WhatIsHorseRacing

Horse racing in recent times has taken a backseat to some of the more heavily promoted sports such as football, basketball, and baseball. Except for the Kentucky Derby and to a lesser extent the Breeder’s Cup, the sport’s profile is relegated to the back pages of the newspapers and of people’s minds.

Horse racing was once one of the most popular sports in America, perhaps second only to baseball, which goes to show that the potential to captivate the imagination of the public is there, and no wonder, for people who follow this grand spectacle closely, there is no rush greater than watching the horse you have picked thunder down the stretch to just get up at the wire.

One of the main issues is that unlike other sports, a day at the races consists of eight to ten races with a half hour break in between. This interval exists to accommodate those who bet on the horses, and to give them time to study the racing form and make their decisions about who the probable winners are. Baseball, Basketball, and Football have non-stop continuous action which suits today’s attention span challenged populace.

These sports also require only a basic knowledge in order to enjoy them day in and day out, but the learning curve on horse racing is longer and the fan must commit himself to learning the game in order to fully appreciate it. Of course anyone can enjoy a day or two at the races with friends, where the fan simply picks a horse based on color, or name, or other factor that does not have anything to do with its chance of winning.

The Kentucky Derby enjoys tremendous popularity partly because most of the contenders are given high profile exposure in the days, weeks, and even months leading up to the race and the fans have time to form an opinion on each entrant and pick a favorite. The race may only last about two minutes, but they are called by many “the most exciting two minutes in sports”.

When a non horse racing fan is given a context for each race as well as information about each horse, the non horse racing fan suddenly turns into an avid racing fan. Horse racing suffers from lack of exposure and fan education, on which football, baseball, and basketball have spent hundreds of millions of dollars, but the truth is, horse racing is just as compelling and exciting as any of these sports if it were only marketed correctly.