Help Wanted

John Pricci, over at MSNBC.com, has written a brilliant commentary on the state of thoroughbred racing and included suggestions on how to save the sport. For starters he invites all the powers that be to convene at Saratoga this summer for the Travers and then lock thmeselves into the Gideon Putnam Hotel Conference Center until they create a National Racing Commission to oversee the sport.

He even has suggestions for the person to lead this Commission--"figureheads need not apply"--someone from outside the industry who is smart and knows the sport but has no vested interest in it. "Bill Clinton needs a job," he writes.

He may have intended that suggestion as tongue in cheek, but in my opinion it is nothing short of brilliant. Bill Clinton's beloved mother used to love to play the ponies so he has secondhand knowledge and interest in the sport. And there is no one better at the art of spin--which is exactly what the sport needs. A little glamour. A lot of charisma and some feel good stories to counteract all the dark scenarios that have graced the front pages of late.

Short of Bill Clinton, we need a celebrity with brains. Bo Derek loves horses. So do William Shatner and Willie Nelson. Not that I'm advocating any of them but we need to concentrate on the glory days of the sport and make a concerted effort not to return to those "thrilling days of yesteryear" but to bring those memories into the twenty first century.

I wonder if anyone is listening. I wonder if anyone can see beyond their own greed to care. I wonder if the sport will continue to spin on its axis until it spins itself into oblivion and takes with it all those people who do earn their livings on the backs of the sport.

I wonder if they should put a help wanted sign on Craigs List and see who applies...