If Racing is dying.....

[biggestal99]

why are people spending like a drunken sailor on VE day at Keeneland.



$345,000,000 on the latest and the greatest yearlings. (1,700 of them so far)


People still want fast TBs, of that there can be no doubt.


Allan

[Redboard]

Originally Posted by biggestal99

why are people spending like a drunken sailor on VE day at Keeneland.

$345,000,000 on the latest and the greatest yearlings. (1,700 of them so far)

People still want fast TBs, of that there can be no doubt.

Allan

It is amazing. The breeders don't seem to have any problems setting records every year.

I'm not sure whether it just money being passed back and forth. I know Godolphin routinely bought prodigy of Bernardini, who was their stallion, for the purpose of getting his stud fee up.

[ronsmac]

All of the casino and slot money infused purses have to be a big reason?

[thaskalos]

Speaking strictly for myself, whenever I say that "horse racing is dying"...I'm not implying that it's "dying" as a source of revenue for the horsemen and the breeders. I mean that it's dying as a form of "entertainment", or a 'profitable opportunity', for the horse-betting fan. With the gambling expansion in full force in this country...I have to believe that horse racing will remain a viable income venue for those who don't have to depend on the horse-wagering pools for their survival. The racinos started off by offering just slots...and then they were allowed to offer table games too. And now, sports-betting is becoming the new item on the menu. Who knows...in the not-too-distant future...horse racing may even become a partner of the legal online poker industry. And then the race purses will be funded entirely by the other gambling sources...while the horseplayers will be scrambling for the meager scraps in the horse-betting pools.

Bad for the horseplayers...but great for everybody else in the game.

[Buckeye]

Yes and no.

Yes because we all are and no because I'm in no position to say.

[GMB@BP]

Originally Posted by thaskalos

Bad for the horseplayers...but great for everybody else in the game.

I just agree with you a lot....not sure that is a good thing for you but oh well.

[biggestal99]

Originally Posted by thaskalos

Speaking strictly for myself, whenever I say that "horse racing is dying"...I'm not implying that it's "dying" as a source of revenue for the horsemen and the breeders. I mean that it's dying as a form of "entertainment", or a 'profitable opportunity', for the horse-betting fan. With the gambling expansion in full force in this country...I have to believe that horse racing will remain a viable income venue for those who don't have to depend on the horse-wagering pools for their survival. The racinos started off by offering just slots...and then they were allowed to offer table games too. And now, sports-betting is becoming the new item on the menu. Who knows...in the not-too-distant future...horse racing may even become a partner of the legal online poker industry. And then the race purses will be funded entirely by the other gambling sources...while the horseplayers will be scrambling for the meager scraps in the horse-betting pools.

Bad for the horseplayers...but great for everybody else in the game.

The sharps have been leeching off the squares in horse racing for a long time.

Entertainment. Lol. I love horse racing. I love winning money betting horses.

Going to the track tomorrow with my wife.

She’s a square and bets the greys. She enjoys horse racing. I have given up on her about the nuances about handicapping and just place the obligatory gray bets for her.

Hopefully I can make up for her losses. (One of the her grays is chalkie tomorrow and it wins and makes her happy)

We will have lots of fun win, lose or draw.

I wanna win.

Allan

[spiketoo]

Originally Posted by biggestal99

The sharps have been leeching off the squares in horse racing for a long time.

Entertainment. Lol. I love horse racing. I love winning money betting horses.

Going to the track tomorrow with my wife.

She’s a square and bets the greys. She enjoys horse racing. I have given up on her about the nuances about handicapping and just place the obligatory gray bets for her.

Hopefully I can make up for her losses. (One of the her grays is chalkie tomorrow and it wins and makes her happy)

We will have lots of fun win, lose or draw.

I wanna win.

Allan

Hope it rains.

[Dave Schwartz]

Originally Posted by thaskalos

Speaking strictly for myself, whenever I say that "horse racing is dying"...I'm not implying that it's "dying" as a source of revenue for the horsemen and the breeders. I mean that it's dying as a form of "entertainment", or a 'profitable opportunity', for the horse-betting fan. With the gambling expansion in full force in this country...I have to believe that horse racing will remain a viable income venue for those who don't have to depend on the horse-wagering pools for their survival. The racinos started off by offering just slots...and then they were allowed to offer table games too. And now, sports-betting is becoming the new item on the menu. Who knows...in the not-too-distant future...horse racing may even become a partner of the legal online poker industry. And then the race purses will be funded entirely by the other gambling sources...while the horseplayers will be scrambling for the meager scraps in the horse-betting pools.

Bad for the horseplayers...but great for everybody else in the game.

I completely agree.

As a track owner who the "customer" in the game is and they say, "Owners."

The game is designed in the direction of horsemen, hence the problems.

[Afleet]

Originally Posted by biggestal99

why are people spending like a drunken sailor on VE day at Keeneland.



$345,000,000 on the latest and the greatest yearlings. (1,700 of them so far)


People still want fast TBs, of that there can be no doubt.


Allan

big stock market gains always help

[Someday Silent]

I try not to sound like one of those conspiracy theory nuts, but seeing the sheer amount of dollars at Thoroughbred auctions makes me wonder about money laundering.

And even if there's nothing nefarious going on, the sport is still dying. It's just that the top 0.01% are fine and having fun playing with money.

[Parkview_Pirate]

Originally Posted by biggestal99

why are people spending like a drunken sailor on VE day at Keeneland.



$345,000,000 on the latest and the greatest yearlings. (1,700 of them so far)


People still want fast TBs, of that there can be no doubt.


Allan

Supply and demand? Isn't the foal crop nowadays about half what it was in the 1980s?

Inflation and quantitative easing? The Fed's printing press results in money that ends up going somewhere, perhaps in the "investment" of a racehorse?

If racing isn't dying, why are the demographics so weak? Been to the NHC lately? Check out the mean and median ages of the players.

Racing will never completely die off, but I don't see any trend changes towards a return to the good old days....and in contrast, trends in place that it will continue to decline further...

[Suff]

Right before our eyes Baseball is dying. Or also dead.

Calling Horse racing dead is a misnomer. Horse racing is fringe. And getting fringier.

[chadk66]

way smaller foal crops now. virtually the same amount of money to spend on foals. not hard to figure out why the sale prices are so high.

[AskinHaskin]

Originally Posted by biggestal99

The sharps have been leeching off the squares in horse racing for a long time.

This alone is the single greatest factor which has present-day horse racing effectively holed-up in a senior citizen's home sitting on land across the street from a cemetery.


The young techies are too smart to get sucked-into such an unfavorable situation while those who function in the periphery of those young techies exist in a world where everything is done for them.

So why in the heck should any of those modern people be expected to find some book by Tom Brohammer and waste (life) reading in order to play some game which takes place in a senior citizen's home across the road from a cemetery?


Most other gambling exercises don't have this self-created barrier between themselves and most of the society all around them. Racing's reaction to this has been for decades to shore-up the barrier thus further restricting itself and all those who derive a living from racing from knowing much greater handle revenue and the better purses and incomes which would result.

Racing created this problem all on its own, and the fact that many other games of chance which run without the same problem popped-up over the past 30 or 40 years only exposed horse racing's greatest flaw and commenced the mass exodus.

Racetrack management could/should have long-ago taken simple steps to reverse this self-created flaw but their narrow-minded outlook has instead doomed racing's future to the cemetery across the street. It is only a matter of time unless common sense mercifully steps in to begin to reverse the erosion.

But then where are you going to find common sense among today's track management teams?