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MCGRAIL’S PASSION FOR HORSE RACING STARTED EARLY
- Special Report by PETE HERRERA ALBUQUERQUE, NM - April 30, 2011 - Horse racing has always been part of the package in Jack McGrail’s life. While still in high school, McGrail was at the 1973 Belmont to witness Secretariat’s historic 31-length win that wrapped up his Triple Crown run. Years later as a practicing attorney, McGrail made it a point to attend as many Breeders Cup events as he could. It didn’t matter if the Breeders Cup races were run at Santa Anita or Del Mar on the West Coast or Churchill Downs or Woodbine, he rarely missed one. For a time, McGrail was also a horse owner. Horses he owned in partnership didn’t win that much, but the endeavor was part of the process for keeping McGrail involved in the sport. “I just fell in love with it,” says McGrail. “I liked the game, I liked the handicapping, I liked the horses. It’s always been a passion of mine.” A passion he’s certain can only help in his latest endeavor, that of executive director of the New Mexico Horsemen’s Association. Since his arrival in the state in early February, McGrail has immersed himself in trying to learn as much as he can about the state’s horse racing industry. His constituents are the state’s horse owners and trainers, but his job also entails working with management at the state’s five racinos and serving as the spokesman for the Horsemen’s Association before the New Mexico Racing Commission. “I work for this group (horsemen). I don’t make policy, I implement policy,” McGrail said during a recent interview with SureBet. “I am accountable to a board of directors and track committees and pretty much all of the constituents. Having said that, I do have something to offer on how we get together on issues and how we can move forward and put issues behind us.” One of the first issues McGrail had to tackle in his new job was helping the Horsemen’s Association reach a settlement with the Jockeys Guild on a new wage scale for riders. The negotiations had dragged on for more than two years, but the two sides were able to reach an agreement earlier this month. McGrail has displayed an easygoing, cooperative and, some might say, ready-to-compromise approach. “I think there needs to be a lot of cooperation among the parties,” says McGrail. “There are certain factions that, if they can come together, can be powerful influences.” The horsemen he represents are one of those factions, and McGrail notes they can be a stubborn bunch. “They have their own views. It’s a hard industry,” he says. “They know a certain way and they want to work that way. Sometimes, they can be at loggerheads with someone else’s views, like management.” McGrail says while his mandate isn’t to be a mediator, he feels the relationship between the association and the tracks’ management teams has improved in recent months. “I think we’ve done a very good job of putting aside some of the disagreements,” he said. “If you can at least collaborate or cooperate on the things you can agree on, and be civil about it, then work on the things you don’t agree on, you can accomplish a lot more.” McGrail grew up in the Boston suburb of Westwood. Back then, horseracing in and around New England was going strong at tracks like Saratoga, Suffolk Downs, Rockingham Park and Lincoln Downs in New Jersey. He was hooked early and never got over it. “I liked the idea of investing some intellectual capital into the process,” he says. “It’s a good rush when they run the way you think they should.” He went on to the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where he majored in English. That degree didn’t open up many job opportunities, so McGrail spent some time operating a jackhammer as a construction worker -- enough time to convince him he should enroll in law school. He settled on Vanderbilt, located in a state (Tennessee) that has no pari-mutuel wagering. But it’s not that far from Kentucky. “I could get up to Kneeland and to Churchill,” he says. “I wasn’t too far away from my horseracing passion.” McGrail graduated from law school in 1983. He got married, and the couple moved back to Boston. He went to work for a small law firm and his wife, Pat, a registered nurse, got a job at Massachusetts General. The McGrails had three children, daughters Cameron and Samantha and a son, Peter. It became part of the family’s summer routine to spend the Labor Day weekend at Saratoga. “Horseracing was always at the forefront of whatever we did for entertainment,” says Jack. Most Americans will always recall where they were on Sept. 11, 2001. Jack does too, but for a more personal reason. On the day the terrorists flew planes into the twin towers, Pat McGrail was diagnosed with a brain tumor. “She was treated very aggressively and everything seemed OK,” Jack said. “She probably knew it wasn’t, but she never told me. It got progressively worse.” Pat McGrail died on Aug. 11, 2005. She was 47. Jack quit his job and spent much of his time helping his three children deal with the loss of their mother. Eventually, he went into private practice but kept looking for a new path. That opportunity arrived with an ad in the Daily Racing Form. His trip to New Mexico to interview for the executive director’s job at the Horsemen’s Association marked the first time he’d been to the state. These days, Jack’s personal life includes the recent marriage of his oldest daughter, Cameron, the graduation of his son Peter from the Massachusetts Maritime Academy and Samantha’s impending completion of her sophomore year at the University of South Carolina. There is also another marriage in the works. Jack and Elaine McArdle, one of his law school classmates, are engaged and hope to get married this summer. Asked what he considers priorities in regard to his horse racing agenda, McGrail says he hopes New Mexico’s Legislature will approve some type of Advanced Deposit Wagering. Such a bill made it to the floor of the New Mexico House during this year’s legislative session but time ran out in the session before it could come up for a vote. McGrail said the racetracks’ management have expressed “some level of interest” in Advanced Deposit Wagering. Under such a program, bettors would be able to set up pre-paid accounts at the state’s tracks and would use those funds to wager on horse races in New Mexico and elsewhere. McGrail also said the state’s racinos can do a better job of complementing each other. He says there needs to be a stronger emphasis on promoting the horseracing end. “I want to see more fans at the track,” he says. “That’s how this sport is going to grow. You need to get more people out there enjoying the show, even if they are just casual fans. It will also help your casino.” “Promote the product and make it more fan-friendly. So when you go to gamble on horseracing, it’s as nice a facility and you have as good a time as when you go to the casino. There’s good food and good service. There’s the kind of amenities that you expect when you go out. They deliver them in casinos, but they don’t always deliver them to the racetrack fans.” There also needs to be more innovation, says McGrail. One possibility would be for The Downs at Albuquerque to run twilight or night racing. He said night racing at Churchill Downs proved to be a huge success. Night racing in the state’s biggest city may not be a far-fetched idea, given that The Downs at Albuquerque already has the lights it would need for such a venture, having purchased them from Bay Meadows racecourse, which closed three years ago. |
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