Do you remember the ill-fated horse racing publication titled "The Racing Times"?

John Kelly

Born Gambler
Staff member
The Racing Times was funded by the late billionaire Robert Maxwell in the early 1990's.

The publication lasted only 10 months before folding.

The Maxwell name has been in the news lately with the arrest of Robert's disgraced daughter, Ghislaine.


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John Kelly

Born Gambler
Staff member
One other interesting note about Ghislaine Maxwell:

Federal officials were so worried Jeffrey Epstein's longtime confidant might take her own life after her arrest that they took away her clothes and bedsheets and made her wear paper attire while in custody.
 

TheGuesser

EOG Dedicated
Racing Times never got the chance to share its final day with its readers
Ross PeddicordTHE BALTIMORE SUN

When The Racing Times shut down more than a week ago, the end came almost as dramatically, and nearly as quickly, as the mysterious death of its founder, Robert Maxwell.
The late media baron was found, floating face up Nov. 5 in the Atlantic Ocean off the Canary Islands. He had either fallen, jumped or, some suspect, been pushed off his yacht.
It was a James Bondian sort of demise, with a Dick Francis twist.
Three months later, almost to the day, Maxwell's 10-month-old U.S racing paper ceased publication. It was considered a miracle that the paper held on as long as it did, because it was losing money. Maxwell's empire had begun unraveling almost as soon as he was buried on the Mount of Olives.
Still, The Racing Times editor Steve Crist did not expect the abrupt end that came about 10 days ago.
A New York media broker had been hired to dispose of the paper rTC after Maxwell's death and his financial pilferings had become public (for starters, Maxwell allegedly had robbed the pension funds of some of his companies by a couple of billion dollars).
Crist had talked to about a dozen groups, some, he said, with serious money, who wanted to buy the paper.
The Times had sort of been racing's answer to The National, and Crist a kind of horse player's Frank Deford.
On the phone last week from his home on Long Island, the 35-year-old former racing writer for The New York Times recounted the final moments.
It was Friday afternoon, more than a week ago.
Crist was sitting in his office in downtown Manhattan. About 4 p.m., he got a phone call from George White, the New York administrator of what is left of Maxwell's crumbling domain.
"George said that Charlie Wilson, who ran the [Maxwell] Mirror Group Newspapers in London, was in town. That's when I got an inkling that the end was near," Crist recalls.
He began writing "A Farewell To Readers."
In about an hour, Wilson was at the door with a battalion of uniformed security guards.
"It looked like a military operation," Crist said. "I told Charlie that we were working on the next day's paper, and could we at least put out tonight's edition?
"He said, 'Mr. Crist, you don't seem to understand. At the moment, you are trespassing.' "
Instead of printing the "Farewell to Readers," Crist read it to his staff. Then they were told to pack their personal effects and leave.
The Mirror Group had shut down the paper and sold certain assets, namely the operation's state-of-the-art mechanical equipment, to The Daily Racing Form, the industry's monopolistic daily The Racing Times had tried to topple.
Even if Maxwell had not died, Crist is not certain The Racing Times would have survived the financial collapse of its publisher's empire.
"But working for him was one of life's great experiences," Crist said. "All of a sudden, here came this rich guy out of the sky and said, 'Invent the paper of your dreams.' "
Crist, like a lot of other people, learned of Maxwell's death from his radio.
He had met with Maxwell for the final time last summer.
"He was pleased with the product, but not the circulation," Crist said. "He wanted to know why the paper wasn't selling. The Racing Form had already approached him twice and wanted to buy it. We figured our paper was costing them about $5 million in sales. But each time Maxwell told them to get lost."
Crist said that although the paper was an artistic success, it ran into distribution problems, and "it was taking longer for Racing Form readers to switch over than we had expected."
*
 

TheGuesser

EOG Dedicated
The DRF vs. Racing Times War of '91
  • 08 September, 2016 3:51 PM
If you look up Racing Times on Google, you will find only a single one-paragraph item on the racing newspaper being closed down after 10 months in existence. But what a 10 months it was following a full blown battle in which the new publication waged war on the powerful monopoly, Daily Racing Form, which had ruled the Sport of Kings since 1894 and was known throughout racing simply as “The Bible.”

On two previous occasions attempts were made by Sports Eye and Figs Form to challenge the might of the Form, but they were swatted away like gnats. Whereas those feeble challenges were equivalent of the tiny country of Grand Fenwick declaring war on the United States in the movie The Mouse That Roared, the Racing Times went into battle fully funded with the necessary ammunition, troops, and modern technology to actually threaten the DRF and cause serious damage to a dynasty whose once state-of-the-art computer system was rapidly becoming antiquated.
In April of 1991, the Racing Times launched its attack. With the backing of British publishing mogul Robert Maxwell and battle plans drawn up by former New York Times racing writer Steven Crist, the Racing Times went out and recruited a massive staff that read like a Who’s Who of racing journalists and handicappers.
By the time the ’91 Breeders’ Cup rolled around, Racing Times launched what would be its final attack on the DRF, whose handful of reporters covering the event were overwhelmed by the imposing army sent by Racing Times. In addition to executive columnist Joe Hirsch, the only reporters providing daily coverage for the Form were California correspondent Mike Martin and chart caller Jack Wilson. Ed Fountaine, former editor of Figs Form and now a member of DRF, was in Louisville covering the TRA seminar on drug and alcohol abuse in the racing industry, and he was assigned double duty by assisting in the coverage.
Fountaine recalled being in the Breeders’ Cup hospitality room at the hotel and feeling like a lost soul among the hordes of Racing Times employees, which numbered 22 according to Fountaine’s count. He said he felt like Custer at the Little Big Horn.
To give an idea just how extensive the Racing Times' staff was, in addition to Crist, there was Midwest editor Ray Paulick and his deputy editor Dan Liebman, and Western editor Jay Privman and his deputy editor Peter Berry. The writers and handicappers included major names in the industry such as executive columnist Jay Hovdey, Bill Leggett, Dale Austin, Steve Davidowitz, Karen Johnson Downey, Clem Florio, Brad Free, Jack Mann, Mike Watchmaker, former NYRA communications head Steve Schwartz, Jack Will, T.D. Thornton, Lynne Snierson, Jacqueline Duke, and Paul Cornman. Contributing writers included Tom Ainslie, Bill Finley, Russ Harris, Sid Fernando, Art Grace, William Murray, Mike Veitch, Kent Hollingworth, John Pricci, Dick Jerardi, and James Quinn, as well as Frank Mitchell, Lauren Stich, and Alan Shuback. It was by far the biggest array of editorial talent ever assembled.
But even with all this talent and the extensive amount of articles and features, it was difficult making a major dent in DRF’s armor. One Racing Times writer was quoted as saying, “Never have so many words been read by so few.” Or at least words to that effect.
I believe it was because of the Racing Times and the threat it posed to the DRF editorially, that I was plucked out of the library after 20 years and joined the editorial staff as a news and feature writer. I had been freelance writing, first for the Thoroughbred Record and other publications, and then for the newly established weekly, Thoroughbred Times, covering New Jersey racing, the Breeders’ Cup, contributing to the Triple Crown coverage, and writing features.
The editor of DRF refused to let me write for the paper; that is until the other editors pretty much ganged up on him during an editorial meeting, in which one of the topics was combating the impending threat of the Racing Times. When the subject of me writing for the Form was brought up, the publisher, who was attending the meeting, said, “I’ve always wondered why Steve is writing for the Thoroughbred Times and not writing for us.” The coup was complete. The editor had been soundly defeated. The next day I bid farewell to the library and joined the editorial desk. I was thrown right into the fire, having to write my first deadline story, an obituary on the legendary New York racecaller Fred Capossela, who had passed away that morning. Then came a multi-part series on wagering around the world, a trip to the prison in Walkill, N.Y. to do a feature on the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation program, and numerous other features.
So, I was now part of the DRF troops, whose job it was to repel the attack by Racing Times. Each morning, managing editor Joe Rosen, who was also one of my best friends, and I would go over that day’s editions of DRF and Racing Times, where we would discuss the positives and negatives of both publications, and what we could do to improve our editorial content. Joe would circle bad heads and leads with his grease pencil; anything to help upgrade our finished product, while finding weaknesses in the enemy.
The Racing Times kept coming up with more and more innovative features in their past performances, which included Beyer speed figures, while the DRF was still dependant on computer programming that was becoming outdated. And the Racing Times’ vast army of writers kept churning out tons of copy.
Although they still were unable to threaten DRF’s sales numbers, there was concern that Maxwell’s deep pockets would help the Racing Times persevere until the public caught up to it. Many of us at the Form, including myself, still felt we put out a better product editorially, with more interesting, original features, while Racing Times focused a great deal on handicapping and gambling and straight news reporting. What a product we could have if the two publications called a truce and merged their talents. But Crist and company were intent on smashing the DRF’s monopoly.
All that became moot in February, 1992 when Robert Maxwell fell off his yacht off the Canary Islands after possibly having a heart attack. His naked body was discovered a short time later. The financial losses and massive loans called in by the banks, and the shake-up of Maxwell’s empire that ensued were the death knell for the Racing Times.
One morning, I received a phone call from my good friend and Racing Times employee Lauren Stich, who was a noted pedigree handicapper who specialized in 2-year-olds. Lauren informed me they had just been shut down. Just like that the Racing Times was no more. When their offices were invaded and they were told to leave the premises immediately, they asked if they could put out one final copy to say goodbye, but were told they were officially trespassing.
Although you hate to see so many people, several of whom were friends, lose their job, there was a sense of relief that the Racing Times no longer was a threat. The DRF was once again a monopoly.
But that was far from the end of the story. The DRF eventually was sold by Rupert Murdock to K-III, part of the equity giant Kohlberg, Kravis and Roberts (KKR). Eventually massive changes at DRF incurred and a number of former employees of Racing Times were brought in until the DRF had pretty much been engulfed by the foe it had once conquered. Former Racing Times executive Neil Cook was made editor, and Joe Rosen, DRF news editor Greg Gallo, and copy chief Tom Valledolmo eventually were fired, and the DRF moved its main office from Hightstown, N.J. to Phoenix, Arizona.
By the mid-1990s, K-III occupied most of the Hightstown office, with the remaining few DRF employees moving to a small corner of the building. The only two writers left were Ed Fountaine and myself, along with former editor George Bernet, art director Chris Donfry, Mandy Minger from marketing, and a few executives. We constantly came up with new features, such as the “Training Tree,” and “Stable Tour,” and increased our number of editorials. Neil Cook even assigned me to cover the 1997 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, and I brought my wife and daughter on a second honeymoon, staying at the same small boutique hotel in Paris Joan and I stayed 17 years earlier on our honeymoon. Fountaine and I were invited to attend and speak at the DRF’s retreat at a resort in Wickenburg, Arizona, where we discussed covering the Kentucky Derby. I even built up the nerve to go up in the DRF hot air balloon. I have to admit those were fun days.
Then in 1998, following persistent rumors, the Form was purchased by a group headed by none other than Steven Crist. The monopoly he had once detested and tried to destroy was now his. Although still the DRF in name, it was in reality the Racing Times reincarnated, as its former employees came storming back in droves. Fountaine was dismissed, but found a job with his old editor Greg Gallo at the New York Post. Soon, all remnants of what was the Daily Racing Form were gone, including me, who moved on to the Blood-Horse after 29 years.
The DRF has undergone numerous changes, both cosmetically and in content. It remains a monopoly, having been sold several more times, but bears no resemblance to what it once was. The conflict of 1991 is but a distant memory. The mighty DRF won its biggest battle, but in the end lost the war.
 

TheGuesser

EOG Dedicated
I could be wrong about this, as the memory sometimes plays tricks, and the above article indicates Sports Eye was involved in prior attempts to compete with the DRF. But I seem to remember the Racing Times also had Harness Tracks. I was mainly a harness fan, and the only time I would ever buy a T Bred publication was for the Triple Crown or Breeders Cups, but yet I seem to remember buying, and liking the Racing Times more than occasionally.
 

TheGuesser

EOG Dedicated
Ed Fountaine4 years ago
Interesting background on how the Racing Times came to be:
It actually traces back to a fellow named Robert Sinn, a mathematics genius who made a fortune on Wall Street selling the first desktop electronic stock-market ticker. Sinn, who also bred and owned racehorses in New Jersey, came up with a proprietary, computerized speed-ratings formula, called F.I.G.S., which he marketed via mail-order through Amerpub, publisher of American Turf Monthly and Racing Star Weekly, on 8th Ave. in NYC, where I worked at the time.
Sinn's long-term goal was to use his computerized speed-ratings to start a daily paper, eventually named Figs Form, to compete with Daily Racing Form. He opened an office on Spring St. in Soho; and to establish a database, he had a squad of people sitting for hours on end at computer terminals inputting basic information from the charts of the DRF - such as tracks, race dates, horses entered, split and final times, final margins, race conditions and distances, etc. - all of which, Sinn said, were matters of public record, and so copying this information from the DRF charts was not a copyright violation.
When he had a big enough database, Sinn purchased a dozen or more state-of-the-art Macintosh computers and was gearing up to launch Figs Form, which charted Sinn's speed ratings for each horse going back a year on a graph, called a Figograph, with another chart as the header for each race, called a Figoscope, plotting the fastest performances for each horse in the field. We also, in the past performance lines below the Figographs, included information which the Daily Racing Form did not, such as Lasix, front-bandages, more detailed race conditions and expanded trouble lines. (The Racing Times would claim credit for these innovations, but we had them first.)

Figs Form looked like something from a science-fiction movie, or perhaps the blueprints for a nuclear bomb. There were two pages of instructions on how to read it, in English, Spanish and Chinese. But although the Figograph speed ratings were the meat and potatoes of the product, Sinn also wanted an editorial section, so he hired me as the editor and tasked me with putting together an editorial and production staff. Together with a staff of computer geniuses hired by Sinn to coordinate the database and page production, we launched Figs Form around St. Patricks Day, 1989, at the time only covering the New York and New Jersey tracks. A West Coast edition with an office in LA opened a few months later.

Because Sinn's speed figures were actually first-rate, and the graphs appealed to horse players with a technological bent, we soon developed a small but loyal following - with the emphasis on small. Funding the paper soon became a problem as Sinn's own original investment dwindled. He contacted a venture-capital group headed by astronaut Frank Borman, who toured our headquarters but did not bite.

As fall approached and money got tighter (and the pressures of a failing start-up began to mount), Sinn was able to bring English publishing mogul Robert Maxwell on board for a rumored $1 million loan, with Figs Form's database and computer equipment as collateral. Maxwell's bitter rival, Rupert Murdoch, had recently purchased Daily Racing Form, and Maxwell was eager to compete with him.

But by the time the Breeders' Cup rolled around, the $1 million was gone. Sinn asked for more money to continue publication. Maxwell's reply, in effect, was "No more soup for you. And by the way, we now own your database and computer equipment."

On Nov. 13, a day which lives in infamy, Figs Form abruptly shut its doors. Myself and a couple other staffers got jobs at the DRF, which was starting up a new tabloid called MetroTurf. But Maxwell kept on many of the computer geniuses, and a skeleton track-and-field operation, which kept the database up-to-date while Figs Form went through bankruptcy proceedings (and Sinn escaped to Florida).

When the bankruptcy was over, more than a year after Figs Form closed, Maxwell used the Figs Form infrastructure - its database and computer equipment - to start Racing Times.
 

Heim

EOG Master
Beyers fig number was horrible on turf.....if you had the 'Sheets' or access to replays you
cleaned up on turf overlays. They hammered Beyers (turf) like gospel.
 
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Valuist

EOG Master
I bought a racing form Saturday. $12. YIKES

Buy online. $3.95 for one track regular and $4.95 for Formulator. The Formulator past performances are great. They have room to make notes. Let's say I watch replays of Horse A's last 2 races. I write the trip notes in the notes area and they save automatically. So if Horse A runs again in three weeks, the notes I added automatically come up. You also can customize trainer angles, based on whatever criteria you want to use. I started exclusively using Formulator about a year ago and it's definitely worth the extra buck. 5-6 tracks? At most I will play two tracks, and many times only one.
 

MrTop

EOG Master
yes i bought it about 20 times and I was not a track bettor. I did not like the track because it never offered match up style except at offshore books with big races... Still today they do not sell it at the candy store's by me anymore I called up the meadowlands and the lady said demand was the reason. I told her the track has to change their model.
 
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