Bill Barich, lead writer for the HBO racetrack-themed series "Luck," . . . captivated an audience at the Asian Racing Conference May 7 during a session titled, "Connecting Racing with Popular Culture".
"When my first book (Laughing in the Hills) was published people wrote to me, and at least two-thirds of them wanted to tell me their story of how they got into racing," said Barich. "Invariably they began with 'I had an uncle, a father—somebody—who took me to the races as a child,' and when they're a child they're not interested in the gambling aspect, they're interested in the horse. And I really think that's the thing that's got to be sold through popular culture. It's the thing that keeps people involved."
"The attraction of racing is the horse," he said. "What actually attracts people to racing is a charismatic horse. The face of racing is always the horse."
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