The Canadian Sportsman
Archive for February, 2010
February 04, 2010
Through the centuries, from Delphi in Ancient Greece right up through Keanu Reeves in “The Matrix”, philosophy students have been advised by the oracles to “Know thyself.” So let’s sit quietly for a moment and think about this. In order to try to understand what the future holds for harness racing, we must first fully grasp the present. What are we? What is harness racing? Not in a touchy-feely, vague, feel-good sense, but as a business. And not what we’d like to think of ourselves as, not where we were 40 years ago, but what we truly are, right here, right now.
Are we a sport? And again, don’t think about this as an esthetic, think about this in terms of whether harness racing is a sustainable economic endeavor. Look at other sports, the ones we can all agree are viable, the long-established ones like baseball, and hockey, and golf, and brand-new ones like mixed martial arts. Their entire business models are based on the enthusiasm of their fan base. Their revenue comes primarily from three sources: ticket sales, and television rights, and merchandising. Are people going to pay admissions, or watch harness racing on television, or buy harness racing hats and hoodies in quantities that would justify us, in 2010, calling ourselves a sport? No, they are not.
Are we a form of entertainment? Like movies, and television, and video games? This is the business I work in, and again, the entertainment industry is driven by one thing and one thing only: eyeballs on the screen, and asses in the seats. Again, as a business, I don’t believe we have the numbers to qualify.
Are we a horse event, like an equestrian competition, or a horse show? Where the audience is limited to a small but enthusiastic following? Likely, but this is a scary thought. The prizes for winning these events tend to be ribbons and trophies, and as a business, is that where we’re headed?
Are we a gambling option? Resoundingly yes. Open your eyes. This is who we are. And there is an extremely large potential audience that loves to gamble. Hundreds of millions of people, all over the world. And to a greater and greater extent, they are not gambling on us. They are who we must seek out. They are who can insure our future. And for those of you who feel this is unfair, that this marginalizes us, you are wrong. The problem is not that all we are is a gambling option. It is that we are a poor gambling option. We do not provide the excitement and action and fun and jackpots that the casual gambler is looking for. We do not provide the lower takeouts and legitimate chance to win that the serious gambler is looking for. And we must find a way to give one, or both, what they want if we are to have any chance to survive. Some individual racetracks, the Meadowlands, Pocono Downs, Cal-Expo, have made efforts to seed and guarantee pools, and reduce takeouts on some bets, and they are smart. What would be even smarter would be for everyone to join together and do it on a grand scale.
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February 04, 2010
A load of super crap: Why Super Bowl would be ashamed to share a name with the “big game"
The Super Bowl was great back when it used to be a football game.
The big game.
Hard-hitting excitement.
Tough guys acting tough.
Women in the kitchen, kids in their rooms and you and a few buddies having some beer and watching a pigskin classic.
That’s the way things used to be.
Now, all we’ve got is two weeks of nothing but talk leading up to the ‘big game’ where football seems to be an afterthought. Why in the heck do we need an eight-hour pre-game show? Here’s what you need to know before the game: the Indianapolis Colts are going to play the New Orleans Saints on Feb. 7 around 6 p.m. in Miami. Both teams are good. There’s your pre-game update. And it took me 15 seconds.
Then, it’ll be five more hours for the game itself, once you consider all the commercials, big half-time show and those dreadful sideline people yammering on.
Cripes, Bernie can make a whole casserole in the time it takes someone to sing the national anthem nowadays. Not to mention the delay when whoever they’ve got passing for entertainment gets a little too frisky with the dry ice machine at the half and lets off a smoke bomb that fogs the field for the next half hour.
I can’t be sitting around on the couch for 13 hours, not with my bursitis. May as well just supersoak me in Bengay and leave me to die.
My son Robbie was reading an article in his ESPN magazine the other day. It said that in an average 60-minute NFL game, there’s less than 13 minutes of game action since the clock runs between plays, during the huddle or whatever. Thirteen minutes! Even regular season games are a waste of time.
Here’s an idea. Let’s do my 15-second pre-game show, followed by singing the anthem straight up in 75 seconds — the way nature intended. Then we’ll do the whole game in 13 minutes, ditching the dead air, crappy commercials and the half-time show along the way.
The Super Bowl in less than 15 minutes? Why I won’t even need to run a hot bath.
February 03, 2010
Bulletproof? Even the name is insulting.
It carries the arrogant smack of being invincible, impervious, made of Teflon. Yeah, I get it. David Brooks’ company DHB Industries makes protective vests. Very clever.
But considering the New York Times reported in January of 2006 that about 23,000 of the company’s vest were recalled by the U.S. military due, allegedly, to “critical, life-threatening flaws” makes the name of the Brooks family’s racing stable that much more inappropriate.
Forgive me if I don’t congratulate the Bulletproof folks for not only being the sport’s leading owners in 2009, but for also setting a single-season earnings record.
Harness racing needs Bulletproof as much as a soldier needs flawed body armour.
The biggest joke of 2009 was that Bulletproof was allowed to race horses. David Brooks (above) was under house arrest for much of ‘09, charged with $186 million in fraud in a case now underway in New York. While awaiting trial, his brother, Jeffrey, was running the stable under the Bulletproof name, overseeing a 400-horse operation that includes top stallion Western Terror. Jeffrey was also, allegedly, helping David hide money overseas against the terms of David’s bail agreement.
That David, allegedly, used DHB money to support a lavish lifestyle that included helping fund his racing operation, puts harness racing at the centre of a trial that has caught the fancy of the New York press.
Why Jeffrey Brooks was ever allowed to take over the racing stable while his brother was awaiting trial for such a serious offense, I’ll never know. It’s not like they are estranged family members.
Why Bulletproof and the Brooks clan was ever allowed to take more than $12.6 million out of the industry in the first place, I’ll never know.
Apart from more information recently becoming public, there’s not a shred of difference between now and a year ago. Most of us knew a year ago Bulletproof was, at the very least, a questionable outfit and, likely, worse.
So, thank goodness the Ontario Racing Commission (ORC) finally led the charge on Jan. 26 by ordering the immediate suspension of Bulletproof, Perfect World Enterprises and a number of Brooks family members, including Jeffrey and David’s wife, Terry.
Minor kudos to the ORC for, once again, leading the charge among the group of regulators who have either dragged their feet on this, or ignored it altogether. Minor kudos to the U.S. Trotting Association for withholding horse transfer requests for the Bulletproof gang. Minor kudos to Standardbred Canada for not allowing Bulletproof to take home an O’Brien Award.
Trouble is, other bodies have been slow to act, with the exception of New York and New Jersey, which jumped on the train yesterday.
Before all you ACLU types launch into the old “innocent until proven guilty” line, remember being a licensed racing participant is a privilege, not a right.
Should David be found “not guilty,” he could apply for a license, though there would be no obligation to grant one.
In the meantime, the trial is going to make harness racing appear as unseemly as a Sopranos episode.
Again, here’s where harness racing pales in comparison to other sports blessed with commissioners.
Participants in other sports that sully its reputation are routinely fined and suspended long before courts render a verdict. Call it the “for the good of the game” clause.
In the absence of a commissioner, the least the various racing jurisdictions can do is agree that Brooks et al. are not welcome until a jury renders a verdict.
If regulators other than the ORC don’t have the fortitude to suspend the Brooks clan, then I suggest the industry’s participants take matters into their own hands.
Don’t train their horses and don’t drive their horses.
Jockeys at Penn National recently refused, en masse, to ride for owner Michael Gill over concerns that his horses aren’t safe. Why couldn’t trainers and drivers do the same in harness racing with Brooks’ horses for the good of the game? To do otherwise makes those who race his horses complicit in besmirching the very industry from which they derive their livelihood.
I’m not naive. Money talks. Talented horses are tough to come by. And it’s not the horses’ fault the people who own them are allegedly up to no good.
But if the Brooks family was suspended across the continent, the horses would have to be sold and, hopefully, raced by any number of scores of above-board people in this industry.
It’s the right thing to do. Though, admittedly, it will be small compensation for the damage already done to an industry that can ill afford it from a bunch that was clearly mocking us — and making a mockery of us — from the very beginning.
Bulletproof? Hardly.
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