New Challenge House Hayward

TTimes Q&A: Rick Violette on training, state of racing

RICK VIOLETTE

Adam Coglianese/NYRA photo

The roiling cauldron that is politics in New York State has never seemed to spare Thoroughbred racing. Over the past decade in particular, disputes have been constant. Attempting to be heard amidst the cacophony of voices, and in the bargain achieve genuine progress, can seem a Sisyphean task at best. 

For many years, one of the most steady and reasoned voices has been that of Richard Violette Jr., who for the last ten years has served as president of the National Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association, and for the past five years as president of the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association. As if that was not enough, Violette is also in his fourth year as a member of the New York Racing Association’s board of directors.

Violette’s voice will never be the loudest. More importantly, he will never lack a reasoned opinion. Especially when it comes to the pre-eminent issue of the moment: whether or not to eliminate race-day medication. To his fellow trainers in New York, who have collectively endured a nerve-racking ten years in the Empire State given the uncertainty of whether video lottery terminals would ever become reality, plus many other sticky problems such as the often shaky financial status of the New York Racing Association and the back-and-forth sniping with now-defunct New York City Off-Track Betting Corp., Violette has proven an effective spokesman on behalf of his colleagues. That kind of often-thankless spade work should not be taken for granted.

Violette’s dedication and steadfastness in his myriad leadership roles in the industry, despite the extra hours involved, is fully in keeping with the reality that his “day job” encompasses operating a public stable with 55 horses. Those chores alone will keep anyone busy. The always agreeable Violette took time away from a typically busy workday to discuss New York racing’s landscape and a host of other concerns with THOROUGHBRED TIMES correspondent Reg Lansberry.

Fuel Fix » Tony Hayward gets a life post-BP as investors write blank ...

One of the best moments of Tony Hayward’s 28-year career with oil giant BP Plc came before dawn on Christmas 1982.

Hayward says he was aboard a freezing oil platform in the middle of the North Sea as the rig’s drill struck oil. The Miller field was the first major find for Hayward, then a 25-year-old geology Ph.D. from the University of Edinburgh. It became one of BP’s most productive North Sea assets, yielding 345 million barrels of oil over its lifetime, Bloomberg Markets magazine reports in its October issue.

The worst moments of Hayward’s BP career are far better known. On April 20, 2010, BP’s Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico exploded, killing 11 workers on the Deepwater Horizon oil platform and unleashing the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history.

The disaster erased more than $100 billion from BP’s market value in two months, and the company took a $41 billion charge against income to cover fines, cleanup costs and compensation to Gulf fishermen and property owners.

Macondo also cost Hayward his job as BP’s chief executive officer following a string of public relations fiascoes that included his saying “I would like my life back” to a group of reporters while touring an oil-slicked beach in Louisiana.

Reputation Fouled

While Hayward’s reputation in the U.S. is as fouled as some Gulf Coast beaches were after the spill, he still is welcome in the oil patch. “People know he was the scapegoat, he was the sacrificial lamb,” says Fadel Gheit, an oil and gas analyst at Oppenheimer & Co.

Now, Hayward, 54, is getting his life back. A year after leaving BP, he’s again at the helm of a publicly traded company. He teamed up with financier Nathaniel Rothschild, scion of the banking family, to create Vallares Plc, a shell company that raised 1.33 billion pounds ($2.15 billion) through an initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange on June 17.

Hayward also serves on the board of TNK-BP International Ltd., BP’s fractious Russian joint venture. Glencore International Plc, the mining and commodities-trading company that went public in London and Hong Kong in May, raising $10.3 billion, named him its senior nonexecutive director.

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