SHOULDA, WOULDA, COULDA... Maybe Next Time.

Well, here’s another great bet I missed out on:

For any of you Facebook friends who have been reading this; my trainer buddy Jessie Pizzuro had been sent a 2-year-old horse to get him OK’d to start. She has a photo of the horse in question among her pages (though I don't know if you would get to see it). The thing about Mountaineer Park is that it’s a great place to do this because every Saturday morning we have a schooling race. This takes place at 8:30 and is one of those things I would, if I happened to be in Marketing or Media Relations, highly recommend and advertise for people to watch. But if I were in media relations, I would make spectators aware of every little nuance in the sport before during and after a race. What do I know, though? I’m only a spectator who got too close.

Anyway, Little Chestnut (our nickname for him, for he’s a small red coated horse) was sent to her by a trainer at Charles Town to get OK’d in the schooling race. The first time he went, he was fractious and broke poorly. Although he had done lots of gate work at a training center, we learned that he was mentally unprepared to handle his new surroundings. But other than that, he was a good mannered and willing youngster…with some shining early talent!

In horse racing there’s more than one kind of fast. Little Chestnut’s kind of fast is that he doesn’t cut blistering fractions, but has a ground-covering stride (for a little guy) coupled with exceptional endurance. He’s kind of horse that has enough speed to place himself at a strategic advantage early and enough stamina to wear down any rivals in the final stretch.

The first thing we noticed was that he didn’t get tired, ever. He could gallop two miles and not take a deep breath, and could be hard to pull up after only one mile. He also had a nicely balanced body and a smooth way of going. Everybody liked him, and physically he was precocious enough to overcome both emotional immaturity and bad racing luck. All we had to do was get him OK’d. He was very smart, if just a tad high strung.

We spent the next week or two returning him to the Mountaineer Park gate and getting him used to the environment and procedure. The repetition was agreeable to him; he got the OK, but he didn't get to run at Mountaineer. He returned to the training center. I kept meaning to put him in my Virtual Stable. *

So you know the rest of the story, don't you? I never put him in my virtual stable. The first time I got the news that he ran, I asked:
“Did he win?”
Reply: No. (He ran 6th or something).
Whew, still time. Gotta do that. Put him in my stable...Then he ran again:
“Did he win?”
Reply: He ran third.
By now any savvy horse-playing gallop girl SHOULDA gotten their ass on top of the matter. But Me? I have one excuse; I WOULDA, but I’m not a horseplayer.

I COULDA, but I’m a bloody idiot.

Did you view the chart? In case you don’t read these well, he paid $35 bucks. If I bet just $10 to win on him, I make $115. Never mind wheeling an exacta with him on top; that would have cost me $18 and I would have netted $432.

And the thing about it is that these are the once in a lifetime chances. He’ll never have a chance to be that kind of overlay again. In fact I’m a bit surprised that he went off at such a price, but that’s why it’s so special. I don’t even have to be near him to know that his last start, where he finished third, was no accident at all. Most people don’t like to bet maidens, but when you get on them every day you get to knowing when you’re sitting on one that has the ability, the will and the education to run a winning race.

Yes, it’s truly a thrill when you think to yourself; “and I got that horse ready”, or “I helped get that horse ready” when you see that it won. And nothing adds to that thrill more than; “yup. I blew it again. SHOULDA, WOULDA, COULDA. Maybe next time...”
....which then you have to wait until another one comes around like that. Honest to God. $35!


*I know I have readers who aren’t familiar with horse racing, so for those people - the Virtual Stable is the Fantasy Horseracing counterpart to fantasy football; you get notified when your selected performers will be performing. If you’re interested, here’s a bit about the Virtual Stable offered by Equibase.

Becoming a Rider Who............

My computer was in the crapper for a couple of days. After attempting to fix it I handed it off to my tech guy who said the OS could not be repaird so he had to do a clean install. Cost me $40 but I'm glad to have given him the business. He lost his job and has a big nut to hang onto, although his wife is a nurse and that helps with the bills and the two kids and three massive Bull Terriers they rescued.

My young friend Erin chose not to return to college this fall, and is hoping to find a job in Florida for the winter, preferably with racehorses. I can see that she wants to gallop, and I know that she wants to learn about breaking and training horses, although from there it's anyone's guess what she might get into. The one big strike she's had from the beginning is that like me, she lacks background. Don't get me wrong; she has done many other things and is good at them, and that doesn't hurt - tobe educated never hurts. The bad part is that kids with absolutely no other talents or interestes have spent a lot more time in their lives riding their horses. That they have had more hours in the saddle shows.

I'm going to digress for a moment about author Malcolm Gladwell's most recent work, called Outliers. Not gonna explain what the name means, but in the first chapter he demonstrates a phenomenon about the top Canadian hockey players; all of the big stars were born in the first three months of the year (with maybe one or two exceptions). The relative maturity and potential opportunity level of these players compared to their younger counterparts translates, he argues, to their success.

The reason is that when the skills evaluations come for these players they are not classified according to their chronological age. They are evaluated at their school's class level. The older one is at the time of evaluation, the more developed the skills are likely to be. In addition to having the advantage in the test scenario, these older boys have generally had more time on the ice, which has improved their skills over their younger classmates. This happens from year to year as they are evaluated at every grade level. Since the older ones at age 7 and 8 are visibly superior, they wind up with more ice time from then on, right through their senior high school years.

One of the conclusions from the book is that there is a magic number for developing skills in anything. That number is about 10,000 hours. For the average person, this would be roughly ten years. Obviously, for the student Hockey player born in July, ten years could take longer if he spent more time on the bench than the ice.

With racehorses, everyone knows that June foals don't make promising derby prospects; everyone wants to be born on January 1st, becaue all thoroughbred birthdays are dated January 1st; even the ones that are only five or six months old. You can't be ready to run in a race for three-year-olds when you are only two-and-a-half, much less win it.

But the brain doesn't forget anything, although neural pathways can become rusty with time; two hours here and two hours there still mean something provided the brain isn't damaged by age or injury. Can she ever be perfect, or does that mean she'll even be as good or as talented as anybody else, because she's starting out with a disadvantage?

I'm not done digressing; Gladwell also presents evidence for another case in his book; Your IQ may measure your intelligence and prove you smarter than the next guy, but for all practical purposes (at least in our current culture) the last ten or twenty points doesn't reward the owner of the genius brain. The bottom line, for my purposes, is; you don't have to actually be the best; you only have to be "good enough" in Gladwell's own words.

These things I'm talking about can be argued somewhere else; all I am saying is that there is evidence to support the points I want to make; if it works for you I'm glad. It definitely works for me.

The point I am going to make here is this, and now I am gonna bring us back to my living room and my friend Erin:

Give Erin more hours in the saddle and she will ride good enough to enjoy the rest of her career in riding.The same will hold true for other areas of learning that she will be undertaking as she goes out into the cruel world of work, where at some time or another she will be evaluated as incompetent, incapable, unguideable, or all three.

At Erin"s current level of riding, she is going to find a lot more work on the ground than in the saddle. Once she passes a critical point, she'll get more opportunities, but she'll find it frustrating I'm sure. I came around the same way. I had a limited amount of hours in the saddle and it was difficult to find learning opportunitied once I got out into the real world. I remember after my stint at the Ranch, my first job was as a show groom. I worked for Ellin Dixon, a member of the Widener family, at their Estate just north of Philadelphia County, in Flourtown. I had always wanted to work there but the job wasn't a riding one. I spent a month working as an Au Pair girl for a family near Kennett Square, but although I got to ride, it wasn't nearly as much as I had hoped it would be. The greatest thing that hapd for me while I was there was that I bought my Caliente helmet, and I have had it ever since.

I went to Lavery Farm, in Ocala, and my very first job when I pulled into the farm was to wash the dogs, Mickey Minnie and Sean (Airdales). But I did get to ride there. I spent my summer as a groom at Finger Lakes Racetrack near Rochester, NY. My second year there I broke my knee and Mrs. Lavery said I would never ride at her farm again so I thought I was useless and should give up. So after I recovered I went back to Philadelphia, and did several meaningless jobs; Worked at resturants; Bain's, La Conversacion, Fratelli's, in various positions. I spent three months actually trying to sell Encyclopedias, but I was so afraid of people and had so little self-confidence I never sold any - at least, not to anyone who's credit passed the inspection. I took a two weekend course on how to do TV commercials, given by one of the original TyD Bowl men (forget his name). Cost $90. I was so broke by the time I went back to College at Alfred that I couldn't pay attention.

During school, I found a job and a place to stay with a local farmer named Harry - who happened to have racehorses. Between academic seasons I went back to Finger Lakes for a summer job. You can really make a lot of cash at the track. When you're a kid, you have nothing but time - no responsibilities, nobody to answer to. You can freelance all day long and make a ton. I bought a car and insurance. When I left college, I finally managed to get a gallop license at Finger Lakes, thanks mostly to Harry, who let me gallop his horses whenever we shipped up there. I was breaking them on the farm, so I fit them well at the track. So what did I do but go to California to see the west coast and amke six bucks a gallop instead of three.

GOing to CA was like starting all over again. I found myself on the ground. I tlooked like my only chance at getting my license at Golden Gate was gonna be if I slept with the Outrider, whose offer I declined. Unfortunately I couln't stay way from men. They were like flies, everywhere and they never stopped asking me, if not for a lay, then for a date, at least...Then this fellow Scott Simmons finally managed to wrap himself around me. Men are wonderful, but if you want to pursue a career you have to be with one who supports you in yor dreams; not demands your attention. Scott could've been worse, but he altered my focus from what I really wanted. The upside however, was no more harassment from anybody; including Outrider Ben.

I got into a car accident and after 8 months was awarded a settlement thagt I used to live on until I could finally support myself galloping. I had a car, a 1950 plymouth that I drove all the way to San Mateo every day, where that outrider let me have a license (without the vulgar gratuity attached) and I jogged horses (really still coudln't gallop yet, not very well). Finally one day when the San Mateo County fair was running, a quarter horse man asked me if I wanted to go to TX. Austin, to be exact. There, at Manor downs, hesaid, there wa snot a single gallop person, and I could gallop probably for everyone there.

Off I went to TX in the 1950 Plymouth. And it was there that this family, the MacArthurs, put me through the gymnastics that finally made a rider out of me. They put me in the round pen on the pony with no bridle and chased me around in circles. "Lean back", they kept saying; "LEAN BACK!" Aftera couple of days I coudl actually lean back till my head almost touched th epony's rump. Two other gallop people showed up and I still had to take less opportunities than I had hoped for, but finally, one day;

I was galloping one of the fillies that was sceduled for an upcoming futurity trial (not one of the outfits favorites, so I got to ride her). I was feeling a little tired and I stretched my legs out and almost locked my knees. My toes turned in and my feet went forward. Two old fellows went past me on a pair of colts and they both exclaimed in unison, and I will never forget this as long as I live; "She dit it! She got it!"

So I finally had my seat. I began trying in 1979, and here it was 1988. Probably one of the slowest career development of all time. That wasn't my call; if I had been born to a racing family I would have been doing it since I was ten. But it took me ten years to get about half the hours I needed to really be adequate. Anyway, I returned to Finger Lakes in the Fall of 1988, and after two more years (roughly) I was what I would call capable. All along the way, people said I wouldn't beable to. Harry said it; Mrs. Lavery said it; Outrider Ben said it; the MacArthur's shook their heads, God bless 'em....and al that time there was only one thing that kept me clinging to my hopes: I was more afraid of my unwillingness to do anythign else than I was of my inability to ride a horse.

Even now I have a hard time imagining doing a J.O.B.. I'm afraid I'd call in sick fivedays in a row and then just tell whoever hired me the truth; I really just don;t want to do it...

If I can help Erin avoid the time and trouble I could not, I will have made a difference in my life.

And now I'm gonna get some shuteye before I have to go to work. I have 3 hours!

The ROAP Video Exam; Better Late Than Never, I guess

Finally I hear we are going to get to take the review test for the video portion of the ROAP exam. The whole thing has been nonsense from the beginning. Still, I am not placing blame on anybody. The course is still taught largely bro-bono by experts in the various areas of racing, so;

a) The people who know how to watch a video are also the people that made the video.

b) These people know how to watch a video, but not how to make one.

SO, for their sake I am going to explain how to do this.

Making a Video of 8 Races:

1) Make sure all of your footage is in the same video format; if you are a video idio(t), you just get out your trust-y file conversion software (AVS4YOU is a good one, and only about $50 for more functions than you will ever need). Follow the simple instructions. It's easier than bakin' a cake.

2) Once you have all your converted files (properly labeled, of course. You know how to label a file). For our purposes, let's say you have them in Windows format. That's a popular format (WMA, WMV)

3) Place the clip you plan to use first in your trust-y movie-making software (such as the popular Windows Movie Maker).

4) Add text to your movie clip: Let's assume you have three views of each race; the Pan, the Head on, and Mountaineer would be the 3/8 Pole. SO you put the cursor at the beginning and click on "add text", And when the application pops up, Put your text in; "Race #1; Pan Shot. Then, at the junction between the Pan and the Head on, place your cursor and click Add text. At this point, you want to see if you can let maybe twenty or thirty seconds to pass, and that's easy enough, although I can't tell you exactly how to do it. But it's all in english and it's intuitive design; it'll be right there.

Then, once you're done with that, do the same thing for the 3/8 Shot.

And that wraps up video # 1.

5) do this will all 8 or 12 clips, making sure to label and run some blank time in between each view.

6) Place them all together in the same folder, and make sure that you have them labeled so that they fall naturally in order whenever you open it. To do so , you might have to label them so: 0001, 0002, or you might not. Just make sure they are in the order you want them so that they fall in the same order as your programs on the paper portion of the test.

7) take that folder and put it on a CD. If there is too much data, put it on a memory stick with sufficient memory to store all the videos.

8) be smart: make sure you have a copy of the program on the same storage module.

9) Now, check it out; when you place it on your computer, all you have to do is highlight all ofthe video files and load them into your media player (presumably Windows). You should, if you have the information viewable (on the right side) see each race; race #1, Race#2 and so on, queued in order. You can watch each video separately, one at a time. That way, if the person viewing needs to back up, they will not accidentally back past the point they want to see, which in the original video form has meant as far as a race or two prior.

That's the complaint; you can't review, because it's what I would call a Jumbalaya. Everything' s in there, but none of it is identifiable for what it is. It's a single hour-long video. One can't slide a slider that infinitesimal distance to find a review point, causing people to run over time and fail the exam.

10) be proud of your students because now they can all pass the freakin' test.

The Thoroughbred Stimulus Program

I meant to say that with regard to Casey’s Girl, the filly that won last week, was bred by one of my Facebook (and originally a Mountaineer person), Jennifer Brooks. This means that all the money Casey has earned so far this year (about 12,000) PLUS any other dough she racks up will be awarded to Jen next February.

Due to the tireless efforts of the West Virginia Breeders Association to fatten the wallet of the WV Thoroughbred Development Fund, we now have lotsa Government $$ to compete for.

And not only that, but Lori also gets money in February just for being the current owner. This is not the actual money she earned, the purse money has been paid out already. This is the equivalent of a matching fund! There’s nothing better then knowing that if you can just make it to the second month of the year, you’ll be able to buy oats for your horses and shoes for your kids.

Last spring, Lori had surgery done on both of her home-breds. One had a slab fracture of the knee and one had a fractured cannon bone. Believe it or not, they both apparently won their respective races with these injuries; a testament especially to Mercy, the little chestnut and older sister.

She would go out to train twice a week, and although she would be falling down sore, the vet couldn’t see anything on his x-rays, so she had to keep going. This is a true dilemma for a horseman (woman). You have spent four months getting your young horse fit enough to run, you’ve run it several times and now it’s fit enough to win. It also has clearly understood the nature of the game and what’s at stake.

Everything’s ready; you’re on “go”, and suddenly the horse is limping.

You’ve spent a thousand dollars just on exercise bills (just on me – that’s my job; Exercise). 14 weeks of feed – about 14 bags at 15 bucks a pop, so that’s $210, plus at least 4 bales of straw for bedding a week at 3 bucks, $170, hay 2 bales a week at 5.00, $140, and of course there are the supplements; You’ve got your 30 days of vitamins; roughly $50 so that’s bit over $150, plus you hafta have an iron supplement ($16 x 3), a glucosamine / msm source ($12.95 x 3), and some B1 if he or she is nervous, or some other supplement the vet says your trainee could be lacking.

Then, you have 3 visits from the farrier, $300, one visit from the tooth fairy (dentist) $50, and visits from (or to) the horsie doc for snotty nose, cough, a touch of colic or bouts of tying up syndrome (sever muscle cramps that can nearly immobilize a horse and cause it to drop to the ground if not kept moving or given pain relief). And don’t forget to add the cost of prescriptions: Sulfa, Penicillin, Bute, Banamine, Electrolytes, DMSO, Tagamet, Clenbuterol, Lasix (I’m surprised the French haven’t accused Uncle Sam of biological warfare).

Cha-ching! Total: about $2500. In the meantime, you have nothing coming in, because your job is training the horse, so you hafta pay all your other bills, too. Plus the horse doesn’t win right away; it’s still learning and by the time it’s ready to win it may have raced several times, adding two more months of expenses PLUS the costs of race day medication, and someone to assist you for the event (that’s if it can win because maybe it can’t but you don’t know ‘til you’ve tested it).

You’ve emptied your checking account and maxed-out your credit, and your horse is ready to bail you out with a tremendous performance in which it must best nine others like itself backed by nine others like you, and now the horse is lame.

You have a choice: to scratch the horse and feed it for another two weeks and hope that’s all it will be laid up for, then work another week to get it back to where you want it before you can enter again (except you can’t afford to buy the straw, the hay and the shoes for another three weeks), or run the horse. So unless the vet can tell you not to, you run.

That’s a way of life for a lot of horseman, and especially true for horsemen here at Mountaineer Park; unless they have really strong backing from owners that have tons of dough and no place to spend it. In fact, a favorite saying of racehorse people is that you can build a small fortune in this business - provided you begin with a large one. There are very few people who can afford to do that.

Asking why we do what we do is like asking why anyone would be trying to climb the Corporate ladder…We like working with horses, dressing casual every day, telling dirty jokes at the top of our lungs and harassing each other needlessly. And if you leave the track and go to the farms and keep going to all the places that have a few racehorses, you discover why this industry is so important. It employs a lot of people.

And I’m sure if you ask a horseman about their animals, their replies would demonstrate that most of them do love their horses, and love the seven days a week with no sick days or holidays. The reason I do it is that I have to have my work be my play, or else I’m just doing a job. And I had to cover my social life while working because when I’m done then I want to go home and be by myself, which I also love. And it saves money if you never have to go out at night ‘cuz out’s where you go when you leave the house every morning. So I have it all. All except money and power.

But I digress; while the whole point of the Thoroughbred Development fund is to improve the breed in the state of West Virginia, and whether it does actually do that remains to be seen, the one thing I can say with certainty is that February is Christmas for the horsemen of the Northern Panhandle. Without it I don't know what we'd do right now, as bad as the economy has been.