[King Glorious]

Originally Posted by Dahoss

My loss of interest has nothing to do with horses retiring early. And don’t think horses running longer will intrigue new people.

As much as I love the sport of racing, the gambling part is what has always drawn me in. Frankly, the gambling product for the most part sucks. Small fields, races that aren’t competitive, move up trainers that perform miracles and betting a horse at 4-1 in the gate and seeing his odds change to 2-1 out of the gate are a few of the things that has me taking an extended break.

The Breeders Cup, that ridiculous track they souped up for no reason and performances like Knicks Go was the push I needed.

I’m not crazy about horses running so infrequently and retiring prematurely, but I think the only way to bring in new blood is make the gambling part as attractive as possible. It’s not very attractive right now, IMO. If it wasn’t for contests I would’ve been gone years ago. But racing should take a long look in the mirror because if someone like me is fed up, how many others are there that are as well? I eat, sleep and drink this sport.

A lot of this is the same way I feel. I don't think running them longer fixes all the issues but it's one that I think would help. In other sports, you develop a connection with the players early and you follow their careers. Just last night, I watched a high school game on ESPN featuring the top ranked junior and top ranked senior. I had never seen either play in a game but after last night, I'm following both of their careers. I think that being able to latch on to a horse is important when it comes to fans. Imagine if any new fans watched and saw the horse win the Juvenile and they heard the people saying how he's the early Derby favorite and now they have to wait four months to see him run again then he runs five or six total races next year? It's hard to keep interest doing that. Then you saw Authentic win the Classic and can't wait to see him run again only to find out it won't happen.

I remember back in 1991 watching the older horse division. They had a series of races that were connected and offered bonuses to horses that earned the most points. I'm sure some of you remember it. I thought that was fun to follow. Create some sort of Triple Crown for older horses. Create one in every division. Do something to connect the races instead of each track and each race operating independently. There are just so many ways to advance the sport but I think it starts with not breeding so many horses and not having so many races. If you create more incentives to race on and maybe more competition in the breeding shed by limiting breeding opportunities, I think you get a better product on the track and that's what drives the sport.