AMONG GIANTS

And now for a Commercial alert...

Hay! I mean hey! This is the big work time of year for the farm folks, cut that hay and bale it..etc.etc.. (I tried it for a few hours recently, that was enough). Very hot too.
For those looking to have their HAY, SOIL and MANURE tested ...our friend David MacDonald at NOBLETON FEED MILL is ready to assist - 1-800-263-0556 or sales@nobletonfeedmill.com

Among Giants - that's the name of the yearling full brother to this year's Queen's Plate winner MIKE FOX. The mare Alexis actually had a foal before Mike that died so Mike is her 2nd foal.

Racing tonight at Woodbine - good news for the horses that it's not during the day with the heat and humidity and the smog.

Pick 7 carryover is up around $43,000, it grows slowly and is tough to win.
The 8-race card includes 2 grass races.

No racing tomorrow because of the loooooong weekend coming up and then we race Friday through Monday and then Wed. through Sunday next week. Ouch!

Thank you to trainer KEVIN ATTARD for his comments and insights on training his horses, let's be nice...he is a young and up-and-coming conditioner who has been launched into the fire since Leo came along...We think he has done quite well...

The viewership on TSN of the Plate was 109,000, down from last year but last year (which was reportedly 145,000 as told to us today by TV) the race had a world cup soccer lead in..let's hope the race stays on a big channel anyway

More discussion items today - Marketing and Molina

Ten-year-old WOLVSPA won at Fort Erie yesterday for Bruno Schickedanz and trainer Mark Fournier in a $7,500 claiming race. The Major Impact gelding was bred by Eaton Hall Farm in Kentucky

Selling Racing

What do you think?

From Maryland…

Courtesy Herald-Mail.com

Horse racing's decline may be due to lack of marketing

By BOB MAGINNIS

A story in Sunday's edition of The (Baltimore) Sun casts doubt on the idea that legalizing slot machines would improve the fortunes of Maryland's horse-racing industry.

According to figures cited by Sun reporter Andrew A. Green, betting on thoroughbred racing in Delaware is down 40 percent since slots were legalized there in 1996.

Green also reported that while wagering at West Virginia tracks increased after slots were legalized there, the amount of money bet has now started to drop.

The bottom line, Green writes, is that while horse owners and jockeys in states with slots are now competing for purses that are three times what they used to be, the popularity of the sport continues to decline.

Perhaps horse racing will go the way of men's dress hats - once popular, but worn by few today.

That is certainly possible, but allow me to suggest another idea: Horse racing might be one of the most poorly-marketed sports in the U.S.

Anyone who watches any TV at all has seen the spots for Charles Town Races & Slots. They picture happy people in the slots parlor waving big wads of money overhead.

Have you seen a similar ad for horse racing lately? Maybe the week before the Preakness, but not on any regular basis.

In a nation of animal lovers, the lack of any organized marketing campaign (that I can perceive) is nothing short of amazing.

Can you remember the name of this year's Kentucky Derby winner? If you do recall that it was Street Sense, it was probably because of the jockey, Calvin Borel, and his enthusiastic celebration after the race.

Horse racing ought to be a natural for marketing, for a number of reasons, including the aforementioned point that Americans are animal lovers to a degree that makes people in other nations wonder a bit about American priorities.

For example, because of organized campaigns against the butchering of horses for meat, there is only one U.S. slaughterhouse, in DeKalb, Ill., where horses are still prepared for overseas diners. An Illinois law, passed in May to ban the practice, is under appeal.

The drama of horse racing also lends itself to story telling, as movie makers found out again in 2003, when "Seabiscuit" grossed $148 million worldwide and sold 5 million DVDs the first week it was released.

Concede for a moment that I'm correct that horse racing is poorly marketed. Why should anyone care?

At the start of the 2005 Maryland General Assembly session, a group that included Magna Entertainment, which owns Pimlico and Laurel Park, the Maryland Horse Breeders Association and the Maryland State Fair and Agricultural Society gave a report on horse racing to state lawmakers.

They told lawmakers that breeding and horse racing in the state have a $1 billion impact annually on the state's economy.

In addition, the report said, horse breeding makes it profitable to preserve 200,000 acres of green space in the state. to put that in perspective, Washington County's preservation goal is 50,000 acres.

Preserving green space means less urban sprawl, which means the taxpayers won't have to pay for as many new roads, schools and public safety employees such as police, firefighters and paramedics.

Just as important, Maryland's government still faces what is called a structural deficit, which means costs are scheduled to outpace revenues for years to come.

Slots at the state's horse tracks would be a source of those revenues and preserve the 20,000 jobs that Aris Melissaratos, Maryland's secretary of Business and Economic Development in 2005, said were racing related.

If you haven't heard those facts, I'm not surprised. As I said at the start of this column, the horse racing industry doesn't do a very good job of telling its own story.

Bob Maginnis is editorial page editor of The Herald-Mail newspapers.

And then there’s Victor Molina and his story…

Courtesy Philly.com

By DICK JERARDI

jerardd@phillynews.com

It is a fact of race track life that hot-blooded horses injure those around them. Sometimes, the handlers react and strike back at the 1,000-pound animals.

Usually, it happens in anonymity on the backstretch. On June 18 at Philadelphia Park, it did not happen in anonymity for jockey Victor Molina. After getting slightly injured by his mount in the starting gate before the third race, Molina reacted by kicking the horse in the stomach. Television cameras showed the whole thing live.

After an outcry by the host of a national network televising the race, the track was inundated with complaints from viewers. The track reacted by ejecting Molina. Yesterday, the stewards suspended Molina for 30 days and fined him $1,000. The suspension, retroactive to June 19, runs through July 18. Molina has 10 days to appeal.

"Everybody in racing understands how it could happen," Molina said. "Many people called me and told me that.

"I apologized. The track asked me to reach out to the public. I will continue to do that."

Typically, such an incident results in a fine or a short suspension. There isn't much doubt that the initial public reaction played a role in the length of the suspension. There really is no precedent for it.

"There's not many guys who have been around 27 years and have not had a hearing with the stewards over anything of substance," said Molina's agent, Dave Yannuzzi. "I thought this was overkill. If you look at all the punishments doled out for this type of infraction, [a judge] might say, 'Why did you get this and everybody else got that?' "

A phone call to track officials was not returned. Stewards have been told by the Pennsylvania Racing Commission never to comment about anything.

Molina publicly apologized to anybody he spoke with in the aftermath of the incident. In a business in which just about everybody has incidents in his background, Molina did not. But, in this era of political correctness, he was in a tough spot.

It is unclear whether the track's ejection is still in force. The guess is that if Molina does not appeal, it will be over and Molina can work horses in the morning while he waits for July 18.

"I was surprised about the length of the suspension," Molina said. "What I did was wrong, of course. I just thought this penalty was a little too harsh."

The suspension will cost Molina somewhere around $15,000, depending on how his prospective mounts would have done. It will hurt his business when he does come back. He said he might volunteer with the SPCA during his time away from the races. *