Because of what I have perceived as an increased interest in residencies, I have undertaken a trip around the world to check out the home turf of some of the Sims top places to join with your stables. The trip is being sponsored by those lovely ladies at the BTB as they realize how much our readers will enjoy this inside look.

I was a bit surprised that the NorthWest Racing Circuit (NWRC) Headquarters are in Southern California but Los Angeles is sure easy to get to from anywhere. And the headquarters is out toward Santa Anita so it is only about 30 miles from the airport which should make it a really easy trip. After all, in the wise words of the Beverly Hillbilly’s Uncle Jed, “Californy is the place you ought to be, So they loaded up the truck and moved to Beverly…Hills, that is. Swimmin’ pools, movie stars.”

After my visit to Epsom for the Nell Gwynn Graded Stakes race, I hopped a plane to New York for a quick layover and my flight to LA. I admit that my travel schedule was a bit tight but I had plenty of time to spare. My flight from London was only a few minutes late but when I arrived in New York City I found that my United Airlines flight to California was delayed. Oh well, it was only supposed to be fifteen minutes and I went and grabbed a new release novel from the News Store. As I finished chapter 10 of the book, they finally called our flight, nearly an hour and a half behind schedule. When we finally arrived at LAX airport, I got there just as rush hour was beginning. I grabbed my rent a car as soon as possible but there was a delay there as well. By the time I got on the freeway for the 30 minute ride to NWRC Headquarters, traffic was at a standstill and it took over an hour and a half to get there!

So my quick and easy travel plans turned into another travel nightmare and though I was bit frazzled, I pulled up to the beautiful NWRC Headquarters building which just a stones throw from historic Santa Anita Racetrack.

The receptionist announced me and I was ushered into a beautiful executive office and greeted by Mike (bullfrogmb).

Mike “Hi, Paz, Welcome to the NWRC Headquarters in Sunny California. I understand that you had quite a hairy trip to get here, that can certainly happen in SoCal. I bet you could use a drink after all of that. I know that that there has been some talk on the NWRC boards that the best way to entertain you is “wine and dine” you! LOL. I’ll have a Yeungling Lager imported from Central Pennsylvania, which is where I’m from and live when not managing the daily operations of the NorthWest Racing Circuit. Yes, it’s a long commute but I enjoy it. Of course there are always those travel nightmare days like you had today. Would you like to try one?

PazJazz I was more than ready for a beer and I was familiar with Yeungling as I had grown up in Western Pennsylvania myself. I must admit, that cool lager tasted pretty darn good after that nightmare of a trip. I asked him about the Rez Headquarters being in Los Angeles with a name like NWRC.

He sat back in his plush leather chair and folded his fingers into a steeple and told me, Mike When I started the NWRC in Feburuary of 2001 I didn’t know anything about horse racing, web design, or programming. I spent many hours the first year calculating our Divisional Challenge contest manually and designing and updating the site.

Todd Coker, who you may or may not have heard of, saved the NWRC by writing a small program for me that calculated the stats each week using the raceout.zip. If not for this program the NWRC would have died an early death. I’m hoping Mike Wallace incorporates a tool into his Sim rewrite that will allow residencies to calculate contest results for all kinks of contests. From specifying tracks and different races; to allowing different point values for varying places. I don’t know how the other residencies handle this but Todd’s program was designed before RODOTS, and buying and bidding races. It would be nice to have a program that can deal with these situations. I’m looking forward to the Sim’s rewrite.

So anyway, with Todd’s program the NWRC has managed to and expand over the past seven years. We started with eight tracks and by popular demand by the residents we have expanded now to twenty tracks. The name doesn’t quite fit anymore but it costs a lot of dough to make all the changes in letter head, signs, etc. so we kept the name. It just seemed to still fit the group. The NWRC tracks are California, N. California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, S. Dakota, N. Dakota, Montana, Nebraska, Iowa, Oklahoma, Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Colorado, Kansas and British Columbia.

With the tracks in California and one of our favorites being the historical Santa Anita track here in Southern California it just seemed right to move the headquarters here. We got a great deal on this magnificent building from a failed Dot.Com business and the rest as they say is history. Our theme is still NorthWest United States but it stretches a bit further South now.

He offered and I grabbed another Yuengling, they sure did go down easily after that trip! PazJazz It is a really great building and it seems like there is plenty of room. How many members do you have in NWRC?

Mike– At present we 41 residents residing at the NWRC encompassing 219 stables. You will find we are quite a friendly bunch. One of the things that we do that may be a bit different from other residencies, is that we go by first names around here. When I started the site I thought first names were the way to go. I like to keep it a little more personal.

PazJazz Wow, that’s quite a few folks for a residency, how do you keep it all organized?

Mike– We are really lucky that we have a lot of help from the residents to run everything. It is really a group project that runs like a well oiled machine. At present, Will, (sledge4), designed and maintains the technical end of the web site and message board. Tracy, (squirrel), manages the message board and runs and manages several contests. Their help in running the NWRC has been invaluable. We pride ourselves on prompt updates each week. I don’t believe I’ve missed a weekly update since the start of the NWRC. We have our own NWRC website located at NWRC Residency from this you can reach all of our pages including the message board.

PazJazz– I poured another beer into my chilled glass and asked Mike about contests. “Are you able to run enough contests with all of those tracks and residents too?”

Mike– I’ve always encouraged our residents to come up with new contests. Several have run handicapping contests. The Bargain Baby contest was the idea of a past resident. Terrel just ran a jockey contest. We actually have quite a few others like the NWRC Divisional Challenge – runs quarterly, score points for places 1 thru 5 and 1 point for every $1000 earned up to 35 points. Must run at least 9 races each quarter at our 20 tracks to stay a member of the NWRC ( I don’t enforce this to strictly, he chuckled.). There are 6 divisions, Elite, top 25 from previous challenge, Master, the next 50 top scorers, Pro, the next 50, Class the next 50, Amateur, next 50, and the Rookie, what’s left. When you join you start in the Rookie Division.

We also have the Shaker Of The Month and Mover Of The Month – Tracy runs both of these contests from the message board. SOTM is determined by the stakes winners the NWRC has each week. We vote for the best to determine th Shaker Of The Week. At the end of the month we vote for the weekly winners to determine the SOTM. MOTM is determined the same way except residents nominate horses that have won a race at one of the 20 NWRC tracks each week.

Then there is the Horse Of The Year – Determined by voting for the 12 SOTM for the past year. HOTY for 2008 is Will’s Awesome Force.

We also have the NWRC Tour which runs for 10 weeks. We tour the NWRC picking from one of four tracks each week. Two residents team up and each resident posts on the message board an entry each week that is running at a one of the four tracks for that week. Points are scored for places 1 thru 7. Team with the most points at the end of the Tour wins.

And we also have the NWRC Survivor Contest- Password restricted races sponsored by the NWRC. Up to 20 residents enter one horse each to meet the Survivor restrictions. Horses race every 4 weeks eliminating the last 1, 2, or 3 places. Last race showcases 4 top horses, winner of the last race is the Survivor winner. Survivor was developed to showcase allowance horses.

PazJazz– The beers were going down easy now. “Do you have any annual or sim-wide contests?”

Mike– Not that I’m counting or anything but that’s your 5th Lager now, Paz. I don’t want you getting blurry-eyed on me and mess up our notes. Would you like some help on your note taking? I’d be happy to bring in Sharon (SnowChief) to help you keep your notes straight! She’s been helping around here and keeping me in line since the inception of the NWRC. She won’t mind giving you a hand. We want you to be able to read your notes. We’re expecting a brilliant article from you to drum up a few new residents at the NWRC. She’s also our head breeder, of horses that is. She keeps the Prize Pool full of horses for us to give away. We give away many horses and credits around here.

PazJazz– I turned down the help, after all how embarrassing would it be to have your Boss at the BTB step in for you because you were too inebriated to write!?! I decided I’d better slow down on the beers though. I asked Mike again about the Annual Contests.

Mike Yes, we have several Annual Events. For example, we have the Bargain Baby contest – Tracy runs and sponsors this event every spring and it’s just about ready to start. Breed a bargain bay for 100 BPs or less. Run in several races, earn points for top finishes, top points wins the prize. Usually, different divisions for colt and filly and dirt and turf.

We also have our NWRC Triple Crown – Terrel (jdawg) runs a mirror of the Sim’s triple crown event for the past 3 or 4 years. It is a lot of fun and showcases the NWRC’s best 3 year olds.

One of my favorites is the NWRC Series – Will runs this one and we have had the event 5 of the last 7 years. It’s sponsored by the residents and a nice break on the pricing from Mike W. The series showcases all the NWRC’s top horses in 60 some stakes races covering all ages, surfaces and distances.

As you can see, we have something for everyone and there is lot’s of help to get it all done. That way everyone can get involved.

PazJazz– The Equinics is coming up this year. I know that the NWRC competes, how have you done?

Mike We at the NWRC have participated in at least the last two Equinics. Last year we tied for fourth place. We are really looking forward to this years event and hoping to improve, however, the competition is pretty awesome.

PazJazz– Is there anything else that you would like to add about the Rez?

Mike Well the folks at the NWRC would like to present your with an NWRC tee shirt. Wear it proudly! Or throw it in the closest or sell it on eBay! It is definitely a limited edition and might go for big bucks some day! That’s your choice! I’ll also give you the choice of place for dinner, after all I picked out the beer!

We headed on down to Santa Anita to their elegant and beautiful FrontRunner Restaurant where a floor-to-ceiling glass wall allows guests to view the picturesque San Gabriel Mountains while watching live Thoroughbred races from near the finish line. You can watch the races at the same time your entrée is prepared to order from two glass-enclosed exhibition kitchens positioned on either side of the restaurant. I had the Pepper Seared Hawaii Ahi Sashimi served with Asian Greens, Cucumber Namasu and Miso Vinaigrette which was really excellent as was the company. I had a really great time and even won a couple of shekels on the races. I really felt like a move star in the land of Beverly Hills!

Even with the bad start of my trip, the NWRC experience was wonderful. They have a friendly and involved group of folks that really seem to have a great time. I was able to pick up a neat Horse and Foal Snow Globe in the Santa Anita Gift shop for Roys and once again, all was well in the world. I was not looking forward to going back to LA Airport but that is a necessary evil when you are traveling the Sim World in search of the next residency. The travel takes it’s toll but I wouldn’t exchange this experience for anything in the world.

Looking forward to seeing you in your little corner of the world!