Is Horse Racing on Its Last Legs? – ‘Misleading And Inaccurate Critique’: HISA Chairman Strikes Back At Churchill Downs CEO

So obviously gambling is an integral part of the sport. It always has been. And now that sports betting is legal in so many states, you know, people can get to it right on their phones. How has that changed the dynamic of how this whole sport operates?

Katie Bo Lillis

00:14:38

‘It has shrunk the pie. You and I are talking about welfare as this kind of existential issue for the sport, but the bigger issue is actually just that people have more options for gambling and they are gambling less and less on racing. And people gambling on racing, racing used to have a monopoly on legalized gambling in the United States that obviously has changed and racetracks are really struggling. And this has a huge welfare component because… You know, the thing you really have to understand about racing is that racetracks are in the gambling business. They’re not in the horse business. The racetrack makes its money by withholding a percentage of all the dollars wagered on its races. And in what’s called paramutual wagering, which is what horse racing wagering is, gamblers bet against each other. They don’t bet against the house. So the more people gamble, the more money the track makes. They don’ care who wins or loses. That doesn’t matter for them. So for the racetrack they wanna get as many horses to run in each race as possible because that’s the gambling product that makes them the most money. So that means in practical terms that the racetracks often put pressure on trainers to run horses who maybe shouldn’t be running. And that also contributes to the breakdown issue. It’s part of the incentive for using all of these therapeutic medications. So, I think one of the really misunderstood things about horse racing is people tend to think, oh, well, these terrible trainers just want to run their horses in lots of races and make lots of money, but they are in fact operating in a system that is a lot bigger than them. And one thing that I also think is really important to remember is that racing creates a lot of jobs beyond just, it’s not just like the guy training the horse. Like, it takes an enormous amount of labor to take care of these horses on a day-to-day basis. So you have. The barn staff, you have grooms, then you have the trainers, then you the jockeys, and then there’s obviously the owners who own these horses. But there’s also the hay farmer who is growing hay so that these horses have something to eat, or the feed man who is selling bags of sweet feed. So horse racing generates an enormous number of agricultural jobs and economic impact beyond just the guy training the horse.