by WCT, The Ship of Fools
Sports fans over the age of 70 will tell anyone who is willing to listen that in their day, the three biggest sports were Baseball, Boxing, and Horse Racing. Today's sports landscape looks much different.
Baseball, while no longer the biggest and most popular sport in the nation, is still alive and well and setting attendance records, despite daily stories of players taking performance-enhancing drugs, players doing ridiculous things off the field, and, well, players who are alleged to have done both.
Boxing, if not dead, is most assuredly on life support, thanks to the lack of stars in the heavyweight division, the convoluted system of authorities and dozens of championship belts, the emergence of mixed martial arts as an alternative, and the abundance of bizarre match-ups like this Saturday, when the sports biggest (and most overrated) star Oscar De La Hoya, takes on Steve Forbes.
Just for clarification, that's De La Hoya versus this Steve Forbes:
and not this Steve Forbes
(If you are at a party this Saturday, I promise you that joke will be driven into the ground, so make sure you get it in first.)
So where does that leave horse racing? For 90% of us, the horse racing "season" consists of three Saturdays: Tomorrow, two weeks from tomorrow at the Preakness, and next month's Belmont Stakes. And depending on the winner of the Preakness, it may only consist of two Saturdays. Most casual race fans pay little if any attention to the Breeder's Cup, or any of the other events that keep my neighborhood OTBs packed wall-to-wall.
If we were to have a legitimate horse make a run at a triple crown, maybe horse racing would be big again. Remember Smarty Jones? Who wasn't wrapped up in his '04 run after Derby and Preakness wins, only to see him lose in the Belmont and break the hearts of thousands of suffering Philadelphia fans who had jumped on his bandwagon. What about '03 Derby and Preakness winner Funny Cide? And in '06 I think we all remember where we were when Derby winner and apparent triple crown shoo-in Barbaro injured his leg. But last year's big three races came and went without much fanfare, and without an overwhelming favorite to get casual race fans excited, this year looks like it will be no different.
Without the emergence of a super-horse leading up to the event, the first Saturday in May sort of snuck up on us this year. Here is a question: can any of you who is not either A) a serious horse racing aficionado, B) a degenerate gambler, or C) a little of both; name even two horses competing in this year's Derby? Are there any horses in the field that are poised to make a serious run at ending the longest triple crown drought in horse racing history? If so, I haven't heard anything about it. Granted, horse racing will probably never regain its popularity from decades ago, but is there any storyline that is going to end this sport's slow deterioration into obscurity?
Personally, I doubt it, but I would love to see it happen, because I would hate for what used to be one of the biggest days in sports to turn into just another excuse for people to dress like idiots, drink themselves retarded, and gamble away their mortgage payments. Everyone knows that kind of behavior is reserved for Saturdays and Sundays during the fall.
Friday, May 2, 2008
IS THE KENTUCKY DERBY STILL A BIG EVENT?
Posted at 8:16 AM ET
Similar Topics: Horse Racing, kentucky derby, WCT
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2 comment(s):
As someone intimately involved in the sport of kings, I think you are somewhat correct, but also missing out on some key points. Not only will the Derby and the Preakness have in excess of 100,000 people at each event, but the TV ratings will be better than many "popular" sporting events, such as the NBA Finals or Stanley Cup Finals. Racing is also relevant, if not covered well by the media, at certain niche tracks such as the Fair Grounds over the winter, where weekend crowds can be quite large. Tracks like Keeneland in Kentucky and Del Mar in California routinely draw tens of thousands on weekends, and Saratoga, even on weekdays, can draw 20-30 thousand out to the Spa in the summer.
The truth, though, is that horse racing has steadily lost relevance over the years, although it continues to hold a rather large and supportive core of fans not unlike the NHL. The single biggest issue facing the sport is the leadership, which has proven to be inept and nonexistent. Too many people in leadership positions in the sport get there because they are "good horsemen", but have little if any experience running a business. Recently, Magna Entertainment set a world record that will never be broken... they lost money on the slots machines they installed at their track! Even a low level Mafioso could figure out a way to turn a profit on a machine that collects money.
If the NTRA or some other body were to step up and take clear, decisive leadership in the sport, I think things could turn around eventually. There is too much in-fighting between the different tracks and the horsemen, and the result is everyone going for what is best for themselves instead of the sport. If the tracks stopped fighting each other and focused on things like creating a less degenerate, more fan friendly atmosphere, and did things like provide incentives for people to be part of ownership groups (which has grown dramatically in recent years and helps boost track attendance), I think horse racing could regain a footing in American sports outside of May. Will it ever be as popular as Football or Baseball? No, but it doesn't have to be to be successful.
Maybe I'm just an old soul, but boxing and horse racing still matter to me. Granted, neither sport is at the peak of it's popularity, but ESPN still broadcasts every big horse racing saturday throughout the year excluding the big four(NBC shows the derby and the preakness, ABC broadcasts the belmont and the breeders cup). There's talk for a solid week leading up to derby day as casual fans and seedy OTB regulars hitch their wagon to one 3year old's star. After that, there's buzz about whether the derby winner is a superhorse and triple crown fever takes hold. It's exciting and it's romanticized in a palatable way (unlike jim nantz gushing over Augusta national til you just wanna strike him in the throat).
As for boxing, the sweet science is on life support, but it's not dead. There needs to be more unity among sanctioning bodies, less corruption, and more star power in the heavywieght division. However, the De La Hoya/Mayweather fight broke Pay Per view records. It shows fight fans are still out there and willing to fork over big bucks!
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