Finley: Why racing needs another American Championship Racing Series

[andymays]

http://espn.go.com/horse-racing/story/_/id/6761562/why-racing-needs-another-acrs

Excerpt:

Since the ACRS folded in 1993, there have been numerous attempts to not only revive it but to expand on it. The idea is to create a series for the majority of Breeders' Cup divisions. The plan on the drawing board has usually called for having one day each month devoted to the series. Yet in the end nothing ever happens.

A series would give the sport something like nine or 10 mini-Breeders' Cup Days, something that would bring in hundreds of millions in betting dollars, give fans something to look forward to, attract media attention and create order out of the sport's chaotic system of scheduling stakes races.

[thaskalos]

On February the 4th of this year, Steven Crist wrote the same sort of article for the DRF...citing the merits of reviving the ACRS, in order to rescue the sport from the obscurity that surrounds it.

That article was ignored THEN...and this article will be equally ignored NOW.

Maybe THAT'S why the general public is so indifferent when it comes to our favorite sport...there just isn't much in it to get excited about...

And, as a result, the horse racing writers are forced to keep writing the same articles every few months or so...

[BombsAway Bob]

i was lucky enough to meet Jim McKay in person at Rockingham Park
when ABC Covered "The New England Classic" in the ACRS.
20 Years Ago this July 20th.
The Sports Bar, spanking New at the Time, was dressed to the Nines,
Huge Ice Sculptures and Buckets of Jumbo Shrimp...
Stuff you didn't Associate with "The Rock"!
a local TV news video about "The Rock" from 2004:
http://youtu.be/ARjPBqDx6QE

[Tom]

The ACRS was a superb series! I doubt you could get horse to run that often anymore, what with the evolution of the breed going downhill and all.

Today's trainers lack balls and backbones.

[Spalding No!]

I don't agree with the concept of merging the ACRS to the Breeder's Cup. The BC is ridiculously diluted enough, and basically painted itself in a corner with so many new races in the face of a dwindling population of racehorses.

Furthermore, it's too grandiose an idea to make defined series for every single division. Sprinters and such deserve their place, but I don't think it should be side-by-side with older runners capable of staying an American classic distance.

The ACRS should be resurrected to revive the older horse division and to ward off the breeding industry's greedy grab at young, healthy horses that have shown top class.

Ultimately, the series would replace the BC. Use a point system to identify champions, not a single race.