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HANDICAPPING INSIGHTS SEPTEMBER 2, 2005 by Dick Powell From the middle of 2000 through last year's meet, I had the pleasure of working for Fair Grounds Race Course and must have made 30 visits down to the Big Easy during that period. Until this past year, I spent four straight Thanksgivings at the track and with new-found friends in New Orleans, Metairie and Kenner, I never felt the least bit homesick. Now, I feel just sick. It's bad enough seeing the images of the roof blown off the racetrack, the surrounding damage and the track and infield underwater. But the real tragedy is the damage to the surrounding neighborhood, the city of New Orleans and the Gulf area that is so rich in resources, culture and hospitality. How do you explain someone who grew up in New York City feeling so at home 1,000 miles away in the Deep South? Well, it helped that many of the people sounded like me when they talked. Not the southern drawl but a "brooklynese" way of pronouncing the 1ST race as the "foist" race or putting "earl" in your car. It was music to my ears. Just like Fenway Park or Wrigley Field was to the cookie-cutter baseball parks built in the 1970's, Fair Grounds was to most other racetracks in America. But it wasn't the facility, re-built and opened in 1997 after a horrific fire in 1993, but the people there. It was the people. And when I think about Fair Grounds, I think about Vickie and Bryan Krantz. I went to work for them as a consultant in 2000. Unlike other clients who only hire consultants when there are serious problems, the Krantz's hired me to pick my brain about any and all issues regarding racing. But it didn't end there. I was accepted into an extended family. Someone once asked me how I liked working for Vickie and Bryan. With me not being the easiest person to get along with, he wasn't surprised by my initial answer. "I don't like working for them," I deadpanned. "I love working for them!" How many clients take their consultants into their homes and their family's lives. Vickie and Bryan were my lowest paying clients and yet they asked for and received my "A" game every day. There are financial rewards and then there are lifelong friendships. Corporate America can't seem to tell the difference between the two. And through my relationship with the Krantzs, I got to know the area unlike most out-of-towners. For every Commander's Palace that the tourists would go to for fine dining, there was Brigtsens, Bozos and Gabrielle's. I have severe gout and can't partake in the fantastic seafood down there, but every meal was not only great but made and served with an individuality not seen anywhere else. I would go a restaurant that I never heard of and a friend back home would tell me it had a Zagat rating of 26. You couldn't tell by the outside; just what was put on the plate in front of you. Besides great food, there was friendly service. If you bet with Fair Grounds Phone Bet operation, it's odds-on that you were called "sweetie," "honey," "sugar," and "baybee." When you go to dinner at Brigtsens, you get hugs from Myrna and the rest of the staff. Everyone says they are happy to see you and in New Orleans they really mean it. Working for the boss had other benefits. I got to know Mervin Muniz, the late, legendary racing secretary of the Fair Grounds. On the door to Mervin's office hung a sign, "Enter, then knock." And knock we did. With nine televisions on one wall and Mervin behind a metal desk that looked like it was discarded by Sargeant Carter, the world, not just racing, was dissected. Every trip to the track included a trip to Mervin's office and his crew of Captain Maestri, Neil Pessin, Albert M. Stall, and others who seemed to have all the answers to what was wrong with horse racing, the Saints, the world and its people. If you didn't have an opinion, don't bother to enter. Through Mervin I learned not only a bunch of negative opinions on the issues of the day, but a deep background on the mechanics of the racing industry. He was the race secretary and director of racing and had his overnight done before 11 a.m. each day. Then it was time for lunch and an afternoon of knocking. A lot of horse players would ask me why I liked to bet Fair Grounds? After all, it had its share of cheap racing and many horses, pedigrees and human connections that were not household names. But that's why I bet it. Competitive racing without a lot of wiseguy money gives you an opportunity for overlaid prices. If you followed the meet each year, you took advantage of the others that tried to show up every once in a while and play it. I could care less what the takeout was. During the winter, Gulfstream, Santa Anita and Aqueduct attracts the big players but, for my money, Fair Grounds offered the best value Fair Grounds has one of the longest homestretches in America, but front-end speed usually dominated. The average horse player would watch races there and see how long the stretch was and bet a closer, but if you had the lead at the top of the stretch you were in great shape. The sand-based turf course was not kind to speed no matter what its condition. But, just like Keeneland, the only time it probably favored speed was when it was wet and the sand bound up like it does on the main track. With a real beginning and an end, the Fair Grounds racing season was similar to what I am used to here at home in Saratoga. Great anticipation before it begins, can't wait for it to end, then, longing for the next meet to begin. It's the same cycle every year but this year, and many more, will be different. It's most likely that this year's Fair Grounds meet will be run at another Louisiana track - probably Louisiana Downs. Churchill Downs has a daunting task to try to re-build the track in an area of great uncertainty. And another chapter of the Fair Grounds saga will have been written.
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