“Red Horse hopes changes lead to big things in '11” plus 2 more |
- Red Horse hopes changes lead to big things in '11
- Zenyatta's selection as horse of the year is thoroughly deserved
- Racing still feeling full force of recession
| Red Horse hopes changes lead to big things in '11 Posted: 18 Jan 2011 12:43 PM PST Red Horse Racing has had some success since owners Tom DeLoach and Jeff Hammond entered the Camping World Truck Series in 2005, but with a pair of almost fully sponsored Toyotas in a completely reorganized stable for 2011, the best might be right around the corner. "2011 is already starting off better than probably any season I've had in the last two or three years," DeLoach said. "We've made a lot of changes in personnel, and the attitude in the shop is probably the best I've ever seen it. The guys are energized -- pumped-up. We've had our speeches and we're committed."  Timothy Peters and Miguel Paludo DeLoach has put crew chief Butch Hylton together with defending Daytona season-opener winner Timothy Peters and added a second truck, fully-sponsored by Stemco/Duroline, in the No. 2 position, for Brazilian rookie Miguel Paludo. Paludo made his first four starts in the series in 2010 -- two of them with Red Horse -- and scored a top-10 finish in his series debut, at Bristol, of all places. He worked with veteran crew chief Rick Gay, who was Red Horse's competition director last year. But Gay wanted to get back on the pit box as a crew chief and that opened the door for six-time Truck Series race winner Terry Cook to join Red Horse as competition director. "I'm really looking forward to getting back to the crew chief role," Gay said. "I learned a lot last year that I think will only make me a better crew chief this season. The changes Red Horse Racing has made during this offseason have us all really excited for 2011." The best thing, both Gay and DeLoach agreed, is the synergy between the two veteran chief mechanics. "Butch Hylton and I are getting along great and the communication we have with each other will help make both trucks even better next year," Gay said. "Miguel has shown a great amount of talent and potential so far, and I can't wait to see what we can do together." DeLoach's team won in its inaugural season with rookie driver Brandon Whitt, won in its second year with veteran David Starr and has won a race in each of the past two seasons, with Peters winning at his home track, Martinsville Speedway and then scoring a stunning, last-lap Daytona triumph over eventual series champion and two-time Daytona winner Todd Bodine. DeLoach thinks the biggest barrier to success -- funding -- has been solved. DeLoach has virtually all of Peters' season covered via sponsorship from the Apex Tool Group and its Crescent Tools brand, along with K&N Filters and continues with discussions to cover the last few races, which is much better than 2010, when more than half the season was unsponsored. "There are plenty of drivers out there," DeLoach said. "The funding is the issue, and paying for it all." DeLoach called Peters' 2010 season, which included two poles, five top-five and 16 top-10 finishes "frustrating," because, after winning at Daytona, the second victory never came. And never did a challenge to Bodine's second career championship. "In the end we made quite a few changes and we think we've re-stacked it in a way that addresses some of the issues we thought we had, and it'll get stronger, going forward," DeLoach said. "The exciting thing to me, right now is with Butch Hylton joining us -- Butch and Rick Gay are spending a lot of time [together]. "It looks like they're connected and everything is discussed -- every little piece. They're really working together and they have each other's back, and I haven't seen that before and it's really refreshing after working on that for a number of years, to finally have it beginning to happen." The effective chemical balance began with the driver and crew chief, the owner said. "Butch and Timothy have clicked very nicely," DeLoach said. "Timothy respects Butch for background he brings to the table and Butch respects Timothy for what he's done so far in his racing career, but made it very clear to me that he had a Cup championship ring and a Nationwide championship ring and he wanted a Truck championship ring. "I told him we could agree on that part." DeLoach said he and Cook began talking about getting together last season and it took until the off-season to make it happen. DeLoach praised Cook's "people skills" saying, "Terry Cook is a big piece of trying to put all the ingredients together to work for us, and I'm pretty excited about that. "Terry's done everything from running his own cars to being involved with setting up the original ThorSport Racing team. He's made 297 starts in the Truck Series so he brings a wealth of background. He's had a lot of relationships with sponsors, so he understands that side of it." Cook and owner both feel they'll get an eyeful this season with Paludo, the Brazilian who qualified eighth at Texas in his Red Horse debut but crashed and finished 33rd. He impressed his owner when "he manned-up and said, 'don't you change a thing with what you're doing -- that was my fault,'" DeLoach said. "And I'll be darned if he didn't go to Homestead and, once he figured that place out, which is not an easy thing to do, finished in the top 10. "So we're pretty pumped about Miguel being here and Rick's excited about doing whatever we can do to get him to be the rookie of the year." Paludo won the Brazilian Porsche GT3 Cup two consecutive seasons, in 2008 and 2009, including winning 10 races the second season. "He's a rookie in the Truck Series, but by no means is he a rookie in the seat," DeLoach said. "I think you're really going to see a competent driver, in Miguel, show up and we saw his patience, and ability at Homestead." Red Horse ran a third truck at Daytona last season but didn't have the funding to continue it. DeLoach says he's not compelled to run the third team if it can't significantly help the other two and not be a drain on the organization -- and his informal deadline to do a third program has already passed. "I've gotten to the position where we're saying, 'wait,'" DeLoach said. "If a third team comes in, it's got to be fully-funded because we're not going to run someone out of the Red Horse checkbook. If it happens, it will be for a good reason and if it doesn't, that's OK." "Red Horse Racing goes to the track to win races and to win championships. And I have a real hard time believing we're fulfilling that objective if we just do a partial schedule, because we can't get the right people to be the crew on that if you have to say 'hey, come do a couple races and then come back later,' because I can't afford to cover them in all the down-time. "So a partial schedule does not appeal to me. Having a truck with a couple drivers is still doable because you could put together a competitive team. But I have a hard time believing you could truly be competitive running a part-time schedule." DeLoach didn't rule out doing a third truck later in the season, however. "If we don't do a full year, the only way we'd look at doing a third truck is near the end of the year," DeLoach said, "when we'd do a few races to tee up for the following year." This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
| Zenyatta's selection as horse of the year is thoroughly deserved Posted: 17 Jan 2011 10:38 PM PST The final mantle of glory they placed on Zenyatta's shoulders Monday night was wonderfully deserving and woefully inadequate. She certainly was horse of the year. More accurately, she was horse of a lifetime. Since the former is as high as the honors go in thoroughbred racing, it will suffice. When the announcement was made, in a huge hotel ballroom in Miami Beach, Jerry Moss hugged his wife, Ann, and gave her a long kiss. For them, it was the ultimate ending to the ultimate gamble. They had run her into her sixth year. They had brought her back after she had incredibly beaten the boys — a first for any mare — in the 2009 Breeders' Cup Classic. At this time last year, Zenyatta's potential worth in future breeding earnings made Moss' little business of producing and selling zillions of records with Herb Alpert look like a lemonade stand. One bad step by the talented lady and the equivalent of the gross national product of Iceland was gone. By the time most thoroughbred stars of either gender are in their sixth year, racing is analyzing the possible success of their progeny in an upcoming Kentucky Derby and their owners are spending much quality time with their bankers. The Mosses let love of sport transcend love of dollars. They did it for racing fans, and in this case, that is not a cliche. In the televised aftermath of the much-anticipated announcement, microphones were predictably stuck in faces. One of the recipients, Dottie Ingordo, race manager for the Mosses, got right to the point. "I'm so happy for the fans," she said. It was a basic, simple statement. What she meant was much deeper. This was to be a controversial announcement. Many thought it was the toughest choice ever for Eclipse Award voters. More so, it was to be a seminal moment in racing. Zenyatta had won her first 19 races, had done so by dancing in the paddock, posing for pictures like she was Heidi Klum and then sprinting from way behind — always way behind — to win at the wire. Zenyatta always finished like John Force started. All the brightest minds in thoroughbred promotions could have spent millions and not come close to creating the drama she did every time she ran. But the last time, she lost. In the same race that had taken her public profile into the stratosphere the year before, the Breeders' Cup Classic, a wonderful colt with a fitting name — Blame — became the first horse to hold off Zenyatta's always amazing finish. And so, with a victory over Her Majesty, a legendary owner named Seth Hancock pushing for Blame's horse-of-the-year candidacy in the news conference afterward, and Zenyatta's record now sullied by her three-inch shortfall in her last race, racing had a controversy. Insiders, many of them voters, favored Blame. Many seemed to put more value on the Grade I stakes won in the East by Blame than in the Grade I stakes won in the West by Zenyatta; also more value on victories on Eastern dirt than California synthetics. The general fan, especially a new legion of females who had come, seen Zenyatta and were conquered, didn't know or care about Blame, even after the Classic. Zenyatta had grabbed their hearts, convinced them that hers was a sport worth watching. That meant that an announcement saying Zenyatta wasn't even considered by her own sport the best of the year could send hundreds of thousands of new fans away from the track, shaking their heads, never to return. Ingordo got it right. This one was for the fans, as orchestrated by the Mosses. And, in the end, it is reasonable to conclude that that dynamic worked its way into the minds and hearts of many voters. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
| Racing still feeling full force of recession Posted: 18 Jan 2011 05:09 AM PST irishtimes.com - Last Updated: Tuesday, January 18, 2011, 12:44 Racing: While Horse Racing Ireland (HRI) attempted to put a brave face on matters, pointing to a leveling out of attendances and a slight rise in bloodstock sales, the figures released for the last 12 months don't make for comfortable reading for the industry. On-course betting continues to fall, with punters still flocking to online and off-shore accounts, while total-prize money and race sponsorship are both well down on 2009 figures.Bookies took just €107.4 million at tracks around the country last year, compared with €121.9 million in 2009. The number of bets placed at Tote and on-course SP shops also fell dramatically. The value of flat races in Ireland fell by €5.5 million last year, from €28.3 million to €22.8 million. Almost €4 million of that total was due to the loss of the two Goffs Sales races at the Curragh and a significant reduction in the values of the five Classics and Irish Champion Stakes. The prize funds at National Hunt meetings were not immune from the effects of the recession either, with the total down from €24.6 million to 23.2 million. Owners, particularly those new to the sport, remain thin on the ground with almost 50 per cent fewer newcomers attracted to the industry since 2007. In addition, the total number of owners fell below 5,000. The silver lining, if that is not stretching things a touch, for the industry came with the news that bloodstock sales rose slightly while average attendances were on a par with 2009 levels. However, any talk of a recovery is still well wide of the mark. "In 2008 we had the first year of contraction in the industry in fifteen years and the decline in attendances and bloodstock sales, key markers of the health of the business, accelerated in 2009," explained HRI chief executive Brian Kavanagh today. "I welcome any sign of those trends tailing off. However, this is by no means a recovery, but a positive indication that racing can work its way through the challenges". 2010 Racing Industry Statistics – key points * Total Prize-Money down 13% to 46 million ADVERTISEMENT  Does Munster's failure to make the Heineken Cup quarter-finals, herald the end of an era for the two-time champions? This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
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