They got my man Bredar......

...damn shame...CDI is at it again.....

Churchill fires Bredar
By MARTY McGEE
Doug Bredar, the racing secretary at Churchill Downs and Ellis Park since February 2002, was fired Monday by Churchill Downs Inc., the parent company of both tracks.
Bredar, 44, was unavailable for comment, but a family member confirmed that he had been informed of the firing Monday and had already cleaned out his office at Churchill in Louisville, Ky., and was scheduled to do so Tuesday at Ellis Park in Henderson, Ky.

Julie Koenig Loignon, vice president of communications at CDI, said Monday that "no one within the company" would comment on the firing "as a matter of policy."

At Churchill, Bredar replaced Jerry Botts, who died following a brief illness on Dec. 31, 2001. Botts was highly popular with horsemen at Churchill and had worked there as a racing official for 30 years.

Before his tenure at Churchill and Ellis, Bredar worked as an official at numerous tracks throughout the country, including Hollywood Park, Gulfstream Park, Arlington Park, Turf Paradise, and Prairie Meadows. He and his wife, television reporter Caton Bredar, currently reside in Louisville.

[Scurlogue Champ]

They have been cleaning house over on Central Avenue.

Originally Posted by moodwalker

They have been cleaning house over on Central Avenue.

Yes they have.....yours truly was one of the 15 they hacked after the Derby....I like the company and a lot of its people, but it is one brutal environment there...everybody walks down the halls looking over their shoulders....it was a very uncomfortable experience, but one that I wouldn't have traded for anything...they are a very intelligent company, but their primary weakness is that they may be too intelligent in general business and not intelligent enough in the fields required to understand their product - i.e.: all of the top executives and decision makers have a very limited knowledge of horse racing....I know that fact used to always frustrate Doug and many other of the small portion of the company that actually knew the sport.....Oh well, Doug will land on his feet....he's a sharp guy and very professional and he is a good racing secretary....

As for that job, Ben Huffman - another great guy who I regard as a personal friend - is 1-9 on the morning line to fill that spot.....Doug was actually hired over Ben in 2002 for that position....

[Scurlogue Champ]

Originally Posted by Cunningham Racing

Yes they have.....yours truly was one of the 15 they hacked after the Derby....I like the company and a lot of its people, but it is one brutal environment there...everybody walks down the halls looking over their shoulders....it was a very uncomfortable experience, but one that I wouldn't have traded for anything...they are a very intelligent company, but their primary weakness is that they may be too intelligent in general business and not intelligent enough in the fields required to understand their product - i.e.: none of the top executives understand a thing about hourse racing....I know that fact used to always frustrate Doug and many other of the small portion of the company that actually knew the sport.....Oh well, Doug will land on his feet....he's a sharp guy and very professional and he is a good racing secretary....

As for that job, Ben Huffman - another great guy who I regard as a personal friend - is 1-9 on the morning line to fill that spot.....Doug actually beat out Ben in 2002 for that position....

I have heard the same from my friends who have worked there.

Let me ask you this, why do you think they put people without much knowledge about the intricacies of the game in the decision making positions?

I had a discussion about that very fact with one of the professors over at the University in the Equine Department.

It sure does seem odd.

How did you like Meeker? And how long do you think Greg Bush will last with the way things are going?

Originally Posted by moodwalker

I have heard the same from my friends who have worked there.

Let me ask you this, why do you think they put people without much knowledge about the intricacies of the game in the decision making positions?

I had a discussion about that very fact with one of the professors over at the University in the Equine Department.

It sure does seem odd.

How did you like Meeker? And how long do you think Greg Bush will last with the way things are going?

The primary factor is that there are very few people that have a broad racing knowledge and qualify from an education and experience standpoint, believe it or not....it is a very limited group, so they go out to relative sports industries and hire people from those sources....Theie VP of Marketing came from AFI Bowling company, which involves sports, but he knows nothing about racing....it is what you have to deal with...they are assuming that smart and diligent people with adapt and it doesn't work much of the time...

As for Meeker, I thought he was OK....Reportedly, he didn't want to hack us after the Derby but the Board (Mr. Duchessois) made him do it.....Mr. D makes 90% of the major decisions there and wants a puppet for a CEO - that is the real reason Meeker stepped down...

I will say this though...I betcha the environment gets a little less volatile now that Meeker is gone beause he ran that place like a dictatorship and that is why it was very militant and very strict and cut-throat for a while IMO....

It really is a great company though and it is a shame that they are this unstable....I'm seriously not bitter at all about my situation, although I obviously was dissappointed....

No CEO should be in the position for longer than 5 years. The reason being is that a company always needs leadership and new blood. Churchill Downs should be an A track. They should never be running $5k claimers on a Saturday. The product at Churchill has gone downhill over the years, but they turn a good profit and good businessmen. Until that Duchessois understands that he needs to stay out of the way then Churchill will never get better.

[Scurlogue Champ]

Originally Posted by Cunningham Racing

The primary factor is that there are very few people that have a broad racing knowledge and qualify from an education and experience standpoint, believe it or not....it is a very limited group, so they go out to relative sports industries and hire people from those sources....Theie VP of Marketing came from AFI Bowling company, which involves sports, but he knows nothing about racing....it is what you have to deal with...they are assuming that smart and diligent people with adapt and it doesn't work much of the time...

As for Meeker, I thought he was OK....Reportedly, he didn't want to hack us after the Derby but the Board (Mr. Duchessois) made him do it.....Mr. D makes 90% of the major decisions there and wants a puppet for a CEO - that is the real reason Meeker stepped down...

I will say this though...I betcha the environment gets a little less volatile now that Meeker is gone beause he ran that place like a dictatorship and that is why it was very militant and very strict and cut-throat for a while IMO....

It really is a great company though and it is a shame that they are this unstable....I'm seriously not bitter at all about my situation, although I obviously was dissappointed....

Doesn't Duchossois hate Meeker? Or am I thinking of someone else?

I'm glad they sold Ellis to someone with some business sense. It's painfully obvious the Chicago boys have no idea how to offer a great product.

[ForestofWonders]

I fear for NYRA

[Suffolk Shippers]

Originally Posted by Cunningham Racing

Yes they have.....yours truly was one of the 15 they hacked after the Derby....I like the company and a lot of its people, but it is one brutal environment there...everybody walks down the halls looking over their shoulders....it was a very uncomfortable experience, but one that I wouldn't have traded for anything...they are a very intelligent company, but their primary weakness is that they may be too intelligent in general business and not intelligent enough in the fields required to understand their product - i.e.: all of the top executives and decision makers have a very limited knowledge of horse racing....I know that fact used to always frustrate Doug and many other of the small portion of the company that actually knew the sport.....Oh well, Doug will land on his feet....he's a sharp guy and very professional and he is a good racing secretary....

As for that job, Ben Huffman - another great guy who I regard as a personal friend - is 1-9 on the morning line to fill that spot.....Doug was actually hired over Ben in 2002 for that position....

The environment you describe, Joel, are very much in line with a company that has a little topsy turvy standing to them. Kind of like having a paper company where the people spread at the lower levels of the job have great knowledge of the product, and how to market it, how to best use it, but is run by a group of suits that best attribute is using tried and true measures that dont really apply to the paper business. That sends a mixed message to good employees (like yourself) who get frustrated and annoyed with what goes on.

Its a lousy situation to be in. But, you seemed to turn out ok!

Originally Posted by moodwalker

Doesn't Duchossois hate Meeker? Or am I thinking of someone else?

They never got along and Mr. D always would force Meeker's hand on decisions....When Arlington Park was acquired by CDI it was supposed to be an acquisition...it turned out to be more like a merger because Mr. D has lined the board with his cronies and they block vote what they want done and force Meeker (now Evans) to enforce it.....When they wanted to cut cost earlier this summer, Mr. D asked for the hacking of human resources and Meeker fought it until he couldn't figjht it any longer and they fired 15 employees...But hey, it is bottomline driven like most corporations....once CDI sold Hollywood cause they couldn't get slots and once the hurricanes and tornados crushed Calder, Fair Grounds and Ellis - the business and revenues shrunk to such that their corporate infrastructure that was built up to support a growing business and multi-track operation now was too big and too costly relative to the properties that made up their significantly smaller operation - Thus, they hacked all specialized departments like mine...

As for Mr. D....he is so bold and against company policy that he makes Arlington exempt to all CDI corporate policies....that is why Arlington Park has that ****ty graphics package this year (if you have noticed) that is not uniform to the other CDI owned tracks, and he refuses CDI branding at his facilities on many things....he even just recently authorized the change of the Arlington PArk website so thta it no longer looks and operated uniformly to the other CDI track sites....the guy hates CDI and just needed them to dig Arlington out of the hole that they were in for a while....now he is single handedly ruining the corporation because all he carse about is Arlington Park....he could care less about the Derby, etc. from what I have heard from good sources...

Things will only get worse IMO as long as he remains the single largest stock holder of CDI and has the board in his pocket. CDI just sscrewed up and tied themselves into a horrible deal with that guy...but then again, CDI has a rich history of tying themselves into some horrible deals....

Originally Posted by Pillow Pants

I'm glad they sold Ellis to someone with some business sense. It's painfully obvious the Chicago boys have no idea how to offer a great product.

There in-lied the problem with Ellis Park...it would never be allowed to prosper under CDI's wing due to the fact that it was a midwest track that competed directly with Arlington Park for the same horses in the summer time.....Do you think Mr. D was going to allow Ellis to prosper and take the shine away from his precious Arlington Park?....No chance.....The pea patch never had a chance with CDI owning it....the ONLY reason CDI benefitted for having Ellis in their eyes is because it kept the die-hard Kentucky horsemen happy to have racing in state year round...that was the only benefit...

It should do better now under new management. Supposedly, they were going to get rid of Doug after this year anyway, so that didn't surprise me that he was released by CD and ElP...

CDI has their eyes squarely set on one prize and one prize only and that is NYRA, which is no huge secret.....they want it so bad they can taste it and they have been positioning themselves to get it for 2 years now....If they had it their way, they would sell Hoosier and Calder and cut off all of the proverbial "fat" - as I've heard it mentioned time and time again...

They tried to sell Ellis for years and never could find anyone that would give them anything for it...Mike Pegram tried to low-ball them with an offer a few years back but it wasn't enough...I think they only sold the place to the new owner for around $8 million, which is dirt cheap for a race track in Kentucky.

I'm probably saying more than I should here......

Originally Posted by Cunningham Racing

They tried to sell Ellis for years and never could find anyone that would give them anything for it...Mike Pegram tried to low-ball them with an offer a few years back but it wasn't enough...I think they only sold the place to the new owner for around $8 million, which is dirt cheap for a race track in Kentucky.

If I recall didn't the negotiations with Pegram have a condition that if slots were approved that Churchill would come back in for half?

I wonder if the same deal was made with Mr. Geary.

Originally Posted by Pillow Pants

If I recall didn't the negotiations with Pegram have a condition that if slots were approved that Churchill would come back in for half?

I wonder if the same deal was made with Mr. Geary.

Yes, that was a provision in the deal and I'm sure they have the same provision with Mr. Geary. As a matter of fact, they have the same deal with Bay Meadows Company who purchased Hollywood Park from them that if they get slots in the next five years that CDI can come back in for half - although that will NEVER happen out there....

I think CDI also retained some or a majority share of the OTB at Ellis Park if I'm not mistaken.....I know they struck a deal to allow CDSN still opperate Ellis' simulcast signal before selling the track - although it is a ****ty simo product....

[Scurlogue Champ]

Originally Posted by Cunningham Racing

Yes, that was a provision in the deal and I'm sure they have the same provision with Mr. Geary. As a matter of fact, they have the same deal with Bay Meadows Company who purchased Hollywood Park from them that if they get slots in the next five years that CDI can come back in for half - although that will NEVER happen out there....

I think CDI also retained some or a majority share of the OTB at Ellis Park if I'm not mistaken.....I know they struck a deal to allow CDSN still opperate Ellis' simulcast signal before selling the track - although it is a ****ty simo product....

It sure is