A different take than mine. What do you think?
I just skimmed through it but am planning to read in more detail later this weekend.
This article fits more with how I see things. Two articles, by two brits, with opposing opinions.
Regarding the first article, I donât think Keeneland is a good barometer for the health of American racing. Everything seems âperfectâ when youâre at Keeneland. Itâs one of my favorite places on the planet. And then you combine that with the fact that it was Breeders Cup weekend- a weekend for the true racing fans, AND you had a TC winner on site. Of course everything would seem peachy keen to an outside observer.
Send him to Mountaineer on a Wednesday and see what he has to say about horse racingâs futureâŠ
(And by all means- no offense to anyone at Mountaineer. I literally just read and article about how the fields were at a record low for there in 2015, which is why it was fresh on my mind.)
I donât think there is anyone denying that racing is moving towards fewer days with boutique meets like Saratoga. There is so much competition from online sports gambling - draft king, fan duel, etc.
âKeeneland. Itâs one of my favorite places on the planet.â
+1, so very, very much
Things change. Imagine if you will the conversation in 1066 between two breeders of those mamouth horses that had the body mass to carry a knight in heavy armor into battle, âGilbert, the future looks bleak for us, the numbers are down across the board, and we just canât seem to get the kids interested in jousting like we were at their age. People can get drunk at home these days, and the women folk canât stand the smell. Itâs the end of life as we know it.â
Things change. To succeed and thrive, you have to change too, and adapt. I would not be playing catch up, or desperately trying to package the sport in a way to appeal to a crowd that has no genuine intertest and will not sustain the sport anyway. Donât dumb the whole thing down. Educate the public about how unique and amazing it truly is.
I think the focus on betting is too much, I donât watch the races to bet. Heck, I could probably bet on anything. And I would avoid describing a win or a winning career as random luck. I watch the races because they are uniquely a context for supreme skill, superb preparation, excellent conditioning, raw natural talent and sublime ability. As a fan, when I have even a small bit of the back story on a particular horse, I am drawn in and will follow that horse.
I think the appeal of American Pharoah was the horse himself, his raw talent and ability, and not the bells and whistles surrounding him. His entire team kept the focus where it belonged, on the horse⊠a race horse, and not a media clown.
Market racing intelligently, by using informed experienced industry insiders, whoâs opinions are grounded in an accurate understanding of the sport, itâs history, what it takes to breed a champion, and what it takes to nurture phenomenal genetic potential to a winning career. Let the public understand that to preserve racing, they have to preserve more than just a track. Itâs about zoning laws, and affordable space for training centers, and breeding farms, and supporting professionals in the sport at every level. Let people accurately see that racing is not just about getting drunk in your fancy hat on the first Saturday in May.
Iâd stay away from outside PR people marketing the sport to neophytes, creating a mob frenzy of lunacy like we saw with C Chrome. There are far too many non-racing / non-horse folks involved in marketing the sport. They start with a premise that you need to dumb things down for the average guy, making horseâs like Chromeâs name synonimous with a profound ignorance of the sport. The average guy is not and will never be your target audience. The focus should be on attracting the next generation of informed fans and participants.
People love baseball. The sport is thriving. Itâs a complicated game, with an endless list of statistics, requiring expensive venues and community support. You would never see some silicone injected blonde bimbo announcing a game, or doing the color commentary. Baseball is treated with respect for what it is, and respect for the knowledge it takes to know and play the game well. Fans are expected to step up and âmaster Baseball.â And they do. Racing should be packaged the same way, with respect for what it is, and how unique and valuable it is, both on race day and in our communities the other 364 days a year.
1 Like
[QUOTE=Texarkana;8391795]
Regarding the first article, I donât think Keeneland is a good barometer for the health of American racing. Everything seems âperfectâ when youâre at Keeneland. Itâs one of my favorite places on the planet. And then you combine that with the fact that it was Breeders Cup weekend- a weekend for the true racing fans, AND you had a TC winner on site. Of course everything would seem peachy keen to an outside observer.
Send him to Mountaineer on a Wednesday and see what he has to say about horse racingâs futureâŠ
(And by all means- no offense to anyone at Mountaineer. I literally just read and article about how the fields were at a record low for there in 2015, which is why it was fresh on my mind.)[/QUOTE]
http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/95860/ohio-racing-benefits-from-misfortune-in-wv
Too much betting? Significant amount of the proceeds of Pari Mutual betting and on site revenues from slots and video poker machines at Racinos go to tracks for operations, improvements, purse money etc. That cheap grandstand ticket-if itâs not free- doesnât support much of anything.
Too much betting outside the Pari Mutual pool with nothing going to the tracks I agree is a problem. So is the fact Slots and video poker bring in more and cost way less then operating a race track.
âŠSo horse racing will last another 500+ years and go from practical knowledge to highly refined expensive spectator sport favored by the elite over more plebeian pursuits? I donât think theyâd even yet INVENTED the tourney in 1066. They in fact had not invented heavy plate armor yet.
(And as for blonde bimbos, do you WATCH football coverage? Of course, they actually do tend to know what theyâre watching and commenting on, as do most of the horse racing commentators who arenât once-a-year viewersâand you get the same thing in team sports with big events. And footballâs actually more popular than baseball now, especially as far as TV goes. Slightly less confusing rules, more gambling opportunities, more interesting on-field play.)
A percentage of the money bet goes to the purses. Owners are not going to support racing if they canât make money.
I wonder if more people could get involved in racing as owners via syndicates. There are different structures, so you can find one that fits your budget. Iâm sure most people donât know they are out there.
Look at pro football - it costs a lot of money to be a season ticket holder, or to even just go to one game. And there is no possibility of making any money. So for a similar amount of money, and less in some cases, a person could buy into a syndicate and be an owner, and possibly get a little money back.
WTF?
In 2014, there were $1,125,000,000 in purses in TB racing in the US. Thatâs over a Billion btw, weâre not talking millions here. Of that total almost 90% was a result of parimutiel takeout, with 10% from âother sourcesâ (sponsors, breeders premiums, entry fees, and in some places slots).
This Wed at Churchill Downs, there is a 10 race card, with a total of $402,000 in purses on offer. That is a WEDNESDAY, midweek card. Now, unless you and your friends plan on going to Churchill this Wednesday, thatâs right on a Wednesady, midweek, and dropping $400k, then were do you think the purses are going to come from?
From bettors, thatâs were it will come from. They will put somewhere between $3m and $4m through the windows (or online ADWs) betting on this Wednesdayâs card, 12-15% of which will find itâs way back to purses.
You would need to be selling some amount of beer and hotdogs to support the purses in US racing without betting.
The TB Report said this in 2010.
http://www.thoroughbredreport.com/blog/?p=625
There is no horse racing industry without betting, present or future
Betting is the only method to support it
I think the changing paradigm even if it is a small group that animals should not be entertainment or money makers for people also factors in to play. Just look at the BCH Facebook page.
[QUOTE=danceronice;8393861]
âŠSo horse racing will last another 500+ years and go from practical knowledge to highly refined expensive spectator sport favored by the elite over more plebeian pursuits? I donât think theyâd even yet INVENTED the tourney in 1066. They in fact had not invented heavy plate armor yet.
(And as for blonde bimbos, do you WATCH football coverage? Of course, they actually do tend to know what theyâre watching and commenting on, as do most of the horse racing commentators who arenât once-a-year viewersâand you get the same thing in team sports with big events. And footballâs actually more popular than baseball now, especially as far as TV goes. Slightly less confusing rules, more gambling opportunities, more interesting on-field play.)[/QUOTE]
You caught me, I admit it, 1066 A.D. was a shot in the dark. I was thinking that old William the C must have used that type of horse. I have a vague memory that Willaim fell off his horse in full armor while disembarking a barge and drown. So I took a guess that âsporting eventsâ related to riding around in armor were poplar at that time. To any historians who are offended by my mangling of history, I apologize from the bottom of my heart⊠sort of. 
And âno,â as a general rule I do not watch a lot of football, baseball or golf, but when I happen to catch a game I am impressed by the informed rather intelligent way these sports are presented (in contrast to events like AKC conformation shows that seem to be entirely meritless fluff.).
It seems to me that baseball, golf and football expect their audiences to be knowledgeable about the given sport, and that much of the focus of any telecast is directed at elevating the audienceâs knowledge of the sport, which I believe helps draw new people to the sport. The audience is encouraged to understand the complexities of the sport from many different perspectives. And yes, there are the commercials and pop culture references, but they are balanced out with more fact based information about the sport.
I watch a lot of racing coverage, from multiple media sources. I think racing coverage is so much better than it was 5-10 years ago. We have experienced knowledgeable broadcasters, who seem a bit more interested in informing the audience, and I appreciate that. And even the recent contrast between C Chrome and AP was refreshing. The team around American Pharoah draws me to the sport. Some of this other stuff pushes me away.
I may or may not be the target neophyte customer the industry is trying to connect to. My c.v. goes something like this: Iâve watched TB racing since God was a child (sometime in the 1960âs), I have always been a fan, I now own two incredible TB mares, both of whom raced and retired sound. My farrier works in the racing industry / or has in the past. So, I have a rather keen interest in all sorts of TB related topics. I follow the races, follow the auctions, follow the breedings, as best an outsider can. I love reading posts from those here who are involved in the industry, there are dozens of threads here that are extremely informative.
But again and again I hear about how bleak the future is, and my point was supposed to be that âthe futureâ may indeed be bleak - if the expectation is to keep things as they were; and, it may be bleak if the solutions offered have essentially proven to not work, and are focused on the wrong crowd, with the wrong underlying strategy. But I believe that there IS a core group of interested folks like me, and with just minimal support and encouragement, we may be more likely to participate. But it seems to me that the industry needs to be more vocal about the complexity of interaction among many groups and interests, which are needed to sustain the industry. It begins with it being profitable to grow hay, to being a feed dealer, to encouraging young professionals (including equine vets and farriers), to zoning laws, to the public valuing what is unique about racing (and for me that is NOT betting), to an over-arching governance that supports those who make a living in the industry.
For the poster above who asked âWTF.â Here 's the f#ck. If the billions (with a âBâ) spent betting on horses were saving the industry, why are tracks closing, fewer TBs being bred, and genuine intertest in the sport (outside of TC and BC races) dropping off?
To be clear here, I am not advocating âNo betting.â Far from it. Attract all the betters you like. Go for it!!! What I am suggesting is that to support the industry you need to also attract a base of informed individuals who value other aspects of the sport. And the public needs to understand the complex mix of professionals, business interests, and community support needed to sustain this unique and valuable sport.
Tracks are closing because they are no longer the only form of legal betting and cannot compete with casinos and ever increasing Internet gambling sites that donât kick back to the the tracks.
Unless somebody has a workable idea to replace that income? They will continue to close. Particularly in states that donât allow slots at tracks for additional operating income and purse money.
Casual, non betting fans benefit from cheap or free track admission and TV coverage but contribute nothing to keep the tracks operating. Doubt theyâd pay per view or buy a $50 grandstand admission to watch a mid week card of 8 races topping out at 15k claimers. Thatâs the reality of the sport. At least the parimutual system shares its income with the tracks and athletes, think thatâs the only sport that gets gaming profits back to the participants and facility operators.
Any better ideas that would generate the billions needed to keep tracks in good, safe shape and purses healthy would be welcomed.
[QUOTE=findeight;8395281]
Tracks are closing because they are no longer the only form of legal betting and cannot compete with casinos and ever increasing Internet gambling sites that donât kick back to the the tracks.
Unless somebody has a workable idea to replace that income? They will continue to close. Particularly in states that donât allow slots at tracks for additional operating income and purse money.
Casual, non betting fans benefit from cheap or free track admission and TV coverage but contribute nothing to keep the tracks operating. Doubt theyâd pay per view or buy a $50 grandstand admission to watch a mid week card of 8 races topping out at 15k claimers. Thatâs the reality of the sport. At least the parimutual system shares its income with the tracks and athletes, think thatâs the only sport that gets gaming profits back to the participants and facility operators.
Any better ideas that would generate the billions needed to keep tracks in good, safe shape and purses healthy would be welcomed.[/QUOTE]
Yep. Casinos trounce every other form of legal betting (and DUH, you can bet on football, baseball, etc. Not âfantasyâ games, legal on-line wagering) because they attract the lottery-ticket crowd with the slots. Iâve worked for a casino, and theyâre VERY generous employers (especially tribal gaming as their overhead is quite different) because they are literally a money trap for stupid people. Iâve said before, to actually win at race wagering is not blind luck-you can go in and control a lot of your losses to an extent because itâs a stats game. Just like wagering on football or baseball (and I wish Iâd thought to check and see if I could bet the Navy/Memphis game.) Slots, meanwhile, require NO knowledge whatsoeverâyou push a button. Thatâs about it. Thereâs a reason slot machines outnumber table games 50-1 at some casinos.
And gambling is why unlike football or baseball (which I canât imagine paying to watch as itâs like cricket with more slovenly players and no tea break) casinos donât charge admission and general admission at tracks is generally pretty negligible. They know that 90% of people who come through are going to be playing and most will end up losing (the fraction of people who put in the effort to earn a living or at least make a profit at table games and race wagering is tiny). People tend to chose casinos over racetracks because theyâre closer, and their perks seem enormous (theyâre not, but thatâs the whole point-weâre all trained to make every guest feel like a high-roller even if theyâre just playing penny slots and buying cheap beer. It costs the casino almost nothing but keeps the players coming back.) Racetracks have much bigger overheadâthey need land, they need to be somewhere that it isnât prohibitively expensive to ship in feed, hay, and bedding, and horses cost their owners and trainers money whether theyâre running or not.
Like findeight says, most casual fans, who say they âloveâ racing, arenât likely to pay-per-view, they arenât going to be willing to pay $50 to get into the track, and if theyâre arenât wagering while theyâre there, if betting is gone, no one is subsidizing their presence. Itâs a joke line, mocking Teri Garrâs character, but the scene in âLet It Rideâ where she says âI donât see why you canât just watch horses run around the trackâ and everyone in the room laughs at her is true. As Trotter tells her, âThere is no racing without betting.â As long as people have had racing, theyâve bet. The sport very nearly died when on-track wagering was outlawed. Auto racing doesnât have (legal) gambling, but they are corporate and sponsor based. That doesnât work with horses. The only horse activities without gambling either have enormous prize money to make it worth the effort (the AQHA) or rightfully have a reputation as elitist hobbies for the 1%. (Which the very top end of racing sort of meets, but in a far more openly entrepreneurial way.)
Racing survives the world over primarily on betting. There are a few notable exceptions like UAE, where it is bankrolled as the hobby of obscenely rich oil shiekhs, or jump racing stateside, where it is a very very very minor sport with an elitist old money following (there are only 200 jump races a year in the US, compared to 1500 in a tiny country like Ireland, 4000 in GB and 2500 in France, all of which are heavily bet on).
The countries with the healthiest racing scenes, all have mammoth amounts of money bet on the racing. Japan has somewhere in the region of $20-25billion bet on racing ever year, thatâs almost three times the US number, with a third of the population. Hong Kong does a whopping $12billion ,and itâs a just a large city. Ireland gets over $3billion, with a tiny population of 5 million people, thatâs three times the amount bet in the state of Kentucky, a place of roughly equal population and similarly horse mad. Australia comes close to twice US numbers with a population of just 25 million people.
The secret is to get people excited and betting on horses. Yes, you do need to get them in the door, and things could definitely be done to make tracks a more pleasurable experience, and more of an entertainment destination. But they need to bet once theyâre there. People who donât bet arenât going to help the bottom line unless they drop 100s of dollars in admission fees and concessions when they go to the track, which I doubt most will do unless itâs a special event like a big race day.
Granted the US is at a bit of a disadvantage, in that culturally betting is frowned upon in many quarters, as a result of an inherited undercurrent of puritanism that runs through a certain segment of US culture.
Also, you canât compare racing to other sports because they make their money on i) mega TV contracts and ii) massive merchandise licensing (caps, sweat shirts, tee shirts, etc) and iii) often hefty admission prices. They generally have less dates too (with maybe the exception of baseball). Racing takes place 5 days a week for multiple months on end.
[QUOTE=Palm Beach;8391966]
I donât think there is anyone denying that racing is moving towards fewer days with boutique meets like Saratoga. There is so much competition from online sports gambling - draft king, fan duel, etc.[/QUOTE]
This article agrees with you, as I do.
