Horse Racing

As usual, Pete is dead-on nails here.

We handle PR for one of the big SoCal tracks and there are stories aplenty. One of the coolest ones we pitch is one anybody on this board would run to cover: an annual, fund-raising basketball game between the jockeys and a local MIDDLE SCHOOL basketball team.

The most pedestrian writer on the planet could write a good story here.

Also, are you near a place where they auction horses? Like Elliotte said earlier, this is a great source for stories. I got a great column out of a big regional auction they had at the LA County Fairgrounds merely by befriending and following around one of the "scouts" wealthy owners hire to find them their next thoroughbred. It was fascinating to follow him around for a day.

 

Damon Runyon is spinning in his grave.

 

You can smell the smoke from the spinning of the two Joes -- Hirsch and Palmer.

 

You guys, lighten up. This poster doesn't know anything about horse racing, probably because of age. He/she probably doesn't remember life before cable TV, either. Asking questions to learn things is always a good place for a reporter to start.

 

Another idea is that, whenever you encounter a jockey who happens to have the same name as some better-known sports icon, you can ask him questions about the icon's sport and just sort of wink at the fact that he's an entirely different, largely-unknown person.