A 2nd BC Day?

[Scav]

Originally Posted by oracle80

Scav,
I think its great that those days exist and have to respectfully disagree. Who is anyone to say that lower level trainers and owners and breeders who concentrate on state breds shouldn't have their day in the sun to try and make a score?
The purpose of these days is to promote breeding programs in states. When you toss out a bundle of cash to be given away on a given day, it gives people hope and ambition.
Starting a breeding farm requires tremendous capital and work and risk. If it weren't for these big pursed state bred showcase days, well who would bother? The Kentucky farms have a lotta cash behind them and will always putperform their fledgling rivals in the long run.
How do we get new blood in the sport if state bred breeding programs aren't instituted?
Maybe you find it terrible that WV breds can run for a lotta money one night, but all those trainers, owners and breeders who work their asses off all year long don't do it because they make a lot of money or have Derby or Breeders Cup dreams. These are hardworking folks who work under less than stellar conditions and who dream of making ends meet and pursuing what they love, not of getting rich and getting roses placed on their horses.
What exactly is the matter with the "have nots" getting a day to race for big money and a state trying to promote an industry within their confines that brings millions of dollars in state revenue and commerce and provides jobs for thousands of people? How does that adversely affect racing?

While WV is an example, I disagree how they run it. Those horses wouldn't win races at any other circuit, they would struggle to be claiming 20k in Illinois. Throw 500k at them, I could agree with 75k or 100k like Illinois does, but 500k, come on, that 400k could be used for backstretch improvement, or for ALL purses

I am telling you, if you put a league together, where stakes races are planned out throughout the year(3 stakes races this weekend for 3 year old turf, even you said it makes ZERO sense and hurts the fields), the marketing dollars would be there, and that ultimately is what makes a sport go now days.

This year is going to be really interesting to see what the BC gets as far as ratings. But this sport could be marketed like the NFL, where BC Day is like the Super Bowl and the last two months were the 'playoffs' and earlier in the year is the regular season. The problem is that you have tracks that are ultimately in competition against each other, instead of with each other. Imagine if you could devise a purse structure where it increased throughout the year in importance, and make it where you have to run in these races to qualify later on (like the Kentucky Derby with earnings). You get hurt oh well, there is next year, just like the NFL.

With the correct structure and tuned marketing, horse racing would be the 2nd watched sport in the world, it has a worldwide presence, females take interest to it as a sport, and guys love to gamble.....The problem is that their is just too much money up for grabs given the many industries that feed off of racing and you don't have a 'strong' ruler of the industry (NFL Commish for example)