I don’t agree that the takeout is the real problem. If the fan interest is there, people will bet, and if there’s enough fan interest, big time television money will follow.

We need a real season like other sports. Racing naturally divides itself into two: the Triple Crown and the Breeders Cup. For the uninitiated, horseracing ends with the Belmont Stakes, and shows up for one weekend in the fall for the Breeders Cup. The run up to the Breeders Cup needs to be a coherent whole. Make a series of races mandatory for potential contestants. This way you create a playoff type atmosphere, with the top horses actually racing against each other, rather than on opposite ends of the continent. This encourages rivalries between horses and their fans, and there are two things that sell sports: risk and rivalries (think Red sox-Yankees, or Rachel-Zenyatta - although racing missed the boat on that one.)

Let horses have longer careers. A handful of races does not a superstar make, and superstars give a sport cachet and continuity.

Run at night during the week. More potential fans will be available.

Finally, go mass market. A handful of big bettors can’t support an entire industry. Live attendance and television coverage are a must. Other sports have already created the template for success. We have to look outward if we are to avoid irrelevance.

Bill Finley's article failed to give any credit to new

drug policies enacted during this time which enhanced

safety results.

Frank Stronach pointed out in the Blood Horse magazine more than 2 years ago, that if the same time, enery, and money, had been spent engineering

dirt track surfaces the resulting surfaces could be

as good or better than synthetic.

Del Mar, Hollywood Park and Santa Anita were all built with 1930's technology

It was hard for me to get past the first page. The comments "no gambling enterprise in this nation gouges its players like racing does. Nothing, in fact, comes anywhere close." are blatantly untrue. State and multi-state lotteries have a much much higher take-out than racing. Lotteries are in fact the least favorable to anyone playing them. Take-out may be an issue but it's not the biggest of our problems.

Bring back more coverage. Look at football,a game almost evey night. Too much greed will kill will spoil any sport. Too many racetracks and few many horses.Thanks for the article. Loved it

Wayne Lyster, in his letter to TDN, was right in saying we need to raise purses. Slots would be great, but never forget they're just a crutch. We need more fans. More fans mean more bettors. More bettors means more handle. Mor handle means bigger purses. To get those fans we need better marketing. Racing is under the delusion that it can woo young people over to the sport. Young people never did go to the races in large numbers, and never will. Attracting young fans was the thinking behind the "Go baby go" ad campaign. The fact is, young people today want instant gratification. They are playing video games, chasing members of the opposite sex, and if they gamble, they don't want to wait thirty minutes to make their next bet. If anybody wants to see young people in action, just check in to the Hard Rock hotel/casino in Las Vegas and observe the action at the pool on a Friday night. You're going to get those kids to sit still for 30 minutes between races? Not in your lifetime. Also, young people don't have significant amounts of disposable income. The baby boomers should be racing's marketing target. Let me drive the facts home with some stats. The baby boom generation consists of nearly 76 million people who were born between the years of 1946 and 1964. To further imprint the facts in your psyche, just consider that there is a baby boomer turning 50-years-old every 7 seconds. Guess who starts retiring in the next couple of years? The baby boomers. Baby boomers will have plenty of time on their hands, significant disposable income, and would be more amenable to the complexities of handicapping. On the other hand, the young people of today need an abacus to add two and two. Now.....I ask you.....to which segment of the population would you be marketing the sport of horseracing? Right now, you have one of the greatest fillies of all time, Rachel Alexandra, gracing the racetrack. Who knows about the filly? The next time you go to the local Wal-Mart, ask the people in line if they know who Rachel Alexandra is. Do you remember the excitement engendered by Secretariat? Compare that news coverage and fan interest that Rachel Alexandra gets.

I appreciate reading about the ideas leaders of our industry have on how to make thoroughbred racing more profitable and popular and to have more integrity.

The first time I read the prescription the answer to myself was- Jim, maybe it's time to take your licks now while the industry is bad and get out. As I read it the second and third time my conclusion was there was some excellent input from some savvy and different background minds and all of them were holding part of the right answers. As Bill Nader said and I quote, "I would wipe the slate clean, wish for a complete industry do over and chair a 12 member panel with absolute authority to create an all new American Racing Blue Print". SOMEBODY PLEASE GET IT STARTED.

It's one thing to try and attract new people to the sport, but it's entirely another to presume that racing fans and gambling should be inextricably linked.

I think Nick Nicholson has a great idea. I have no problem with the switch to synthetic, we need the sport to be more international but we also need to attract a bigger audience. I am a horse racing fan, I am not interested in the betting or gambling but in the racing stars equine and human. A program that would highlight these racing stars and put them in public view would garner more interest and more support than betting progams that focus on prices and not the racing itself

Christopher Rous is right - where are today's Penny Tweedys?

Reading Bob Evans' response to the betting exchange question tells you all that you need to know about Churchill Downs management.

Thankfully, the other respondents actually 'get it'. The only thing close to a silver bullet that is available to the industry is precisely what Evans can't see working: Betfair style betting exchanges.

Handle would soar – for years to come – and exotic wagering pools would not be cannibalized. Very big gamblers would be lured back into the game (given a reasonable takeout rate), and countless new players would be attracted and cultivated. The churn would increase dramatically, and purses would skyrocket.

The first organization to create such a peer-to-peer system with enjoy a huge first adaptor advantage (hello NYRA?).

Yes, there are many other important issues that the industry must address. But there is nothing standing in the way of racetracks quickly working to take this enormous step in the right direction.

The panel is all white male, we need more representation. This is pretty typical of all the boards in racing. That is part of the reason people are losing interest. We need a shake up and put some new faces out there.

This online magazine is a great addition and contains a lot of thought that needs to be implemented. As a racing fan I would like to be able to go to one online site to bet, order Equifax, DRF, Brisnet, etc. information, place my bets and see results. The industry also needs better policing to ensure that drug use by horses, jockeys and others is the same in all jurisdictions, with significant consequences to trainers, jockeys and owners. A splintered industry is its own worst enemy. A trip to a track is great but the internet is here to stay and needs to be used to its fullest potential.