1/29/2004

Good and Bad

As the 2004 thoroughbred racing season slowly gets under way, with the Kentucky Derby looming on the horizon just over three months away, certain events over the past few days seem to have received very little exposure via mainstream channels of the media.

In the case of Patrick Valenzuela’s indefinite suspension, pending the very talented rider’s explanation of his recent vanishing act (which probably most regrettably is a recurrence of past drug problems) its good that, beyond the Daily Racing Form, nobody has said a word. Indeed, this in itself is quite refreshing in a culture that seems to be obsessed with celebrity miss-behavior.

However unfortunately public apathy relegated the Eclipse Award to complete obscurity on the global radar screen. And both BAFTA and the Golden Globes ignored the Seabiscuit movie.

On the subject of the latter: it seems strange to be already championing the movie as the greatest DVD of all time, so soon. As this very fact would suggest that the whole phenomenon was over-hyped from the get-go. Besides, after spending a rumoured $25 million on promoting the quaint little vignette, wasn’t there anything left in the coffers to pay off the GG guys? See the CBC’s Passionate Eye exposure of the Golden Globe Awards as an eastern European extortion shot.

Foot-notes…..its great for international racing that Gary Stevens is going to ride in France. The regime, including higher weight-scale and fewer rides, will suit him to a T.

Additionally…..what a great move by the Irish Tote to halve the Jackpot stake from 1 Euro to 50 cents. Is anyone in North America listening and watching this bold move? (Obviously not the Ontario Lottery Corporation whose solution to diminishing sales is to double the cost of a lottery ticket from $1 to $2!!!!)

Talk about publicity gone wrong…..the Coolmore boys brought Sir Alex Ferguson on board for PR reasons….yet their handling of the Rock of Gibraltar business is turning out to be a disaster. And one has to wonder……considering ‘The Rock’ turned out to be a great deal better than they ever thought was going to be, why didn’t they just make a simple deal on the stud fees, which, after all, were an unexpected bonus. Somehow, too, its ironic that, while the bargain Rock of Gibraltar made good, the expensive Van Nistelrooy, a $4.6 million son of Storm Cat, named after one of Sir Alex’s best players at Manchester United, proved to be a big disappointment. (Maybe Coolmore will be looking for Sir Alex to reimburse them on this one?)

In conclusion….ATTHERACES are folding their tent, only just over a year into a ten year contract to promote English racing. What a shame…..the problem is that they were NEVER at the races…..and publicity was invariably bad. But what did you expect from a company (Arena Leisure and partners) that marketed itself as GO RACING, but then (after it had won the tender) discovered it didn’t own that name?