TDN Weekend December 2016 Issue 9
Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1045316
you the rundown.' But Joe just tells you whose toes not to step on. He tells you to do this, not to do that. All right. What about firearm training? Well, you take a Coke can to the city dump." If it proved difficult in that fraught era to find a receptive campus, it was hard- er still to persuade the men to attend. "They weren't highly educated," Bassett says. "They had a tendency to be ab- sorbed with their own importance, being able to run around with a gun looking like John Wayne. But what really frightened them was an academic environment, was being embarrassed. That took some real tooth-pulling. In the end the way we got them in was to say that if you complet- ed the four-week course, and came back within 12 months for a refresher, you got a ten percent increase in your salary. I had to bribe them!" But Bassett, critically, had established that the Marine Corps template was transferable—and duly applied the les- sons both as president of Keeneland, from 1970 to 1986, and then in the same role at the nascent Breeders' Cup from 1988 to 1996. "There was a common thread between these three major pit stops," he reflects. "In each case, there was a need to re- spond to cultural and economic changes within the country. And the thing that helped me, through all three, was to try and be a good listener. I didn't say, 'This is my message, and this is what we're going to do.' I went out and said, 'What do we need to do to move this thing for- ward? Help me help you.'" At Keeneland, he found a management structure inadequately adapted to an ex- ploding economy soon to be supplement- ed by spectacular international demand. "Keeneland was supposed to get a bit of a break on all sorts of things," Bassett recalls. "Because we were a child of the Depression, we had no money. I wanted to make it a little more inclusive, to get the people that were 'the engine' feeling part of what we were trying to do." And, always, he put himself in the shoes of his customers. On race morn- ings, he would personally check ev- ery restroom at the track. During the sales, he would start every day by strolling through the barns— just shooting the breeze, boost- ing morale. "Well, how are you doing this morning?" he'd say. "I know the sale was down yesterday, but I feel good about today. And your stock is good. By the way, I love that sign."