Alive and kicking
Call the racing industry whatever you want, but please stop using the "D" word: dead.
Last Wednesday, 44,907 people showed up at Del Mar for opening day, more than came to see Cigar attempt to break Citation's all-time record for consecutive wins back in 1996. It was the largest crowd in track history, a track that seems today only to be maligned for its artificial surface from outside critics, but somehow $18.5 million swam its way into the wagering pools for the first Saturday of the summer season.
Meanwhile, 25,444 piled into Saratoga on Wednesday of this week to usher in opening day of New York's grandest race meeting and more than $13 million was bet on a weekday card that lacked any known superstar billing (though the 2-year-old filly Hot Dixie Chick tossed her name in the discussion). Earlier this summer, more than 89,000 people partied throughout Churchill Downs on a three-night experiment with night racing filled with blue-collar horses.
And, let's get ready for this Sunday's Haskell at Monmouth Park to bust the turnstiles, too. Last year, 45,000 turned out for Big Brown, and this weekend Rachel Alexandra and company should lure that and more. The all-time Monmouth mark of 53,000-plus (to see the wildly popular Derby winner Funny Cide) might be in jeopardy.
And these few examples are not unique.
Keeneland's 2009 spring meet opening day lured 30,500, which marked the fifth-largest crowd in the track's 73-year existence. The track's two most-attended fall meetings ever have come in the past two years, 2007 and 2008. Its upcoming October stand figures to push those totals, too. Heck, the 2009 Belmont Stakes lured 52,861 fans with no buzz, no Triple Crown at stake and for no better reason than people must seem to like to come out to the races. When Spectacular Bid gunned for the 1979 Triple Crown, fresh off Triple Crown scores by Seattle Slew and Affirmed, the crowd measured only slightly better with 59,073 at Belmont.
No, the "D" word is off base, but the "E" word is spot-on: event.
We live in an event-driven society, where everyone is so busy in the day-to-day that the blasé everyday occurrences get completely lost in the shuffle. No one in 2009 can be expected to be interested in anything on a daily basis, much less a few times weekly. Society yearns for that something different to escape from reality, because, well, reality sucks right now. Look around you; there's negativity in the air everywhere from unemployment to politics and healthcare to who killed the King of Pop.
So why on earth would people be interested in a losing game, which, betting the horses on a regular basis simply is? That's not a knock; it's math (99 percent of horseplayers can't beat the takeout, and the other 1 percent likes to lie about how sharp they are). It's a wonderful recreation, but an overly expensive vocation. And in a society that has less cash now than most of us have seen in our adult lifetimes, betting the horses on a daily basis has further become mission impossible. Truth is people en masse aren't interested in, and not capable of, betting the horses on a daily basis. But that does not mean they can't and won't enjoy the "show" when there's a real show to be put on. That can be a once-a-summer spectacle like the Haskell, a cool and hip party scene, or an opening of a long-awaited racing meet after its been out of town for 9-10 months.
What we've seen in 2009 cries out just how wonderful the game of horse racing can be. It is a great time. For my dollar, the best time you could possibly spend on a day or night's entertainment. But it's been that way for me and my family for as long as I could roll up a program and smack my hip while running down the track apron. Not everyone has been indoctrinated that way, and quite frankly, it's unrealistic to think any promotion or public relations campaign can take the place of a family or friend spending thousands of hours together developing a love of a game.
But the love of a big event already exists amongst society at large, and that's what needs to be capitalized on. If we've learned anything at all this year, that should be 100-point font obvious.
This Weekend's Spectacles
What more can you ask for as a racing fan or casual visitor than the first weekend of Saratoga? And to the core racing fan, Saratoga might be fourth-fiddle this weekend when Rachel Alexandra's Haskell appearance at Monmouth takes center stage, where she joins Belmont winner Summer Bird in the gate; Derby champ Mine That Bird's West Virginia Derby reappearance at Mountaineer shares the marquee; and Dubai World Cup dominator Well Armed returns stateside in Del Mar's San Diego Handicap.
All three star attractions will be short-priced favorites in their respective races, but all three face significant challenges. The public flocks to greatness, so victories by all three are what's best for their long-term wattage as recognizable stars. It's amazing what a few losses or off performances will do to a roll of public momentum in any sport. You don't hear much any more about David Beckham resurrecting soccer in the United States. After all, the New York Times described Beckham's return earlier this month as a "thin crowd of 23,238."
The older horse Well Armed aside, the biggest benefactor from a positive bounce this weekend could be the Travers at Saratoga next month. But that's a tedious position if, say, Munnings was to run off with the Haskell and Big Drama skip along too loose to catch in the West Virginia Derby. Both scenarios are quite plausible, and both would really stick a dagger in the public's sense of "need to be there" for the Travers. If Rachel Alexandra were to lose Sunday, it would be almost certain that she'd return to facing fillies and mares. A loss by Mine That Bird would not decimate all of his underdog affection, though surely he would start to fall into that abyss of one-hit Derby winners who become the subject of naysayers, rightly or wrongly.
It takes a huge event to move the needle in horse racing, something different -- something more than just the appearance of one great horse. Here's hoping we see colossal performances by Rachel Alexandra, Summer Bird and Mine That Bird this weekend. If we do, there's a real chance to catch lightning in a bottle come August at Saratoga. But first things first, they have to be locked and loaded for extremely difficult challenges this weekend.
If that happens, E-mail me around Aug. 29 and remind me again how dead you think horse racing has become.
Jeremy Plonk has been an ESPN.com contributor since 2000 and is the managing partner of the handicapping website Horseplayerpro.com. You can E-mail Jeremy about this topic or anything racing-related at Jeremy@Horseplayerpro.com.
