It's Not My Job - Yes It Is
NY Times
AP story
I recently read the two above somewhat different articles based on the Report of Racetrack Injuries. With RIGHT NOW being really critical for our sport and our livelihoods (let us not forget the number of people that make a living and support their families or selves in this industry) I find it wildly amazing and ridiculous that if I Google Report of Racetrack Injuries (without quotes btw) there are about 449,000 articles or web pages with information. I'm sure when you get to the further pages (10 per page for me) that the story is unrelated to what we are talking about.
The amazing and ridiculous part? Glad you asked. This story actually came out at Thoroughbredtimes.com and out on BloodHorse.com on April 10th this year. Since then we have had a so much thrown at us and some of it might be warranted. Some of it is not at all - but that is what happens when people that don't know - try to talk. Where I'm having the problem is that we seem to be sitting on some sort of time bomb here and there are so many that can help diffuse it - but I guess since we've seen so many Hollywood movies where the hero stops the impending doom at 1 or 2 seconds - in the nick of time.
I see that many of us think that a great racehorse will make all the difference in the world. And that is so 1973. That horse helped beyond words. It was nice to get something positive back then (I was only 4 so I'm guessing and relating from others). However, back then the Internet was still 7 years from a beginning process. So we had CBS, ABC, NBC and maybe PBS. Not to mention the daily newspaper. But that is it. So we couldn't get online or get a text that tells us CNN Breaking News or TDN News alerts. We had to wait sometimes days for "breaking news" depending on where we lived. Of course a great horse who was going to save the day.
I hear it year after year that a Triple Crown winner will "save Thoroughbred racing." That's cute and all but the horse just goes out and runs people for fun. They don't make the rules, they don't right the laws, they don't know that our future is in their hooves. Now don't think I'm going PETA stupidity on you with that because I know they love it. What I'm saying is - we cannot wait for Big Brown to come back later in the year to save our sport. We cannot wait for Curlin (btw - saw him run in person for the first time in the Stephen Foster H. this weekend at Churchill and I was without words) to possibly run in the Arc in France in October to save our sport.
We have waited for 30 years for a Triple Crown winner. We could very well never seen one again. Look at other major racing countries:
England: Not since 1970 - Nijinsky II
Ireland: Only 2 winners ever
Canada: well thankfully they had Wando in 2003 - but they only have 7 total
Waiting on a historical moment is liking waiting on a politician to do what's right all the way through there time in office. Whatever political affiliation you might belong to - you know that it's rare. The industry has been looking for a shot in the arm for 30 years, but no one has bothered to see what was put in the syringe.
My thoughts? Glad you asked again. I think we'll have some answers of some sort after the Congressional Hearings this week. I hope they are answers we might want. You see - time goes by and the majority of the people that can benefit from good press, good racing and the positive future of the industry itself never speak. It's so much the American way of course - to hope that someone in charge will handle it. It's the It's Not my Job syndrome. Where everyone does what would be only on their job description and nothing more. I learned long ago from a great woman who told me "you do a good job at your job - but you do nothing else." That hurt my feelings because my (at the time crazy mental) personal views of myself were that I was outstanding at everything. But I was just one of those people that just did their job.
Those same people expect a great raise at evaluation time and they expect a bonus and a promotion. For what? for doing your job? That is like a server at ANY restaurant expecting my usual 25% tip because they remembered to bring my food or fill my drink. Sorry all you did was your job. No extra tip here. Even if you were attractive.
We cannot just expect the NTRA and Alex Waldrop to do everything for us but we can began being more wise about what is actually coming to a head here. Everyone should at the very least - be doing their job and not just collecting their pay check - or tip. If you expect more when the time comes - you should have done more.
AP story
I recently read the two above somewhat different articles based on the Report of Racetrack Injuries. With RIGHT NOW being really critical for our sport and our livelihoods (let us not forget the number of people that make a living and support their families or selves in this industry) I find it wildly amazing and ridiculous that if I Google Report of Racetrack Injuries (without quotes btw) there are about 449,000 articles or web pages with information. I'm sure when you get to the further pages (10 per page for me) that the story is unrelated to what we are talking about.
The amazing and ridiculous part? Glad you asked. This story actually came out at Thoroughbredtimes.com and out on BloodHorse.com on April 10th this year. Since then we have had a so much thrown at us and some of it might be warranted. Some of it is not at all - but that is what happens when people that don't know - try to talk. Where I'm having the problem is that we seem to be sitting on some sort of time bomb here and there are so many that can help diffuse it - but I guess since we've seen so many Hollywood movies where the hero stops the impending doom at 1 or 2 seconds - in the nick of time.
I see that many of us think that a great racehorse will make all the difference in the world. And that is so 1973. That horse helped beyond words. It was nice to get something positive back then (I was only 4 so I'm guessing and relating from others). However, back then the Internet was still 7 years from a beginning process. So we had CBS, ABC, NBC and maybe PBS. Not to mention the daily newspaper. But that is it. So we couldn't get online or get a text that tells us CNN Breaking News or TDN News alerts. We had to wait sometimes days for "breaking news" depending on where we lived. Of course a great horse who was going to save the day.
I hear it year after year that a Triple Crown winner will "save Thoroughbred racing." That's cute and all but the horse just goes out and runs people for fun. They don't make the rules, they don't right the laws, they don't know that our future is in their hooves. Now don't think I'm going PETA stupidity on you with that because I know they love it. What I'm saying is - we cannot wait for Big Brown to come back later in the year to save our sport. We cannot wait for Curlin (btw - saw him run in person for the first time in the Stephen Foster H. this weekend at Churchill and I was without words) to possibly run in the Arc in France in October to save our sport.
We have waited for 30 years for a Triple Crown winner. We could very well never seen one again. Look at other major racing countries:
England: Not since 1970 - Nijinsky II
Ireland: Only 2 winners ever
Canada: well thankfully they had Wando in 2003 - but they only have 7 total
Waiting on a historical moment is liking waiting on a politician to do what's right all the way through there time in office. Whatever political affiliation you might belong to - you know that it's rare. The industry has been looking for a shot in the arm for 30 years, but no one has bothered to see what was put in the syringe.
My thoughts? Glad you asked again. I think we'll have some answers of some sort after the Congressional Hearings this week. I hope they are answers we might want. You see - time goes by and the majority of the people that can benefit from good press, good racing and the positive future of the industry itself never speak. It's so much the American way of course - to hope that someone in charge will handle it. It's the It's Not my Job syndrome. Where everyone does what would be only on their job description and nothing more. I learned long ago from a great woman who told me "you do a good job at your job - but you do nothing else." That hurt my feelings because my (at the time crazy mental) personal views of myself were that I was outstanding at everything. But I was just one of those people that just did their job.
Those same people expect a great raise at evaluation time and they expect a bonus and a promotion. For what? for doing your job? That is like a server at ANY restaurant expecting my usual 25% tip because they remembered to bring my food or fill my drink. Sorry all you did was your job. No extra tip here. Even if you were attractive.
We cannot just expect the NTRA and Alex Waldrop to do everything for us but we can began being more wise about what is actually coming to a head here. Everyone should at the very least - be doing their job and not just collecting their pay check - or tip. If you expect more when the time comes - you should have done more.
Well said and oh so very true.
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