Michael Beychok, the 2012 Eclipse Award Handicapper of the Year, was in Northern California earlier this week participating in a conference of crisis management experts on the topic of natural disasters. His mind, not surprisingly, kept wandering to horse racing, and the current crisis faced by the industry over the rash of equine fatalities this winter at Santa Anita.
“There are so many parallels,” Beychok said. “And the industry, as a whole, is handling this about as poorly as it can.”