Gisser: Why can’t we get it right the first time?

It‘s an old Polish phrase that translates roughly to mean “pissing in the soup,” and it is a phrase my grandmother regularly (much to my mom’s embarrassment) used to describe something that on the surface seemed like a good idea, but that with any amount of study and analysis clearly was not. Today it means to have made a complete shambles of something; to totally screw it up. Right now our sport is seeing two perfect examples of the phenomenon.

The Woodbine Entertainment Group’s Clay Horner and The Meadowlands’ Jeff Gural agreed on an integrity policy recently that they were sure everybody would love. But barely anybody did. Why? Well, first off, they got very little input from the outside. They did talk to a limited number of people who would be affected, but it was a pretty small sample. They needed far broader industry perspective in order to develop a legitimate policy that would serve its purpose – Who isn’t in favor of getting rid of the drug cheats and increasing integrity in the sport – but would also be fair and reasonable. This proposal was neither.

First off, I have an issue with a “one strike and you are out,” rule. Mistakes and accidents happen. Vets make mistakes and grooms make mistakes. Even trainers err. I don’t think you can fault the whole chain of command for one error. But this proposal is not even one strike and you’re out. It is “if you are on the roster and a teammate gets a strike, you are out,” rule.

In fact, several social media posts by prominent owners suggest that this rule, as originally written, would kill the yearling market because so many of these animals are being purchased in partnerships and the draconian enforcement would scare people away from being involved. If you don’t know, this rule (as originally written) punished people affiliated with people who have a positive test, even if they had no direct connection to the specific horse in question. That’s right, guilt by association.

I am glad the proposal is being tweaked, and I hope they make major changes. But why not take the time and effort to get it right the first time? As legendary basketball coach John Wooden used to say, “If you don’t have the time to do it right, when will you have the time to do it over?”

I think horse and trainer positives are pretty clear, even with the potential for mistakes. And a one strike and you are out rule (with due process and a legitimate appeal pathway) is fine. But for the owner, who may be no more involved than to send a check once a month and watch his horse race, let’s give this investor a second chance. If an owner’s trainer gets suspended, he has a choice. He can stay with that guy and wait for the suspension, but if there is a second, the owner gets suspended too. Or he can move his horses, without penalty, to another barn. IF he returns to the penalized trainer when the suspension ends, a second positive still gets him suspended. It is pretty easy and straightforward.

I have a hunch we will be talking about this one right through the stakes season.

Meanwhile in my home state of Ohio, as the horsemen were gathering to celebrate an amazing year in the State and on the National scene for Buckeyes in the business, there was another “pissing in the soup” incident.

Early in January, Northfield Park once again announced it was closing its backstretch. Then it announced that it was just limiting the number of stalls available. Actually, they did not announce anything. That is because management is taking the action in response to a court ruling barring Northfield from simulcasting to certain non-approved locations. Northfield says that will cost it a million dollars in revenue, so it needed to start making cost-cutting moves. I would love to give you specific details, but the judge has issued a gag order and it seems nobody from either Northfield or the Ohio Harness Horseman’s Association wants to be thrown in jail for contempt of court.

The fact is that Northfield management has every legal right to close its backstretch or to limit the number of stalls it fills. It can tear down barns to build a hotel (as one apparently inaccurate, but often reported, rumor suggested) if it wishes. It can close the track swimming pool, as it did, even though hardly anyone uses it this time of year, and if it wants to, do these things because a judge slapped their hand and pocketbook, so be it.

But here is why the track’s leadership is pissing in the soup. Northfield wants to keep racing 220 nights a year, even though legally it only needs to race 120 or so. That busy schedule has been its model since simulcasting came to the Buckeye state. And if they fall below 180 or so race dates, a recapture clause kicks in for the horsemen, benefiting their purse pool, which is already underpaid by nearly $10 million dollars, so it is safe to say they if they do cut dates, they will stay above the 180 mark.

The best available sources say Northfield is keeping about 260-265 stalls and will have about 120 ship-in stalls. To race 15 nine-horse fields a night, you need 135 horses. If we assume the track can get 100 shippers nightly and that two-thirds of the horses stabled on the grounds are racing, they will be able to fill their cards. Barely. But this time of year, shippers scratch due to weather.

Many of the stalls feature young horses not yet racing. Later, stakes engagements will draw horses away from the track. Without regard to the fact that there are not enough off-track training center stalls available in Northeast Ohio to accommodate the horses being asked to leave, the numbers simply do not work. Perhaps Northfield hired the highly successful analytics guys the Cleveland Browns recently let go to come up with these figures, but if you really analyze the number of starters and the available horse pool, there is no way Northfield can maintain its current schedule with this model. And that hurts handle, which hurts both horsemen and management.

This impasse has been simmering for a long time. I first wrote about it here in July of 2016. As I said then, regardless of who wins this one, everybody loses. That has not changed.

That’s all for now. RIP Somebeachsomewhere. Now go cash. Hopefully on one of his offspring.