This is Part 12 of the Thoroughbred Idea Foundation's (TIF) series “Wagering Insecurity.”
Faced with remarkable competitive pressure from the rise of legal sports betting, horse racing is at a crossroads. Confidence amongst horseplayers and horse owners is essential to the future sustainability of the sport. Efforts to improve the greater North American Thoroughbred industry will fall flat if its stakeholders fail to secure a foundation of integrity. Achieving this is growing increasingly difficult after the sport has neglected its core base–horseplayers–for decades.
“Wagering Insecurity” details some of that neglect, and the need to embrace serious reform. Fortunately, there are examples across the racing world to follow.
In one corner of racing's integrity infrastructure, one trillionth of a gram–a picogram–is regulated. In the other, jockeys and trainers go unquestioned about in-race decisions or tactics, state veterinarians are not required to report publicly about episodes of bleeding or lameness after races, provide detailed reasons for scratches and voided claims, thrown shoes, or other measures which are standard across the rest of the racing world.
The gap must be narrowed.
In the concluding installment of “Wagering Insecurity,” we offer four observations from the process of compiling this series. To read the complete article, click here.
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