Truth in Advertising

[richiebee]

Yesterday while watching the Fair Grounds in house TV feed courtesy of NYC OTB,
I saw, out of the corner of my eye, a wonderful commercial for HRTV.

It showed first a field of turkeys racing into the turn; the next image was of
a bunch of piglets loaded into and breaking out of a starting gate.

The tag line for the commercial was something like \"What kind of Racing are YOU
watching?\"...a poke, I would imagine, at the quality of racing shown on TVG.

BRILLIANT!!!

[NoCarolinaTony]

Well....Guess TVG gets to turn the Tables from April till November......


NC Tony

[richiebee]

Don Antonio:

Will TVG have Keeneland Spring and Fall?

They will NOT have Churchill, Arlington and the track the OTB alta kokers call
\"Caldor\"?

Will they have Del Mar?

Will they have Monmouth?

Yes they will have Belmont and Saratoga, which unless they bring in new
shooters and kick the NY Bred Greeders out will feature 5-1/2 and 6 furlong
turf sprints ad infinitum.

The word I use to describe the landscape of Racing account wagering and TV
coverage is \"Gerrymandered\". The pie was not sliced up neatly (think Hyman
Roth\'s birthday cake); Racing has tried to slice a pizza pie with a butter
knife.

Is American Racing not a viable enough sport that it should have its own cable
presence? There is a \"Tennis Channel\". There is a \"Golf Channel\" (even though
a recent article I read points out that the number of rounds of Golf played in
the US is decreasing, and that the people who operate Golf facilities and
manufacture golf equipment are alarmed).

Racing needs a Racing Channel (\"RC\"). The RC would have nothing to do with
account wagering. The purposes of the RC would be the following (A)Covering
live racing at the major venues and some minor ones (this might take more than
one channel);(B)Covering Racing \"News\";(C)Producing and telecasting Racing
features, ie profiling horse and horsepeople past and present; (D)special
programming leading up to big events like the Triple Crown races, the BC and
the Dubai World Cup; (E)show the occasional racing themed movie (Richiebee\'s
favorite racing themed flick: \"Pope of Greenwich Vilage\"); (F) coverage of
important auctions;(G) features on handicapping-- how about a regular weekly
spot for TGJB/TGAB?. Enough already-- as you all know too well, I am full
of...ideas.

Someone out there right now is saying that Racing is not popular enough to
support all of this programming. That is just the point: If you can give Racing
a serious TV presence, we can bring in some new shooters and increase the
visibility, viability, accessibility and popularity of Racing.

[marcus]

so tvg is back in nyc ?

[NoCarolinaTony]

I\'d prefer to have the Racing Channel but Nascar already covered that/perhaps they can split the bill so to speak have a nascar/Auto/Horse racing channel to subsidize. Lord Knows that the boring Poker crap is fizzling out.

Anyway-TVG HAS KEE-SAR_MTH_DMR-BEL-KEE_Oak Tree, so from this point forward they have some good stuff to work with. They suffer mightily in the winter.

Maybe this new combined Racing channel can include the Charles-town Races on the channel at night so those Narcar fans can see some bumping and grinding. the could even add head on cams,jockey helmet cams, and even under the horse cams, to get up close and personal.

I am not so sure how much longer Magna will be around, unless we all buy up those penny share\'s, I think the clock is ticking on that time bomb.

It\'s amazing to me how much luster racing has lost over the years. The kids today have little or no interest, unless you have a Barbaro type story. Racing needs a hero. Racing needs a real Leader, someone who can change the current paradigm. The problem I see is this, even if things all changed for the \"bettor\" or \"Better\"- I am not sure there are enough out there who care.

Racing at this time could benefit from a reduction in the number of facilities, improve many of those that remain to be completely modernized including all new technologies. For all of those folks who still want to hang on to the tradition etc, when you all die off, and what is left behind are historical venues that the next generation could care less about! And if that is true,then what good did it do to preserve the history for a generation that really won\'t care.

NC Tony

[richiebee]

NC:

Leave it to a (transplanted)son of the South to infuse NASCAR into the equation.

I am glad to hear that TVG will carry Keeneland and Oak Tree; this may revive
Living Room Downs as a viable den of depravity for the next few months.

The only equine racing hero that would have any impact right now might be a
Triple Crown Winner, or at least a runner with a chance at winning the TC in
the Belmont. With all due respect to Barbaro, Smarty Jones generated a great
deal of interest without suffering a catastrophic injury. Equally sadly, many
casual fans and new fans who joined the Smarty party were lost for good after
SJ\'s early retirement.

I think Racing needs a human hero now. It\'s not Frank Stronach.

Racing\'s survival depends on a man who has virtually unlimited resources and
no shareholders.

A man who has more \"vision\" when blindfolded than Frank Stronach has when
looking througn a telescope.

Tony great points about the future of horse racing. The whales may be able to
keep racing propped up for a while, but the fewer people going to the racetrack,
I think the fewer young people being brought to the tracks by adults. The
portals through which new fans and supporters enter the game are closing, and
you can include among these portals OTB in NYC.

I absolutely went to the track my first time because of my parents. They both
forbade me to go near the racetrack; the first weekend I had my driver\'s
license I drove from SI to Monticello.

[fkach]

NCT,

IMO, the economics and organization of racing are so beyond preposterous it\'s mind boggling.

The gambling pie in racing is \"X\".

If we closed 90% of the tracks, I\'d be willing to bet that \"X\" would not shrink that much in an era of Internet betting, simulcasting etc... However, the profits, quality of racing, quality of the facilities, purses etc... would soar even if they lowered the take sharply because the costs would be massively lower per dollar of handle. Lots of people that are getting buried now betting, via ownership, training etc... would all start making money.  

Of course a lot of jobs in racing would be lost, but this is America for crying out loud. Industries restructure all the time. It\'s part of the process of improving the quality of goods and services, eliminating inefficiencies, improving standards of living, using resources effectively etc...

All that land (and perhaps even some of the facilities) would simply be used for other things. So other jobs would be created even if there was a net loss of jobs to racing.

I\'m sure all the brain dead politicians (and those that would put political self interest ahead of what\'s right) would be tough to sway, but I\'m also sure something reasonable could be worked out between states etc....

Unfortunately I really don\'t even see much of an acknowledgment within the industry that it has to shrink massively.