Dave Tuley Gone from DRF

[km]

Awhile back someone noted that the DRF had quietly ended their poker page and coverage.

Apparently the same is now true of sports and Vegas coverage. Dave Tuley (a member of this bbs and a friend to lots of HTR members) has been laid off from Daily Racing Form.
When asked for comment via email, Dave said:

"My position got eliminated...it's more complicated than that, but end result is
same..."

Dave would give winning HTR players terrific coverage in the Racing Form as often as he could - not to mention he was the rare voice of news direct from the tournaments for the DRF. I enjoyed his features on the sportsbooks and betting action in town. He was right there for all of it, participated in tournaments, had contacts in every major book, talked to the players, etc, and that made him a top notch reporter.

We'll miss his articles in the DRF, but I'm sure he'll get hooked up soon and continue his writing and we'll see him as usual at the horse tourneys.

Now on DRF =

Clicking SPORTS on the DRF website now links to StatFox.com articles with no mention of why they ended their in-house articles.

Click the "More Sports and Gaming" link and it is blank now - archive of Tuley articles removed.

Click on 'National Handicapping Championship' and they do have decent coverage with Dan Illman writing a brief account of the qualifying tourneys. There is also a schedule and a list of qualifiers so far. http://www.drf.com/nhc/2007/nhc.html

note: he uses "David Burquest" instead of "Wes" when reporting on the outcome of the Tampa Bay tourney :confused:

[Justralph]

so what you are saying is that the DRF just keeps getting worse and worse............I don't use them and I am glad


they are on the auction block and they are probably trying to put some extra money to the bottom line for the pre-sale inspections.............

[DanG]

That’s a real shame and I know we all wish Dave and his family the best. He’s made so many friends in Vegas alone over the years you know he will land on his feat.

Horse racing and Sports betting…Two multi-billion dollar industries that so often must be talked about in the shadows…just ridiculous on many levels IMO.

[Donnie]

Bummer Dave. I have always enjoyed your writing! I am sure you will be picked up somewhere! Wish I had "contacts" in this biz......Let us know if there is anything you need!

[DanG]

Let us know if there is anything you need!
Donnie / Dave…

The winners in races 3-8 at Hollywood Wed would be a nice start. :)

Carryover 850k+ going in. If there any justice Dave will take down a large piece and start his own “Inside Vegas” newspaper.

[OPM]

I'm really, really sorry to hear this. I remembered speaking to him after the Orleans wanted their money back and he wrote a nice article about the situation. I do hope he hits that pk 6 tomorrow or at least have the second ticket to mine:D

[njcurveball]

This speaks volume to the direction of the Form and Racing in General.

Just another case of Management doing the WRONG THING!

Sorry to see you go Dave! :mad:

[Huguenot]

Definitely trying to dress up the bottom line for sale.

But also a continuation of the DRF's de-emphasis on its paper product in favor of the Web as every other newspaper in the country is doing. Elimination of charts, etc. Paper is very, very, very expensive. The main reason DRF costs $5.50 -- paper costs have gone through the moon in recent years so don't blame them for price increases, cutbacks. Most print publications -- newspapers especially -- are suffering because of the Internet and high paper costs.

It was a wise business move.

[njcurveball]

I don't know about Paper costs.

But I do know I have seen the NY Daily News on sale for 25 cents and it is 80 pages or more.

Our local paper is still 50 cents and 4 sections. I know the Sunday Papers are heavy enough to weigh down the tires and top out around $1.50.

Paper is just an excuse for an operation that can charge $5 for 5 tracks. How many pages per track these days? Certainly not more than the Sunday paper.

The DRF, like the tracks just doesn't have a grasp on things need to be run in 2007.

[km]

I agree with NJ
Sure distribution costs have to be killing the 'Form too, price of gas to deliver it has to match the increase in paper costs. It's tough for everybody in business though, that's the jungle.

But they are the ones that snubbed high tech handicapping and buried their head in the sand all these years. They made a concerted decision to white-out any references to software or computer handicapping in their paper and to make persona non grata out of people in the industry that had alterative methods.

Even the books written for the DRF press, are proofed to make sure there are no references to computer handicapping software. (so how was anyone supposed to apply Steve Klein's early speed method - by hand? ).

At the recent Expo, they invited dozens of people (including Jim Cramer and myself) to speak on computer applications ; not one took them up - Andy Beyer did a solo on "high-tech handicapping" (!)

Steve Crist is a newspaper guy, comes from a family of writers. He is old school in the belief that good editorial content and maintaining tradition will trump the lure the razzle dazzle tech stuff. Like Playboy, you are supposed to read it for the articles.

[MVM]

I am curious what everyone thinks the best information source is for the semi-casual racing fan. The type that wants for than a Name/Program Number/Jockey program....there needs to be something available, at the track, in print with the PPs, but my visits to a track are so very few and far between these days that I have no idea what the status quo is nowadays.

I did buy my first Racing Form in over a year on KYDerby day at PM....I was amazed at the 2 full pages of advertisements from system sellers...."Uncle Harry's Horses", "One Time Offer" from a guy in MD selling a "new system" that won over 300k from '02-'06 (4-years old is new??). I am amazed that there is still a market for this stuff, but it is kind of nostalgic seeing the "math/engineer" and "dying/dead master handicapper giving away his key to the vault"...some of them still cite "Phillips Racing Newsletter"....LOL.

BTW, I knew a couple guys who read Playboy for the articles.....weird thing is they both ended up having carpal tunnel surgery by age 20!

[tuleythetout]

Thanks to everyone for the kind words. I really appreciate it. When I know what I'm doing next, I'll let you know.
Even though I'm off the "beat," I'll be checking out the scene Saturday afternoon at the South Point Open if anyone is playing there and wants to say hi...I'm also planning road trips to the Leroy's tournament at John Ascauga's Nugget in Reno/Sparks on June 21-23, at the Gold Coast for the seminar and start of the tournament on July 26-28 (which I won't be playing in) and then at Emerald Downs on July 29 (an NHC qualifier, in which I will be playing since I'm now eligible :)
Yours truly,
Dave Tuley

[km]

thanks for chiming in Dave, see you soon; but you can't play the tournaments on a lark anymore and will have to cash or no new shoes for the kids!

MVM= good read on the system sellers, i haven't gotten any of those mailers from Brooklyn PO Box in many years, but my favorite was the "Old Salty" story and secret system. I wonder if this one has been advertised in the Form lately =

Seems the old man (Salty) was dying and the system seller just happened by his deathbed to get the secret to beating the races from him right before he passed away. Old Salty had made 10 million bucks with it. "I'm only going to sell it to the first 500 people at $49.95 and then never reveal the secret again" said the mailer.

Probably got a "9" from Phillips newsletter

[Huguenot]

I don't know about Paper costs.

But I do know I have seen the NY Daily News on sale for 25 cents and it is 80 pages or more.

Our local paper is still 50 cents and 4 sections. I know the Sunday Papers are heavy enough to weigh down the tires and top out around $1.50.

Paper is just an excuse for an operation that can charge $5 for 5 tracks. How many pages per track these days? Certainly not more than the Sunday paper.

The DRF, like the tracks just doesn't have a grasp on things need to be run in 2007.

Daily News is 25 cents because it is in a ruinous circulation war with the Post -- which has made large gains at the DN's expense in recent years.
Other local papers have remained at 50 cents BECAUSE circuation has been declining as people increasingly get their news from the Internet, cable TV (even Jon Stewart!), etc.
They can't afford to bump the cover price even in the face of rising printing costs (and believe me, the price of paper IS a huge deal to newspapers).

Sure, the DRF made a bunch of mistakes along the way and I agree with KM's comments about Steve Crist. Look how long it took them to get pace figures fer chrissake. Crist and his cronies have long held a strong suspicion about Sartin/velocity handicapping/modeling, etc. (Read Davidowitz's revised version of his book.) Look how Beyer dismissed form cycles in "Beyer on Speed" by terming Ragozin part of a lunatic fringe of horseplayers.

But bottom line, the DRF's current business plan, pure and simple, is to shift readers to the web as fast as possible.

The DRF is NOT like the Daily News because your local newspaper has not figured out how to make much money on the Internet. They don't yet have the advertising support on the web such that they can piss off their print readers.

The DRF's business model is different. It's based largely on data, as well as advertising so it's much more feasible to shift its economic structure to the lower-cast online platform. And since Dave Tuley's column is a digression from the DRF's core mission (just as its poker column was), it's one of the first candidates to go when the crush hits and/or the paper implements a new business plan.

That said, I used to buy the DRF on occasion at $5. Just because it was easier to look at the PPs than to download and print them with HTR, etc. I also like to see what much of the public is seeing because that's important information when a horse who does not look good on paper is bet down and vice versa.

No more. the price is too high and I won't go online because it's a hassle to print out PPs when playing a number of tracks.

I'll use the HTR PPs now either eyeballing them on my PC or printing them out.

[DanG]

[BTW:I’m getting this second hand, so I hope it’s true.]

“He is coming back to DRF as a 'freelancer' with bi-weekly regular columns starting this week, and weekly again for football season!” ~ Quoted from the PA board by ‘Derby Trail.

All the best to Dave in his new freelance venture. Should allow him a few minutes for a horse racing contest or three. :D

[tuleythetout]

Yes, DanG, it's true (what/where is the PA board at Derby Trail???). I was going to post an update earlier tonight but the boss (wife) ordered me to cook dinner and I haven't been able to get back on here until now.

As DanG accurately reports and to expand on that, I've come to terms with the Form to resume my column on a freelance basis starting next Saturday (Belmont Day) and continue every other week through the summer until it goes weekly at the start of the football season. With much fewer articles, it won't be the same as it's been, but I'll be able to inform horseplayers of upcoming tournaments and recap tourney results in addition to other goings-on in Las Vegas.

I'd again like to thank everyone for their positive feedback and support. I know the powers-that-be at DRF were aware of internet posting forums like this and the feelings of the public and that helped make this happen. I'm viewing this all as a blessing in disguise as I'm weighing other opportunities that I would not have been allowed to pursue while full-time with the Form, or had the motivation to do.

And as stated before, since I'm still not full-time with benefits, I'm eligible to chase an NHC berth and look forward to competing with everyone more often.

[BillW]

what/where is the PA board at Derby Trail???


"Derby Trail" is the nick of Steve Byk on the paceadvantage.com board.

[ERNIE LOGSDON]

Good to hear that we are going to "still" be seeing you in print,will start looking for you On Bellmont day.....

Ref to PA BOARD is WWW.PACEADVANTAGE.COM
<ERNIE>

[Justralph]

"Derby Trail" is the nick of Steve Byk on the paceadvantage.com board.


Steve Byk has a Nick? :eek::D