Grow Our Sport

[Dahoss9698]

For a nice glimpse into why the sport has no shot in the future search the hashtag growoursport on twitter.

Trainers and jockeys opined on ways to help grow the sport and they include not focusing on gambling, making the track like a county fair and more marketing on humans and equines.

That's the problem right there. The ONLY chance the sport has is to stop being afraid of gambling. Without gambling, there is no sport in this country, period.

We heard for years that popular horses attract new fans and that's what we need. It didn't work with Zenyatta. Purses don't get funded by homemade signs that fans create to bring to the track. It didn't work after we had a triple crown winner either. I'm not disparaging fans but the hard truth is they don't add anything to help the problem. And horses don't stay around long enough to turn those fans into bettors.

Is handicapping hard? Sure it is. But it's not the brain surgery people make it out to be sometimes. Things like fantasy sports are flourishing. What does that tell you? Young people want to gamble. Let's show them that a profit can be made by gambling on horses.

There's nothing wrong with gambling and the sooner the sport embraces it, the better off it'll be. Continue to ignore the gambling and gamblers and the more we'll see it go down the tubes. This sport can't be saved by features on fashion at the races by figure skaters and making the track a petting zoo.

[chiguy]

It's not the only game in town anymore folks. It is that simple. When we were it was easy to have big crowds, high handles etc. It just isn't the case anymore. It needs to change and part of that change is that we need less tracks period. Look at the list of tracks on any given day. Too many with way too many races of small fields. No value, never mind the takeout. Less tracks, less races, bigger fields. I would love to see a national set-up that had real circuits. West, Midwest, East and South. Let them run at Del Mar for six weeks in the summer, then go to Golden Gate for a month or two, then to Turf Paradise for the winter, then to SA for opening day on 12/26. It will never happen but that is what I would like to see.

[PaceAdvantage]

Originally Posted by chiguy

It's not the only game in town anymore folks. It is that simple.

Yeah, but it's the RARE game in town where you actually have a CHANCE to be a winner long term...the game is not automatically STACKED against you like in the casino (except for poker).

You compete against other players (again like poker), and not the house (like a slot machine or the blackjack/roulette/craps table/state lotteries etc).

So it actually HAS a lot going for it, that most of those other "games in town" do not.

[cj]

Reading some of those tweets is downright depressing. I did like this one from Nick:

Twitter

I get tired of hearing about drawing new customers. The best way to get new customers is word of mouth from current customers. With the state of the game today, what current customer would possibly recommend that anyone get involved in the game now, be it as a bettor or an owner?

Make the game more attractive to the customers you do have and worry about new ones later.

[Norm Gold]

Originally Posted by Dahoss9698

For a nice glimpse into why the sport has no shot in the future search the hashtag growoursport on twitter.

Trainers and jockeys opined on ways to help grow the sport and they include not focusing on gambling, making the track like a county fair and more marketing on humans and equines.

That's the problem right there. The ONLY chance the sport has is to stop being afraid of gambling. Without gambling, there is no sport in this country, period.

We heard for years that popular horses attract new fans and that's what we need. It didn't work with Zenyatta. Purses don't get funded by homemade signs that fans create to bring to the track. It didn't work after we had a triple crown winner either. I'm not disparaging fans but the hard truth is they don't add anything to help the problem. And horses don't stay around long enough to turn those fans into bettors.

Is handicapping hard? Sure it is. But it's not the brain surgery people make it out to be sometimes. Things like fantasy sports are flourishing. What does that tell you? Young people want to gamble. Let's show them that a profit can be made by gambling on horses.

There's nothing wrong with gambling and the sooner the sport embraces it, the better off it'll be. Continue to ignore the gambling and gamblers and the more we'll see it go down the tubes. This sport can't be saved by features on fashion at the races by figure skaters and making the track a petting zoo.

Are you suggesting that Top flat tracks implement slots, and Table games on premises?

[ReplayRandall]

Originally Posted by PaceAdvantage

Yeah, but it's the RARE game in town where you actually have a CHANCE to be a winner long term...the game is not automatically STACKED against you like in the casino (except for poker).

You compete against other players (again like poker), and not the house (like a slot machine or the blackjack/roulette/craps table/state lotteries etc).

So it actually HAS a lot going for it, that most of those other "games in town" do not.

This might be true, but betting SPORTS is the KING of gambling where I come from, with horse racing losing more of it's market share on a daily basis.....Sports is more cost effective than horse racing, to participate in. The player, bankroll-wise, simply lasts longer betting sports.

[PaceAdvantage]

Originally Posted by ReplayRandall

This might be true, but betting SPORTS is the KING of gambling where I come from, with horse racing losing more of it's market share on a daily basis.....Sports is more cost effective than horse racing, to participate in. The player, bankroll-wise, simply lasts longer betting sports.

Well, I didn't mention sports because technically, it's not legal anywhere except Vegas (I think, but who knows nowadays), and I've never been a big sports bettor.

The post I was replying to mentioned "not the only game in town." Well, sports betting (legally) isn't available in many towns (unless one goes on the internet I suppose...but you can bet ANYTHING on the internet, so that doesn't really apply).

[Norm Gold]

Originally Posted by cj

Reading some of those tweets is downright depressing. I did like this one from Nick:

https://twitter.com/NTamm1215/status/867535476948963328

I get tired of hearing about drawing new customers. The best way to get new customers is word of mouth from current customers. With the state of the game today, what current customer would possibly recommend that anyone get involved in the game now, be it as a bettor or an owner?

Make the game more attractive to the customers you do have and worry about new ones later.

It is a different generation as I'm sure you can see. I started following the sport as a young lad with my friends. Kids in the 80's,90's would enjoy the challenge of beating the race. Breaking the race down so you feel that you are in the race. That is to much work for young people now. would rather find the race already broken down online then lose intrest in sport eventually. It is a terrible thing.

[cj]

Originally Posted by Norm Gold

It is a different generation as I'm sure you can see. I started following the sport as a young lad with my friends. Kids in the 80's,90's would enjoy the challenge of beating the race. Breaking the race down so you feel that you are in the race. That is to much work for young people now. would rather find the race already broken down online then lose intrest in sport eventually. It is a terrible thing.

I think young people could get interested if the game was in a better place. I'm not even interested in the a majority of the races from a betting standpoint any more. Luckily these days it is easy to pick your spots all over the country.

But as I was saying, who could take a young person in good conscience and try to tell them what a great game it is and teach them the ropes they way things are now?

[johnhannibalsmith]

Originally Posted by cj

...
I get tired of hearing about drawing new customers. The best way to get new customers is word of mouth from current customers. With the state of the game today, what current customer would possibly recommend that anyone get involved in the game now, be it as a bettor or an owner?

...

It seems so obvious and you state it as plainly as to be so obvious, but sadly, it never seems to resonate. There are people that are curiously interested when you talk about it and wouldn't need a big push to give it a try, but there's really nobody to give them that push - unless they are trying to take the poor bastard for as long as possible before he figures it out.

[Dahoss9698]

Originally Posted by Norm Gold

Are you suggesting that Top flat tracks implement slots, and Table games on premises?

I have no idea how you took that from my post. I'm suggesting promoting gambling on horses.

[elhelmete]

Originally Posted by johnhannibalsmith

It seems so obvious and you state it as plainly as to be so obvious, but sadly, it never seems to resonate. There are people that are curiously interested when you talk about it and wouldn't need a big push to give it a try, but there's really nobody to give them that push - unless they are trying to take the poor bastard for as long as possible before he figures it out.

Based on my experience, I can get 100% of the people to go to the track with me once.

Maybe 50% to go twice (with me).

I would estimate that out of perhaps 200 people (mostly first-timers) that have visited the track with me alone or as part of work group outings, MAYBE 5% go on their own again without me. Maybe.

And this is at Santa Anita which is tops for customer experience. They treat our group outings very, very well.

[Norm Gold]

Originally Posted by cj

I think young people could get interested if the game was in a better place. I'm not even interested in the a majority of the races from a betting standpoint any more. Luckily these days it is easy to pick your spots all over the country.

But as I was saying, who could take a young person in good conscience and try to tell them what a great game it is and teach them the ropes they way things are now?

I take my kids now to the track to enjoy the game from the outside. I in the future will teach them basic charting to eventually advanced capping where they can make money if disciplined in the future.

[Norm Gold]

Originally Posted by Dahoss9698

I have no idea how you took that from my post. I'm suggesting promoting gambling on horses.

i guess i misunderstood that point. how do you suggest promoting gambling on horses for next generation? how do you suggest making it more attractive for new customers?

[Dahoss9698]

Originally Posted by Norm Gold

i guess i misunderstood that point. how do you suggest promoting gambling on horses for next generation? how do you suggest making it more attractive for new customers?

Teaching people about handicapping and showing them how they can make money doing it.