Just When You Think You've Seen the Worst Idea in Racing...

[Dahoss]

Something like this comes along and makes that bad idea seem not so bad.

https://www.drf.com/news/new-horse-r...unch-september

[RolloTomasi]

I love how there is this grandiose scheme that is supposed to get rolling in a little over 3 months at Kentucky Downs and they have only 3 minor details left to sort out:

1) Where are they going to get the horses from?

and

2) How are they going to make money?

and

3) How are they going to have a license to conduct sanctioned races within each jurisdiction?

Insanity. It's almost as if they have no clue about the racing industry. They understand that the domestic horse population is dwindling, right? Basically they are trying to vaguely follow the Hong Kong model, buying horses from outside sources and pulling them from sanctioned racing to be used for their separate league except that it will still be within the US. Do they think they will be an island unto themselves? I'm sure racing secretaries across the country will love that idea.

Meanwhile, the horses seemingly are almost an afterthought. Is the concept that the horses are interchangeable and/or expendable (which is a scary mentality in this day and age)? They're just going to buy a bunch of "allowance/low level stake horses"? Is there even such a class of horse nowadays? Most tracks cannot fill conditioned allowance races without an optional claiming tag & most notable listed stakes have gone the by the wayside or been promoted to graded stakes status. Plus, even if there were such horses, they wouldn't come particularly cheap especially with established or progressive form...maybe if they were geldings I suppose. How are they going to conduct a draft? Are they going to follow some 2yo-in-training type setup with a bunch of older horses? Or have a bunch of veterinarians perform pre-purchase exams on them? What if a horse fails such an exam?

A more realistic (and more interesting) concept might have been to restrict each team to a particular state. Pit state-breds v. state-breds. You could run races at all levels from maiden up to a Sunshine Millions-type event. Might be easier to source such horses and they would probably be less expensive, too.

Better yet, why even buy horses? Why don't they just schedule some high dollar races as invitational races & simply invite horses to participate? Or maybe they can lease a bunch of older stakes caliber horses for some sort of American Championship Racing Series reboot?

I presume part of the appeal might be the celebrity status of some of the shareholders in each "team"? But they don't really seem to be promoting that either...Instead they are relying on some vague concept of the "racing lifestyle"?

Their premise is supposed to be modeled on other sporting leagues I presume meaning NFL, MLB, NHL, and NBA. But the reality is their concept is analogous to creating the World Football League, the Arena Football League, and the WNBA within an already established "major" league.

Honestly, I can't wrap my head around it. My guess is that if these guys do actually get off the ground, the vultures within the industry will quickly devour whatever "funds" they have at their disposal before a quick and unceremonious dispersal of bloodstock is announced.

Perhaps they can hold the dispersal sale at Kentucky Downs, too...

[ne to socal]

Originally Posted by RolloTomasi

I love how there is this grandiose scheme that is supposed to get rolling in a little over 3 months at Kentucky Downs and they have only 3 minor details left to sort out:

1) Where are they going to get the horses from?

and

2) How are they going to make money?

and

3) How are they going to have a license to conduct sanctioned races within each jurisdiction?

Insanity. It's almost as if they have no clue about the racing industry. They understand that the domestic horse population is dwindling, right? Basically they are trying to vaguely follow the Hong Kong model, buying horses from outside sources and pulling them from sanctioned racing to be used for their separate league except that it will still be within the US. Do they think they will be an island unto themselves? I'm sure racing secretaries across the country will love that idea.

Meanwhile, the horses seemingly are almost an afterthought. Is the concept that the horses are interchangeable and/or expendable (which is a scary mentality in this day and age)? They're just going to buy a bunch of "allowance/low level stake horses"? Is there even such a class of horse nowadays? Most tracks cannot fill conditioned allowance races without an optional claiming tag & most notable listed stakes have gone the by the wayside or been promoted to graded stakes status. Plus, even if there were such horses, they wouldn't come particularly cheap especially with established or progressive form...maybe if they were geldings I suppose. How are they going to conduct a draft? Are they going to follow some 2yo-in-training type setup with a bunch of older horses? Or have a bunch of veterinarians perform pre-purchase exams on them? What if a horse fails such an exam?

A more realistic (and more interesting) concept might have been to restrict each team to a particular state. Pit state-breds v. state-breds. You could run races at all levels from maiden up to a Sunshine Millions-type event. Might be easier to source such horses and they would probably be less expensive, too.

Better yet, why even buy horses? Why don't they just schedule some high dollar races as invitational races & simply invite horses to participate? Or maybe they can lease a bunch of older stakes caliber horses for some sort of American Championship Racing Series reboot?

I presume part of the appeal might be the celebrity status of some of the shareholders in each "team"? But they don't really seem to be promoting that either...Instead they are relying on some vague concept of the "racing lifestyle"?

Their premise is supposed to be modeled on other sporting leagues I presume meaning NFL, MLB, NHL, and NBA. But the reality is their concept is analogous to creating the World Football League, the Arena Football League, and the WNBA within an already established "major" league.

Honestly, I can't wrap my head around it. My guess is that if these guys do actually get off the ground, the vultures within the industry will quickly devour whatever "funds" they have at their disposal before a quick and unceremonious dispersal of bloodstock is announced.

Perhaps they can hold the dispersal sale at Kentucky Downs, too...

All of that (well said) and more. If I read correctly, 5 races. So not even one 'home game' per track? And they say explicitly they will rely on in-person (which telegraphs their likely non-status with ADWs) revenue. Yeah OK, I'm from LA and I'm going to fly to Nashville with my buddies, drive the 60-70 minutes to KD to watch a 6-horse race? Or do these thousands of new league fans all live locally for the one whopping home race?

Like you, I could go on and on. But I'm tired.

[jms62]

And here I thought XFL 3.0 was the dumbest idea ever...

[freddymo]

I have no idea what to think. Maybe the plan is to get it going and then hope to attract a buyer a la the jockey club and or the "clubs" leaders. Those types would love to isolate like the good ole days, racing their homebred's against each other at fair hills and Kentucky Down 20 days a year, while they invite their friends over to the catered tailgate and bet among themselves like the Duke brothers in Trading Places.

[ADJMK]

Originally Posted by ne to socal

All of that (well said) and more. If I read correctly, 5 races. So not even one 'home game' per track? And they say explicitly they will rely on in-person (which telegraphs their likely non-status with ADWs) revenue. Yeah OK, I'm from LA and I'm going to fly to Nashville with my buddies, drive the 60-70 minutes to KD to watch a 6-horse race? Or do these thousands of new league fans all live locally for the one whopping home race?

Like you, I could go on and on. But I'm tired.

What happens when 2 of the 6 are scratched.
Maybe they should look at racing $5K claimers. They are the only ones that start more than 5 times /year.
HK has full fields for most races but the majority are for what they call Class 5 which are really $5K claimers.