Status Quo

Godin has a nice piece up on defending the status quo. When I read it, as I surmise you might, I thought it paralleled what happens when racing is presented with new ideas.

Here are a few items that Seth says organizations go through, which are a sure sign the status quo rules the roost.

"When you are confronted with a new idea, do you:

Highlight the pain to a few instead of the benefits for the many?

Focus on short-term costs instead of long-term benefits, because the short-term is more vivid for you?

Fight to retain benefits and status earned only through tenure and longevity?

Undercut the credibility, authority or experience of people behind the change?"

There are dozens of others, so click the link if you are interested.

If you visit a racing website and someone has a new idea, like changing takeout, or updating a tote system, or allowing betfair to partner, you will see each of those at work. Someone, somewhere might lose a fraction of their slice. You are just a dumb bettor and you don't understand. Look at the attendance at Saratoga, things aren't really that bad. We're entitled to help, because we were always here, and lotteries showed up later. etc.

In my opinion, the biggest threat to the future of racing is not drugs, lack of TV time, short fields, or falling foal crops. It's the above.


Notes: There was an Op Ed in a Boston newspaper on slots. The state is exploring the bandits, but racing is not high on the list.

"The 9 percent set aside for horse racing from the take at the slot-machine operation is a genuflection to a bygone era. People have voted with their feet not to support racetracks. There is no more reason to bail out racetrack owners than there is to tax motorists to support a steam locomotive company."

If slots contributing to purses was a stock we could buy and sell, I am sure a lot of us would be shorting it. There is very little support out there to adding to purses via alternative gaming in states which don't have it.