Thursday Thoughts with Jason Beem Jan. 2, 2025

A good Thursday morning to you all and a Happy New Year! I truly hope 2025 is a great year for you all and that you see personal and professional development and growth in your life. I was never a huge New Year’s resolutions person because it seemed like for so many years I would just not actually do what I had wanted to do. The last few years I’ve been pretty good about accomplishing the things I set out to do at the beginning of the year, so I suppose that’s made me more apt to set some. 

But first, I gotta think about how I did last year on the ones I wrote in this column. Number one was that I wanted to be more vocal and speak out more on strong opinions and between my show, this column, and social media, I think I did that in some ways. I certainly got more blowback on a few things this year and that’s certainly not something I’d really ever had. So that was an interesting experience. My content tends to be pretty unoffensive, so it’s a little out of my comfort zone to get too spicy with my takes. 

I also said I wanted to get to Golden Gate Fields one last time before it closed and I’m going to give myself half-credit for that one. Because I did get there, it was just after it closed. I also got to fill in calling at Pleasanton for a few weeks and really enjoyed getting to spend some time in the Bay Area. My last resolution last year was to be a good ambassador for the game and do good work, and I feel like I can do a bit better on that this year. 

So, after thinking about it this week, here’s a few personal resolutions I’d like to make for the upcoming year: 

I want to try and get at least one major racing executive on the podcast. We’ve had lots of racing secretaries, directors of racing, even some general managers on. But I want to talk to a real power broker and ask them some questions about their thoughts on how to grow the game as well as what we do right and wrong as a gambling game. I suppose along the themes of guests, I’ve always said Todd Pletcher was my one big white whale guest I’d like to interview, so I actually need to try and make that happen this year. 

Last year I went to the Preakness (G1) and it was a total blast. So I’m kind of thinking this year I want to try and make it to the Belmont (G1) at Saratoga. I can’t go to the Kentucky Derby (G1) because we race at Tampa, but lucky for me the other two legs are during my downtime. I would add that I”d like to get back to Churchill Downs again for a visit. I spent a big chunk of time up there in the spring of 2022 and I feel like I have more friends in Kentucky than I do in Florida, so it would be great to get back there again.  

I think that’s about it honestly. I try to be realistic with these things and set myself up for success and not failure. But we shall see. Once again I hope everyone has a great 2025! Thank you so much for reading.