Back when television was first becoming a necessity for the American family, horse racing was big. Stars like Native Dancer, Tom Fool, Swaps, Nashua, Round Table, and Bold Ruler, were well represented on TV, and they were well known in households across the nation. Horse racing was a natural for television. It is one of the rare sports where it is great to watch in person or on TV. Many sports are clearly better in person, and some are much better on the boob tube. Sure, I would rather be at the racetrack and see these beautiful animals in person, but watching a good horse race translates quite well on the television. There are simply facets of the race that can be seen better through the camera coverage that television provides. Additionally, races generally last two minutes or less, so the viewing audience is left with pure excitement over a short period of time. Unfortunately, for the sport of horse racing, quality television exposure has been on the decline ever since, thus rendering the Sport of Kings a second class citizen in America’s sporting landscape.
Whether we like it or not, television makes a sport big, or it makes a sport small, in the consciousness of the nation. For years now, the trend has been for TV to downgrade the importance of our beloved sport. Who is to blame? An easy answer would be television, for networks have continuously lessened the amount of quality racing that can be seen by a national audience. A more accurate answer however, would be horse racing. Television does not need to bend to the will of horse racing. It is clearly the other way around. TV is the thing that the American public can not do without, therefore racing needs to bend to the will of television. Currently horse racing is one of the absolute worst examples of a sport willing to make changes to fit into the needs of the mighty TV. This may sound harsh to some, but if we truly want our sport to become more healthy again, we have to start thinking outside the box, or should I say inside the box, the idiot box.
Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta offer horse racing a huge opportunity, but also a major responsibility. Possibly the two greatest female race horses ever to step on an American racetrack are contemporaries. All indications from their respective camps indicate that a match up will happen at least once. Forget about this race or that race, forget about Saturday afternoon. My humble advice for this sport, is to go to the television executives and tell them we have the biggest and best match-up in our sport in more than 30 years. Tell them that this race, or better yet, races, could appeal to sports fans and non-sports fans, it could appeal to viewers of all ages, it could appeal to women every bit as much as men, it could be the most exciting two minutes in sports. And most importantly tell them that we, as a sport, will do whatever necessary to make it the watched event that it should be. Be prepared to bend. Primetime on a Thursday night…do it. Each horse's preliminary races are shown during halftime of the NBA playoffs…do it. The big show will only last half an hour…do it. The race will be run immediately following NCIS…do it. You get the idea. Horse racing, let go of the old and embrace the new. Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta offer our sport an incredible opportunity to shine, the question is whether we will grab it or not.
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