Finley @ ESPN: Good times are over

[King Glorious]

Originally Posted by Cannon Shell

How? There have been lots of tracks that have closed in the last 15-20 years, Atlantic City, Hialeah, Longacres, Sportsmans, Rockingham, Garden State, Bowie...how did those track closing make things better?

The idea that reducing exposure in large metropolitan area's is going to lead to an expansion in the sport's fan/gambler base is a dubious one.

It might be and I don't profess to KNOW that reducing racing will work but I have a feeling that it would. Of course, that alone won't do it but in conjunction with a few other ideas, I think it would really help. I look out there and it just seems there is so much bad product. There's an over-saturation going on. I think that reducing the number of opportunities out there would go a long way in increasing the quality of what we do see, a sort of "only the strong survive" kind of result. Setting up a national schedule would also help. There has to be a way of getting racing to be an event again, something that people look forward too and not just another day, where, other than the stakes race you might get on a Saturday or Sunday, all of the days and races just seem to blend into each other.

I look at this past weekend of racing and this one coming up. At Santa Anita, you had the San Antonio and the Strub. There's no longer a need for both. This weekend brings the La Canada and the Santa Maria, with several cross-entered and the result will be two weaker races when it could have been one strong one. You've got top California 2yo Comma To the Top running at Golden Gate instead of at SA against Tapizar and other in the Lewis. If GG weren't in existence anymore, that option wouldn't be there. Take away Sunland so that their slot subsidized Derby wouldn't take potential competitors away from SA also. Twenty years ago, Lookin at Lucky would have returned from the Preakness in either the Jim Dandy or Haskell as a prep for the Travers. Now they've got races like the WV Derby and the Indiana Derby and the Penn Derby and as a result, top competition keeps getting spread out and the quality of the races is weaker.

I do realize that from your perspective and others that actually make a living in the business, the prospect of closing tracks and reducing racing, going to a less is more way of operating, would have a negative impact. I get that and I feel for those that it would affect. At the same time, as a fan, I want to see the best possible product and the current way of doing things seems to be going in the opposite direction of putting out the best product.

I don't know if this analogy is right for this conversation but imagine if major league baseball said they were going to contract and get rid of the White Sox, Angels, Mets, and A's..........and all of their players would go to the Cubs, Dodgers, Yankees, and Giants, respectively. A lot of players would lose their jobs but the resulting teams would be better. If at the same time, they got rid of the Expos, Marlins, Rays, Royals, Pirates, and Brewers and all of their players went to existing teams, I can't help but think that the quality of the game would improve. We see how bad some of those fourth and fifth starters are on some of the teams now. There are plenty of guys that have jobs now that honestly don't need them and only have them because there are so many spots. Sort of like how we have so many horses that become graded stakes winners simply because someone has to win the races.