JC / Railbird

The Sheer Magnitude

From Part 2 of the Thoroughbred Times’ interview with Breeders’ Cup consultant William Field:

“I knew that American horse racing had to work in a complex, often out-dated, multi-jurisdictional legal environment. I knew there were a number of different industry bodies, with seemingly overlapping remits. I knew there were many tracks, quite a few of which ran low-quality, sub-scale race days in front of very few fans. But what I didn’t appreciate when I started this was the sheer magnitude of these factors. So, put simply, the sport is even more fragmented than I expected.”

(Part 1 of the interview with Field.)

An observation by Secretary Crickmore, of the Monmouth Park Association, as related by the Thoroughbred Record of April 29, 1893:

There is too little system and method in the conduct of American race tracks.


1 Comment

Mr. Field’s response:

The consensus of the board was that the U.S. industry’s debate over surfaces may take years to be finally resolved

If these people do not understand that the specific racing surface is the whole ballgame by now, there is now hope for the future of the Breeders Cup as an American Championship racing event.

Posted by The_Knight_Sky racing blog on March 18, 2010 @ 12:01 pm