We live in a 24 hour news cycle, with Twitter, Facebook, and RSS feeds to keep our Blackberry’s buzzing all throughout the day. And that means that every little morsel is suddenly open for discussion.
It’s true as true in racing as it is in news.
Take last year’s Breeders’ Cup for example: Claire Novak does a fantastic article on the equine spa on the backstretch of Churchill Downs. Whether she planned it or not, the eventual Classic winner, Blame, was getting a treatment while she interviewed the various connections of both horse and machine. She TwitPic’d photos of a happy pony standing in bubbling salts and water.
Because the colt had one work delayed and was then having his legs treated, the Blogosphere immediately assumed something was wrong and the horse was a toss from a betting perspective.
No. The events were mutually exclusive: they may involve the same horse, but the outcomes were anything but common.
It’s the same thing now with Uncle Mo and Dialed In on their Derby Trail navigating: a horse takes the unconventional route of Allowance instead of Graded Stake and suddenly everyone’s standing in racing’s Tehir Square throwing rocks at Anderson Cooper.
In the case of Uncle Mo, the colt has $1.26 million in earnings – Pletcher could train him up to the Derby and he’d be in. So why not take an easier path for the pony? I admire Todd and Mike Repole for taking a path that’s horse friendly: he’s got the class and the talent, so letting him face softer company to tighten the screws more than he could in the morning, then give him one big prep, makes perfect sense.
What’s even better is that they realize it’s not the case with Stay Thirsty. The horse can match Uncle Mo stride for stride in the mornings at Palm Meadows, but Pletcher sees he needs a) earnings (as he’s 22nd with $110k currently), and b) seasoning. So Todd sends him to New York to run in his owner’s backyard and get the experience.
And why the hubbub over Dialed In?
He’s got $240k in earnings, so his spot in the starting gate is pretty safe. People seem to forget that the colt’s still learning – watch him in the final sixteenth of the Holy Bull with the lead switching and the ears up – he’s having fun and still trying to figure out what this whole racing thing is. Nick Zito has had him pegged perfectly for months now, so if he doesn’t have to stress the son of Mineshaft in a stake and can get some experience under his girth before tackling the Florida Derby, why not?
Just because we have the platforms doesn’t mean we have to overreact. Remember a few years back before we all had cell phones? You weren’t worried if you left your phone at home, or that a newspaper was the best source of information. Now we can’t step two feet away from the phone without an anxiety attack, and everything from news to movies is pre-programmed into our smart phones.
And the beautiful thing about all this technology is that we’re connected with and privy to the opinions of people we never would have been before. I love that I can now count Sid Fernando – no question one of my heroes in the pedigree side of the industry – as a friend online. Or that I can find out about Oaklawn’s track conditions from trainer Tim Ice on Facebook.
But I so strongly urge everyone to take a step back: first off, there’s still 65 days to Derby – and that’s an eternity in this game; and second, can we all agree to consider the source?
