100-Yard Dash for Weanlings

Breeding and raising Thoroughbreds requires such a large financial outlay that the industry has focused on ways to earn a quick return on investment - resulting in March 2-year-old races at some tracks, and bullet works at spring sales for the juveniles, many of which haven't yet reached their actual second birthday.

Well, why stop there?  How about a New Year's Eve race for yearlings? After all, they're almost two years old.... Think of all the publicity that horse racing would get, all the new eyes we'd draw to the sport. But gosh, let's not push them to run too far. After all, they're still young and growing. Maybe a half-furlong.  Or a full furlong for the ones that really need some time to hit their stride.  (We'll leave the 2-furlong races to the Quarter Horse crowd, no need to steal their signature distance.)

Okay, okay, that's all been bantered about before. But I have a killer new idea: weanling races. Think of the possibilities.  A whole new set of fans who come "to watch the babies run."  And it would allow nice-looking colts to go out and run a couple of years before retiring for stud duty at the conclusion of their 2-year-old year. Sure beats the current system where they're wasting their 3-year-old season on the track, running, when they could be getting a head start on covering mares.

Now, I'm not sure I'd support a "Race to the Mommies" for sucklings, where the mares are placed at the finish line for their foals to race towards.  Because that would just be foolish.