Baird's loss extends beyond local racing
Though the tragic death of Dale Baird along an icy strip of Indiana highway on Dec. 23 won't directly be felt on horse racing's national stage, it sadly closes a chapter in racing lure that hits home with many fans of the game -- small-time racing. Baird's 9,445 victories, the most Thoroughbred race wins in North American history, mostly came along the country roads of West Virginia, far from the racing meccas of New York, Kentucky and California.
While Baird won his first race in 1961 with a horse almost un-appropriately named New York, his low-level success at Waterford Park (since renamed Mountaineer Park) hardly took a bite out of the Big Apple. But to belittle his historic accomplishments strictly based on venue would be unjust. Consider that his prolific list of victories is more than 3,000 greater than his closest rival, Jack Van Berg (just under 6,400), and 1,300 more than Allen Jerkens and D. Wayne Lukas -- combined.
Small-time racing represents, as expected, a small piece of America's racing pie. Daily handle totals in the six and low seven-figure ranges make it invisible to the national racing pages and seldom do small-time tracks even get their voices heard on industry matters. But small-time tracks hold a major place on the racing landscape, no matter how invisible they may seem to those flocking to Santa Anita, Gulfstream Park or Aqueduct this winter.
Places like Mountaineer Park provide a year-round venue for racing. While the glamour meets come and go with the seasons, some lasting for only a few days, the backbone, claiming tracks serve a major purpose: they keep horses running. And no one kept more horses running than Dale Baird, who prided himself as a trader of horses as much as a conditioner.
In an industry that produces annual foal crops in excess of 35,000, only a select group in the hundreds is retired to major stud duty each year. And while field sizes are strong for the short, glamour meetings, they are intended for the cream of the crop runners, not the entirety of the crop.
Simply put, there needs to be a place where those horses who slip through the competitive cracks can land on four feet. Baird's final journey, in fact, was with an empty horse trailer en route to a sale in which he could evaluate and purchase racing stock. He was willing to play at a smaller level with horses that bigger outfits were casting away. Not only was he 15 times the leading trainer in America by annual victories, he posted an even more impressive 17 leading owner annual titles.
While all admittedly is not rosy in the treatment of horses at all levels of the game, horse racing still needs its small-time venues and it needs it the Dale Bairds of the game. His loss will be sorely missed by his family, the local racing community and horse racing in general.
Dale Baird's Career Capsule
Jeremy Plonk is the editor of The HorsePlayer Magazine and its website, HorsePlayerdaily.com. You can E-mail Jeremy about this topic or any other racing-related topic at plonk@horseplayerdaily.com.
