I am motivated now.:jump::jump::jump::jump: Can you give us 3 innovative ideas that came from former students of this program in the last 10 years that has made racing great again. I don't think racing is that great right now, so I doubt it. But I am all ears.

By the way bettors may merely be purchasing a wager, but without them there is no industry. Racetracks need them, Whales need them, horsemen need them. Bettors have a whole variety of other options and don't need racing.

Wait a second now. Wasn't it an Arizona U Racing-Program student who thought up that cute "Go Baby Go" advertising slogan that the NTRA was using up'til a couple of years ago? :ThmbUp::ThmbUp:

Yeah, right.
I think Sears charges too much for shirts, so instead of going to Penny's, I should go get a job at Sears and fix the problem?

Are you kidding??? :bang::bang::bang:

The way to 'fix" a problem, as a CUSTOMER is to stop shopping there. Being a CUSTOMER, we have certain expectations, one of them NOT being to FIX the problem's of the retailer.

Yes, and when that slogan came out, didn't they use it to cultivate NEW customers by running the commercials on HORSE RACING TV SHOWS??? :pound::pound::pound::pound:

You can't fix stupid!

Thanks, but I already have a degree. I also own my own business. But, unlike the tracks, I understand that getting and keeping customers is a priority. I re-invest the money they give me to give them a product that meets their standards. I know what their standards are because I listen to what they have to tell me. If I do not do this, I end up losing customers and am unable to grow my business. Business 101.

Let's say they owners decide to 'fix' the problem with updating odds. The money isn't going to just magically appear. They would likely raise the takeouts to fund the upgrade - which bettors would complain about and probably launch a boycott (like they did when Keeneland tried to raise takeout).

Would you accept a raise in takeouts to fund updating the current system?

Apparently nobody as smart as you guys has ever completed the course or gotten a job managing a racetrack to fix all these problems. That is why I am suggesting we get some real talent in the pipeline so the issues can be fixed.

Right. Racetracks don't understand business at all. They are making tons of money and lighting Cuban cigars with $100 bills instead of upgrading their product.

What track do you work for again?

Next thing you will say is we should take the initiative to bring our own timers if we are going to whine about the track morons inability to time a race.

I would suggest the racetrack employees are vastly over-paid for the crappy products they put out and should take pay cuts to bring the track up to a minimally acceptable level.

Btw, the Kennland Boycott worked. How did those stupid, whining bettors ever pull that one off?

No one with half a brain needs to take that class you suggested - a simpleton could improve most race tracks off the top of his head. It's only rocket science when you are an idiot.

Your getting warmer. They understand business. They also face a customer base that is declining and has lost confidence that the industry, as a whole, values them.

Mr. DGHog,

Are you saying that you believe the tracks would take advice from actual bettors?

I ask, because it appears that is something that has rarely, if ever, happened.


Dave Schwartz

Hollywood Park used the GoBabyGo slogan 19 years ago. Reason I remember is my daughter was in a study at Kaiser for 2 years after she was born. They came out to the house to see how she was learning. They asked her what a dog said and then what a cat said. When she asked her what a horse said she said GoBabyGo. The nurse looked at us and asked again, she said the same thing. We had to explain to the nurse that she would watch the replay shows with me everynight and that was the slogan they would use on their commercials.

What a great story !

Thank you for sharing that.

The talent is already out there. I know plenty of people who have come out of the program within the last decade who have good and innovative ideas. But there's a huge difference between having an idea, and convincing the forces of nature already entrenched in the industry to implement said new idea. If you do work in the industry, then you should know that already.

Regardless, telling people that if they don't like the way things are, they should relocate to Arizona to take a college course and then work in the industry to fix it...that's has to be trolling, right?

They're gamblers. Our job is to give them a good product worth investing their money in. If we're not doing that, they will (and should) go find something else to play.

Attitudes like this are what convince me that horse racing is not going to survive the legalization of sports betting. But maybe when there's only 10 tracks left in the country, and only a handful of off-track wagering sources, we can finally get the odds updates down to 5 seconds.

Great post.

:ThmbUp::ThmbUp: