“All My Children” and “One Life to Live” are not the only soap operas nearing the end of their long runs.
The one in New Jersey, where real lives are being tangled, real livelihoods threatened, and a real disaster is lying ahead for an entire industry, also is close to the end of its line.
May 12 is the cutoff date for this one, and the selfish stalemate creating it, in which 240 or so mutuel clerks and their colleagues are imperiling the welfare of thousands, continues.
Anyone who cares about Thoroughbred racing – from leaders of the industry to fans in the grandstand – has to be worried about the health of the sport. Since 2007, when $14.7 billion was wagered on U.S. races, betting totals have dropped year after year, falling to $11.4 billion in 2010. In the first quarter of this year – even as other segments of the overall economy were beginning to recover – the sharp decline continued.
Tuxedo jacket tossed aside, bow tie loosened and lost, Jess Jackson was sweating through his formal dress shirt on the dance floor at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel on that night in January 2008 when his chestnut colt Curlin was named 2007 Horse of the Year. As he took a breather between tunes, his shock of white hair askew, Jackson smiled in the direction of the golden trophy displayed on his table and answered a question that really didn’t need to be asked.
“Oh I’m having a great time,” Jackson beamed. “Isn’t he just a beautiful, wonderful horse?”
Two weeks and counting until the Kentucky Derby craziness comes to an end, and so far this year the main characters have suffered through more problems than Yum! has Brands.
But we’ve been here many times before, and for experienced observers to be frustrated by the litany of maladies plaguing nice colts in the Derby mix is the height of disingenuity.
It started in February when Boys at Tosconova, the second-best 2-year-old colt in the country last year, was removed from training with what Rick Dutrow suspected was the early onset of a problem with a knee or an ankle.
April 15 is a day of dread for many Americans as it’s the annual Tax Day, where you have to settle up with Uncle Sam. With an extension to the deadline to April 18 this year, it appeared last Friday would pass as uneventful, but then it turned far darker for millions of online poker players and an entire industry that was fighting hard (and seemingly making headway) to become legal in this country.
Craig Lewis had his passport in order, all the recommended shots, a Frommer’s Guide and one of those instant language tapes from Rosetta Stone to play while he took the flight. Then he got the news that his horse didn’t make the cut, so instead of running Quindici Man on Saturday night at Charles Town in West Virginia the trainer will stay home in California for the San Juan Capistrano Invitational Handicap on Sunday afternoon.
It was about this time 35 years ago that Billy Turner knew for certain he was sitting on a time bomb when Seattle Slew, in Turner’s care since the previous fall, was given his first breeze at Belmont Park in late March of 1976.
“He’d already had plenty of miles on the farm, so he was well legged up,” Turner recalled this week. “But with that breeze, he showed so much so fast that I knew I’d be pushing my luck trying to do too much with him too soon.”
In trying to salve the wound of Uncle Mo’s disappointing performance in the Wood Memorial, the name of Secretariat was invoked more than once, as in, “Secretariat finished third in the Wood, too.”
Yes he did. And so did Omaha, Capot, High Gun, Roman Brother, Bold Lad, Genuine Risk, and Groovy, as long as we’re dropping names, along with Doctor Wilson, Hoodoo, Ferd, Our Dad, Aztec Red, Candy Cone, Romano Gucci and Smokin Mel, in case we’re not.
As American racetrack operators continue to experiment with ever-more-exotic additions to their betting menus, they are struggling to locate the sweet spot between risk and reward – a balance of difficulty and affordability that has made customers flock to some of the new wagers while rejecting others.