Is the goal not to entertain?

Thin-skinned horses can be tough to work with because they’re more sensitive to irritation and inflammation than others.

Just rub an otherwise non-evasive liniment onto their legs, or allow some fairly mundane ointment to get into their heels, and be prepared to arrive at the barn the next morning to legs that look like stovepipes.

Thin-skinned people however, are much worse in my opinion, and in-general, as an industry, we’re terrible in this regard.

The definition of thin-skinned is ‘sensitive to criticism’, but if we can’t take a little criticism in life, how are we supposed to get better?

In horse racing we’re supposed to be in the business of entertaining people, but to me at least, that has to be in more ways than with just the on-track product.

In this day-and-age, where most tracks seem to be more interested in an online offering than an in-person one, in-house TV handicapping shows are only going to become more important as time goes on.

So if we’re in competition with the NFL and MLB for the gambling dollar, then it means we’re also in competition with broadcasting greats like Jim Nantz, Mike Tirico and Dan Shulman, when it comes to keeping our customers both informed and entertained.

Here’s the problem with that though: if we have to continue to sugarcoat everything we say so nobody’s feelings get hurt, we’re royally screwed. I can barely take it anymore, and I’m a lifer. How are we going to attract newbies with this approach?

When I think of the most popular broadcasters of my lifetime, two quickly come to mind: Howard Stern and Don Cherry.

Both men know how to entertain.

Stern brought his millions of listeners from terrestrial radio to satellite radio almost 20 years ago, and the medium quickly became so popular that soon afterwards almost all new cars began to be outfitted with options for it. Now, a car without the possibility of satellite radio is practically unheard of.

Cherry co-hosted the mega-popular ‘Coach’s Corner' segment on Hockey Night In Canada for 37 years, and many people that I know, myself included, would tune into the 1st intermission piece every Saturday night, even if we weren’t watching the hockey game.

Both men are known best for their brutal honesty and their bluntness. It doesn’t mean that they were always right, or that they each couldn’t stand to tone things down a bit now-and-then, but the one thing that cannot be argued is their popularity… their viewing/listening numbers prove it.

The difference in our sport is, let’s just face it, we can’t always be brutally honest because some of our participants may become offended and no longer participate in interviews and such.

Or is that actually the reason?

In a piece in this very magazine, just a few years back, I asked five prominent WEG drivers if they would have a problem being (fairly) criticized after questionable drives, and if they’d answer tough questions in interviews, moments after said-drives.

All five confirmed that they would be totally fine with it so long as it was done respectfully, and that everyone was fairly subjected to the same.

So why don’t we do it? Why don’t we call a spade a spade, and just say that a favourite raced bad or a driver drove poorly when it’s true? And why don’t we ask the tough questions that customers want answers to afterwards?

Recently, during Week #1 of the new NFL season, highly paid quarterbacks Deshaun Watson of Cleveland and Kirk Cousins of Atlanta both played quite poorly in losses… and guess what? The press stated just that. BECAUSE IT WAS TRUE!

The world didn’t end, and both players led their teams to Week #2 victories seven days later.

A trotter that I own part of looked to be victorious in the stretch, in each of his last two starts, before going off-stride both times and finishing out of the money. Was it frustrating for all involved? Did it suck? Absolutely! But when people said things to me like, ‘Man, I thought he was going to win and then he broke’, I didn’t get angry with them. It was just reality.

Horses, even good ones, can race poorly.

Drivers, even good ones, can drive poorly.

Trainers, even good ones, sometimes don’t have a horse prepared or hung-up properly.

We all know this.

A baseball commentator can say that a pitcher ‘didn’t have his best stuff today’ and a hockey commentator can say that a goalie ‘played like a sieve’, but it’s not as easy for someone in our business to say, ‘Wow that was a bad drive. I wonder why he sat in the three-hole with the big favourite?’

In the other big sports the players and coaches then get asked these questions after the game, but in our sport the driver or trainer rarely get asked to explain to the gambler what happened. And in some cases at least, I’d bet that they’d love the opportunity to do just that.

If we’re going to compete for the entertainment dollar (and the ever-fleeting gambling dollar) we’re going to have to start entertaining people better. Or at least start trying to!

Recently, I was alive on a nice Pick-5 ticket and needed a 1/2 shot that sat a perfect two-hole trip and finished a listless and well-beaten second. What made it much worse however, was listening to the commentator say afterwards that my horse had raced great to finish a game second, when in-fact she had raced horribly.

Please don’t make me listen to that fluff anymore. Please just tell the truth. Please entertain me.

Dan Fisher [email protected]