Margaritas for hard times

by Trey Nosrac

My second frozen margarita provided enough liquid courage to approach Adam Bowden, who was dining alone in a back booth in the Nacho Average Mexican Restaurant in Mud Lick City, KY.

I met the owner of Diamond Creek Farm once, maybe a decade ago, but his memory was good. He pointed at me and asked, “Trey?”

“Guilty as charged.”

We knuckle-bumped, and then he gestured to the empty chair. I took it.

He asked, “Still writing and buying yearlings?”

“Guilty again, but due to fiscal headwinds, my crimes are of a lesser degree. Enjoy your Creekside Chat podcasts, but my head throbs when you ramble about lines and crosses. Maybe you should do a ‘Pedigrees for Dummies’ episode, ya know, speak slowly with graphs and statistics.”

He smiled, “Not a terrible idea.”

A plump young waitress ambled over. She had a red flower threaded into her black hair and a white badge pinned on her pocket with the name Rosita. I contemplated a third margarita but mumbled, “No Mas.” Then I got down to business. “What are you all going to do if the frigging sport spits the bit?”

He cocked his head. “You know something I don’t know?”

“I don’t know squat, but the industry is down to a few states, and my pipedreams of racing a trotter below the Mason Dixon line ain’t happening.”

He dipped a nacho and said, “For a writer, you use a lot of slang.”

“Yeah, my vocabulary is like, er, um, whatever. I couldn’t get hired until somebody invented Grammarly.”

I grabbed the edge of his table to ward off a spasm of beverage whiplash and asked my question of the day, “Do you horse-breeder people have a secret plan if the casinos get decoupled and the state funding goes up in flames?”

“Secret plan? Like what?”

“Like going private.”

“Not following?”

“I’m a customer, not a whale, just a minnow. But let me tell you what I don’t need.” I counted on my fingers, “I don’t care about winter racing, claiming racing, older horses racing, commercial racetracks, grand circuit racing, and several other parts of the sport.”

“You are a local stakes racing guy.”

“Yes. Overnight racing is another species. All I want is to buy a yearling and have a chance that my yearling has some success. I want that yearling to race at ages 2, 3, and maybe 4, from May through October. Nothing else matters to me.”

Adam scratched his head, “Have you researched privatization?”

I nodded, “Extensively, 15 minutes ago, between margaritas, using my phone. Let me read our conversation when I asked about a private racing program.”

I read from my phone:

Creating a private racing program is an ambitious but feasible idea. Let’s look at the Pennsylvania state racing program as a reference to give you a sense of the numbers involved. The Pennsylvania Sire Stakes program is one of standardbred racehorses’ most prominent state-based programs. The program offers substantial purses, funded through slot machine revenue and other sources. To establish a similar purse structure, you would need to consider the following factors…

“Blah, blah, blah. I’ll skip the details.”

In summary, while creating a private racing program is feasible, it requires planning, collaboration, and funding. The number of horses needed would depend on the number of races and the average field size, but a rough estimate would be around 500 horses annually for a program with 50 races per year.

Adam asked, “And you think breeding farms should operate the entire program?”

“At least have some plans for a big pivot if the racing scene gets ugly. You people could create a world of your own. Here’s some follow-up. I asked if a private racing program could exist without factoring in state boundaries and if a collaboration of farms or a non-racing state could set up a private racing program. If the harness racing program is without gambling, can the sport regulate itself?”

I handed him my phone and let him read the reply.

“A private racing program without gambling could regulate itself to streamline the project.”

I went for my big finish, “You are a big-picture guy. Set up a Plan B. Maybe you use it or don’t, but if stuff hits the fan, you can do whatever you want – be agile, be fun, and make an excellent product specifically for your customers. You raise the horses, market the yearlings, run the races, and even help repurpose horses after the 4-year-old season. Be like a private country club in golf. Rock the world, man!”

Adam returned my phone and asked, “Exactly how many margaritas have you had?”

“Dos. When I reach Tres, I’ll give you more madness and my car keys.”