Back from attending my 19th consecutive Breeders’ Cup. It was staged this year in the heart of horse country – at Keeneland in Lexington, KY. The top racing highlight of many over the course of two days was Triple Crown winner American Pharoah’s final race which turned out to be an easy win in the Classic.
Under cool, cloudy skies both Friday and Saturday, the two full cards of big money races with varying entry conditions played out at a legendary thoroughbred race track many fans consider to be the nicest in the country.
It was a gamble to stage the Cup at Keeneland because similarly-sized plants have struggled to pull off the event in years’ past. Those who control the Cup’s rotating location decision had shied away from small-venue Cups, avoiding them completely since 2007. That’s when Monmouth had a lackluster set of circumstances that led to a less than memorable Cup experience. In recent years, the Cup board had gravitated toward the easy and hospitable Santa Anita in Southern California which hosted five of the last seven Cups and gets it again next year.
I’m issuing a mostly positive review of Keeneland’s 2015 hosting performance and will start out by saying that I was stunned at the effectiveness of the track’s logistical planning on the transportation side. Only a small percentage of attendees both days could park on site, so it was a massive fleet of private bus operators who shuttled some 30 to 40-thousand people between parking lots in Lexington proper to the track and back. A private vendor coordinated movement of fans who can be fussy and in some cases intoxicated with great precision and preparation. Guys in windbreakers holding clipboards and counter-clickers hustled patrons onto private coaches and school buses operated by hundreds of different companies. When the races let out, tens of thousands of fans converged on what was a splendidly devised exit scheme that funneled people onto buses which vacated the facility with ease. Considering the size of Lexington and the limited traffic arteries at Keeneland‘s gates, it’s clear the transportation issue was carefully considered in advance. It did bother me a little that the Cup’s web site “teamed” with (and seemed to tout) Uber ahead of private local and longstanding taxi companies as an alternate means of getting to and fro but it totally nailed the bus plan. I was shocked by the effectiveness of what was a patchwork arrangement of independent bus operators stitched together by a third party coordinator.
Credit must also be given to the track itself for maintaining fan access to the three essential B’s: Booze, betting and bathrooms. Even when the crowd swelled to its peak on mid-Saturday afternoon, you could manage to wager, swill freely and visit the washroom. There was a period during peak crowd size Saturday afternoon when it was tough to find a reasonable food line but it all worked out. I had the burgoo both days and it was amazing. How is it that the meat distribution is so uniform by serving?
Food and drink prices were not outrageous. I’d guess they were about 40-percent lower than what Belmont charges on its big day.
My pal Jeff D and I opted to rely (as we do annually) on our pal Carsoni for entry. We entered Keeneland with general admission wristbands that ushers at the gate barely even looked at. Our access was limited to the track apron and all of the first floor. We didn’t have proper seats – which wasn’t ideal – but we managed to get decent glimpses of the racing action as it passed us by on the home stretch. We also had easy ability to get close to Keeneland’s majestic paddock space.
Track employees – and Lexingtonians in general – all radiated pretty extreme positive and friendly vibes throughout the weekend.
My only real beef with Keeneland as Cup host was the emphasis on catering to the upper crust at the expense of the regular fan. Cup boss Craig Fravel was straightforward in saying that this event targeted the patron willing to spend in the hundreds of dollars to occupy a seat in the main plant – or in one of the temporary structures which offered little to no view of the track. The elaborate set of nonpermanent buildings and tents added to Keeneland’s august grounds just for the Cup marred the look and feel of the place.
It wasn’t horse racing as a horse racing event is meant to be – and as I’ve loved it over the years. What I mean by that is that the beauty of horse racing is that you set a date, you invite everybody to come and you charge a low number to walk in the door. The race track makes dough from its take of the generous slice of the betting action and typically doesn’t charge arm and leg on top of it at the admission gate.
That basic philosophy has changed in recent years on scattered few big days on the racing calendar starting with the Kentucky Derby which purged generations of regular seat holders who had paid a nominal number to attend that special event. Churchill Downs got brief heat for the move but effectively extracted hefty increases in ticket revenue which of course they have the right to do.
At a July 2014 news conference announcing Keeneland’s 2015 Cup plans, the track’s vice-president/COO Vince Gabbert said attendance would be capped at somewhere between 40 to 45-thousand each day. If you’ve ever been to Blue Grass Stakes day, you know that 40 grand is pushing it no matter the expanse of the temporary structures.
For this Cup, about half those admitted had seats and about half of those with seats had an actual view of the races.
Friday’s attendance was announced at 44,947. That raised eyebrows simply because it was clear Saturday would bring a larger crowd but acknowledgement of that fact would undermine Gabbert’s stated limitation.
Attendance on Saturday was at least 10-thousand higher than Friday but the track put it at 50,155. Whatever it was, it was bearable in terms of getting through the day but not as pleasant as if you were at a facility better sized for the event.
Unfortunately from my perspective, Fravel’s risky move to return the Cup to a small venue appears to have paid off. The Cup said ticket revenue for the two day event at Keeneland “more than doubled” what it took in at Santa Anita last year. Part of that has to do with the fact Friday at Keeneland was such a smash. The local thirst for live racing combined with what you have to believe was a robust turnout by the industry on a day many fans took a pass on at previous Cups.
In two years, the Cup goes back to a small venue (Del Mar) and may not get the stars to align for that one the same way it did at Keeneland. There may not be another Pharoah for forever. The concentration of industry types aren’t there and the laid-back local audience may not buy what Fravel sold at Keeneland when he devised what he described as a “very special hospitality showplace.” I won’t be at Del Mar to find out given my dislike for the small venue Cup. Next year at Santa Anita will be an even 20 in a row. I’ll go to that one and then stop going until it comes back to New York which could be never.
Besides Pharoah’s inevitable victory given scratches of the only two Classic entrants posing a pace pressure threat, the racing highlight of the weekend came in the Sprint when Runhappy burst down the lane with a thrilling run to beat a tough field including Private Zone. The lightly raced three-year-old son of Super Saver won the King’s Bishop and Phoenix going in and was bet down to 8-5. The compelling story of young trainer Maria Borell and her guidance of Runhappy into such a huge spot went from happy to sad in about 24 hours. The day after the Sprint win, Borell found out she’d been fired by Runhappy’s owner James McIngvale after a series of disagreements between trainer and ownership team came to a head. Borell’s use of Twitter – and McIngvale’s subsequent retort via Ray Paulick’s web site has turned the aftermath super ugly.
We were on the apron when Mongolian Saturday won the Turf Sprint out of the 14 hole at 16-1. A contingent of visitors from Mongolia dressed in native garb looked out of place in the couple hours before the race but basked in adulation from racing fans after the unlikely win.
Away from the track, we sipped some IPA at the West Sixth Brewing tap room and visited another couple bars down the street. None of our meals were especially memorable. Our lodging spot – a Red Roof Inn – was pretty good.
We had solid takeout pie from Sir Pizza in Nashville on Sunday night while watching the Mets get eliminated. I flew back to New York on Monday morning (Nov. 2) out of Nashville.
-On the Mets: I’m not down in the dumps or tortured by the way the World Series played out despite losing late leads in three of the four losses. The individual plays and sequences that led to the blown advantages came as a result of the same deficiencies that were prominent throughout the season. I think the Met fan is excited about this year’s ride and hopeful there are more to come. Terry Collins has handled both the internal and external tasks associated with his job extremely well and must feel great to have finally gotten a taste of meaningful September and October baseball in New York City. Never in the last five seasons with Collins at the helm did I feel like the ship was adrift. That said, I thought he lost his way a little in dealing the conundrum of bridging the gap between a brilliant starting pitching performance and the game’s closeout. The move that bothered me came Friday night in game three when Collins went to Familia with a six-run lead. Familia only needed 11 pitches to finish it off, and he hadn’t pitched in three days, but you knew the Mets had two huge games looming the next two nights. It seemed foolish to compromise the unconditional availability of the only guy in your bullpen with lockdown stuff. Familia might have needed the work but no way do you use him in garbage time with the likelihood you’d need him to go beyond one inning in each of the next two nights. And wouldn’t you know it, the Mets were up 3-2 to start the eighth inning Saturday night in game four. The Mets trailed 2-1 in the series and were six outs away from tying up the best-of-seven. Momentum had shifted in the Mets favor. But because Collins used Familia in the non-urgent situation the night before, he acknowledged feeling uneasy calling on his closer for six outs in game four. So, in comes Clippard who was acquired to be the reliable eighth inning guy but had been shaky for the better part of the last six weeks. Clippard got Escobar to ground out but then walked Zobrist on five pitches and Cain on six. Terry belatedly decided to bring in Familia but you know what happened next. Murph rushes in on the grounder by Hoz and whiffs on it. You gotta wonder how both the inning and the game turn out if Familia starts the eighth with a full head of steam and the bases empty. I also think there was residual impact in game five from the original blunder when Collins let Harvey start the ninth inning. Familia’s pattern/rhythm was messed up by what transpired the previous two nights and so that entered into the equation as Collins broke with habit and gave Harvey extra rope. Collins would explain that decision later as allowing his “heart” to overrule his “gut.” But would gut have prevailed if Familia was not used in game three and got a clean six-out save in game four? Collins fell on the sword for sending out the Knight in the ninth. I don’t really have a problem with that part of it. I personally felt nauseous when the live TV cameras brought us so close to the deliberations between Harvey, Collins and Warthen but #33 still had both command and velocity so it was a tough call. You don’t want players making managerial decisions. On the broadcast, Buck presumed that Harvey’s plea to stay in resulted in a complete flip by Terry. Buck made that leap based on lip-reading I guess because we didn’t know for sure at that moment what Werthen told Harvey that caused him to get so animated. After the walk to Cain, I definitely would not have waited any longer to pull Harvey. But Terry went one more batter and Hoz burned him. Later, Hosmer’s aggressive move to the plate on the Perez grounder to Wright didn’t really leave me with too much regret because that was a tough play for Duda. And then once you’re in extras, the Met bullpen became a big disadvantage vs. the Royals who are simply a better team top to bottom. I think both Murphy and Cespedes both go to greener financial pastures elsewhere as Alderson continues his pattern of making value a priority. Bullpen help will be a priority and I think there’s a long look taken at what to do with the starting catcher position. The Royals ran wild on d’Arnaud. I’d be torn on what to do. Power and .280 with no arm vs. a stolen base stopper and .220. I don’t know enough about applying the various factors to a full season but the free base really seemed to aid KC’s cause.