MacGregor should stick to the WNBA and soccer on which ESPN is spending millions trying to make them popular sports in the US.

Personally, I think that anyone who thought that was the dullest great race in history isn’t a racing fan. But then – I’m a racing fan first and a gambler later and I’m not a journalist employed by an outfit that presents more, “other sports,” than racing. Sometimes I think that the biggest problem we face nowadays is that the “fans” aren’t really horse-racing enthusiasts or even, “horsey,” people. Too many of ‘em are just gamblers who don’t care what they wager on. I don’t know how to change that but I do think we as humans lose out when we no longer connect with the living things of this world. No, I’m not waxing poetic. I just think horses please me more than slots or roulette wheels!

 Amen, Convene!!!  Personally, I don’t want to lose thoroughbreds as a breed and if they are to do what they are bred to do, they race.  In my own personal Utopia, they are all cared for as they do it, to the best of humans’ abilities and when they are done doing it they are not disposable trash sent off to the tortuous, inhumane killers. 

Same-same, if I want to gamble I’ll play slots, poker, blackjack, baccarat, or roulette.  But, I don’t care if others want to bet on horses, as long as they don’t ruin lives, either theirs or the horses’. 

WOW….thats about all I can say.  I think what Mr. MacGregor should have also included in his peice is the zombie like state of main stream media covering the sport.  If sports editors actually went about including a racing beat writer like in other sports, and had them delve into the sport the way a Bill Nack or even Paul Moran or Bill Finley did when they worked for the papers in NY, then people might actually pay attention.  I also find it kind of hard to beleive that 85,000+ fans that packed Belmont Yesterday were there solely because they wanted to see “the dullest great race in history”. 
It is still just so sad all reporters care about these days is the negative, and that is just a function of life.  How many actual feel good stories or flat out good news does anyone read about or watch on the news anymore??  Thats right…none.  Start focusing on the good, and not the bad. 
Mr. Drape, maybe instead of looking at just cold hard facts your are twisting to make your point, how bout doing a couple of front page write ups on the love these backstretch workers and trainers and jockeys and vets and everyone have for their horses.  How hey are treated like their children (and in a lot of ways better).  I used to ride around the backside of Belmont and Aqueduct when I was volunteering with a vet before getting to vet school.  One of my best friends used to be a trainer on the NJ circuit.  Were there bad people there?  Yes.  Were there people there who probably did not do the best by the horse?  Yes.  What percentage of people was this?  Maybe 1% if that.  The other 99% who basically give up their livelihood for these animals is what the sport needs to focus on.  The stories of survival.  The stories of the care that goes into these animals.  The stories of how some will give their horses round the clock care, sacrificing their own health to make sure their horses are ok. 
Yes…Mr Drape and all the other haters out there…that is what you also need to focus on.

Dull? I guess I’m just easily amused; but then, I play with children, race pigeons, and garden in my spare time.  Admittedly, horses do have an inexplicable beauty that makes any group of them a beauty pageant as I run the back roads through the horse country of the Nashville Basin while I train my race birds.  Once, I found a small herd of belgian mares about five miles northwest of Milky Way Farms, Gallahadions home base and yes, that was a beauty pageant too. Nope! I don’t even have a TV ; I see no point to the ugly pageant.

MacGregor is obviously ignorant of the purpose of competition throughout the year as a tool to define great horses and their strengths and limitiations. It would behoove ESPN directors to make certain their employees know at least something about the subject they on which they report. Superficial knowledge is not enough.

Reardon: Who’s MacGregor? Guessing he sweeps up in Bristol.

Bryan,
I read all your posts- (that was the only time I ever heard you use the term;)
it was a knee-jerk reaction-not to you specifically
but to all the recent posters
who seem to revel in it’s use.
There is a high degree of contagiousness at PR.