Introducing a Triple Crown for Four/Five Year Olds

[thunderdan09]

My gut instincts tell me that this wouldn't be successful for a few reasons. The Triple Crown is the way it is because it has been around for over 80 years... At least in the order it is run today... There have been attempts to start and reconfigure New York's Triple Tiara stakes races and it has never gained national attention the way the Triple Crown does.

I'm not against the possibility of it ever happening, but we have the World Championships in the Fall every year wherever the Breeders' Cup lands. Most horses are focused on qualifying for that or are at least running in stakes races with the intention of ending up there to finish their racing season.

If this were ever going to work it would probably have to be capped off with the Breeders' Cup classic, and that race already gets attention on ESPN yearly. I just don't see anything changing. It's the Sport of Kings, people in the industry like it the way it is. I'm sure they'd love to see more people out at the tracks and racing to be what it used to be.

Let's face it. With lotteries, Vegas, Native American casino's, bingo halls, online gaming, poker rooms and the poker boom online, horse racing probably ranks in the back of the general publics mind most of the year. Without casinos and card rooms racing would be in an even tougher situation than it already is. It's barely hanging on in our biggest markets. NYRA has been in trouble, Hollywood Park and Bay Meadows closed on the West Coast for a reason... I don't recall the name but Detroit re-opened a track and closed it. Minnesota has a new harness track that's on the ropes and failing. And, I am barely touching the surface... There is room for racing in this country. It's a fantastic game and I will love it to death, but we have to be realistic and accept it for what it is. Everything being tried to bring people to the track by improving races for horse people isn't going to change anything. And a second Triple Crown series of some sort would not matter to anyone, but people like us who love racing and would enjoy another reason to be at the track during the Summer.

Canterbury Park here in Minnesota has done a great job attracting big crowds on a weekly basis, and they have done it with an 'entertainment' focus. The racing there is not great by any means. There are some very good horses running there this season. The purses range from $9,000 - $45,000 on a daily basis, with weekly stakes pushing $75,000+ regularly, but the handles are always the same. They have not changed since the track re-opened... Here in Minny, we average 5,000 fans on Thursday and Friday nights, our problem is 80% of those people would rather come out for $2 beers, $1 hotdogs/nachos/sodas/admission, than see a $2M horse race. To those people it's just another race. Horses are horses to 90% of this world. The 10% that love racing would be super enthusiastic about a new triple crown, I just don't think it would change anything at all.