The first Saturday of May is near and with it comes the 142nd running of the Kentucky Derby, America’s oldest continuously run sporting event. Horse racing no longer has the prominence in this nation that it once did. A week ago, most people couldn’t name a single horse in this year’s race. But despite horse racing’s waning influence, the Kentucky Derby continues to draw huge ratings and absurdly large betting pools. In a week, the general public will know the name of the derby winner and will likely have seen at least one interview with the winning jockey, trainer or owner on a morning or night show. It is time for horse racing to step out from the fringes of society and be a part of the mainstream, at least until the derby winner no …show more content…
The previous three races under this system have all been won by the favorite. This may simply be an anomaly, but there are reasons to believe that the current system will continue produce less long shot winners. Pace Makes the Race The previous system made no distinction between shorter and longer races. That lead to more horses in the race that only won sprints and had no business running at the longer Kentucky Derby distance of a mile and a quarter. The presence of sprinters tend to create a faster pace that benefits closers, but the large number of horses running usually make it so closers have more traffic problems to deal with. These two factors threw a wrench in the race that made handicapping more like shooting craps. With the new system that tends to leave speedballs out of the race, frontrunners and stalkers have fared much better. They no longer have to chase torrid fractions so they tend to have more in the tank to hold off the late closers down the stretch. The pace scenario has become more conducive to horses with tactical speed and those horses have done a much better job lately of maintaining their position late in the