Many cards we start at race 3 and we can see the first 2 if we have TV coverage. I have occassionally made changes with that option.

True, but hard to say there is a trend with just a couple of races whereas a trend becomes tough to deny after you see 7 or 8 races, but even then there will be horses that defy the trend or maybe they are those rare horses that can adapt or overcome the trend.

When you mentioned 40 years I had to navigate over to Equibase and look up my old friend Pass Catcher who might have been my first longshot winner. That Belmont was 51 years ago. My friend's dad, a trainman, got me a ticket from NYC OTB and after winning I had to take a train to the city and cash it at one of their facilities. That was in the days when the Jersey Derby was a prep or at least before the Belmont. Racing has changed a lot but never really changes. The challenge of picking the right horse is still the same and still exciting.

Actually, I just said 40 years off the top of my head. Might not have been possible to even place a bet from where I live on the Belmont 40 years ago. I think simulcasting started here sometime in the mid to late 1980s. It used to be that horse racing was here at Oaklawn for a few months and then gone and you didn't think about it again until it returned in the next year. As you said racing has really made a giant leap over the years, but I guess everything else has too with all our new fangled media most of which I can barely cope..:zz::wf:D

My progression of betting was an initial trip to Garden State Park before it burned down. Then drives to Monmouth, Aqueduct or Belmont since there were no OTB's yet. No Meadowlands yet either. My first phone account was from Autotote? Connecticut. Then NJ banned them. Phone accounts with Penn National and Woodbine until NJ banned them. Nothing legal for a few years after that until the introduction of the NJ monopoly NJBETS or TVG. I am not 100% sure but today there might be other options in New Jersey. It shows "where there's a will, there's a way". Now I rarely wager.

Progression to the present point that racing is in has not been all that smooth here in Arkansas either, but it seems to be in pretty great shape now with Oaklawn becoming a racing resort or racino. I guess all the ADW providers operate here. I've got Oaklawn's version called Oaklawn Anywhere that is I think, operated by Twin Spires and I have NYRA Bets and Xpressbet, but I too don't really bet that much. This is the Biblebelt, but the anti-gambling forces seem to have pretty much faded away in recent years maybe because of surrounding states becoming receptive to casino gambling. I think people become reluctant to see gambling or recreational dollars leaving the state.