The ghostly grey portrait stares down from the painted brick wall flanking the grandstand tunnel at Rillito Park, the little Arizona county honest monitor positioned close to downtown Tucson. Bigger than life, the sketch captures the strict visage of jockey Richard Gamez, killed in an accident at Rillito March 1, 2020, when thrown from his mount and trampled on the far flip of the Rillito Hopeful Maiden Stakes, a Thoroughbred race of 5 1/2 furlongs.
As a memorial to the day by day risks of driving racehorses, the Gamez remembrance appears as efficient in its personal means because the statue of George Woolf greeting Santa Anita Park patrons or the statue of Avelino Gomez standing sentry at Woodbine. Since Woolf’s deadly fall at Santa Anita in 1946, greater than 100 jockeys have died whereas in motion at North American racetracks.
As of late the Gamez picture is simply one other lonely function of cozy Rillito, inbuilt 1943, the place racing has been suspended pending the approval of an working entity and enhancements that will fulfill the Horseracing Integrity and Security Authority’s requirements. There’s hope that the normal 14-day meet unfold over seven weekends in February and March will be resurrected in 2026. Within the meantime, the paddock rimmed in V-mesh horse fencing stays empty, together with the room labeled “Woman Jockeys” and the Mutts Restaurant stand, that includes its cartoon horse and jockey brand recommending its Usinger’s premium sausage.
Richard Gamez at Rillito Park
A go to to Rillito Park appeared a great way to place a real-world cherry on prime of a high-calorie feast of recent technological wonders on show Dec. 9/11 on the fiftieth World Symposium on Racing sponsored by the Race Monitor Trade Program of the College of Arizona, with the tireless Robert Hartman once more performing as host and ringmaster.
Hartman is also deeply concerned in Rillito’s rejuvenation, because the hometown monitor has performed host to scores of RTIP college students by means of the years in a wide range of studying roles. Rillito Park just isn’t solely a valued a part of the native tradition, it is usually on the Nationwide Registry of Historic Locations.
Nonetheless, the place should meet HISA requirements earlier than the Arizona Racing Fee will grant dates.
“The required enhancements come to about $2 million, with $700,000 out there now,” Hartman stated. “If crucial objects are addressed first, beginning with a brand new security rail, HISA has agreed to permit a phasing in of the opposite necessities with a superb religion dedication.”
Relying on which symposium convention panel you attended, or which sales space snagged your consideration on the related commerce present, the assorted variations of horse racing’s future seem to lie with an amalgam of social media influencers, historic horse racing, sports activities betting, handicapping contests, and synthetic intelligence utilized to every part from veterinary diagnostics to situation books.
HISA itself had its second within the symposium highlight courtesy of CEO Lisa Lazarus and her by now acquainted speaking factors that urge endurance and cooperation with the rising pains of the Authority. A panel that includes HISA’s investigative and enforcement arm, the Horseracing Welfare and Integrity Unit, was informative however did little to calm the notion that necessary goalposts in testing and penalties appear to be transferring greater than rising pains ought to enable.
They’re going to get that found out, ultimately. Of extra curiosity (concern?) is a predictable stampede to use AI to all potential corners of the horse racing universe, tapping into the shiniest new object of monetized know-how. Let’s face it, with its data-dependent setting, racing is a ripe goal for such a gold rush by corporations that embrace the inevitability of a courageous new AI world, simply as entrepreneurs hawking artificial racing surfaces swarmed the trade earlier this century as saviors of the game.
As we discovered, they didn’t have their act collectively. Failures of artificial surfaces at main racetracks have been expensive when it comes to time and treasure. The rising, necessary know-how suffered from horrible PR, whereas the sport’s individuals felt decreased to guinea pigs. It has taken greater than a decade for synthetics to regain the momentum misplaced, however thankfully, the surviving Tapeta model has saved the idea alive.
Little doubt, AI functions can streamline some points of racing’s densely layered operations, at racetracks, farms, and wagering platforms. Let’s additionally hope that racing’s eventual embrace will be capable of keep away from variations of AI disasters which have ranged from amusing to tragic.
Final June, McDonald’s deserted its experiment with an AI utility for one thing so simple as its drive-thru orders. AI-powered recruitment software program has been discovered to be programmed by knowledge that permits the downgrading of résumés on the idea of race and gender. Final April, X’s AI chatbot Grok accused Klay Thompson of the Golden State Warriors of a brick-throwing vandalism spree when it did not correctly interpret the basketball slang in reviews of a sport through which he went 0-for-10 from the ground. Bricks, get it?
Rillito Park got here up in a symposium session that featured Corridor of Fame trainers Bob Baffert and Todd Pletcher. Between them, they’ve amassed greater than 9,200 wins and $860 million in purses. The session, moderated by Santa Anita senior vp and govt producer Amy Zimmerman, had its moments. However it might have been much more enjoyable had they thrown a hedge fund supervisor between Bob and Todd and stood again to observe.
(L-R): Amy Zimmerman, Bob Baffert, and Todd Pletcher converse on the World Symposium on Racing
By way of the years, each trainers have credited attending the College of Arizona Race Monitor Trade Program as an necessary constructing block to their wildly profitable careers. It was Baffert, nevertheless, who received his first Thoroughbred race as a coach at Rillito in January of 1979 with the 3-year-old filly Flipper Star, though he spent the subsequent decade devoting his time to Quarter Horses earlier than transitioning. (For the document, Pletcher saddled his first winner, the 3-year-old maiden claimer Majestic Quantity, in January of 1996 at Gulfstream Park.)
Trainers Simon, Truman Remembered
Later within the day, the symposium supplied an intimate memorial to horseman Chuck Simon, whose death in September at just 57 was mourned by all who knew him as a revered coach, mentor, media communicator, and tireless advocate of racing’s finest pursuits. Radio persona Steve Byk led the memorial.
Chuck Simon
The next day, phrase was getting round of the death of Eddie Truman, 77, a veteran of the California coaching wars whose repute for horsemanship was rivaled solely by his generosity of spirit and devotion to family and friends. From his early West Coast days as an train rider for Bobby Frankel to his coaching scores with the occasional stakes horse, Truman by no means let an encounter move with out imparting phrases of encouragement or a heartfelt good vibe. He left a spouse and daughter, and a unhappiness fortunately leavened by understanding him.
Between them, Simon and Truman received about 1,100 races courtesy of a fortunate bunch of horses who ran up round $26 million in purses whereas beneath their care. That is proof sufficient that uncooked statistics do not imply squat in terms of telling the actual story of the individuals who name themselves Thoroughbred trainers. Each males have been blessed with boundless emotional intelligence, and there was nothing synthetic about them.
