Even a Caveman Can Do It

What's wrong with people nowadays? Have we spent so much time watching those GEICO commercials about how easy everything is, even a caveman can do it, that we've lost whatever common sense we had left?

Apparently, we've entered an era where everybody is an expert at everything, provided they have a keyboard, an internet connection, and absolutely no firsthand experience with whatever they're discussing.

During the World Cup, somebody started an entire thread suggesting we could take NFL defensive backs and turn them into soccer stars. Just like that. Plug and play. Apparently, you take a cornerback, hand him a soccer ball, and next thing you know he's the next international sensation. Never mind the years of technical development, footwork, positioning, instincts, and understanding of the game. Hell, he's already got the athleticism, what else could there possibly be?

Now we've got another group of numbnuts wondering what's so difficult about recording morning workouts.

Wait a minute. Let me stop laughing at you first. Wait, I can't stop laughing........hold on.

It's a little like those video jockeys who think they can climb aboard a Thoroughbred and ride one around the racetrack at 30 miles per hour. After all, how hard can it be? Get on a horse hit with a stick. The horse does most of the work, right?

Don't get me started with the giggles, again.... [we are in the prehistoric era]

Easy. Even a caveman can do it.

Except in this particular case, you're the Neanderthal lacking homo sapiens.

The news yesterday that 1/ST TV was shutting down its Workout Video operation, effective immediately, sent a shockwave through social media and the horseplaying community. And the timing? Right on the doorstep of the 'Championship Meet' at Gulfstream. Nothing like pulling the plug just as everybody is getting ready to go to the dance.

Now, I can't say we were surprised. We had been anticipating this possibility for some time. In fact, we had conversations with 1/ST TV about potentially taking over the project. We ultimately passed.

And at this stage of my life, I have enough headaches without volunteering for another one.

There's an old saying in this business: there is no such thing as an easy day in racing. Some

people, in every walk of life, seem to get an awful lot of satisfaction out of making things difficult. They don't necessarily have to accomplish anything. Sometimes they're perfectly happy just sabotaging somebody else's efforts because, well, apparently that's their contribution to society.

We passed.

We are fortunate at Racingwithbruno. We have the support of the Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund and the KTA. We have Keeneland and Churchill Downs helping make this work in Kentucky, and we're fortunate to have Oaklawn Park as part of our Video Works Library. That's a lot of territory to cover, a lot of moving parts, and a whole lot of people working behind the scenes to make something happen.

My hope was that 1/ST TV would find some common ground, locate a sponsor, and continue its commitment to putting workout videos in the hands of horseplayers. That was the intention. We weren't looking to take a victory lap or dance on anybody's grave. We wanted to see the service continue.

They didn't find a way. They pulled the plug.

This decision also leaves the interpretation of what is happening at Gulfstream and the surrounding training facilities entirely in the hands of the clockers. That's a little like handing the keys to the asylum to the patients and hoping everybody behaves themselves. There are no checks and balances, no independent oversight, and no meaningful counterpoint. It's essentially a free-for-all, with the clockers left to police, interpret, and promote their own work. And when you remove accountability from the equation, you shouldn't be surprised when the people benefiting from the arrangement are the ones controlling the narrative.

At the end of the day, it comes down to money. The buck stops there. And that's particularly frustrating because there are entities in this industry with the financial resources to make workout video coverage a universal product throughout North America. We spend an awful lot of time celebrating the wealth in this game, applauding the big investments, the big purchases, the big purses, and the success stories. Yet when it comes to something that directly benefits the customer, the horseplayer, we're suddenly looking under the couch cushions.

Go figure.

And, naturally, the geniuses have already come out of the woodwork. One fellow on social media asked, "How hard can it be?" Then he proceeded to lay out his own little business plan, apparently having solved the entire problem somewhere between his morning coffee and his second cup.

I was waiting for him to add, "It's easy even a caveman could do it."

For those who don't remember, that was the famous GEICO commercial campaign that kept cavemen employed for years. Apparently, we've now got a few of them in the racing business offering consulting services.

Here's the problem: Producing workout videos isn't as simple as pointing a camera at a horse and uploading something to the internet.

Clockers aren't sitting around waiting to volunteer information. They're busy doing their jobs, and many of them are trying to make a living playing the horses themselves. Trainers aren't particularly interested in adding another administrative responsibility to their already overloaded day, explaining which horse is which and making sure somebody has the correct information.

Anybody who has spent a meaningful amount of time on the backstretch understands that mentality.

You have to compensate people, and, even though popular, I'll buy you a drink or dinner doesn't cut it. It takes monies.

You have to establish relationships. You have to coordinate people, horses, works, schedules, information, cameras, personnel, editing, distribution, and all the other little details that never seem to make it into somebody's brilliant Facebook business plan.

And that's before you get to identifying the actual horses.

You'd be amazed how many people think that because a horse is wearing a saddle towel, the entire mystery has been solved. Try identifying horses in a busy morning training session, with equipment changes, lookalikes, different barns, and incomplete information. Get one wrong and you've just given a horseplayer bad information. That's not a minor inconvenience. That's a credibility problem.

There's a reason experienced people are involved in this process. There's a reason relationships matter. There's a reason it takes time, money, and an awful lot of coordination.

And when something goes wrong, guess who gets the phone call?

It isn't the caveman.

Before the KTA stepped forward, I was putting my own money into this project. I remember an executive from a large syndicate telling me directly, and I mean directly, "I will go talk to anyone who needs to hear it, but you will never get a penny out of me!"

Well, that was certainly generous of him.

This is a syndicate that marks up its horses by 200 percent, and whose clients regularly come to us looking for information. I've actually had one individual demand that we catch his horse and give him my opinion. I understand the desire. You're an owner, you want information, and you want to know what you've bought into.

But that's the syndicate's responsibility. That's part of the service they're selling. Yet when it came time to support something that those same customers were using, there wasn't a nickel available.

Everybody wants the information. Everybody wants the service. Everybody wants to know how their horse is doing. But when the hat gets passed around, suddenly everybody develops alligator arms.

Hopefully we can all work together to provide the service. It takes money, duh! right? for example a Saratoga meet from June thru October about 5 months would be about $55-$60K investment.

Four camera crews, 1 on Oklahoma, 1 on Main, 2 crews on main on weekend. Handle it like we used to clock Saratoga.

We have the blueprint the expertise and ability, most important of all, to identify horses. For Belmont for the spring/summer meet you are talking about just 2 crews 4 months Apr-july its about a $45K investment -

Two months in fall in Sept -Oct-Nov, 2.5 months $25K investment. You are talking, if done right with a Video Library FREE for all at NYRA BETS for less than $150K for the year. NYRA could be very easily monetize by having sponsors and other avenues we currently have at our disposal. We don't need the clockers to ID, it's all done in house. We have done in Kentucky. It can be done.

And then there's the collection of social media posts from people proclaiming, "I'd gladly pay for that service." Well, hold your horses there, Mister Flightline. No, you wouldn't. You'd find a way to get access through somebody else's account, share a login, or have someone send you the workout videos. We've all seen how that movie ends. Everybody is willing to pay for something until it's time to actually pull out the wallet. Suddenly, there's a family member, a buddy, a group chat, or some other creative arrangement that gets them the same product without paying for it.

So let's not confuse saying you'd pay for a service with actually supporting one. Those are two entirely different things. A business can't operate on social media promises, good intentions, and the occasional thumbs-up emoji. It takes paying customers, real revenue, equipment, people, time, and an awful lot of work. Apparently, that's another one of those things that isn't quite as easy as a caveman might think.

Now let's talk about New York.

Everybody wants to see workout coverage from Saratoga and Belmont Park. Why isn't there a dedicated team gathering workout information and making it available to horseplayers? It's an opportunity to give the customer something useful, improve the handicapping experience, and potentially contribute to handle.

They don't do it.

They relied on XBTV to get it done. Now, its gone.

Personally, I've been approached by players about doing New York coverage. It's something people want. But I have very little appetite for getting involved with certain personalities up there. That's just the honest truth, if they want to come to the table, I can help.

I can be abrasive when I want to be. I don't particularly enjoy kissing anybody's backside, either. One of my own top lieutenants has suggested that perhaps I ought to kiss a little more of it once in a while. Maybe she's right. Maybe I missed that class somewhere along the way.

But there are certain people I simply won't go near. They represent everything I find frustrating about this business. And I'm not about to sign myself or my employees up for an environment that I already know isn't going to work or is going to be toxic.

That's the problem we're up against. It's not always the technology. It's not always the money. Sometimes it's the mentality. The attitude that somebody else should take care of it, somebody else should pay for it, somebody else should do the work, and everybody else should simply enjoy the finished product.

We have an uphill battle trying to overcome that way of thinking.

At Racingwithbruno, we'll continue doing what we do. We have people who believe in the product, organizations that understand its value, and tracks that recognize the importance of providing information to the customer. We're going to keep working at it, one day at a time, because that's how you build something that lasts.

As for the cavemen with all the answers, I wish them well. Perhaps they can get together, form a committee, and produce a national workout video network by the weekend.

Just remember, there's a difference between watching somebody do something and actually knowing how to do it.

And there's an even bigger difference between having an opinion and having the experience to back it up.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going back into my cave and wait for someone in power to step in, in the meantime I've got some horses to watch, and apparently, a business to run, while I sit here and wait, I may be here a while.