It's Saturday, May 1 and raining in Louisville, Kentucky. There are no slots at Churchill Downs, but there is an amazing crowd of people
- around three times more than the 50,000 plus that gathers for the Little Brown Jug at Delaware County Fair.
There is no overwhelming favourite among the 20 horses entered in the 136th Kentucky Derby, but the race is a thriller and produces a star...albeit a star in the irons.
A sport famously reported to be in decline, but everything is looking up.
Attendance was up.
Handle was up.
TV ratings were up, the highest since 1989
Internet interest was up.
On the small screen, HBO is shooting Luck, a TV pilot revolving around horse racing.
On the big screen, movies are in the works on legends Secretariat and Julie Krone. Two other movies, female jockey biopic Jock and comedy And They're Off, are also slated to start shooting.
Right now, horse racing is channeling Sally Field at the Oscars and saying "you like me, right now, you like me!"
Sports Illustrated's Mark Beech waxed poetic over the 2010 Derby, stating the following:
"I said it last year, and I'll say it again. There is no sporting event in America quite as great as the Kentucky Derby. The weather was miserable at Churchill Downs, and still the track drew upwards of 100,000 fans....There is no day quite like Derby day. It's long. It's loud. It's frequently sloppy (if it's not the weather, it's the julep-filled revelers). And with 20 horses, it's one of the wildest races you're ever likely to see. And yet every year, it produces order, and beauty, from chaos. Not bad for the greatest two minutes in sports."
It seems like May brings this renewed mainstream interest in horse racing, with the Derby followed by the Preakness and the Belmont. A five-week return to glory that fades away once the Triple Crown comes and goes.
As horse racing struggles with survival, the question we all need to ask ourselves is why this phenomenon occurs. The Derby captures the essence of the sport we all love, but in no way does the sport cease to exist. Yet it almost would seem that, outside of our bubble, such perception is reality.
Outside of racing, chances are you get your mainstream news from a few sources. If they failed to cover the Derby, write them a letter asking what part of 150,000 fans, $160 million in wagers, and a new racing icon in Calvin Borel they didn't find intriguing enough. If they did cover the Derby, write them a letter and say thanks. Thank you, media, for covering horse racing. Keep up the good work and I hope to find out more about what's going on in the worlds of thoroughbred and harness racing again soon.
Last month, two well-known South-Western Ontario papers made the decision to cut back on racing coverage in their print editions. While I couldn't get an official comment from the paper, the London Free Press is reportedly scaling back their coverage of area entries in their Sports section. The Toronto Star recently announced that they would be cutting back on their racing coverage in print and instead moving it to the web. The Star stated that "Horse racing still keeps a coveted spot on our Scoreboard pages, but this move will give the pages some added flexibility to provide additional coverage in sports that readers say they want more of, such as auto racing, tennis and soccer."
I ask you, do you want more coverage of auto racing, tennis and soccer? Or do you want to see the North America Cup winner featured as prominently as Super Saver?
Tell your local media what you want. It's clear that a voice has been heard, and it's damn sure not ours.