Dysfunctional CA Racing!
May 26, 2013 17:08:56 GMT -5
Post by Jon on May 26, 2013 17:08:56 GMT -5
This made me laugh. There just seems to be no hope for CA racing - except Stronach. Right - no hope LOL It's a damned shame.
Racing board chair David Israel under fire
By Ed Zieralski
As chairman of the California Horse Racing Board, David Israel finds himself herding an industry in great need of learning how to play nice.
All you had to do Thursday was listen to the CHRB’s monthly meeting in Sacramento to hear Israel, as the lead cowboy, reverting to F-bombs and anger to lasso this crew up. Try as he might to get the horsemen and racing associations synchronized, Israel fell woefully short early. But like an old, ageing race horse, he rallied. It didn’t appear anyone, except maybe the California Thoroughbred Trainers, went home without cashing a ticket or two. Drinks were on the big, funny, obscene guy in the middle.
Israel, a former sportswriter, followed Hemingway’s advice and got out of the newspaper gig before it was too late. He wrote about the Triple Crown campaigns of Seattle Slew and Affirmed. He has written for the two guys who actually read “Playboy Magazine” and produced for Hollywood. He even did a stint as a coordinating producer on Monday Night Football during the Dennis Miller experiment that died quicker than a horse in a barn at Hollywood Park.
Israel’s qualifications for being a horse racing board chair don’t resonate on his resume, but no matter. Israel’s term as the 325-pound gorilla in the racing board room as an appointment of ex-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger ends in January. His exit, however, may not be soon enough for some who caught his act at Thursday’s meeting via the Internet.
(By the way, the Governor’s office is deferring all questions about Israel’s behavior to the board or Israel and notes the man is part of the old regime and off the board in January. Israel didn’t answer an email request.)
Israel, as fellow commissioner Jesse Choper said, is “quite a colorful guy who puts a lot of effort into the job. No one can deny that, whether they like his style or don’t like his style. I admire his commitment to helping an industry that is in need of a lot of help.”
Yep. Israel is the type of guy who wears his emotions on his sleeve and on his tongue. There’s nothing wrong with showing a little emotion. But it was Israel’s foul language and constant joking and banter that made me wish his predecessor, all-business, no-play Keith Brackpool, hadn’t gone off to work for Frank Stronach. Brackpool could be abrasive and studish, to use a backstretch term, when necessary, but he was fair, organized and understood his role as chair. Now he’s wielding backroom power as Stronach’s hitman.
At times Thursday, Israel was rude, abrasive, unorganized and vulgar. He was challenged by his fellow commissioners, all of whom were infinitely more professional in their demeanor than he was. At one point, one participant later said it was “cacophony,” people talking over each other, chaos, all because Israel lost control of the meeting and himself.
Israel is far too intelligent a guy to let his language slip into the barn the way it did on Thursday. Another commissioner, unidentified on the air, punched back with the same language, a verbal volley we can do without at these important meetings. But this is horse racing. Tempers fly like reins.
At one point, Israel became so annoyed with the sound system problems and technical issues he blurted “Bleeping-A” into his microphone. It made me think of the movie, “Deer Hunter.” That’s how long it’s been since I heard that phrase.
His response today to “delicate souls” he offended was to tweet actor Samuel L. Jackson’s profane, “Pulp Fiction”-like reading of a children’s nighttime story, “Go To (Bleep) To Sleep.” Now that’s some funny stuff, right?
He berated his own fellow commissioners, swore at them and at one point said, “Let me (bleeping) finish. Don’t start (bleeping) me off.”
All this has led horse racing watchdogs like Andy Asaro and Ray Paulick to call for Israel’s resignation.
Is Israel the kind of person the industry wants to deal with at such a critical time in California’s horse racing history? Does Gov. Jerry Brown want Israel and his offensive demeanor to represent him as chair of such an important state board that in the next few months will decide the future of horse racing in this state for a long, long time to come?
Maybe a more level-headed person like Chuck Winner, the CHRB’s vice chairman, ought to take over, or at the very least, get a bar of soap out to protect all us “delicate souls” from future F-bombs and Samuel L. Jackson tweets.
San Diego Union Tribune
Racing board chair David Israel under fire
By Ed Zieralski
As chairman of the California Horse Racing Board, David Israel finds himself herding an industry in great need of learning how to play nice.
All you had to do Thursday was listen to the CHRB’s monthly meeting in Sacramento to hear Israel, as the lead cowboy, reverting to F-bombs and anger to lasso this crew up. Try as he might to get the horsemen and racing associations synchronized, Israel fell woefully short early. But like an old, ageing race horse, he rallied. It didn’t appear anyone, except maybe the California Thoroughbred Trainers, went home without cashing a ticket or two. Drinks were on the big, funny, obscene guy in the middle.
Israel, a former sportswriter, followed Hemingway’s advice and got out of the newspaper gig before it was too late. He wrote about the Triple Crown campaigns of Seattle Slew and Affirmed. He has written for the two guys who actually read “Playboy Magazine” and produced for Hollywood. He even did a stint as a coordinating producer on Monday Night Football during the Dennis Miller experiment that died quicker than a horse in a barn at Hollywood Park.
Israel’s qualifications for being a horse racing board chair don’t resonate on his resume, but no matter. Israel’s term as the 325-pound gorilla in the racing board room as an appointment of ex-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger ends in January. His exit, however, may not be soon enough for some who caught his act at Thursday’s meeting via the Internet.
(By the way, the Governor’s office is deferring all questions about Israel’s behavior to the board or Israel and notes the man is part of the old regime and off the board in January. Israel didn’t answer an email request.)
Israel, as fellow commissioner Jesse Choper said, is “quite a colorful guy who puts a lot of effort into the job. No one can deny that, whether they like his style or don’t like his style. I admire his commitment to helping an industry that is in need of a lot of help.”
Yep. Israel is the type of guy who wears his emotions on his sleeve and on his tongue. There’s nothing wrong with showing a little emotion. But it was Israel’s foul language and constant joking and banter that made me wish his predecessor, all-business, no-play Keith Brackpool, hadn’t gone off to work for Frank Stronach. Brackpool could be abrasive and studish, to use a backstretch term, when necessary, but he was fair, organized and understood his role as chair. Now he’s wielding backroom power as Stronach’s hitman.
At times Thursday, Israel was rude, abrasive, unorganized and vulgar. He was challenged by his fellow commissioners, all of whom were infinitely more professional in their demeanor than he was. At one point, one participant later said it was “cacophony,” people talking over each other, chaos, all because Israel lost control of the meeting and himself.
Israel is far too intelligent a guy to let his language slip into the barn the way it did on Thursday. Another commissioner, unidentified on the air, punched back with the same language, a verbal volley we can do without at these important meetings. But this is horse racing. Tempers fly like reins.
At one point, Israel became so annoyed with the sound system problems and technical issues he blurted “Bleeping-A” into his microphone. It made me think of the movie, “Deer Hunter.” That’s how long it’s been since I heard that phrase.
His response today to “delicate souls” he offended was to tweet actor Samuel L. Jackson’s profane, “Pulp Fiction”-like reading of a children’s nighttime story, “Go To (Bleep) To Sleep.” Now that’s some funny stuff, right?
He berated his own fellow commissioners, swore at them and at one point said, “Let me (bleeping) finish. Don’t start (bleeping) me off.”
All this has led horse racing watchdogs like Andy Asaro and Ray Paulick to call for Israel’s resignation.
Is Israel the kind of person the industry wants to deal with at such a critical time in California’s horse racing history? Does Gov. Jerry Brown want Israel and his offensive demeanor to represent him as chair of such an important state board that in the next few months will decide the future of horse racing in this state for a long, long time to come?
Maybe a more level-headed person like Chuck Winner, the CHRB’s vice chairman, ought to take over, or at the very least, get a bar of soap out to protect all us “delicate souls” from future F-bombs and Samuel L. Jackson tweets.
San Diego Union Tribune