Jason Beem's Thursday Column for Jan. 5, 2023

A good Thursday to you all. I know we’re now five days into January, but I wanted to write my racing resolutions. I did these last year and actually got to accomplish some of them, including finally a visit to Remington Park. One thing I didn’t do was learn more about breeding, which was on my list. As much as I tried (which wasn’t much), I just don’t care much about breeding as a part of my handicapping or general racing knowledge. So with that said, here are a few things I hope to do this year:

Visit Monmouth Park Again

2019 was the best summer of my life and a big part of that was getting to call and hang out at Monmouth Park. It’s such a cool track in a really cool area of that state. I’d love to go back and see some of the folks I worked with and visit with them. To enjoy the beautiful paddock and open-air grandstand. And to meet new announcer Chris Griffin, who even though we’ve talked on the phone and text regularly for years, I’ve never met in person.

Have new guests on my Podcast

In a couple of weeks it will be the seventh anniversary of our first podcast. Back then it was the BetAmerica Radio Network and in 2019 we switched it to the Jason Beem Horse Racing Podcast, as it’s called now. I generally have two guests a week, which means 100 interviews this year. One thing I’ve always done was prided myself on continually introducing new guests to the listeners and to myself. So I want to keep that up by trying to highlight new and interesting voices within the sport and game. So if you have someone you want to hear from on the show, shoot me a tweet and if I think it’s someone who would make a good guest, we’ll do it.

Announce a Grade 1 race

Now, normally, this isn’t one I’d even suggest because the tracks I call out don’t have any Grade 1 races. But, with the Arlington Million and Beverly D. moving to Colonial Downs this year, barring anything drastic, I should get to call a couple of Grade 1 races this summer, which is simultaneously exciting and terrifying. As weird as it sounds, the only Grade 1 I’ve called so far, the 2019 United Nations, I was remarkably calm the entire race. I think the fact that it was such a long turf event, I kept reminding myself to go slow, which really helped to calm the nerves. Also, I think maybe the Hillsborough Stakes here at Tampa could someday be a Grade 1 as it’s produced some really nice horses, including Grade 1 winner Bleecker Street, who ran in it last year.  

Do some different creative things within racing

The last couple of months I’ve felt in a bit of a creative rut when it comes to doing things outside of my normal scope in racing. I think some of that is I’ve just been exploring creativity in different ways, like art, but also I’ve just been busy. I’ve always loved doing comedy or fun bits on social media, and I’d like to get back to doing some of those throughout the year. No timeline or schedule, just when something comes up in my brain and hits my funny bone, let’s do it. I really do think racing needs to get better at laughing at itself, and I’m always happy to try to supply a laugh or two when I can.

Meet more folks from social media

One of the coolest things about working in racing has been getting to meet and hang out with racing friends. I’ve met so many people from Twitter over the years, and 99% of the time it’s always been really cool. It’s always fun to put faces to screen names, and there’s just so many cool people who are fans of this game. So here’s to meeting more fellow racing fans in 2023.