“I get tweetered a lot, but I don’t tweeter,” Chip Woolley tells me. Woolley is the trainer of last year’s Kentucky Derby winner, Mine That Bird.
“You really should,” I tell him. Woolley is on crutches, and I’m convinced that if he did tweet, I’d know why. I ask him about it and he tells me he’s been on crutches for eight months following an accident on his Chopper. He’s in town for the Breeders’ Cup Challenge on Saturday, the qualifying races that precede the Breeders’ Cup happening on November 6th and 7th.
We’re at 30-1, an evening of cocktails and epic noms at the Thompson’s exclusive ABH bi-level rooftop bar, celebrating the second consecutive Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita Park, and supporting The V Foundation for Cancer Research, founded by ESPN and the late Jim Valvano, former basketball coach of North Carolina State University and renown ESPN and ABC broadcaster. With me is Peter Rotondo (@retro411), VP of media and entertainment for the Breeders’ Cup, and directly across from us stands Bruce Jenner, the decathlon gold medalist of Keeping Up With The Kardashians fame.
ESPN’s Kenny Mayne just finished speaking and everyone is talking about the races—but there’s a lot of talk about Twitter, too. So much, in fact, that if you didn’t know this was a Breeders’ Cup soirée, you’d mistake the sports crowd for a group of enthusiastic members of L.A. tech.
That’s the idea—the Breeders’ Cup is organizing their first ever Tweeters’ Cup, a tweet-up front-side at the Seabiscuit Court by the paddock on the Oak Tree grounds at Santa Anita on November 6th. It’s going to be a day at the races—microblogging-style.
Greg Avioli (@GregAvioli), president and CEO of the Breeders’ Cup, comes over. He’s convinced he gives bad tweet. I outline some quick pointers about the art of conversation in 140 characters or less. He’s stumped by the balance one must learn to strike between being entertaining and keeping within a company brand. Ah, the dilemma of our times.
I tell him we’ll give him a crash course at the Tweeters’ Cup. Are you in?
30-1 at ABH at the Thompson Beverly Hills
Oak Tree Executive Vice President and Director Sherwood Chillingworth and Peter Rotondo.
The wheel of prizes--among them a $10,000 trip from Sentient Jet.
Chris Abramson won the $10,000 prize.
ESPN's Kenny Mayne.
With Chip Woolley!
Photo of horse by Suzy Holm, iPhone by Scott Beale.
