Andre Agassi is the perfect poster boy for image trumping
reality. He was the rock star of tennis
from the moment he set foot on the court in 1986, but he didn't win his first
Grand Slam event until 1992. Anna
Kournikova might be example #2 as she did the same thing in 1999, being the #1
searched item on Google, but only reaching #12 as a singles player that year. These were the faces of tennis, but weren't
the champions of the sport.
There will always be a disconnect between what people
perceive and what is the truth.
Sometimes it doesn't really matter as in the above tennis example. However, it's not always as benign. The most recent examples are Sara Palin who
was portrayed in a not so flattering light on Saturday Night Live or the
American car industry fighting
its own image.
It is image that is holding back horse racing. First, the exceptions that proves the
rule: What is the image of horse racing
at Keeneland, Del
Mar, and Saratoga? For Keeneland horse racing is
a way of life. At Del Mar
horse racing is stars and glamour.
At Saratoga
racing is history and a backyard setting.
The images of those individual tracks out weigh the negatives associated
with our sport on a national level. Admittedly,
those tracks are successful for many reasons, but the foundation for all their
success is that beginning perception. A quick example would be Keeneland last year
when Teuflesberg brok both seasmoids in the Phoenix and Dream of Angels flipped in the
paddock and was euthanized. Both events
were on national TV and happened within an hour of each other. What controversy did it create? Now imagine
the outcry had they occurred at Aqueduct or Hawthorne?
What are the images of those tracks?
No, don't answer that.
Las Vegas
is the home of legalized gambling. If an
alien landed and watched TV they'd never know that to be the case. Las
Vegas on TV is sunshine, vacation, excitement, and
freedom. When you arrive in Las Vegas they stop
selling that and switch to selling the casinos:
"Loosest slots in Town" "Poker Tourneys every Hour" "Free Million Dollar Pull." The NFL publishes enough information to choke
a donkey on injuries, and updates them daily even for the third string TE. However, ask anyone in the NFL to talk about
the bad call in the Pitt/SD game when it comes to the spread and they'll look
at you like you're the alien; what's a spread?
When Barbaro and Eight Belles broke down people didn't
suddenly realize that horses broke down because of quirky surfaces or because
of an overuse of drugs. (Personal note:
I don't believe either were the cause).
That image was already out there in small pockets and when those events
occurred those thoughts became mainstream, and "fact." Going back to the Sara Palin example, some
people thought she was "colloquial" only to have SNL hammer that point,
negatively, home. SNL didn't create that
idea, it just pushed it, and it became factual.
The image of horse racing is gambling. And, gambling doesn't sell in this
country. Thank the Puritans for
that. People will protest a new track or
racino coming to their town because gambling is bad. However, these SAME people will participate
in a fantasy football league for $200, will put $100 into a NCAA bracket pool,
or go to bingo on Friday night. Are they
hypocrites? I really don't think
so. The images of all of those sports
outweigh their negative aspects. Those
people are just participating in something bigger than gambling.
Racing should continue with efforts like the Safety and
Integrity Alliance, but do more to get the message out that horse racing is NOT
gambling. Horse racing is a sport, business,
lifestyle, outdoor activity, safety conscience, livelihood, green spaces and oh yeah you can gamble on it too.
