Thoughts on Horse Racing
 

This is just a question to throw out and start a discussion about racing. Do you think racing as a whole is declining or gaining more handicappers? Whether it is the occasional player, newbies, experienced handicappers, or even professionals. I'm in my thirties now and most of the people i run into at my local tracks are usually retirees. This makes me think racing is a dying sport in some ways. Just interested to see people's thoughts on this subject.

In my opinion I don't see too many younger people 20's-30's going to the track much. I'm sure this varies on what time and what days you go though.

Who but the retirees can afford to attend the races during the early afternoon hours? If you could somehow observe the online players...then I think you would see that the horse-betting public is a little different in makeup than what the on-track experience reveals.

When you say handicapping, So that I know what you mean.

Are you asking:

Is there a process that can effectively arm new people with the ability to enjoy the sport through wagering? In a word NO. That's gone.

If you are asking:

Is there a process that can effectively arm people with the ability to enjoy the sport as a fan? ( tickets, meals, souvenirs etc.) In a word NO. That's also gone.

The reason I ask is , that what I do, maybe what you do to, is not handicapping. Handicapping was when racing secretaries wrote races that "handicapped" the likely favorites, most often with weight.

Now races are written to specific horses, or types of horses that happen to be on the grounds. The Handicap has been placed on the weaker horses.

That's why we end up with super trainers. 2 at every track making money and everybody else nothing.

If you are asking:

Is there a process that can effectively arm smart , curious and ambitious people with the ability to enjoy the sport through wagering? In a word YES.

I see some of that now when looking at a few of the NHC players backgrounds.

I hope it continues to grow. .

all i can say is that i am excited and am fast and loose with large fields (9-horse fields or more) i began as a horseplayer because i could bet a little to win alot.
to put serious money on a four-legged animal to run around an oval, no thank you. that kind of money is reserved for dollar-cost averaging into my S&P 500 Index fund, and i hazard to say any rational person has the same viewpoint.

I, personally, can only entrust my "serious money" to stable investments. And, what's more stable than something with four legs? :ThmbUp:

thaskalos your priceless, never change.:)

I think you guys kind of misinterpreted what I'm trying to say. By handicapper I mean just people that are interested in the sport. I was just taking a guess from what I observed at my home tracks in my state. It's probably not that way everywhere though. I'm pretty much an online player when it comes to wagering, so I kind of know what you mean by that. If I go to the track there is too many distractions and with the way I handicap now most of the time I use free information and don't even use a drf.

I sometimes dollar cost average on the horse racing exchange. Does that count?

I also arb my positions sometimes on the exchange. My wife says you only made 5 bucks trading that position. Ah but that’s 5 more bucks in the exchange
Account. It’s all about the benjamins.

And I am a rational thinking human being.

Allan

Considering that wagering in casinos has grown exponentially with the number of casinos, sports wagering is growing massively, lotteries took in $73 billion last year, and horse racing handle has gone from $15 billion to under $11 billion in recent years...no, young people are not flocking to horse racing. Neither are middle-aged people nor older people.

I'm kind of shocked you're asking this question.

i salute you. most years i lose at the horses, that's okay, it's my thrill money i spend. maybe your investing acumen is better than mine, but i can't complain about the investing strategy i use. i dollar cost averaged into a S & P in my working years, and i dollar cost average taking my money out, in my retirement. i have gotten 10 fold what i put into the index fund, with no attention being paid to it. i can't say that about my horsebettting.

All of the indicators say the interest in US horse racing is declining. There are a lot of reasons for it. Some of it is just a change in society, different interests, different options. Other is due to self-inflicted wounds.

What indicator could you point to that shows horse racing interest has increased? Betting? No, because A) the number has declined by nearly 26% from a peak in the early 2000's and B) the number has probably decreased a hell of a lot more if it weren't for computer batch betting.

How about the major decline in horse population?

How about media? In the 1960's, 1970's, horse racing results were on the front of the sports section with a recap of big races. Now you're lucky if newspapers even report static results on page 32. ESPN ranks sports on their website by popularity. The first link option is the NFL, then NBA, then MLB and so on. Horse racing finds itself behind College Softball and in the vicinity of Special Olympics. Let that sink in for a moment.

I do not think it is even debatable that horse racing interest has been in steep decline. I'm not sure if anything can be done about it and certainly not with the industry leadership in place now. I don't believe leadership has any interest or motivation, or even a forum, to make decisions for the betterment of the sport as a whole. All current decisions are about self-preservation. Allowing cheating trainers with large stables to consistently make a mockery of the results of races at major race tracks all because they help "fill" races is an awful ecosystem.

This might be a biased stance but it bothers me a great deal that no one in the industry has ever contacted me (or know I even exist) about improvement ideas despite the fact that I have followed the sport religiously for over 30 years. I've handicapped, watched, bet on, discussed and written about more horse racing than 99.9% of the public but I have no outlet to contribute to ideas that might invigorate the sport.

I do not think a rise in popularity can occur for horse racing until the game is blown up at the root level. Lack of a unifying body is insurmountable.

A few years ago, I started a thread "Time for Contraction".....It was a lively discussion:

http://www.paceadvantage.com/forum/s...47#post2206147