Nick Peters

‡ Half-Baked Disruption As most readers likely have heard by now, yesterday CDI and NYRA announced a series of races for three-year-olds, set to begin in 2027, which will include bonuses, etc. It is oddly named The Thoroughbred Championship Series. I reacted to it in this linked post: xitter.cf/Tinky47flat/status/208… Probably the most notable aspect of the proposal was the screaming absence of any mention of the Preakness. The Matt Winn, KY Derby, Belmont, Jim Dandy, Travers, and a "Championship" race are included, but the middle jewel of the Triple Crown didn't even get a mention. What I, and most others inferred, is that this new series of races was, at least in part, designed to marginalize the Preakness. Perhaps the recent failed attempt by CDI to acquire the property rights to that race played a role, but in any case, the many reactions to the omission, ranging from surprise to outrage, should not have come as a surprise to anyone. Which makes the initial reactions of the leaders of CDI and NYRA all the more remarkable. First, CDI: "It's pretty clear to me, after a botched press conference that ended abruptly after one question, that Churchill Downs CEO Bill Carstanjen did not want to answer questions about why the Preakness Stakes was excluded from the new horse racing series for 3yo's." – Ray Paulick Then, from the embedded report on NYRA's response: “This is in no way at all … touching the Triple Crown,” O’Rourke said. “This builds on top of the Triple Crown, or alongside it. We don’t change anything with that." If O'Rourke happened to have had a sudden urge to push the boundaries of the expression "strains credulity", his experiment was a rousing success. No one, and I mean no one who knows anything about the game, would believe that the announced series of races would not degrade the status of the Preakness, let alone "touch" the Triple Crown. More from the embedded/linked Paulick Report article: Asked whether the Preakness Stakes, Haskell Stakes or Pennsylvania Derby had been approached about joining the initiative, O’Rourke acknowledged that no discussions had yet taken place. “This was just for now,” he said. “Now that it’s been released, those conversations will happen.” Say what?! “This was just for now...” ? Did O'Rourke and Carstanjen have a few too many drinks over dinner the night before the announcement, and hand their scribbled notes on a napkin to a secretary the following morning for "immediate release"? No discussions took place with those connected to three racetracks with marquee Grade I races for three-year-olds, all of which are likely to be adversely affected by the newly formed Thoroughbred Championship Series ? Does this strike anyone as being a well thought out "disruption"? Does it seem likely to primarily benefit the broader industry, or does it increasingly appear to be, as I suggested in my initial post on the topic, a reflection of the two most powerful American racetrack entities joining forces, and creating leverage in order to grab bigger pieces of a shrinking pie? Whatever happens from this point on, I think it fair to say that both O'Rourke and Carstanjen were, in chart-callers parlance, unprepared for the start of this particular event.