It is Now Post Time

I am frankly surprised that people are still talking about the demise of Eight Belles over a week after it happened. There were at least four articles in various newspapers across the country yesterday, including William Rhoden's in The New York Times, one of the veterans in the business. Rhoden's point, and I think it is well taken, is that horse racing has been too slow to embrace change and, as a result, finds itself stuck , as he puts it, "in perpetual post time."

For those of you who don't know, post time is when the horses begin to load into the gate--this kind of nebulous time zone between when the horses get ready to run and when the race actually starts. It is also the time when betting on the race about to be run officially stops. If you go to the track, the announcer usually makes a big deal out of announcing the countdown to the post ("Five minutes to post; two minutes to post,") to warn bettors not to be shut out. In addition the track program sometimes lists "post time" which is the official time of day each race is slated to be run. Racing is a very punctual sport and races are always run on time unless there is a dire catastrophe.

For Rhoden, to be stuck in perpetual post time means racing is stuck in another time, another place, even another century, resting on its laurels because the sport has no competition from within. And therein lies the problem. It is one thing to be a monopoly; it is another to lose sight of the rest of the field. "While the gaming industry was gaining by leaps and bounds in the 1990s, racing, fat from its profits, fell behind," says Rhoden.

He's got a point, and Doug Reed, director of the University of Arizona's race track industry program, agrees with him. "Tracks did not reinvest in themselves quickly or substantially enough to keep up with the times," says Reed. "The entertainment bar was raised, and we were too slow to react."

And too slow to establish itself as a "big time" sport by 1) naming a Commissioner to oversee all racetracks in all states and do away with different rules in different states and 2) tackle the problems of over breeding, over racing, use of drugs, non-uniform surfaces, head on. Think about it. These issues are, to a certain extent, the same ones that football, basketball and baseball have all dealt with or at least acknowledged. Racing somehow decided it was exempt from conducting itself like a professional sport, which means first taking care of its own.

For too long, things have been the way they have always been. But people are too informed these days to tolerate yesterday's news. And they are too socially conscious to tolerate yesterday's behaviors.

To be fair, the Jockey Club is waking up, albeit slowly, and sensing the natives are restless. They formed a seven member panel to study equine health and safety. But the Jockey Club needs to do more than talk and propose. They need to act--soon--ideally before the end of the Triple Crown while the world is still paying attention--and announce some concrete changes to the sport. They need to come into the 21st century quickly.

Othewise, we will all be shut out.