Praying for Cash retired

Originally Posted by paisjpq

who cares about public perception? do you know anything about marketing joel...I'm certain that you do since you are an authority on every other aspect of horse racing...do you not think that those who market the game and attempt on a daily basis to bring in new fans care about the way catstrophic breakdowns are portayed in the media? Whatever the end result with cheap claimers you have got to have your head up your @ss if you don't think the front office cares about the difference between what happened to this horse (who sustained a survivable injury) and say, what happened to Go for Wand.
And without the influx of new fans and bettors (who will adapt to the surface) you will eventually have no breeding industry. So ye,s maintaining a favorable public image is paramount to the survival of the sport, and if that means poly track you should get used to it.

It's funny that you made my point exactly...yes, I have a marketing degree, actually, and I worked in the marketing dept. at Churchill Downs Inc. for a couple of years, and as a marketing guy I would say that making outcomes of races less predictable and more phony, building champions with inferior pedigrees that like to run on rubber, ruining the tradition of our game and the classic bloodlines, and running the core customer away by telling him that all of the handicappingt tools that he acquired over a lifetime ar now all irrelvant and you have to re-learn how to play this game - I would say those are MARKETING NIGHTMARES...

You made my point exactly...the game has traded a public image nightmare on one facet for 10 public image nightmares on other levels...