Holidays and Family

By now the news has traveled to much of the Racing media and is known throughout the horse racing world that Dale Baird has been killed in a car accident. As a default family member for half a dozen years now, I find myself here among his brothers and sisters this holiday as well as all the holidays and Edna birthdays since '01.

My spouse, Charles and Dale shared some personal distance, and I have always felt that this was due mainly to their very disparate priorities: Charlie would sacrifice his livelihood for the quality of his relationships, and Dale would sacrifice his relationships for the quality of his livelihood. Although they did not share much conversation, Charlie would help Dale anytime if he needed it.

Charles doesn't recognize offhand how like Dale he is: He focused his competitive nature on being "a good person." and he could beat the hell out of Dale on that; But the truth is as Charles has often declared; "I'm just myself." And so was Dale; just himself.

Dale was certainly great for what he did in the material construction of our world, but his loss isn't augmented by his acheivements in the eyes of God. Nor is it mitigated by the fact (or fantasy) that "just becasue he got recognition doesn't make him better in every way"; since he most certainly was not.

When the one who was just here is now gone, the pain is never measured by a scale of a legacy, but only by heaviness of heart.

The spirits of the family and all who were close enough to feel connected have been both injured and strengthened by the loss. Events occur that change our lives all the time, and in the eyes of Creation it's all perfection, because in the end all that is left is the Spirit.

So in sadness or in lighthearted memories, these moments are perfect in the same way a simple farmer's self-expression amid the appearance of hardscrabble circumstances was.... a Heaven in Hell's Despite.
Blessing to all this holiday season!

Moving Toward the Future of Racing

If you have been visiting at all, which I suspect you have not, friends, you will see that I am beginning to ramp up my activity with the website. I'm planning on changing the domain name when this one expires to one more appropriate to the thrust of the site.


I'm also working on a new application that will make many of the departments obsolete and probably obviate the need for any web developing tools on my part. I have discovered my server's numerous new free tools that can be automatically installed, which is the key to the whole thing. Eventually there will be tremendous space for anybody to create content, so people can share more about what all of us do (at least, thise who can type and use a computer, which are still comparatively few.)


While I was at the Stewards' School in Louisville, there was much talk about tranceparency in the Industry. In case it has never registered to all of you members of the Public, horse racing has for decades been the most heavily policed sport in the country and probably the world. Fans of baseball, football and bikeracing have only just begun to investigate cheating. But because horse racing has always been a gambling outlet, testing for illegal medications, for example has been in practise almost as long as illegal medication.


So imagine, if you will, all the stuff the public never hears. We have been 'corking our bats' since before baseball was a game. But we're the only ones who have been under official scrutiny since the 1800s (maybe the 1700s- I don't actually know).


But this is a new age; I never thought I'd hear a General Manager express that the public should see what this website intends to show: that horse racing is no different than any other sport; or any other game in life, for that matter. It has its share of folks with hay-and-oats integrity and its share of cheatin' m*****f****rs. The only way to promote the honest elements is by exposing the dishonest ones continually. After all, if politics is a nasty, cheating, backstabbing business and no leader exists who has completely avoided involvement in some grift or graft, why would anybody try to say that horse racing is clean?


I am really excited about this. I wouldn't argue that we can completely clean up horse racing. But I will argue that it is best to acknowledge what's so and begin to allow public pressure to add to the other risks that cheaters take. Cheating is a great art, in my opinion, but the sad fact is that making a dishonest dollar costs two honest ones as a rule.


In the Olympics glory is the biggest prize, but in racing the money matters most. To that end, very dollar spent to fix a race cuts into the profit, which until the tickets are cashed is still never a guarantee. Adding to that, behind every score is nearly always at least one failed attempt which means even greater loss. Finally, policing racing makes hiding the fix more costly; an educat public would make hiding the fix more difficult. So the more the public knows about the realities of horse racing, the better off both the public and the industry will be.


I suppose that, like a pimple, transparency could make things seem worse in the beginning. But in the long run, after the patrons go through their own vain attempts to 'expose' foul play and begin once again to trust the industry to police itself, the tide would move more fluidly in the direction of leveling the playing field. And that is an important thing for the health of the industry; keeping it as fair for the competitors and the public as possible.


On and off, I spent some time among people for whom the art of cheating itself appeared to be worth the expense. Some of them were crafy, some of them utterly, hopelessly stupid. The bottom line was that except for the one-in-a-million that actually gets pulled off without a trace, the effort and dollars spent ultimately impoverish the small-time thief. And in these higher tech times, the little cheaters don't have the resources to pull anything off. In my analysis, it costs a lot more money to make a 'score' than it used to. Only a big time thief can pull that off.


The bottom line is that if (and when) it can happen, and if (and when) it does, then it happens no more often then does cheating to become president. And I can rest my case on that.


These conclusions arise from having hung around some shifty people, which I know cost me dearly in my own career as a rider. I don't regret it for what it taught me that I can pass on; it's not worth the cost. I had fun, and I got to hear the stories, which was what I loved about it. Plus I never had to hold a horse - I only ever had to let a horse run. But I ultimately garnered less opportunities to ride because of my associations. If I ever wondered why so-and-so rode all the other girls, but not me, the reason was most likely that I was hanging with a known crook. This continued even after I no longer hung with the crooks; I was marked by my associations.


That's all for now.