As most of you have heard by now, the execs at Churchill Downs Inc and NYRA have created a new racing series that excludes the much-maligned second jewel of the Triple Crown, the Preakness Stakes.
Leaving aside (as Dougie points out beautifully in his YouTube video) races like the Haskell could be in peril as well, my opinion is pretty devoid on nuance. Take away the noise of the Pennsylvania Derby perhaps being mothballed, or the fact that the Mid-Atlantic Match Series never worked; to me this is potentially much bigger than that.
Horse racing in its present form is not what it was in 1926, or even 1996. Its current zeitgeist is not based on attendance, handle, what Mike Repole thinks of it, or any other assorted business metrics. It solely, in my view, is based on what the governments allow or disallow.
Whether it be harness racing in Kentucky, or "new" Belmont racetracks in New York, the bind that holds the sport together is the politician. As sad as it is for me to opine, they, not you, are the sports' most important customer.
How does one keep the sport relevant in the eyes of those who hold so much power over it? I think one way is to ensure the sport is top of mind in statehouses everywhere.
The easiest way to achieve that goal is to preserve and steward the sports' biggest events. The one's everyone watches, the Americana, the one the TV networks pay to show, not the other way around. They're the luxury boxes politicians bring their spouses to, the fancy drinks and the infield and the gladhanding.
And what this sport currently has that brings it all together for them, in inarguable fact, is the golden goose of The Triple Crown.
The Triple Crown is the foundation, in my view, of everything.
And, again in my opinion, when you mess with it, you mess with the entire foundation of this sport.
The Kentucky Derby isn't going away and the politicians can have their day, just like we all do. NYRA can promote the Jim Dandy, not as a prep race, but something that's on television, and hope a handful of the 100,000 or so tuning in on Fox are employed in Albany. Maybe I am being overly dramatic.
But I can't help think of the old biblical metaphor about feet of clay. When your foundation is built on a corporate, ready-made out of the box "series" that can potentially replace the thing this sport has always had to hold it all together with the strength of reinforced steel, things can get wobbly in a hurry.
Let's hope that doesn't happen. But the fact that they've entertained putting horse racing's one and only true spectacle in harm's way makes me fear for the future of this sport.
Have a nice Tuesday everyone.
