Troy Levy, CEO and president of Tropical Racing as well as a co-founder of the Game of Silks racing game, recently thought about a new approach to ownership. While he acknowledged this approach may be a bit out on a limb, he believes some version of this approach could help bring more owners to the sport.
His idea follows.
A friend recently asked me what would be the first three moves I would make if I was granted the mythical title of racing commissioner. It wasn’t a question that I was truly prepared for but I did offer what popped into my head, though it felt like an incomplete answer. I haven’t stopped thinking about that question and after a few days of contemplation, it was another inquiry about the general media and its dim view on horse racing that brought some clarity to my mind as to what a racing commissioner should be focusing on.
Mainstream sports have worked tirelessly to create competitive balance throughout their leagues that give every team a reasonable chance to win. They have instituted drafts where teams with the worst records get to select the best young players to join their franchises in an effort to boost their fortunes. They have salary caps with drastic penalties that curb big market teams from simply outspending their smaller market competition, without paying a huge financial penalty. There is a restriction on roster sizes and minor league teams so that the richer teams can’t use their money to build a bigger talent factory than the others. National television and merchandising revenue is split equally among all the teams so when the league does well, everyone shares in the spoils—even the teams that aren’t at the top of the standings at the time.
Now compare that to racing.
We have “super trainers” and “mega owners” and a system that encourages gluttony, allowing the conglomerates to dominate unfettered while offering little to the smaller outfits whose hills seemingly get steeper to climb. As even the medium-sized barns are rendered unable to compete at the top of the sport on a regular basis, the same names are in lights as super trainers and their benefactors win and win and win. The constant drumbeat from what limited racing media is left extols the virtues of these Goliaths, doing little to quell the distaste that the ‘other participants’ of the game feel. It’s unfortunate that those who aren’t billionaires or funded by the like, have been reduced to being mere peasants for constantly feeling like they are being served up as fodder.
Racing has not made any attempts at competitive balance. Instead tracks have ignored age-old rules about trainers’ stall allotments, the bloodstock industry and its salesmen have glorified partnerships among those who least need them, and the top of the game is not pulling the rest up. We have no drafts, no salary caps, no revenue sharing, and as such, the game is shrinking with fewer owners and fewer foals. Our footprint is getting smaller with fewer tracks and no racing at all in many major metropolitan areas and the betting public has exited as well as sports betting expands and expands.
The game of horse racing has always been bigger than any of the individuals in it. A real commissioner would need to address the above realities that have led to what we have become, an increasingly elitist sport where only a handful need bother showing up, played out in front of mostly empty grandstands.
