[Danzig]

Originally Posted by DaHoss9698

Anytime the best horses race against each other......it's a good thing. Everyone speculated what Rachel Alexandra could have done in the Derby, and thanks to Jess Jackson we got to see how good she really is. Nowadays connections duck running each other all year long and it's why we have paper champions.

I understand the sentiment of the original post. But, I also agree with the folks who say a triple crown will not be the saving grace for the sport that some think. While Rachel Alexandra's win yesterday eliminated a possible huge story going forward in 3 weeks at Belmont, it also created a huge story in it's own right. We got the 2 best (non injured) 3 year olds together, battling it out on the track. And they both ran big and it was a fantastic race. What more as fans....and bettors could we ask for?

People were interested in the Preakness going in and just as interested after the race. I also had non-racing fan friends calling me all week asking about the race. They had seen Borel on Leno, and heard about the jockey switches on ESPN, etc. After the race the calls came in also. People were excited about the race, and they wanted to talk about it. Somehow as a sport we need to try and capture what we saw yesterday and have it happen more often if this sport is going to move back into people's hearts. I don't know how we can do it, but keeping horse racing in the media will certainly help. And the way to keep it in the media is having the best horses racing against each other, which is what we had yesterday. Sorry for the novel.