Second Chances...

--Steve Sherack

TDN’s Steve Sherack takes a closer look at a trio of promising also-rans in recent 2-year-old maiden races at Saratoga and Del Mar.

Stealcase (c, 2, Lawyer Ron--Steal the Show {SP}, by Cat Thief) became the most expensive of 17 juveniles by his ill-fated freshman sire to go through the ring this year when bringing $320,000 from trainer Mark Casse on behalf of Kentucky Derby-winning owner John C. Oxley at the OBS March sale (Breeze Video).

The chestnut left the Saratoga backstretch buzzing following a best-of-16 five-furlong bullet in :59.45 July 19, and was backed as the 8-5 favorite while debuting in a nine-horse affair at the Spa July 30 (TDN Video). A bobble at the break put Stealcase up against it from the get-go, racing in eighth in the early stages before rushing up in traffic (does this move ever work?) to sit in a close-up fourth through an opening quarter in :22.72. With Shaun Bridgmohan aboard, the April foal set his sights on the top two after angling off the rail at the head of affairs, but ran out of gas in the stretch, and had to settle for fourth, beaten 6 3/4 lengths. The final time for the six-furlong heat was 1:10.23. Stealcase earned a 72 Beyer.

Stealcase, bred in Kentucky by Secret Whispers Partnership, returned to the worktab with a five-furlong breeze in 1:01.31 at Saratoga Aug. 13. Expecting a big effort from him next time with that effort under his belt. Giant Surprise (Giant’s Causeway), a sharp 4 1/4-length wire-to-wire winner for Mike Repole and Todd Pletcher at first asking that day, has been sidelined after emerging with a condylar fracture to his left front cannon bone.

Love to Run (c, 2, Pulpit--I Love America, by Quiet American), a $190,000 OBSMAR graduate (Breeze Video), also stamped himself as one to watch with a rallying third-place finish at first asking at Saratoga Aug. 13 (TDN Video).

Given a 7-1 chance, the bay was outsprinted in seventh through an opening quarter in :22.23. Still with plenty left to do as they approached the far turn, Love to Run began to roll while taking the overland route. He drifted in after a couple of right-handers from Alex Solis once they straightened for home, but leveled out nicely thereafter to complete the trifecta, finishing only a length behind Clip the Coupons (Congrats), a first-time starter from the red-hot Chad Brown barn. The final time for six furlongs was 1:11.14. Love to Run earned a very solid 79 Beyer.

Owned by Summit Thoroughbreds and trained by John Kimmel, Love to Run’s dam I Love America is a half-sister to Ideal Image (Hennessy), who produced MGISW Sassy Image (Broken Vow). Love to Run was bred in Kentucky by Fares Farm LLC.

Also keep your eyes peeled for Peachtree Stable’s Muse of Fire (f, 2, Dixie Union--Big City Dream, by Horatius) in Southern California. The $140,000 OBSMAR juvenile (Breeze Video), conditioned by Bob Baffert, flashed some ability in her Aug. 14 Del Mar unveiling to finish a better-than-it-looked fourth at odds of 7-1 (TDN Video).

Drawn outside in post 11, the bay broke slowly and was 10 lengths back in 10th through an opening quarter in :21.85. She began to make an eye-catching move blowing past rivals while hung out at least five wide on the far turn to reach contention (maybe Mike Smith thought he was back on Zenyatta?), but couldn’t quite keep the momentum going in the stretch, reporting home six lengths adrift the winner, Silent Saga (Silent Name {Jpn}), campaigned by owner/breeder/trainer Myung Kwon Cho.

The final time in the 5 1/2-furlong event over the Polytrack was 1:03.42. The daughter of the multiple stakes placed mare Big City Dream was given a 60 Beyer. Muse of Fire was bred in Maryland by John T. Crane Jr. and Margaret M. Crane.

Bipasha Basu John Abraham Breakups – They won’t talk about this

(1) After nine years of being so close to each other, this Hot Bollywood Couple announced their breakup, industry people and the media have been constantly speculating about their current equation.



But John Abraham and Bipasha Basu, it seems, are going to stick to their long followed policy of keeping mum on personal matters.



Recently both avoiding each other when they accidentally went to their gym at the same time.



In Bollywood Industry, this was the first couple who knows to respect one another even after breakup.



(2) John Abraham and Akshay Kumar back together after seven years after “Garam Masala (2005)” Movie in Desi Boyz Movie which is directed by David Dhawan Son Rohit, is putting the finishing touches to his first directorial.



As per Latest Bollywood Interviews, Rohit said that, “Akshay was on board from day one, when I was still developing the story idea. A two-hero movie is never easy to write and it took me almost two years to put this project together. Once I felt I had justified the presence of both the protagonists, I took the script to John who’s been like a buddy since I worked as an assistant director on dad’s film, Hook Ya Crook (2010). He was convinced immediately.”

#10/10 Copious, Continuous, Infectious Passion - Crucial Survival Skills for the 21st Century CIO -

This is the last article in the series of 10 Crucial Survival Skills for the 21st Century CIO. If you haven't read the earlier postings, start your journey here.

Photo: (c) Maarten Jan Bos  - Flikr.com

Perhaps this should have been the first posting in this series.

Leadership without passion is not leadership.

It is mechanical. It can be efficient but it will never, ever embolden a team to do great things.

People follow a leader because they choose to, not because they have to.

One of the greatest skills any leader can demonstrate is a deep, genuine passion for achieving great things by empowering the people around him or her.

I've mentioned before that I play guitar. I've been playing a long time and have had the privilege of playing with some very talented musicians.  The most talented people I have played music with, share one common trait - an unbridled, copious, continuous, infectious passion for creating music.

They would seek out opportunities to play - even if no one was there to listen. They just had to do it.

Like the street musician in the photo.

It's obviously cold outside (note the gloves), but look at the smile on his face.

I can identify.  In my earlier days I can remember my bandmates and I loading a ton of sound equipment into our cars, driving for over an hour, setting up the gear, just for the opportunity to play a few songs.  We then had to disassemble the equipment, pack it up and drive home.  This didn't count the hours of practice needed to prepare.

Either we were nuts. Or we were passionate about what we did.

I love hanging around with passionate musicians. They make me want to be a better musician.

They believe the world is a better place because of music. They help me believe it too.

Their passion is infectious. Time spent with them causes me to grow.

Do people grow around you when you express your passion?

Copious, Continuous, Infectious Passion

I'm not talking about passion as in "I'm passionate about technology."  Technology quickly becomes obsolete and will let you down.  It is a very shallow thing to waste your passions on.

Passion isn't about wanting things better for yourself.  In most cases exercising your passion involves personal sacrifice and personal cost.

Passion isn't derailed by setbacks or obstacles.  Just like the fox trying to get into the hen house, you are positive that there is a way in, you just have to keep trying until you find it.

In IT leadership, you really have to believe that your organization, your industry, and even the world will be a different, better place if your team can do what it is good at. Your passion should be about creating the environment where your team can thrive in order to help your organization thrive.

It's about achieving things that haven't been done before.

It's about believing that persistence and tenacity will pay off.

It's about working hard.

It's about empowering your team to excel.

It's about continuously leading, encouraging and talking about achieving your goals.

It's about sacrificing the things that detract from achieving your goals.  (Note: I am NOT talking about relationships or family!  I am talking about things like television & wasting time on non-important activities.)

Every IT leader needs to sit down and take stock, and ask themselves the question "Why do I REALLY want to lead an IT team?" and be very honest with their answers.

If your answers have anything to do with money, power, or personal gain, we have a lot of talking to do.

People choose to follow passionate leaders.

People like to grow.  Are you helping them?

There is much, much more to say about this... but I'll end here.

Copious, continuous, infectious passion in practice looks like this:

• You clearly know why you are in your role - the real reason.  Those around you know it too because they have heard you articulate it.


• You inherently believe that there is always a way to achieve your objectives despite opposition and setbacks. You may have to adjust your timeline, but you keep your goals in mind.


• You connect with others who have a similar passion to keep your batteries charged.


• You are willing to sacrifice personal time and resources to achieve your goals.


• Your passions are aligned to a greater purpose, not personal gain. It's about your team, your organization and your industry.


• You look for every opportunity to share your passion - in person or online.  People know what you are about.

As for me, my reason for being in this role is this:

I strongly believe that our current educational system was designed for another time, and if our children are to survive and thrive in a globally competitive world they need skills and competencies that we do not currently teach.  

I believe that technology can enable and empower the development of crucial skills in our kids, but it is much more than giving each child a computer or iPad.. it's about understanding the outcomes we want to achieve, then changing the delivery of education and leveraging technology to achieve those outcomes. 

I believe that if you hire smart people, treat them like professionals and empower them, that they can achieve magnificent results.  I believe that every institution needs a team of IT professionals to be able to achieve the changes needed to thrive in this world.

That's why I'm a CIO.  I'm out to join with others who share this passion and change the world as we know it.

How about you?  How would you describe your passion?



So... that's the end of this series.

I've presented one competency per posting over the last while, and will be compiling them into one big, long post when complete. There is obviously a lot more to say about each of the competencies, and there are probably a few I've missed.  Consider this a work in progress as I continue to unpack these ideas in future posts.

Here is the list of all 10 competencies with links to previous postings.

• Competence


• Communication


• Collaboration


• Corporate Contributor


• Conceptualization


• Connector


• Community Builder


• Current


• Creativity


• Copious, Continuous, Infectious Passion

#9/10 Crucial Survival Skills for the 21st Century CIO - Creativity

This is the ninth article in the series of 10 Crucial Survival Skills for the 21st Century CIO. If you haven't read the earlier postings, start your journey here.

"Some men see things as they are and say "why?" 

I dream things that never were and say "why not?"

— Robert F. Kennedy

Margaret Atwood
Image: Wikipedia

In my file drawer I have a letter from Margaret Atwood.

If you are not from Canada, you may not have been made to read her books in high school not have an appreciation for her proclivity to produce best selling novels or books of poetry, or her passionate stance on social and environmental issues. Check out the Wikipedia page here. You will be impressed.

Margaret has been creative in the writing space for a long time. But that's not why I'm highlighting her in this post on creativity, or why I have a letter from her in my file.

One of the banes (or joys) of being a best selling author is the 'book tour'. Since Margaret had so many best selling books, she had a lot of touring to do.  For those of you who spend much time on the road living out of a suitcase, you know that the 'exotic' part of travel disappears rather quickly and being at home eating a peanut butter sandwich is about the best place in the world you can think of.

The story goes (and I believe it since I heard it directly from Margaret's son Matthew Gibson) that one day the courier stopped at Margaret's house to deliver a package.  Instead of a clipboard, he handed her his handheld device to sign.  The idea of signing something electronically and still having it be a valid, legal signature impressed Margaret. But here's where the story gets interesting and may get Matthew in trouble since I'm not sure how many people have heard this version.

Margaret is brilliant at a lot of things, but as with many of her generation, the workings of technology was not one of them.  In her mind she could envision a robotic hand with a pen, somewhere deep in the courier company that was mimicking her actions so that it could produce a valid, legal signature.  How silly is that?

She told her son about her thoughts, and Matthew chuckled because he knew technology and knew there wasn't a robotic hand...  To which Margaret replied; "Why not?  If I had a robotic hand that could sign books in a different city, then I wouldn't have to travel as much."

Matthew knew his mother and such, knew she wouldn't give up on this idea.  So he had to build it. And so, LongPen(TM) was conceived.  

He gathered some bright minds and put together a working model of a system that used video conferencing to allow authors to speak to book buyers, and haptic technology that allowed the author to hold a pen and a corresponding device would mimic the motions and pressure of the authors movements - producing a signature on a book.  

At the time I was CIO at Sheridan College and we were just fine tuning the infrastructure we had put in place to support high end videoconferencing, and needed a real life situation to case harden our environment.  We were approached by Tandberg (now Cisco) to see if we could help set up a multipoint video link between 3 countries on 2 continents with multiple locations (but we had to do it in a matter of hours).  We pulled it off, and so a brief partnership with Matthew Gibson and LongPen was established. (That's why I have a letter from Margaret).

This long story gets to the essence of this posting's critical skill - Creativity.

Margaret was unbound by the constraints of her education, knowledge or experience and as such, applied the power of creativity to envision a solution that didn't exist before to a real problem - which is the core of innovation.

Creativity

There are significant resources available on the topic of creativity and I'll present some of my favorites in a future post, but the essence of some great thinkers is that we are all born with copious amounts of ability to be creative.  We then beat it out of our kids in school by forcing them into linear thinking, memorizing of facts without application, and pressuring them to conform to an image that may be foreign to how the student is wired.  If you are a parent of a normal, active child you can identify with how difficult it is for them to sit through a class designed for quiet, compliant people.

The good news?  You can resurrect your creativity.  And you need to if you are going to be an effective 21st Century IT leader.

The competency of 'Creativity' in practice looks like this:

• You have trained yourself to be unconstrained by your education, previous experiences and biases to come up with new and novel ideas.  You know not every idea will fly, but you have a lot of good material to work with.


• You know that creativity is not an individual sport. You surround yourself with, and engage with other creative people.


• You know who Sir Ken Robinson is and have watched his TedTalk video on how schools kill creativity, or have read one of his books.


• You use visual and non-linear methods to develop new ideas:


• Brain dumps


• Sticky notes


• MindMaps


• You interact with people who don't think like you do. You read op/ed articles with opposing viewpoints, you expose yourself to ideas from people from other political parties, religions and (gasp!) even users of other operating systems (Android, Mac, Win...)


• You have defined creative spaces that work for you... your home office, the park by the lake, the Tim Horton's or Starbucks.  You know you have to get out of the "normal" to stimulate creative ideas.

Revitalizing your creativity competency is perhaps the most crucial of the skills you need to develop.  It both leverages and empowers all the other competencies.

Creativity unleashed produces passion. Creativity channeled produces innovation.

PS. If by some miracle Margaret Atwood happens to read this... Please do not judge me on my grammatical skills.


How would you describe 'creativity' in action?

I'll be presenting one competency per posting over the next while, and compile them into one big, long post when complete.

Here is the list of all 10 competencies with links to previous postings.

• Competence


• Communication


• Collaboration


• Corporate Contributor


• Conceptualization


• Connector


• Community Builder


• Current


• Creativity


• Copious, Continuous, Infectious Passion

Next posting: Copious, Continuous, Infectious Passion