The Outlaw Blog

In the United States, the three races that compose the Triple Crown are:

1. Kentucky Derby, run over 1-1/4 miles (2.01 km) dirt track at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky;
2. Preakness Stakes, run over 1-3/16 miles (1.91 km) dirt track at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland;
3. Belmont Stakes, run over 1-1/2 miles (2.41 km), the longest dirt track in thoroughbred racing, at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York.

It has been 34 years since a horse won the U.S Triple Crown (Affirmed in 1978)

The competitive racing of horses is one of humankind’s most ancient sports, having its origins among the prehistoric nomadic tribesmen of Central Asia who first domesticated the horse about 4500 BC. For thousands of years, horse racing flourished as the sport of kings and the nobility. Modern racing, however, exists primarily because it is a major venue for legalized gambling.

Horse racing is the second most widely attended U.S. spectator sport, after baseball. In 1989, 56,194,565 people attended 8,004 days of racing, wagering $9.14 billion. Horse racing is also a major professional sport in Canada, Great Britain, Ireland, Western Europe, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and South America.

In the early 1900s, however, racing in the United States was almost wiped out by antigambling sentiment that led almost all states to ban bookmaking. By 1908 the number of tracks had plummeted to just 25. That same year, however, the introduction of pari-mutuel betting for the Kentucky Derby signaled a turnaround for the sport. More tracks opened as many state legislatures agreed to legalize pari-mutuel betting in exchange for a share of the money wagered. At the end of World War I, prosperity and great horses like Man o’ War brought spectators flocking to racetracks. The sport prospered until World War II, declined in popularity during the 1950s and 1960s, then enjoyed a resurgence in the 1970s triggered by the immense popularity of great horses such as Secretariat, Seattle Slew, and Affirmed, each winners of the American Triple Crown–the KENTUCKY DERBY, the Preakness, and the Belmont Stakes. During the late 1980s, another significant decline occurred.

All betting at American tracks today is done under the pari-mutuel wagering system, which was developed by a Frenchman named Pierre Oller in the late 19th century. Under this system, a fixed percentage (14 percent-25 percent) of the total amount wagered is taken out for track operating expenses, racing purses, and state and local taxes. The remaining sum is divided by the number of individual wagers to determine the payoff, or return on each bet. The projected payoff, or “odds,” are continuously calculated by the track’s computers and posted on the track odds board during the betting period before each race. Odds of “2-1,” for example, mean that the bettor will receive $2 profit for every $1 wagered if his or her horse wins.

At all tracks, bettors may wager on a horse to win (finish first), place (finish first or second), or show (finish first, second, or third). Other popular wagers are the daily double (picking the winners of two consecutive races), exactas (picking the first and second horses in order), quinellas (picking the first and second horses in either order), and the pick six (picking the winners of six consecutive races).

STERIODS AND HORSE RACING:

Steroids are legal in 28 of the 38 states where horse racing is held, including the three states holding Triple Crown races, and their use is prevalent. Before banning the drugs in Pennsylvania, racing officials there tested 998 horses and found that 61.7 percent were positive for steroids and 17.3 percent had been treated with two steroids or more.

Until this year, Iowa was the only state that banned steroid use in racehorses.

IS HORSE RACING RIGGED?

Can you really prove a horse race is rigged is the question that should be really asked. Racing has long suffered from a perception that where there’s brass, there’s muck, and the history of the Turf has many chapters that illustrate its vulnerability to turpitude. In 1844 the Derby itself was won by a “ringer” – an older, stronger horse running in a race confined to three-year-olds – while a disgraced former jockey, Dermot Browne, claims to have doped 23 horses in two months in 1990.

But it would be wrong to assume that the sport is endemically corrupt. Race-fixing in its baldest terms is impractical. Horses are too unpredictable. Corruption tends to concern a specific runner, and racecourse stewards always look out for horses that start slowly and do not appear to be ridden very earnestly in the finish.

CAN HORSE RACING SURVIVE IN AMERICA?

The one form of gambling that hasn’t increased revenue over the decade is horse racing. Las Vegas horse racing revenue has declined 30 percent. Horse racing has been on the decline for some time in America many of the tracks have added casinos to supplement the revenues made from horse wagering.

The most popular race is the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs Track.

WHAT IS THE FUTURE OF HORSE RACING IN AMERICA?

All across the continent, from Ontario to Kentucky, from Maryland to California, the industry and the sport are under siege. From venal legislators, who have raided gaming coffers to cover their own budgetary failures. From the politically connected gaming industry, which sees horse racing as a mere nuisance. From underfunded and lazy regulators, who are more concerned about securing their own patronage than they are about enforcing the rules. And from cheating owners, trainers, jockeys, and drivers, who are laughing at the rest of us as they deposit their ill-gotten gains.

The problem is too few racing fans, bettors, owners, and investors in the sport. The problem is lax regulatory oversight. The problem is the lack of cohesive, central leadership. The problem is lack of lobbying power. The problem is poor marketing. The problem is that no one outside of horse racing remembers who won the Kentucky Derby five years ago. But everyone, everywhere, remembers the ill-fated Barbaro, the heroic colt, who surely (we’d all like to think) would have won the Triple Crown in 2006 had he not been gravely injured at the start of the Preakness Stakes.

But even Barbaro’s Triple Crown win in 2006 would not likely have turned the tide. The problem, then and now, is bigger than any one race or any Triple Crown horse. It’s a foundational problem and a personnel issue. The people who have led the industry to the brink of irrelevance are the same ones who say today that we should trust them to shape the sport’s future.