#Soundbites - What do you think racing will be like five years from now?

By Bill Heller

Todd Pletcher, Hall of Fame trainer

It’s difficult to project, but I think we’re going to continue to see what we’ve seen the past five years: a reduction in the tracks that are open. I think we’ll see continued growth in gambling, period. I think racing is benefitting from that—an open mindedness to gambling. Everyone now is gambling on football—pretty much on everything. One thing that grew during the pandemic was gambling. There will be fewer tracks but more of them operating successfully.

One thing we need to do is continue to make improvements on safety.

Assuming it (the HISA) goes through, it’s a good thing for the sport. We need some uniformity. It’s very difficult as a trainer to keep track of all the different rules in every jurisdiction. It should level the playing field.

Graham Motion, trainer

I hope, once we have the Horse Racing Integrity (and safety) Act in place, we’ll be in a better place five years from now. There will be smaller foal crops and less racetracks but a better product—one with more integrity. The status quo is unacceptable. It’s almost impossible to keep up with the different rules. We need uniformity and integrity, and right now we have neither.

Kelly Breen, trainer

I think what we saw in the pandemic was that people are betting—maybe more online. So many people learned how to bet on their phones and iPads during the pandemic that we’re setting record handles.

On track, you go to Saratoga, and it was mobbed. On the blue ribbon days, everybody is going to show up. I’m at the Keeneland Sales, and you can’t raise your hand. Racing is good. If you can get a good legislative body, and get everybody together for where we need to be in the next five years so you don’t have different rules on medication, the good horseman will be around.

Cliff Sise, Jr., trainer

Will we be here in five years? They are just tearing it apart. In New York, they have great purses now, but the new governor wants to take all that money and spend it otherwise. If that happens, purses will go so low. In California, Del Mar does well, but we don’t have the contract to get the purses up to where they should be. Owners are getting disgusted. We’re all shaking our heads wondering if we’ll be here in five years. It depends a lot on governors. If they look down on us, they can just say no more horse racing. PETA is watching us. We’re under the microscope so much. It’s a tough game to enjoy anymore.

Eric Jackson, Oaklawn Park Senior Vice President

Five years is a pretty short time from now. There will be fewer tracks than today, but those that survive the withering will be better than before. Sports are popular. I think it will be quality over quantity. In any sport, there’s demand to see it at a better level.

Chris Merz, Director of Racing, Santa Anita

I’m going to shed a positive light. I’m hoping this new bill puts everybody on the same page with the same rules. Then we can coordinate post times so they don’t conflict. It will be an industry working together to help the industry. We need to make this work. I think we’ve seen what happens when we don’t.

Michael Dubb, owner

There will be more consolidation, and we’ll be probably at the infancy of a marriage to legalized sports betting providers. I think that’s the future of racing. Anything that grows handle is probably good. You get a sports provider and a content provider, and the future will be TVG horse shows—you get on somebody’s platform. Do I want to bet if it’s sunny or cloudy? Do I want to bet football? Here’s horse racing. Do I want to bet that? think that’s the future of racing. Twenty years ago, we didn’t know the future of racing would be iPads. That’s how it turned out.

Barry Schwartz, owner and former CEO of the New York Racing Association

A lot has changed because of the pandemic. I think it exposed people to gambling on the Internet. Handle is everything. To me, right now, racing looks very alive and well. You see what’s going on at Keeneland. They’re already way past last year. Critical to racing is HISTA. They’ve got to get that up and running so the public has more confidence in racing, and that racing is legitimate. I think if we have a real strong organization in place, it will make people a lot more confident about racing—about racing being legitimate. The bottom line is I see a lot of things to be happy about with racing going forward. I didn’t  feel that way five years ago.

Nick Cosato, owner

I would like to think we’re headed in the right direction with the Integrity Act. I’m optimistic.

Jack Knowlton, owner

I’m optimistic that racing will be in a better place in five years than it is today. In part, I do believe that the federal legislation will allow more resources to do the kind of testing we need to stay one step ahead of the cheaters. One of the big things is we never had enough resources to do the research. They’re coming up with new stuff to cheat. In my mind, that’s the biggest issue racing is facing. I think you’re going to have owners feeling better about participating.

And we’ll have one set of rules. The other thing, and we’ve made strides, is the issue of safety. We look at the data, and we’re getting a lot better, but there’s more work to be done. We have to continue to improve it. That’s definitely going in the right direction. The other issue is after-care, making sure we find a place for these athletes when they’re done with their careers.

Michael Cannon - Cannon Thoroughbreds

Michael Cannon (Cannon Thoroughbreds) - Smooth Like Strait

Michael Cannon, a multiple success in business, was in unfamiliar territory with his Thoroughbreds. “I was a failure,” he said. “I’m not lying. I was a complete failure. I took full responsibility. I bred Smooth Like Strait. Then he ran his first race and was a real disappointment. I told my wife he was our last chance of success. I was starting to undo Cannon Thoroughbreds. I spent a lot of money, and I got very little reward. You have to know in business when to pull the plug. I was looking to get out of the business.”

Fortunately for the Cannons, Smooth Like Strait didn’t take long to show his immense talent—taking Michael, Jennifer and their four children, Cole, Chloe, Camryn and Cooper on the ride of a lifetime. His last eight starts have been in graded stakes with four victories, two seconds, a third and a fourth against elite turf company. “He turned it around,” Cannon said. “We’re back and stronger than ever.”

Cannon has spent most of his adult life helping companies do exactly that: getting strong. The 52-year-old president and CEO of Cannon Nevada, a venture capital firm based in Henderson, has started or acquired 22 businesses. Zero have gone bankrupt. “I’m pretty good at cutting out the bull****, simplifying and getting down to making money,” he said. “So far, I’m always looking to share with others. I do like helping other people. It’s not all about the money. It’s really about success. I just keep trying new things. Some work, some don’t. I’m too dumb to quit. So I keep working. Fortunately, I’ve been more successful than not.”

His interest in horses came at an early age. “My dad loved racing, and my mom was from Nevada. I spent a lot of time in Nevada. I knew horses very well.”

His mother, however, didn’t let him pursue his interest in music or football. “I played trumpet, but she wouldn’t let me practice at home,” he said. “She also wouldn’t let me play football in high school. And I was fast.”

When he attended Alan Hancock Junior College in Santa Maria, Calif., he made the football team as a freshman and was a starter at wide receiver in his second season. “I was the only white receiver—a white kid with red hair—with really talented African Americans from inner cities,” he said. “They came from rough neighborhoods. I didn’t even know how to put the pads on. They taught me everything. These guys became good friends.”

Following junior college, Cannon received a bachelor of science degree from Boston University’s School of Management, an advanced certificate in negotiation from Harvard University and an advanced certificate in mergers and acquisition from UCLA.

He had an incredible experience in 1988 while doing an internship in London. He even had tea with Diana, Princess of Wales. “There was a new American Institute of Foreign Studies, and about six of us out of 300 were allowed to meet her,” he said. “I had to take two days of classes for protocol. They take that protocol very seriously. Just learning how to shake hands took an hour. You can’t squeeze her hand. When she finally showed up, she couldn’t have been any nicer. She was prettier in person than she was in pictures. She didn’t give a damn about all that protocol. She grabbed my hand and seized it.” 

While in college, he bought his first horse—a $1,000 weanling named Achillean Spirit. “He ran at Golden Gate and tracks in Utah and Nevada and was very successful on that small circuit: Beaver City, Utah, and Ely and Elko, Nevada,” Cannon said.

Then he began syndicating horses as Sport of Kings Syndication. He did that for three years and took a hiatus from horse racing to focus on his rapidly advancing business career. He founded and led Warehouse Las Vegas, Accurate Courier and 4Wall Entertainment before founding Cannon Nevada in 2018.

Eight years earlier, he had reconnected with Thoroughbreds, posting minimal success. He purchased Smooth Like Straight’s granddam, Beautiful Lil. She produced Smooth Like Straight’s dam, Smooth as Usual. He raced her, sold her and got her back after her racing career ended in a sale at Keeneland. She began Cannon’s small broodmare band, based at Columbiana Farm in Kentucky.

Early reports on Smooth Like Strait were incredibly positive from day one. He shared this story with Christine Oser in her October, 22, 2020, story in The Blood-Horse: “The minute he was born, Homer Rader at Columbiana said, `You know what? You’ve got a good one.’ And that’s literally within 24 hours of him being born. I sent him away to be trained at Bill Wofford’s Rimroc Farm in Kentucky. He breaks them and gets them prepped for training, and then he called me up and said, `Smooth Like Strait—this horse is going to win you a graded stakes race.’ I’d never heard that before.”

Then Smooth Like Strait, who is trained by Mike McCarthy, made a dreadful debut, finishing ninth by 20 lengths at Del Mar on August 17, 2019. That abysmal performance was on dirt, and once Smooth Like Strait switched to grass, he became a star—flashing seven victories, three seconds and a pair of thirds in 14 starts while earning more than $900,000.

He could have won a lot more, narrowly missing his first three starts in Gr. 1 stakes. He finished second by a head in the Hollywood Derby, second by a neck in the Francis Kilroe Stakes and third by a neck in the Turf Classic at Churchill Downs. “When you’re coming from nothing, and you’re losing Gr. 1’s by a neck, we were proud as hell. Just to be in a graded stakes was terrific,” Cannon said.

Then Smooth Like Strait broke through, winning the Gr. 1 Shoemaker Mile by a length and a half on May 31. That prompted Cannon to conclude, “I’ve come a long way since 1991 in Beaver City, Utah.”