Horse Racing Fantasy Community

Well, you have to give them credit. NYRA is making a big move and it's a risky one at that. Frank Sinatra's New York New York will no longer be the theme song that is played when the contenders step out on the track for the 2010 Belmont Stakes.

I can picture six of the top executives sitting around for two hours discussing the positives and negatives of changing the theme song. Can you imagine all the Frank Sinatra fans who will be pissed off because NYRA has decided that horse racing, specifically racing in New York, needs to start attracting a younger fan? My questions is, I wonder what brought them to this conclusion? Does it have anything to do with the rapidly dropping on-track attendance or the fact that this year less people will be paying attention to the Belmont Stakes just because of a lackluster field and no Derby or Preakness winner participating.

New York has always been the leader in racing here in the United States, but recently has been overshadowed by the daring bold move New Jersey implemented this year with their million-a-day, 50-day purse guarantee program.

All the racetracks need to reevaluate how they are going to communicate with tomorrow's potential fan. It's not just opening up a Facebook account or throwing a couple of videos up on YouTube. To get a new fan involved requires a tremendous amount of dedication and thinking outside the box. It requires communicating with today's youth in the way they want. We have such a wonderful sport, and it's really disappointing to watch it slowly fade away. Of course, our focus has always been to attract the next generation of racing enthusiasts through our virtual racing platform. If a little company like ours can spend over a million dollars for the benefit of racing, you would think organizations like NYRA could do a little bit more than replace Frank Sinatra's New York New York theme song with Jay-Z's Empire State of Mind. Oh, I did forget to mention, that at the same exact time, the Empire State Building will shine green in celebration of the last leg of the Triple Crown.

Something tells me that the big executives at all of the major tracks could be putting together programs a little bit more creative, don't you think?

- Puddles