Reverse Invitational – Stories from the beaten path

Three days after Billy Rae Stevens split with his second wife, he backed his silver Ford Explorer into Big Leroy Denton’s motorcycle while attempting to parallel park in front of the He Just Left Bar and Grill.

Big Leroy heard the thump from his corner barstool where he perched like a poster child for malice. The next ten minutes were not pretty.  Leroy settled for cash instead of blood, but things kept getting worse for Billy Rae.

Any fool could see Billy Rae Stevens was headed for ruin unless he found some healthy diversions.

Billy Rae was forty-two and bore a passing resemblance to one of Charlie Sheen’s mug shots. Each weekday he spent eight hours robotically processing claims at St. Mary of the Falls Hospital;  this left him with sixteen hours a day (plus weekends), which he was not using wisely.  Heavy drinking and light sleeping failed to mix with his recent pastime, on-line dating.

Getting Billy Rae involved in ownership of a harness yearling was my attempt at an intervention.  But it only made things worse.

Billy Rae did not know anything about harness racing.  My pitch was fun, fresh air, excitement, new people and something that would take his mind off loneliness, alimony and child support.  I told him spending money and time in harness horse racing was smarter than Internet dating.  This turned out to be a lie.

We pooled our money and bought a yearling, then I walked Billy Rae through harness horse pedigree research, training, staking and all the stuff we find so riveting.  We named our yearling filly She’sTheUn. The horse trained well until early May …and then….she wasn’t the un. 

After laboring to her fourth consecutive 2:19 session, our trainer told us that, “She’s a nice filly, she tries, and she might go a little faster, but not fast enough.”

After arranging to put the horse in a sale and bidding adieu to our trainer, we headed home in Billy Rae’s dented Ford Explorer. 

“Sorry Billy Rae.”

“Don’t worry about it; you told me the odds, I guess like most people who buy baby racehorses we were somewhat delusional about the reality of the situation.”

“So I don’t imagine you will try again.”

Billy Rae drew in a deep breath and let it out.

Then he said.  “No.  If I want to waste seven months, a big pile of money and get my dreams shattered – I’ll just grab me a Russian bride off e-bay.”

Billy Rae never bought another horse and returned to the dating arena.  Who could blame him…well, actually, his first ex-wife, Lorraine, the one with custody of his daughter, Megan, did.  When Lorraine got wind that Billy Rae blew twenty grand on a race horse instead of more child support, she called her lawyer and all hell broke loose.

In the end, my intervention just made Billy Rae’s life messier. 

With the exception of the morning we went to breakfast at Denny’s, picked a name for the new horse, and then drove to the farm to watch the yearling unload, Billy Rae never had a whisper of fun.  Even our three trips to watch her train were made in semi-blizzards or cold rain.

Billy Rae did not hold the yearling fiasco against me, we still get together to watch professional billiards on the flat screen at the He Just Left.  Billy Rae just chalked up the slow horse to another in his string of bad choices. When I bought another yearling the following year, he said I was either nuts or a masochist (which does worry me a bit because despite a pile of evidence to the contrary, Billy Rae is really a smart guy).   

Last week, I told the story of Billy Rae and She’sTheUn to Rita Delacroix.  We were leaning against the wall in the lobby of Packman Brothers Funeral Home just before the eulogy for legendary horseman William (The Whip) Williams.  Whip died unexpectedly at the age of ninety six, when, after two peppermint schnapps, he climbed into the sulky one last time to demonstrate proper foot placement, leaned back and barked his final words, “Watch this!”

Rita, who has a passing resemblance to the actress who plays Pam on The Office, is a casual acquaintance.  Rita works in the front offices of Winback Farms Canada.  She asked me how Billy Rae was doing.

“Hanging in there; he’s a resilient guy, but the year with She’sTheUn didn’t help.”

She nodded and said, “It happens a lot.  Unless they have a halfway decent horse, first timer buyers are usually one-time buyers.  They must feel like they are tossing money into a fireplace.”

“Yeah, but Rita, the funny thing is, I think Billy Rae was on the cusp of finding the game.  Too bad he got nothing that year.  If the horse could have done anything, anything, it might have been enough – but it’s a long way between nothing and something.”

Rita was quiet for a minute.  Then she spooked me badly by grabbing my shirt and jerking me forward. 

She looked directly into my eyes and said, “I have an idea.  It’s for Billy Rae and all the losers.  I’ve been thinking about it for a few years.  I need somebody to write it down.   I need, like, like, a prospectus from a writer like you so I can show my bosses.”

The shirt grabbing and the intensity of her words startled me, so I just pulled out my I-Pad and opened a blank page.

 This is what we came up with.

Reverse (or Farm) Invitational – (Prospectus)

Submitted by Ms. Rita K. Delacroix

Rationale

Dreams make buyers raise their hands at yearling sales.  Reality keeps their hands in their pockets.  The reality is that many horses never race and anyone who has bought a yearling that did not make it to the racetrack learns quickly this is not much fun.  A long year of bills for absolutely no excitement or money earned is wearisome and deflating for the customer.  Deflated customers are not good for the bottom line of the breeding farm.

The gap between a smidgen of action and absolutely zero action is a chasm. 

This plan is designed to close the gap and make the game more fun for customers that pick non-competitive yearlings.  It is possible this could increase profits for breeders by enhancing the odds that buyers will try (and buy) again.

Organization

When we list yearlings in catalogues we list many notations.   Let’s add one more.   For discussion purposes we will call it … LOT # 1212- (24) (pacing fillies). This unusual notation will show up on 24 of our consigned yearling pacing fillies.  These particular fillies are members of a sub-set designated LOT 1212.  The horses in LOT 1212 may all be sold at one sale or they may be staggered across a series of sales.  The key point is that when you purchase a yearling from LOT 1212, you are in this unique club of 24.

For many owners, membership in this club will mean nothing because these owners and their horses will race in stakes or at racetracks.  For some owners, being members of LOT 1212 will make a world of difference.  Here is why.

Implementation

On the Winback website, a constantly updated chart will show the progress of all the pacing fillies sold in LOT 1212. *See Sample Chart below. 

This chart will be of causal interest to most owners and of great interest to eight owners.  The reason is simple; eight of the lesser performing horses will receive a coveted invitation, a chance to race for a “purse” of $10,000.  The invitations will be open to any horse in LOT 1212 that has a charted line of 2:20 or better; the selection of the field will be in reverse order of earnings.  For example; if your filly has qualified in 2:19 and has not won a dime – you are in the race.

The Invitational Race

The race will be held in August.  We will treat every entrant, owner and horse, with dignity.  There will be a catered luncheon and the purse will be distributed for all eight entries in LOT 1212 (nobody goes home empty handed).  There will be trophies, socialization and an opportunity to look over the new crop of yearlings that will soon be going to sale.

Although not an official event (many of these horses will not have made the official Standardbred time), the race will be conducted just like any other stakes race.  For one day, eight of our customers, who have spent thousands on our horses, will have a day to shine, a day to remember, and a classy, competitive race.

Finances

The possibilities are infinite.  Hopefully this “backup” scenario for a very modest yearling will encourage extra bidding, probably enough to cover the cost of the Reverse Invitational Race. Additionally, this race for “the bottom of the class” offers a relief from a complete bust, and some socialization.  It would be fun for owners to follow the horses in LOT 1212 as they start training down and attempting to qualify.    Advertising for the Reverse Invitational could take place prior to the fall sales on the USTA and Canadian websites. 

Rita is taking the plan into her office tomorrow.  We had a lot of fun hammering it out.  She has power points and charts.  It will be interesting to see what the farm thinks of our work. But I’ll tell you this – 

If Billy Rae Stevens had a few more months of watching She’sTheUn in the summer sunshine, if he had a chance to follow the progress of the other horses in the select club of 2yo’s that impacted our chances, if he had a chance to see a little more improvement in our filly, if he had a wonderful weekend where our horse raced in a real race for real money – no matter if the race goes in 2:12…Billy Rae might still be in harness.

By Bob Carson, for Harnesslink.com