We’re all statistically insignificant by comparison.

On that level, I have no problem with the presence of Alix Earle at the Pegasus. It seems like a mutually beneficial partnership. Gulfstream gets social media exposure, and Alix Earle gets eyeballs on her content, even if those eyeballs aren’t necessarily those of hardened handicappers (whose eyeballs instead rolled hard as this content got rolled out).

To use a marketing term, though, this got people into the funnel. The next step, now that they’re there, is to convert those people into customers. So what’s Gulfstream Park doing to give these people every reason to come back to the track?

There are ways this can be done. Hit the demographics Alix Earle’s trying to hit with social media ads that have her Pegasus photos or footage in them (assuming you have the rights to something). Use what you’ve got to drive Pegasus-goers back to the racetrack more than once, and when they get there, have resources that are there to introduce people to the betting side of the game. More informed fans are better fans. Better fans wager more and are more likely to introduce the sport to their friends. This isn’t complicated.

There’s a place for influencer marketing in horse racing, but like everything else, there has to be a follow-through. Gulfstream Park has five stakes races on Saturday’s card. The headliner, the Holy Bull, features Fierceness, who’d be the Kentucky Derby favorite if the race was run right now.

Do we think the people who saw Alix Earle’s videos know that? My money’s on “no,” and that’s where it falls apart.

Alix Earle being at the Pegasus World Cup isn’t the issue. The lack of a follow-through is, and that’s where horse racing’s in trouble. If the industry isn’t marketing correctly to new fans, or to the fans it has, what’s going on here?

The data doesn’t present a pretty picture. Handle is down pretty considerably, and only being kept afloat, at some venues, by CAW groups that have certain capabilities unavailable to the average player. The increased availability of legal sports betting can’t help matters. Why go against the sharks at the racetrack when you can spend your gambling dollars at sportsbooks that know their customers and give them what they want?

At its best, horse racing is the best gambling game on the planet, and there’s no close second. It’s what got me into the game as a kid, and it’s why the only times horse racing Twitter comes together with joy is when a player makes a big score. Marketing it as the premier betting opportunity in the country isn’t going to solve all of horse racing’s ills (we’re still breeding fewer horses that don’t run as much as their predecessors), but without that, handle’s going to keep circling the drain and put the sport in an even worse position moving forward.

In that regard, I share the frustrations of my horse racing Twitter brethren at the sport’s continued inability to effectively communicate with its fanbase. That’s my “why,” and it’s a big reason why I show up with content every year at Saratoga, Pleasanton, and a few other outlets. There’s a legitimate gripe that needs to be addressed by tracks across the country, in the form of effective marketing, fan education, and getting people hooked on the game the ways many of us were.

If your problem is with Alix Earle, though, the blame is misplaced.

(Oh, and if you’ve got an issue with well-known, younger women attending sporting events and being seen a lot, you probably shouldn’t watch the Super Bowl.)

Getting Back To Writing For Fun, And Writing What I Know

Posted on by Andrew Champagne

Somewhere between Newark, New Jersey, and San Francisco, California, as an Alaska Airlines flight attendant repeatedly barreled into my right shoulder with a lower body reminiscent of Earl Campbell, I realized I hadn’t written anything consistently solely for my own pleasure in quite a while.

I’ve written for work, I’ve written because I’ve felt a need to write something, and I’ve written calls to action of sorts. However, for a bunch of reasons, the urge to write things because I enjoy writing was gone for a while.

It’s back now, thank goodness, and my early New Year’s Resolution of sorts is simple: Write more. I figure I’m good for a column a week most weeks, with the exception of when Saratoga Race Course is open for business (more news is coming on my plans for this summer in the next few months). Want more than that, or want me to focus on something in particular? Tell me. The “contact” feature on my site works, and I see everything that comes in.

People smarter than me say to write what you know, so let’s give it a whirl. Most of my experience is in the gambling space, so there’ll be a healthy dose of that in a lot of what I put together. However, there’ll be some other stuff in there, too (stuff I hope someone out there either enjoys reading or needs to hear).

With that in mind, here’s a list of the things I’ve come to know that, hopefully, proves helpful to someone out there.

I know that more educated, informed fans become better, more devoted fans that will spend more time, energy, and money on a given product.

I know that, to be a better horse racing fan, you’d be well served to spend time reading stuff written by folks named Clancy, Nevills, Voss, Scheinman, Grening, Wincze-Hughes, Beyer, and Crist, rather than stuff put together by people who can barely put out a somewhat-coherent, 280-character post on the platform formerly known as Twitter.

I know that renaming the previously-mentioned platform X was a cataclysmically-stupid move, so I’ll reference it as such as little as possible.

I know that the previously-mentioned flight attendant must have seen what I wrote in the first paragraph, because she damn near elbowed me in the temple just now. Sorry, ma’am.

I know that, from the perspective of horse racing’s establishment, the problem is never the problem, but people TALKING about the problem. I know this because of what some in the media are experiencing now, and from first-hand experience nearly 10 years ago.

I know that, at some point, I’ll tell that story publicly. Not yet, though.

I know that, if horse racing continues this harmful and borderline-shameful practice, the chances of there ever being any sort of productive change within an industry that sorely needs it get lower and lower.

I know that, if you give attention whores attention, they win.

I know that because you’re still hearing about Lord Miles in the Wood Memorial eight months later. If it didn’t get the reaction of “drive some people crazy and get under the skin of people whose buttons I enjoy pushing,” do you really think I’d still be doing it?

By extension, I know that not nearly enough people have ever learned that lesson.

I know the biggest winner in most legal cases is “billable hours.”

I know that Saratoga hosting the Belmont for a few years is a polarizing topic.

I know that Saratoga can throw a horse racing-themed festival like few other places on the planet.

I know that there are very real, very logical objections some have involving the race’s distance and plans for after the mid-2020’s.

I know horses haven’t been bred to go 12 furlongs for decades now, and that dismissing that fact seems dangerous (especially when a career turf sprinter somehow saw 293 mares this breeding season).

I know that I’m going to miss Golden Gate Fields when it closes in June, and I hope that closure doesn’t impact the Northern California fair circuit that’s near and dear to my heart.

I know that, heaven help me, I’m going to miss Aqueduct, too.

I know Mike Repole’s heart is in the right place, and that I have a significant amount of respect for his acumen as a businessman, a horse owner, and an ambassador of horse racing.

I know nobody has ever won anything of substance based on a Twitter poll.

I know that anyone with a net worth north of $100 million should be paying new college graduates living wages to snatch their phones from their hands when the urge to let fly with a platform-formerly-known-as-Twitter rampage comes bubbling to the surface.

I know we’ve got one life to live and that there’s no excuse spending any of it being miserable on social media, to people you’ll never meet, for reasons most logical people will never understand.

I know that public and semi-public figures put themselves out there and sign up for backlash.

I know that family members are off-limits.

I know that everyone needs a support system to go to when things get rough.

I know that I appreciate everyone that constituted mine when I went through some rough stuff earlier this year. I’m on the other side of most of it, and I’m in the debt of anyone reading this who took the time to check in, send a message, make a phone call, or otherwise reach out.

I know time is the most valuable resource we have.

I know there’s no substitute for time spent with family, friends, and loved ones. I love you all, and you know who you are.

2023 Kentucky Derby Recap: From Chaos Comes Clarity

Posted on by Andrew Champagne

Want to read a Kentucky Derby recap that has very little to do with the race? If so, I’ve got just the ticket.

(Editor’s note: Uh oh.)

(Writer’s retort: Come on. It’s me. You knew this was going to be weird.)

I did a ton of Kentucky Derby content leading up to Saturday. Catena Media allowed me to get my hands dirty on a bunch of sites within the company’s portfolio, and I’m grateful to them for that. I love my job, and I very much enjoy collaborating with some of the best co-workers (and friends) one can ask for.

I did a ton outside of my day job, too. You may have heard me on a few podcasts, and if you were in Ithaca or Albany (two of my former places of residence), you may have heard me on local sports radio affiliates, too. I woke up on Saturday morning bright and early, fully prepared to compile everything into one nice, neat package.

And then Forte scratched, and everything came crashing down.

Not literally, of course. Life goes on. However, with that scratch, almost every piece of content I conceived, produced, edited, and/or published the prior four or five days became irrelevant.

You may have seen a few social media posts from me in that vein that hinted I wasn’t in a great mood. As I told a few family members and close friends, I was absolutely devastated, and not because Forte wasn’t running.

There’s no worse feeling than seeing a lot of hard work fueled by passion go down the drain. I spent the entire week touting Forte enthusiastically, so everything that enthusiasm touched was instantly rendered obsolete.

(Quick note: If the vets determined Forte shouldn’t have run, then he shouldn’t have run. It’s truly as simple as that, so please don’t put words in my mouth.)

I audibled reasonably well the morning of the race. I put out a revised betting strategy, and if you acted on it, you came out ahead. Mage was my third choice, but a win bet at overlaid odds proved profitable. My exactas were toast, so I didn’t get rich, but I’ve had far, far worse Derbies.

After the race, a tweet of mine went around pretty quickly. I said Forte would have stomped that group, and I sincerely believe that. He’s beaten Mage twice already, and I don’t see a reason a healthy version of him couldn’t have done so again this weekend. I hope we’ll get a chance to see him sooner rather than later, ideally at an overlaid price.

The interactions that followed, though, gave me a lot of insight into my feelings and motivations. For as much bluster, pompousness, and ego my detractors (and there are many, for reasons passing understanding…) will claim I have, I genuinely enjoy going back and forth with about 90 to 95 percent of horse racing Twitter. I’ll talk shop in any setting anyone wants, and more often than not, I’ll genuinely enjoy it.

I was miserable most of Derby Day, and not because a horse I was excited to bet wasn’t going to run. It was because I put a lot of my spare energy into creating content for horseplayers to digest and enjoy, and I do it because there’s no better feeling than using my knowledge and insight to help someone else make money.

It’s why I keep doing all of this stuff on top of a day job I very much enjoy. I’m not getting rich off of these passion projects, and that’s not the point. The things I do in horse racing are because I want to do them, and because, over the years, there’s enough evidence to support the idea that I know what I’m talking about (you might have heard about Lord Miles…).

Saratoga’s in two months. I’ll be back in the pages of The Pink Sheet and online on this very site with full-card analysis, selections, and bankroll plays. Before that is the Alameda County Fair in Pleasanton. I’ll be in Europe for the first week of that meet, but most weekends, I’ll be co-hosting handicapping seminars just outside the grandstand that preview each day of racing action at the Northern California fair track.

In the meantime, you can keep checking this site and my social media platforms. I’m an easy guy to find. If you’ve got any ideas for content, or just something you’d like to see, use the “contact” function. I see everything that comes through.

To those that enjoy what I do, thank you. You’re a large part of why I’m still able to do it.