Quote:
Originally Posted by judehaz
I may have Empire State-tinted glasses, but I feel confident that NY, KY and CA racing will be just fine regardless of the future of the sport. NYRA really seems to have the business model down 90% of the time. I wonder if this is a temporary aberration rather than a harbinger for things to come.
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I'm of the opinion that contraction of the game reflects the "discretionary" money available in the economy. In other words, how much money is available for the bettors and owners to put into the game after meeting their lifestyle mandatory costs like food, shelter, clothing, etc? This is obviously shrinking for the little guys like me.
Furthermore, I think the economy, especially in the US, is going to contract pretty steeply with stagflation, more expensive resources and energy, and limited expansion potential. Just the increased cost of diesel fuel will make almost every consumer product more expensive. "Degrowth" is the wave of the future.
NYRA is my favorite North American circuit. But the cost of doing business in New York and California is prohibitively high, so I see further contraction for two of the three circuits you mentioned. Kentucky, with lower costs and the backbone of the largest and best breeding operation in the world, will be more resilient in the near term. But if transportation costs continue to remain high or increase, which I think is likely, then KY will also see contraction in the long term as racing contracts to more localized venues.
So, in other words, short fields on Belmont Day? It's the new normal.
