NTRA (or whomever)

[justindew]

Dear NTRA or whomever is responsible for market this sport,

I know horse racing has to compete for column inches with the opening of college football season and it's marquee match-ups like Navy-Ohio State and Syracuse-Minnesota, but if Rachel Alexandra does not appear on the front of every sports section in America tomorrow, you should hang it up and stop accepting money from the racetracks and whomever else funds you. On Friday I asked 22 of my male, sports-loving coworkers if any of them knew who Rachel Alexandra was. Four of them thought she was the new girl who works in accounting (who's name actually IS Rachel). Two of them thought she won the Kentucky Derby. No one else had a clue who she was. And I blame you, NTRA.

Thanks,

Justin Dew

P.S.

You are a total f***ing joke.

[fpsoxfan]

Originally Posted by justindew

Dear NTRA or whomever is responsible for market this sport,

I know horse racing has to compete for column inches with the opening of college football season and it's marquee match-ups like Navy-Ohio State and Syracuse-Minnesota, but if Rachel Alexandra does not appear on the front of every sports section in America tomorrow, you should hang it up and stop accepting money from the racetracks and whomever else funds you. On Friday I asked 22 of my male, sports-loving coworkers if any of them knew who Rachel Alexandra was. Four of them thought she was the new girl who works in accounting (who's name actually IS Rachel). Two of them thought she won the Kentucky Derby. No one else had a clue who she was. And I blame you, NTRA.

Thanks,

Justin Dew

P.S.

You are a total f***ing joke.

I like it Justin!

[Scurlogue Champ]

The NTRA can't help it, man.

Racing is about like boxing to most Americans.

It just isn't something most people care about.

Fans of racing wondering why everyone doesn't love it are beginning to sound like people who loved Buffy The Vampire Slayer and thought it meant much more than cheap entertainment.

[justindew]

Originally Posted by Scurlogue Champ

The NTRA can't help it, man.

Racing is about like boxing to most Americans.

It just isn't something most people care about.

Fans of racing wondering why everyone doesn't love it are beginning to sound like people who loved Buffy The Vampire Slayer and thought it meant much more than cheap entertainment.

Ashley,

When Mike Tyson was king, people loved Boxing.

I don't wonder why people don't love racing. I know exactly why. It's becasue the people in charge are morons. Maybe not all of them. But most of them.

[Scurlogue Champ]

Originally Posted by justindew

Ashley,

When Mike Tyson was king, people loved Boxing.

I don't wonder why people don't love racing. I know exactly why. It's becasue the people in charge are morons. Maybe not all of them. But most of them.

Why do you think people don't follow racing? And what could the morons in charge do to sway their opinion?

Did you catch Sea The Stars running in Ireland today? That was pretty exciting stuff.

[justindew]

Originally Posted by Scurlogue Champ

Why do you think people don't follow racing? And what could the morons in charge do to sway their opinion?

Did you catch Sea The Stars running in Ireland today? That was pretty exciting stuff.

I don't have all the answers. What do you think? Do you think it's a lost cause? Cuz I don't. Racing has a superstar handed to it on a silver platter- A girl who is crushing the best boys in the country. The door has been opened. Walk through it.

I am a gambler, and in my opinion, horse racing is the best game in gambling. And this is in spite of the 20% takeout and rampant cheating. If it's clear to me, it can become clear to everyone. it just might take a little work.

[tector]

It's the first Saturday of the college football season.

If Jesus Christ returned at Saratoga today, and rode the late double, it would not make page 1 of the sports section.

PS: People still read newspapers?

PPS: I do agree NTRA is a joke, however.

[jwkniska]

if BYU holds on and beats Oklahoma, will never be the top story.

[boswd]

Originally Posted by justindew

I don't have all the answers. What do you think? Do you think it's a lost cause? Cuz I don't. Racing has a superstar handed to it on a silver platter- A girl who is crushing the best boys in the country. The door has been opened. Walk through it.

I am a gambler, and in my opinion, horse racing is the best game in gambling. And this is in spite of the 20% takeout and rampant cheating. If it's clear to me, it can become clear to everyone. it just might take a little work.

I think you just touched on it a bit. As any fan, especially the older fans, will remember Horse Racing once was one of the top covered sports, it had the headlines, heck way back in the day the Big 4 were Baseball, Football, Boxing and Horse Racing.

Horse Racing remained front page news right up through the 70's. The 80's you started to see the decline, The NBA started to emerge out of the shadows via Bird and Magic. Horse Racing was starting to decline in popularity.

All sports,with the exception of the NFL, wiill have its up and downs, and when a sport is on a downside, it normally will turn it's marketing attention to the kids and family's. You get kids on board at an early age you are back on the road to recovery. Kids buy merchandise,kids want to go the games, see the stars. You get the kids you get the adults.

Now since a big part of horse racing gambling, you can't market it towards Kids. Plain and simple. You can market a little bit of bringing the family to the track for picnics, see the horses and have some family activities but Gambling is still there and many parents will balk at the idea of bringing their children to the track. Especially when tracks like Saratoga, Del Mar, Keenland are the exception not the norms. Big boxy, old guys and shady characters at the Philly Park, the Suffolk Downs etc. is the norm. I love them all but Biff and Buffy of the suburbs would never bring little Timmy out there.

And what happens the faithful of horse are getting older and fan base is dwindling.

They need to market it towards the 18-30 crowd.

[joeydb]

Originally Posted by boswd

They need to market it towards the 18-30 crowd.

Exactly. More specifically, they should market it to the college crowd. I took my buddies to the track when I was in college and they loved it. And now, with the smart computer guys at college studying poker, or trying to play perfect Blackjack strategy, count cards, whatever -- the biggest thing horse racing has to offer is the POSSIBILITY of an edge. The crowd I'm referring to doesn't play slot machines much. They are not suckers. But show them a game where they might get an edge (over the crowd), and they will get interested. The NTRA should run an ad during the World Series of Poker that's on now until November. You know, show the mutuel pools on Breeder's Cup Day -- "You think a $100,000 pot is big, try $10 Million..." that sort of thing.

[robfla]

Originally Posted by joeydb

Exactly. More specifically, they should market it to the college crowd. I took my buddies to the track when I was in college and they loved it. And now, with the smart computer guys at college studying poker, or trying to play perfect Blackjack strategy, count cards, whatever -- the biggest thing horse racing has to offer is the POSSIBILITY of an edge. The crowd I'm referring to doesn't play slot machines much. They are not suckers. But show them a game where they might get an edge (over the crowd), and they will get interested. The NTRA should run an ad during the World Series of Poker that's on now until November. You know, show the mutuel pools on Breeder's Cup Day -- "You think a $100,000 pot is big, try $10 Million..." that sort of thing.

While I agree that whenever I take a friend to the track for their first time, they usually love it, you really cant compare the statistical "edge" in poker to horse racing.

You can scoop a $2500.00 pot in poker and pay $5.00 rake. (0.2%)

You win a $2500.00 pick 4 and you are, depending on which track, paying approx $500.00 rake (~20%)

[joeydb]

Originally Posted by robfla

While I agree that whenever I take a friend to the track for their first time, they usually love it, you really cant compare the statistical "edge" in poker to horse racing.

You can scoop a $2500.00 pot in poker and pay $5.00 rake. (0.2%)

You win a $2500.00 pick 4 and you are, depending on which track, paying approx $500.00 rake (~20%)

You're correct of course. I was more comparing it to the games where it is not possible to have an edge -- slots, roulette, craps... all the "house games". That's the emphasis that needs to come across in marketing it. I guess I see pari-mutuel betting as similar to a poker pot, except that the takeout is much higher than the casino rake, and there is more than one winner splitting up the pool.

[TropicalStorm]

Market forces dictate what gets on the frontpage of the sports section, not the NTRA. The NTRA does a good job with the sport it is just that there is not as much interest as there is in other sports like football.

Rachel Alexandra really is not that great of a story either. Horse racing has done a good job of bringing attention to her and may actually overhype her. When you end your year in early September it really is hard to be very excited about any horse. Fall racing is the best racing of the year and she is not taking part in any of it.

[Antitrust32]

Originally Posted by CrossfireHurricane

Market forces dictate what gets on the frontpage of the sports section, not the NTRA. The NTRA does a good job with the sport it is just that there is not as much interest as there is in other sports like football.

Rachel Alexandra really is not that great of a story either. Horse racing has done a good job of bringing attention to her and may actually overhype her. When you end your year in early September it really is hard to be very excited about any horse. Fall racing is the best racing of the year and she is not taking part in any of it.

you MUST be employed by the NTRA to come up with this responce..

How exactly is Rachel overhyped??

and the NTRA is worthless. Justindew's (the real Justin Dew by the way) initial post was spot on.

Originally Posted by Antitrust32

you MUST be employed by the NTRA to come up with this responce..

How exactly is Rachel overhyped??

and the NTRA is worthless. Justindew's (the real Justin Dew by the way) initial post was spot on.

Heading to the store to stock up on water and supplies.

[Bobby Fischer]

poker would have been just as successful if they had marketed it as a historic spectator sport. [/yea right]

[King Glorious]

Originally Posted by justindew

I don't have all the answers. What do you think? Do you think it's a lost cause? Cuz I don't. Racing has a superstar handed to it on a silver platter- A girl who is crushing the best boys in the country. The door has been opened. Walk through it.
I am a gambler, and in my opinion, horse racing is the best game in gambling. And this is in spite of the 20% takeout and rampant cheating. If it's clear to me, it can become clear to everyone. it just might take a little work.

The door may be opened but guess what? Rachel won't race probably for another five months minimum. Talk about a momentum killer. The NBA schedule is out. I can make plans for what games I might want to travel to see and know with reasonable assurity that the marquee players I'm going to see will be playing. I've already put in to have Christmas off so I can watch Lebron and Shaq vs. Kobe. Can you do that with racing? Jackson won't even tell the public until a week beforehand where Rachel is going to be racing. How can you market that properly? All of the marketing and hyping of the top 3yos that took place in the winter leading to the Derby and where are all of those horses? In basketball, you get to see your team play 3-4 times a week. In football, it's every weekend and you know ahead of time when and where they'll be. In racing, if we get to see them once a month, we are doing well. And good luck figuring out when and where that once a month will be.

[Gander]

Originally Posted by King Glorious

The door may be opened but guess what? Rachel won't race probably for another five months minimum. Talk about a momentum killer. The NBA schedule is out. I can make plans for what games I might want to travel to see and know with reasonable assurity that the marquee players I'm going to see will be playing. I've already put in to have Christmas off so I can watch Lebron and Shaq vs. Kobe. Can you do that with racing? Jackson won't even tell the public until a week beforehand where Rachel is going to be racing. How can you market that properly? All of the marketing and hyping of the top 3yos that took place in the winter leading to the Derby and where are all of those horses? In basketball, you get to see your team play 3-4 times a week. In football, it's every weekend and you know ahead of time when and where they'll be. In racing, if we get to see them once a month, we are doing well. And good luck figuring out when and where that once a month will be.

Good points. Rachel will never race again, so if people think this one horse is going to save a struggling industry, they're nuts.

I'd still rather watch 20K claimers at Aqueduct than suffer through an NBA game, but thats just me. The very minority.

[Antitrust32]

Originally Posted by Coach Pants

Heading to the store to stock up on water and supplies.

I was going to add... for the first time.. but I didnt want to hurt his feelings again.

[TropicalStorm]

Originally Posted by Antitrust32

you MUST be employed by the NTRA to come up with this responce..

How exactly is Rachel overhyped??

and the NTRA is worthless. Justindew's (the real Justin Dew by the way) initial post was spot on.

Rachel is overhyped in the sense that the sport marketed her too hard considering they got a total of 3 real races out of her and only 1 was on national televion.

NTRA is not worthless either. Without them you would get absolutely no promotion at all. It is the fault of state legislatures that the sport is not marketed well.

Back to Rachel, if you look at her races she really did never take on a great horse. I think you can make the argument that there are 3 fillies/mares that would give her a run for her money and she did not race against any of them.

I am fairly certain Icon Project would beat her in a 10f race. The Canadian filly is also very dangerous and you have Zenyatta. Rachel would have lost if she kept running this year. She is much like Curlin was at the age of 4. A horse that was going backwards going into the fall, probably due to a difficult schedule. You have to race in the fall if you want to be considered a great horse. The fall is when 3yr olds mature and when many top older horses target their big race. Rachel was well managed but I suspect she would have been beaten by any 1 of the 3 fillies/mares in the fall. I don't think she would have even been competitive with Icon Project in a 10f race.