HEROES

(Doctor Dino is coming to Woodbine...Cindy Pierson Dulay photo)

CANADIAN INTERNATIONAL UPDATE

Race is on SATURDAY October 4


Trainer RICHARD GIBSON told THOROUGHBLOG yesterday that DOCTOR DINO, the world-travelling 6yo gelding and a Group 1 winner in various parts of the world, is headed to WOODBINE for the Canadian International.

Gibson indicated the plan is to race at Woodbine and did mention that he hopes it "does not rain too much" as his superstar prefers a firm turf.

DOCTOR DINO is reportedly NOT using the race for the Breeders' Cup (it is a Win and You're In race) and instead he will head to Hong Kong again for the Vase.






VERY LUCKY

It is time to start picking out the stallions for your mares for next year and THOROUGHBLOG has some advertisers on the site who offer some nice prospects.
The latest adition to the THOROUGHBLOG ROSTER is LAURA'S LUCKY BOY, offering graded stakes class, triple digit Beyer Figures and a pedigree nick suitable for Canadian racing - a Theatrical stallion from the immediate family of the legendary CIGAR.
See the ad on the right.

Advertisers...get ready for 2009 and sign up for a year on THOROUGHBLOG.



LETTERS/COMMENTS

THOROUGHBLOG received many emails and comments on the site (see posts for the last 2 days) about the tragic death of PAYDAY PERIL.
The Officer gelding broke down on the grass course on Saturday and after being pulled up by his rider, somehow got loose and raced down the stretch with a broken leg.
He was euthanized on the course.

Thanks to those who sent in their comments to the site and via email.



TUESDAY SCOREBOARD

WOODBINE TRAINERS Through Monday

Mark Casse is starting to edge away..now with a 7 win cushion and almost $700,000 more in purses.
The logjam is for 2nd place as there are hot stables of Scott Fairlie and Roger Attfield collecting wins at a high rate lately.

Mark E. Casse 320 43 49 50 $3,422,145
Sid C. Attard 207 36 31 31 $2,165,953
Scott H. Fairlie 162 35 31 18 $1,345,487
Roger L. Attfield 168 34 19 25 $2,730,452
Reade Baker 212 33 23 28 $1,788,048
Steven M. Asmussen 178 31 22 22 $1,820,959
Michael J. Doyle 199 25 18 23 $1,157,726
Nicholas Gonzalez 137 24 20 21 $1,791,878
Brian A. Lynch 74 24 11 10 $1,830,810
Audre Cappuccitti 172 22 13 18 $674,982
Terry Jordan 56 22 12 3 $846,474
Daniel J. Vella 145 20 21 17 $1,182,275
Ian Black 101 20 12 10 $1,864,641



WOODBINE JOCKEYS

Jim McAleney was hurt a bit on Sunday in that clipping heels accident he missed a few mounts on Sunday..let's see if he is back tomorrow night.


James McAleney 534 109 80 75 $5,785,954
Patrick Husbands 483 88 77 75 $5,308,348
Chantal Sutherland 536 77 64 73 $4,112,732
Emile Ramsammy 578 74 75 77 $3,853,071
Emma-Jayne Wilson 598 72 68 101 $4,278,608
Eurico Rosa Da Silva 528 70 69 58 $4,041,288
Tyler Pizarro 446 59 60 48 $2,805,981
Jono C. Jones 399 58 46 48 $4,213,361
David Clark 358 42 40 40 $2,721,430
Justin Stein 405 41 58 36 $2,056,462
Slade Callaghan 295 37 27 25 $2,396,145
Robert C. Landry 279 36 34 43 $2,446,809
Constant Montpellier 322 31 42 33 $1,751,054


WOODBINE HORSES

Baywoods was a $10,000 claim last fall by trainer Desmond Maynard for the wife of jockey Carl DeFreitas...she won for $30,000 claiming last time.


Name Starts 1st 2nd 3rd Earnings

Baywoods 6 5 0 1 $92,669
Drunken Love 7 4 2 0 $199,720
Legal Move 7 4 1 1 $323,809
Not Bourbon 5 4 1 0 $885,000
Sugar Bay 7 4 1 0 $351,660
Hydethetreasure 10 4 0 3 $77,429
Emma Ain't Bluffin 5 4 0 1 $136,330
Fatal Bullet 4 4 0 0 $198,360
Gaja 7 4 0 0 $49,080



FORT ERIE TRAINERS


Nicholas Gonzalez 113 25 27 12 $322,765
Michael Newell 170 23 22 17 $227,506
John Simms 95 20 19 16 $204,136
Lyle Morden 64 19 10 10 $157,112
Donald C. MacRae 65 18 14 7 $175,071
Ashlee Brnjas 45 16 7 4 $116,766
Daniel Wills 64 13 8 10 $125,184
Paula Loescher 102 12 16 13 $155,013
Robert J.W. Johnston 81 12 12 8 $136,802
Ralph J. Biamonte 49 11 10 9 $100,371

FORT ERIE JOCKEYS

Chad Beckon 368 71 72 56 $864,578
Rui M. Pimentel 290 53 48 38 $564,083
David Garcia 234 48 41 25 $490,206
Christopher Griffith 254 43 31 37 $474,691
Cory Clark 302 40 47 43 $503,889
Melanie Pinto 218 28 21 26 $299,153
Edward Robinson 301 27 27 35 $320,336
Eldridge K. Lindsay 242 24 23 32 $312,490
Dale Hemsley 221 23 31 26 $282,800
Daniel J. David 116 23 14 22 $249,202

FORT ERIE HORSES

Name Starts 1st 2nd 3rd Earnings
Bright N Golden 7 5 1 1 $54,538
Way to Run 11 4 3 3 $37,334
Disbelief 8 4 1 2 $40,930
Athenais 8 4 1 1 $29,116
Krz n' Flashy 7 4 1 0 $38,220
Bad Boy Will 4 4 0 0 $32,868
Harveys Victor 7 4 0 0 $25,542






MARKETING SUMMIT IN LAS VEGAS

Thoroughbred Bloggers Alliance chips in

Is full blown marketing of horse racing at a track the answer?
How do we get new fans to the track?
Is there enough marketing and promotion or not enough?

SEND IN YOUR COMMENTS to Thoroughblog...

THE BLOOD-HORSE'S ESTHER MARR has a good re-cap of the Marketing Summit held last weekend by the NTRA...



NTRA: Reaching a New Generation by Esther Marr

After a three-year hiatus, the National Thoroughbred Racing Association’s Marketing Summit was brought to the forefront of a growing list of necessary steps toward creating a better industry.

The three-day conference, held Sept. 21-23 at the Red Rock Casino, Resort & Spa in Las Vegas, covered a variety of topics, from reaching new generations of fans, to discussing updates on several NTRA programs and initiatives.

Kicking off the Sept. 21 session-packed day was John Della Volpe, founder of SocialSphere Strategies and director of polling at Harvard's Institute of Politics who introduced the NTRA concept called “Reaching a New Generation.”

“We have the ability to empower fans and give them the ability to learn things themselves,” said Della Volpe, who explained how the racing industry currently is in an era of collaboration on the Internet.

“There are more smart people outside your organization than inside. Technology can help us connect.

There are big ideas here that we never thought of because we never engaged the fans.” Della Volpe explained how Alex Waldrop, president and chief executive officer of the NTRA, did just that by outlining his vision for the industry in a document called “A New Way Forward,” which was published in Horseplayer Magazine and mailed to 140,000 racing fans. Waldrop then asked for feedback from the piece.

He took it a step further by posting a blog on NTRA.com 10 days prior to this year’s Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I) in response to the feedback he had received. Within two days, he received more than 800 comments from fans who expressed their thoughts on the declining state of the industry, especially in light of the fatal breakdown of the filly Eight Belles.

After comparing and contrasting other blogs and taking fan comments into account, Waldrop challenged racing enthusiasts to provide the NTRA with new ideas to better market the sport of horse racing.

The request received more than 1,000 interactions, which were then generated into a 48-page plan.

Five representatives from the fan-based online task force, all of which have racing-related blogs, were on hand at the conference to present their thoughts on ways to improve the face of horse racing.

“These aren’t just horse racing fans,” Della Volpe said. “They’re inside of it, on top of it, living and breathing it, and driving conversations around it. Best of all, they’re chomping at the bit to enliven you with their perspectives.”

Kevin Stafford, 30, whose love of racing was cultivated by attending the Preakness Stakes (gr. I) in his native Maryland, brought up the idea of the NTRA building on a strategy called “Take Back Saturday.” Since most of the important stakes take place on Saturdays, including prep races leading up to the Kentucky Derby, Stafford said the NTRA could create a continuous story to tell the casual fan why the races are vital to a horse’s career. “When there’s winning and losing on the line, we’re drawn to that—it’s compelling,” he said. “We need to take back Saturday and carve it out to reach a broader audience. This will give us a chance to change the face of racing.

One of the reasons we’re up here is because we fell in love with racing. We need to make others fall in love with it, too.” Stafford also brought up the idea of merchandising owners, trainers, and jockeys via various wearable products instead of just marketing a specific event

. “Let’s market the stars—that will help fans have a more vested interest,” he said. Troy Racki, a licensed dentist from California, said he stumbled upon the sport through a virtual horseracing stable on the Internet.

“We need to find a way to link the internet to our live racing product,” he said. Virtual racing, which parallels a live product and simulates entry-level ownership, could be used as an education tool to learn how to read a Daily Racing Form and be able to handicap real races, Racki said. One of the most interesting aspects brought up by the NTRA’s online task force was the idea of an ambassador program by which volunteers would host new fans at tracks and show them the ropes of the sport.

Ambassadors would not only show newcomers how to read a Daily Racing Form and handicap races, but they would also give onsite tours to provide opportunities to actually see and touch the horses.

In an experiment of the program at Del Mar, the response was overwhelming, with a 137% booking of ambassadors within 48 hours.

“There’s a need for this type of program,” said Racki, who noted the NTRA planned to launch a similar program at Oak Tree at Santa Anita Park in 2009, and hopes to eventually offer the program to all NTRA-affiliated tracks.

Dana Byerly, 40, said the NTRA could connect with fans more deeply by pushing information out to people on the Internet via widgets, mobile alerts, mobile applications, and ring tones. “We can give people access to what they want,” she said. “In today’s world, people expect to get data anywhere, anytime.”

Jessica Chapel, author of the “Race Day 360” blog on the site Twitter.com, gives 140 character updates to fans from the barn area of tracks on race days and has a small, core group of fans that can receive her information via mobile updates. Chapel said her idea could be expanded on the NTRA’s Web site to give more up-to-date information to fans. “It’s a good way to keep in touch with fans and players and see what they think,” she said.


Other ideas brought up by the task force to help create a larger fan base included the creation of a partnership rating system on NTRA.com, and giving more credentials to bloggers at major racing events. A full report of the 48-page task force document, as well as a podcast of the Sept. 22 presentation in Las Vegas, is available at NTRA.com.



COMING UP SATURDAY..

Breeders' Cup runs for Canadian-bred MAREN'S MEADOW and owned-BEAR NOW

Turfway Park's Kentucky Cup races on Polytrack are on Saturday...


FROM DAILY RACING FORM....

* Maren's Meadow will return to the scene of one of her key career victories following an up-and-down summer as one of the favorites in the $100,000 KC Distaff, a Grade 3 race at 1 1/16 miles. Maren's Meadow, trained by Larry Jones, won the Grade 3 Bourbonette Stakes here in March, then sandwiched fourth-place finishes in two stakes around a victory in the Grade 3 Monmouth Oaks in her three subsequent races. Bear Now, the millionaire Tiznow filly based in Canada with trainer Reade Baker, will be the obvious one to beat in the Distaff, which figures to get at least eight fillies and mares.


FROM ASSOCIATED PRESS

KENTUCKY'S WHIP RULES FOR HARNESS RACING SEVERE

By Jeffrey McMurray ASSOCIATED PRESS

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Kentucky horse racing officials tightened reins on the use of the whip in harness racing Monday by approving new rules for standardbreds they say are the nation's toughest. Under the measure the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission passed by voice vote is a ban on certain kinds of whips and riding crops that have a snapper – strands of material at the end that can leave welts on horses.

One-handed whipping by a rider also will be banned. “Abusive whipping has become a cancer within our sport,” commission member Alan Leavitt said. “Until we get rid of it, it's going to be impossible to gain the fans to replace the ones we've lost to attrition.” The changes don't apply to thoroughbreds, although the panel also is looking at those, and one Kentucky track is experimenting with less-dangerous whips this fall.

There is some debate over whether to allow jockeys to strike the horse by lifting their arm above the head. Bill Napier of the Kentucky Harness Horsemen's Association said standardbred racing has been harmed by the image of riders holding both lines in one hand and repeatedly striking the animals during the homestretch.

“It's a situation where we believe it will reduce both the appearance of abuse and actual abuse,” Napier said. The standardbred whip rule changes will go into effect next spring. A driver could be suspended 10 to 30 days and fined $100 to $13,000 for one-handed whipping. Using a whip with a snapper can result in a suspension up to one year and a fine up to $20,000.