the article...AGAIN...
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While the horse racing industry still has occasional moments of glory, it continues on a gradual descent into mediocrity. Horse people have used every excuse for their fall, but much of the blame really seems self-inflicted. The recent trend of retiring horses at ridiculously young ages might be the worst development yet.
It seems horses have become like boxers. The worst horses get run into the ground by racing three times per month, while the best are raced a few times and then retired. When a star male horse can earn millions in stud fees, one can understand the careful nature of horse owners. However, in their greed, these owners are speeding along the slow death of horse racing itself.
What horse racing needs, above all else, is excitement. The sport needs reasons to get people to watch and wager on races. Nothing creates that more than star horses. Imagine if the top 20 NBA players decided to play in Europe. The NBA would still be high quality and competitive, but no one would watch it. Horse racing isn�t far from this situation.
Big races are still run and top horses emerge each year, but where are the old rivalries? Which horses can people get excited about when they rarely face a challenge? And what races are highly anticipated when few superstar horses are allowed to develop long careers?
The conditions that used to create excitement are long gone thanks to the stud system and the risk aversion to running star horses. I remember a time when John Henry was the standby each year. The horse raced for many years and the public loved him. He didn�t win all his races, but he competed against the best all around the country.
He developed a number of different rivals over his career and people actually looked forward to these races with many wagers at their local track on his races.
It now takes a potential Triple Crown winner to get people to care about a race. When a horse finally does break through and win the Triple Crown, the owners are not likely to enter the Breeders Cup. The owners of Smarty Jones weren�t going to let the horse enter the biggest annual day of racing. He would have retired as a three-year-old with just one last race this summer.
You tell me, how would fans react if LeBron James made it to the NBA, played two seasons and led his team to two championships and then left to play overseas? Unfortunately for horse racing fans, a similar situation is becoming the norm.
Track owners from coast to coast now say if they don�t get slot machines in their establishments they will go out of business. In the long run these people are kidding themselves if they think this will save racing. Yes, it will save race tracks and keep horses running, but only because they have to.
At least half the tracks with slots would quickly stop racing if they were allowed. The states will probably grant that wish at some point when they wake up and realize state taxpayer dollars are essentially subsidizing lousy horse racing. In politically correct terms, part of the slot win is subsidizing the racing purses.
However, in reality, those dollars could easily be converted into tax dollars, racing be damned. In any case, adding slots does nothing to address the fundamental problems of horse racing. The formerly troubled tracks are now viable, but people coming in the doors aren�t playing the races.
Current conditions are simply setting the table for continued mediocrity in the sport. I just wish those in the horse racing industry stopped crying poverty and admit their product needs to die off in many places and improve from within before it will become viable again, without slots.
