Nope, my name is not Nick Kling

But I guess it could be when you read his column.

Today in a New York newspaper (thanks Equidaily.com!), Nick speaks about the recent bloodhorse story that we chatted about here.

In a column titled "Clueless" he takes a look at racing.

Since a high of $15.2 billion in 2003, average annual handle has fallen by approximately $451 million.

When asked by The Blood-Horse magazine about why the decline, Alan Marzelli, President and CEO of the Jockey Club, which is a partner in Equibase, had a simple response. He didn't know.

Let me get this straight.

The chief executive of the organization which oversees all Thoroughbred racing and its records is telling us that in an era when technology allows us to watch a schoolboy in Tibet dance on You Tube, when you can buy a stock on the Asian market while sitting in Troy, and when you can Google a person's name and get their 50-year-old high school graduation picture, that the "experts" who govern racing can't conjure up the facts needed to manage the sport?

And we wonder why racing is a mess?

Mr Kling (no he is not me!) goes on to talk about what can be done to help racing. He details a few things, namely hiring competant people who know the Internet, fixing distribution channels, and curbing illegal drug use.

He also speaks about what we have been echoing here. That is, this can all go away.

Sooner or later, political leaders are going to figure out the revenue going to struggling racetracks might be better used for things like schools, medical care and a variety of social issues.

Anyhow, we need to keep these issues at the forefront, and we will keep doing that here. Me and Mr. Kling, and whomever else wants to jump aboard.

Note: I received an interesting email last night. A gentleman from eastern Canada has a plan for wagering out there. He calls it "The Grand Experiment". We are going to be looking at that soon. Thanks for the email, sir!