This past year has been very tumultuous both on and off the track. Our nation has faced gasoline prices over $4.00 a gallon this past summer and the banking industry was nearly brought to their knees and needed a bailout from the government. We have seen our nation change in many ways and the future will be very different in the beginning of the New Year with the election of our new president. It’s a very critical time in our lives and the thoroughbred racing industry is not immune to this change.
The thoroughbred industry is also feeling the effects of a “down” economy. An industry that has had hard times for many years with a dwindling fan base and many of the historic breeding farms and racing families leaving the sport because of financial problems. We’ve seen in New York State alone this decade how the political machine can foul things up for a racing organization. There has been no steady working system for the “sport of kings” in this country and this has created too many people not working together for the one common cause; the betterment of thoroughbred racing.
Whether it’s been the problems with NYRA or the Breeders’ Cup; declining attendance at live racing facilities or the thoroughbred animal itself with medication and breakdown issues, the state of thoroughbred racing in 2008 has hit new low on many fronts and it’s time to get things in order.
The Breeders’ Cup has gotten bigger and in this case, bigger is not better. What once was a one day, six race event has expanded to two days and 14 races. The prices at the event have increased to record levels that the common day to day race player can’t afford to go. The financial crunch has impacted the Breeders’ Cup organization and there is a possibly of Breeders’ Cup funded races leading up to the event being cut. The ever changing medication rules and safety issues with the racing surfaces have cause quite an upheaval concerning the sport. Wagering on and off track has been a sticking point with revenues and the introduction of internet wagering has also added another winkle to a very complex problem.
The NTRA has tried it’s best to work out the problems with the sport. But, too many different ideas getting new people interested in the sport haven’t worked out and it becomes a bureaucracy within the organization. There are no uniform medication rules in the country and the power to make what rules there are stick have little teeth in enforcing them. Problems with wagering accounts and takeout throughout the country seem to pop up the beginning of every new racing meet and cause the bettor to be shut out. The competition from other forms of gambling have had a major impact of racing also and the media coverage of our sport on the national scene seems to always take a back seat to other sports even on our biggest event days.
The answer to these problems are not being solved by the actions taken currently from the “powers to be”. Maybe it’s time to listen from the people who made this sport great in the past. These minds have been active in racing most of their lives and have a world of knowledge. We tried to take this sport and mold it into something it’s not for all the wrong reasons. Things worked so well thirty years ago when horse racing was at its peak. It was a much simpler time when attendance on track was high and the big name breeding farms were at their peak. Medication was no factor when a horse ran, because the trainers didn’t use them. It’s time to go back to the drawing board with our sport. The way things are going now holds little future. It would be sad to see thoroughbred racing slowly fade into the sunset and become a thing of the past. We’re going through hard times in our country now and the sport of kings has endured the same thing for quite sometime.
