March 17, 2020
Louisiana Derby Preview and COVID-19 Update
Guests
- Alex Waldrop, President and CEO of NTRA
- Mark Casse, trainer, Enforceable, Lynn’s Map (Louisiana Derby)
- David Fiske, manager of Winchell Thoroughbreds, Silver State (Louisiana Derby) and Finite (Fair Grounds Oaks)
Full transcript (note: transcript has not been edited)
P R E S E N T A T I O N
Operator:
Ladies and gentlemen, please stand by. Good day ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the NTRA road to the Triple Crown conference call. Today’s coverage is being recorded. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. Following the presentation we will conduct a question and answer session. At that time, participants are asked to press star one to register for questions. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host Alicia Hughes. Please go ahead.
Alicia Hughes:
Thank you so much Jake and welcome everyone to this first NTRA teleconference on this year’s road to the Triple Crown, whenever that Triple Crown actually ends up taking place this year. These teleconferences are usually slated to spotlight the major preparations leading up to the Kentucky Derby, but obviously given the coronavirus pandemic which has prompted the first leg of the Triple Crown to be postponed until September 5th, we are definitely going to use this time to also address some of the measures that tracks are taking across the country to cope with what has become, what is definitely the most surreal and uncertain time for everybody. We do still have a couple of scheduled guests who we are set to catch up with in advance of Saturday’s Louisiana Derby, which will still offer 100 qualifying points to the winner towards the Kentucky Derby. We are scheduled to have trainer Mark Casse on and Mark Casse expected favorites within the Derby was Enforceable. While David Fisk, the manager of Winchell thoroughbreds has silver state stuff for the Louisiana Derby as well as the top sophomore Philly finite for the fairgrounds folks. Before we delve into those races, however, we are first going to check in with our interior president and CEO Alex Waldrop, who will provide a debrief on how tracks are handling this pandemic. Alex, thank you for joining us today.
Alex Waldrop:
My pleasure, Alicia. I want to start off by letting everyone know that the NTRA has set up a new section of our website. Go to ntra.com and there you will find a great deal of information, most of which we delivered yesterday in a teleconference with a national teleconference with racetracks and Horsemen’s group’s leadership to talk about the coronavirus that causes the illness that we know of as COVID-19. We talked generally about the fact that we’re dealing with a very fluid and evolving situation. So we urge everyone to keep their eyes on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the CDC website. There are links to critical sections of that CDC website for, in this case we are advising racetrack to consider themselves as communities. And in that CDC website, you will see that there are specific, guidance given to communities and dealing with the various sub communities that reside within the community.
And a racetrack is exactly that because there are so many different entities and individuals and we’ll talk through those in a minute. But that’s one of the places that we have urged racetracks be very careful about. We also have urged and continue to urge racetracks to be in touch with their state and local health departments. So much about this. This pandemic is local in nature. We’ll talk about that a minute as well. When you’re talking about the level of community transmission, we have problems that are more severe in New York and California right now. Central Kentucky has its own special circumstances. Some tracks may be located in areas that don’t have a community spread, a community transmission to those same level. So there may be different levels of concern. And so we have asked everyone, stay in touch with your state and local health department as well as your governor’s office because governors are very involved in this, especially on the East coast.
You’ve got the three governors within New York, believe its New York and Maryland and Connecticut. I can’t think of the third governor, but I know that that you have regional alliances now forming. And so we’re urging racetracks to stay in contact with their federal, state and local authorities. Now, we do know that many of the racetracks have moved to a no spectator policy and we think that’s a great idea for those tracks that can do it. It’s an opportunity for racing to sell itself to a new audience because there’s a dearth of sports betting out there and as sports betting opportunity, so there is no sport – there are no sports, and this is a time for racing to distinguish itself. Lots of people depend upon the racing for their jobs and their livelihoods, including sports journalists who are on this call.
So we’re – that’s all important. Nonetheless, we have stressed to individuals and to tracks that it’s imperative that if they’re going to race at this time, they must take precautions to protect their employees, their stable area workers, their racing officials, jockeys, backstretch suppliers and other vendors, and even of course, and always their horses. So this is a fluid situation. There are lots of communities on the backstretch that could potentially be impacted. And here’s some of the things we’ve told people. So if you’re going to go forward and you’re going to do this, you’ve got to be responsible and you’ve got to make sure that you’re doing everything you can to take care of these individuals that are on the back stretch. One good thing about this, we know that horses themselves, at least it has been determined by talking with Dr. Peter Timoney at the University of Kentucky Cluck Center.
There’s no evidence at this point in time that horses are a host for the current coronavirus or the COVID-19, and there is no inter-species communication that happens between horse and human. Whilst they’re still looking at that, scientists still don’t know exactly what that intermediary host is so that we’re still watching that. But at this point in time, that’s one of the good things that horses are not impacted by this virus. So it’s an opportunity, but we have to be responsible. Some of the things we’re talking about, again, we’re going back to the CDC guidance for businesses and employers just like many of your employers are doing today. They’re talking about social distancing and so we’re focusing the backstretch and any racetrack personnel be cognizant of social distancing, do whatever you can to keep distance between people, follow the guidance that is laid out in some detail in the CDC.
I won’t go into all that. We all know about what that means. It means keep six feet apart if at all possible. Do not be in crowds of more than 50 people. That’s the current CDC advice. Be aware of the level of community transmission. I alluded to that just a little bit earlier. That is to what extent it is being transmitted throughout the community, through sources that can’t be determined. Early on there was some focus on okay, who had you been in contact with? And in most cases now that’s over. It’s so prevalent throughout the community that you’re dealing with community transmission and that frankly puts a lot of people at risk. So you have to be mindful of social distancing and proper hygiene. We’re asking tracks to do exactly what you’re doing in your offices, which are put up posters and make sure they’re bilingual.
Talk about proper hygiene, how to wash hands, those kinds of things. Not putting your hands on your face in any way because that’s the way the virus goes from a surface into your body. We’re talking about proper hygiene for all surfaces, handrails, that sort of thing. Making sure that the entire backstretch and front stretch are cleaned thoroughly. I know that the folks at NTRA had been commended for that by their, by folks who are living back there who are appreciative of these tracks for continuing to open it to conduct racing in a responsible fashion. But you’ve got to keep up the proper hygiene. You’ve got to have ability for individuals to self-quarantine if there are illnesses of people, whether it’s coronavirus or COVID-19 or not, they have to be able to self-quarantine.
They have to be places where they can go where they won’t around other people for an extended period of time, maybe as many as 14 days. Obviously telecommuting is not an option for most of the people who work at a race track during a live racing setting. Because that’s what we’re telling people is only let those people who are essential to the racing on that track. That means excluding even owners. And that’s what NTRA has done. We commend that. That’s the right approach. We also come in folks like Kaylan[?] who decided not to run. That’s certainly understandable under the circumstances because the requirement is high. Making sure that you’re taking the proper steps that you’re being responsible for all the people on track, Kaylan made a determination that given the level of community spread or transmission in Central Kentucky that it was best that they not go forward with racing.
We had to respect that. But we can also respect those who go forward if they’re taking the proper precautions, making sure that the proper hygiene, making sure they self-quarantine, doing everything they can to take care of everyone who’s there. We focus specifically on jockeys, jockeys quarters put them in close proximity. They also travel a lot. So we make sure that we’re asking them to not travel as much, to consider keeping jockeys localized because if you get transmission between communities, it’s more likely to spread within the backstretch. So we’re focusing on the jockeys, making sure that they remain – use good social distancing if possible. Don’t put them all in one small confined area and spread them throughout the facility if possible so that they can have that proper social disciplining – social distancing.
Something else that we would consider a best practice and Kaylan is actually doing it. Because remember, whether you’re racing or not, you have a community of people who are taking care of the horses and there’s no chance that these horses are going to go somewhere else. At this point in time, the movement of those horses would only create a potentially more problem as people move from place to place. So we’re urging people to keep those horses that they have in place, and whether they’re racing or not, making sure that there is limited access to those horses. One of the things Kaylan is doing, even though they’re not racing, is they’re taking temperatures of people who come and go at the stable gate so that they know that anybody who’s running a fever above 100.1 cannot be admitted because that person is a likely a transmitter of the disease at that point in time.
That’s the sort of thing is making sure that you’re limiting access to that facility is critical. And so, those are the things that we are focusing on and we are supporting, again, go to the website. You can see there we have some information about – for horsemen from the TOC that been owners of California. They had a teleconference, last Saturday. There’s some good information there. Also the Maryland horsemen, they put out the procedures for their horsemen and want to do to protect themselves. And there were workers and that’s a great thing. We have a conference call. We actually have a, it was about an hour long conference call we had yesterday with the industry and you can see that the entirety of that call can be accessed there on the website as well as the CDC sites.
As for federal assistance, what we’re telling folks right now is we’re working in Washington DC, the bill that has just passed out of the house, actually it passed on Saturday, but it was actually – there were some technical corrections that came out on Monday afternoon. It was passed by consensus vote and it’s on its way to the Senate right now. That did made benefits primarily for individuals supporting or expanded the marriage and family leave act so that people could take leave from their job as a result of the virus without any sort of someone taking a job action against them. So the variety of things that help individuals, workers and those are important changes. There’s not much in there for tracks themselves at this point in time or for employers. Many trainers are small businesses. That is now being discussed. We expect legislation within the next week or two. President Trump was quoted today saying he wants an $850 billion plan, economic stimulus plan for businesses affected.
Will racetracks be affected? We’ll all know that casinos are in the conversation. So if they’re in the conversation, racetracks will be in the conversation. We’ll have no more of that against the develop at this point in time we don’t know much about that. I think Senator Schumer the minority leader in the Senate is talking about this $750 million stimulus plan. So either way, we’re talking about a lot of money that could be made available to businesses nationwide and we’ll be at the interior. We’ll be there looking out for the industry to make sure that if there’s any relief that we can provide for those who have been damaged by this, that we’ll be there to help. So with that, I will stop and take questions, and see if I can – I’ll try my best to honor them to answer them as honestly as I can.
Alicia Hughes:
Thank you so much Alex.
Operator:
You – sorry, go ahead.
Alicia Hughes:
Oh no, I was just going to say, I was just going to throw that back to you Jake to check in with the media. We have a lot of them on here to see if anybody had any questions for Alex.
Operator:
Of course. Ladies and gentlemen to ask a question today, please press star one on your telephone keypad. Keep in mind if you are using your speaker phone, make sure the mute function is released to allow your signal to reach the equipment. Once again, star one for questions. We’ll start with Lynn Snyderson[?] with Freelance.
Lynn:
Good morning everyone. I was just wondering if you – I know it’s really early in [inaudible], the Derby and the Preakness really affects the schedule. I’m thinking in terms of the Travers for Pennsylvania Derby and things are all very different now. Has there been any thought to basically have the schedule is completely upside down now?
Alex Waldrop:
Not really. This is this news today what Churchill has done. I suspect that Churchill is in contact with other tracks, certainly the other Triple Crown tracks to talk about that. We’re not involved in at the interior in those conversations. We’re as interested in those talks as you are. Our focus right now has been primarily on the coronavirus, and in helping tracks and horsemen deal with the crisis at hand. So I can’t really comment on that any further.
Operator:
Now we’ll take a question from Jim O’Donnell with the Daily Herald.
Jim:
Alex, thank you for the informational window this morning. There are growing indicators that Arlington Park will not be opening this season and it is probably done as a race track. What will losing Arlington mean to the industry?
Alex Waldrop:
Well, I don’t know that I’ve heard those rumors. I’m not accepting that as a fait accompli. We certainly want Arlington to continue to race, horsemen need those opportunities. It’s wonderful race track and it’s got a stellar history. [Inaudible] has done a wonderful job over the years then with Churchill Downs of conducting some historic race mates. So we’ll be looking to support those parties any way we can to keep that track operational. But again, those are conversations directly between the track ownership and the horsemen and I’m sure government as well. So we’re going to be optimistic about the future because Arlington is key to the middle Midwest, certainly key to Indiana, Illinois horsemen and we support the racing continuing to thrive there and in Illinois.
Jim:
Thank you.
Operator:
And we’ll now take our next question and that will come from Willie Weinbaum with ESPN.
Willie:
Good afternoon. I was wondering if you could elaborate perhaps maybe you have data regarding the new fans who are coming to the sport with all other sports, just a bad shutdown. You mentioned earlier that this is an opportunity to sell the sport to a new audience. And I’m hopeful that you have some information about what’s gone on in the last few days.
Alex Waldrop:
The information I have with the anecdotal, and it would be specifically, it would be aqueduct in New York. They last Saturday I believe that I’m speaking off the top of my head, but I believe they had a record handle, even though they had no fans in the stands. So it’s evidence of the fact that we do have a very robust online wagering system that people can access. We’ve been able to conduct legal and regulated sports betting on horse racing for many years. And so it looks as though people are finding their way to these new channels and that one piece of information, again, is anecdotal, but it points to the fact that if properly marketed, and certainly aqueduct and the narrow are through their relationship with the Fox Sports channel doing a great job of promoting that racemate. And so there’s possibility there. There’s opportunity. And we congratulate now for taking on this challenge. And I would also say that we’ve got great ADWs and not just the narrow bets, but you’ve got TVG and TwinSpires. You’ve got lots of companies out there that are pushing this. They probably can tell you more about the actual benefits than I can.
I do know that they’re also actively engaged in efforts. TVG in particular concerned about the coronavirus because they actually have people some of whom are on at these racetracks. And so they’re helping to communicate and helping to keep people safe and healthy, safe and healthy during this time. But anecdotally it’s been a good thing. And New York, we think elsewhere. That’s all I can say right now.
Willie:
One quick follow up. Would you be in a position to provide the numbers on how many tracks would normally be open at this time of year and how many are admit this crisis?
Alex Waldrop:
Alicia and I will talk and see if we can get you something there. That’s something that we’ll certainly try to get sure. Alicia make note of that.
Operator:
Well, now move to the next call with Ben [inaudible] with USA today.
Ben: Yeah, the Triple Crown looks like it’s going to move to the fall. In your mind, does that force the Breeders’ Cup to take a look at their date?
Alex Waldrop:
Too early to tell. I haven’t – again, I haven’t given a lot of thought to this. We’ve been focused on the coronavirus. I presume that that Churchill Downs has been in contact with the Breeders’ Cup, with the folks at Caitlin, where it’s going to be held. It is being held a week later this year, first weekend in November. So I think there’s going to be a lot of discussion between the various entities and how they will work these together. It’s be too early for me to speculate right now as to how that’s going on – that’s going to end up.
Operator:
And that will take a question from Frank [inaudible] with Blood-Horse Magazine.
Frank: Hey Alex, you mentioned support to riders looking for something to do the next few weeks, months. However, I was this curious if any sports outlets they’ve reached out to you guys? I’m working from home as you can hear the dog. I was just curious the kind of the only game in town, if you’ve heard from sports editors or website platforms that might be interested in more coverage of horse races.
Alex Waldrop:
I’m going to turn that question to Alicia because I haven’t, but I’m not generally the first person to get those calls.
Alicia Hughes:
Hey Frank, how’s it going? We have received a few a few requests mostly from outlets looking for some information as far as regards to like what is handled looking like with it being the only game in town. As far as actual coverage goes, I haven’t seen any of that yet. But again, that might be coming, that might be something that I don’t know if they’re still probably having some discussions internally and a lot of newspapers and magazines. I know, I don’t need to tell you resources are precious right now for all print publications. I know you guys at the trade are – you’re always on, you’re going to cover this stuff no matter what. But I said we have started getting some requests more just for some information and data on to how the sport has kind of been sustaining during what’s been a pretty crazy time to say the least.
Frank:
Thanks. Thanks.
Operator:
And we do have one more question in the queue. Dan Ralph with Canadian Press Toronto. Go ahead please.
Dan:
Thank you very much. And forgive me for coming in late. It took a little bit to get on the call. So I’m going to ask a question that’s probably been asked before, but I’m wondering what the status is of the Louisiana Derby given the coronavirus situation in North America right now.
Alex Waldrop:
Well, it’s my understanding that it’s going to be, it will be conducted this weekend. There would just be no, there will be no crowds. They will be operating like so many racetracks, which have no spectators.
Dan:
Great. Thank you very much.
Operator:
Well at this time, no additional questions.
Alex Waldrop:
Well, I thank everybody for calling in. Yeah.
Alicia Hughes:
Yeah. Alex I just want to thank you again for taking the time out. I know you’re trying to juggle about 50,000 things on your plate right now with everything that’s going on within this industry. Is there anything maybe that we haven’t asked you about how tracks are or coping that you’d like go ahead and add in there before we let you go?
Alex Waldrop:
No, I just say that we had a huge interest in the call yesterday and I think the racetracks are taking and horsemen are taking the challenge seriously. And I’m proud to say that people recognize the opportunity, but they also are serious about the responsibility for keeping people and horses safe and healthy. So I’m going to say thank you to them and to the industry for stepping up in this difficult time.
Alicia Hughes:
Perfect. Alex, again, appreciate your time as always. Stay safe and stay out of the office.
Alex Waldrop:
Okay. Thanks guys. See, I’ll take care.
Alicia Hughes:
Thank you. And next up we are going to go to the man who has one of the leading contenders for this weekend, for the Derby, trainer Mark Casse who will send out both Enforceable and Lynn’s Map. Enforceable captured the [inaudible] at fairgrounds on January 18th and then closed very well last time I was to get up for a second in the Risen Star despite the lack of pace in front of him. Mark, thank you for coming on the call today.
Mark Casse:
Oh, thanks for having me.
Alicia Hughes:
Okay, Mark, I said before we go ahead and start talking about a Derby prep race, we certainly have to address the news of this morning that the Kentucky Derby and likely the rest of the Triple Crown has been postponed until September. Just in general, what was your reaction to that news and how much is that going to alter how you prepare your good three-year-olds going forward?
Mark Casse:
Well, it wasn’t a surprise. I mean, I’m given the state of the world right now. There’s stress drastic measures every day going on. So I wasn’t surprised, maybe a little disappointed, but we have to – there’s things that are much more important right now than horse racing. So we have to look at that first. And so we’re going to have a Kentucky Derby in September and that’s okay. That’s fine. It would have been terrible if we didn’t have any Kentucky Derby. That would have been extremely hard to take. So I’m fine. Of course, it’s going to change a lot of things. We geared our horses, we’re ready. I’m trying to be ready for the first Saturday in May, but this is new. This is new territory for all of us. But we’ll get through it.
Alicia Hughes:
Absolutely. And to say that it’s been kind of a wild stretch of news the past few weeks in the sport would kind of be a bit of an understatement. And I know that you in particular, you’ve been very outspoken about many of the issues that have come down of late. What would you like racing to kind of take away from some of these recent incidents that have come down, specifically with regards to the federal indictments?
Mark Casse:
Well, I just – and anybody that knows me and read my article, I’m just kind of tired of the cheating and that was a big step the other day. They took out some bad guys. There’s a few more, there’s more to come I hope. And I think maybe what we – if it looks too good to be true, it usually is. And I’m hoping let’s not just rely on testing, but let’s just look at common sense. And like I said, if it’s too good to be true, it probably is. And I think we need to I think we need to start investigating those horse, the trainers that are doing that. And you saw some big wins go. I can tell you this. I would say I had been thinking about how – I didn’t know if I wanted to continue to be a horse trainer. I had thought about, seriously thought about retiring, because it’s just so frustrating. It’s frustrating when you work and you’re working at work and you know you’re not getting beat by a better horse or a better trainer, a better track. And I have a new, I mean, I’m excited again. I told one of my biggest owners, he called me a few days ago and he said, how are my horses? I said, they’re going to get faster and faster each day that goes by since Monday. And he said, well, what do you mean? I said, well, there’s going to be a lot of them that are going to get slower. That’s going to make ours faster. So I’m excited. Like I said, there’s still work to be done, but I look at what just happened as a beginning, not an end.
Alicia Hughes:
I said, why words as always from you. I said, Mark, again, we’ve got, a kind of media on here. So with that, I’m going to get out of the way and let them and see if anybody has any questions for you.
Mark Casse:
Okay.
Operator:
And once again, ladies and gentlemen to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. At this time, we will begin with Childs Walker with Baltimore Sun. Please go ahead.
Childs Walker:
Hey Mark, how are you?
Mark Casse:
I’m good.
Childs Walker:
We know how much you love running in the Triple Crown races. Not just the Derby, but the other teams as well.
Mark Casse:
I love [inaudible].
Childs Walker:
Yeah, I know. No, I know. Assuming that they are running in September and October, how different do you think those events will?
Mark Casse:
Well, I mean, everything’s going to be different this year, right? But I think if well planned out, it can be just as exciting. Why not? I don’t know that it’s necessarily the time of year. It was just the events and you’re still going to have great events. So I’m looking forward to it. My only hope is that I have something good enough to run in it all. I know.
Childs Walker:
Thanks Mark.
Operator:
And we’ll now move to the next question that will come from Jason Frakes with the Courier Journal.
Jason Frakes: Hey Mark, thanks for joining us today. I was wondering if you might comment on the difference in the maturity of a three year old from May to September and what we might see different from a horse running in the Derby and a horse preparing for the Derby in may versus a horse preparing for a Derby in September, or is there a difference?
Mark Casse:
Oh yeah, there’ll be a big difference. Yeah, absolutely. When you start getting into September of a three year olds a year, I would say a two year old two-year-old we’re looking at maybe 10 or 12 year olds competing as we get into t