Or...why I quit worrying and learned to avoid the track.
The revelation, in the New York Times, that Justify failed a drug test during the Santa Anita Derby which would have denied him the points to enter the Kentucky Derby (which he won, leading to an eventual Triple Crown), isn't what's leading me to abandon betting on a sport that I once loved.
Nor is it the fact that several horses die due to injuries every year.
Nope, what's causing me to abandon the sport is that it's becoming increasingly clear that it's a rigged game. That the government agencies in charge of the sport are willingly rigging it in favor of bigger named trainers, owners, breeders and jockeys.
My fall-out began last year in the Kentucky Derby, and it's come to a nadir with this story. This is on top of all the troubling recent news about increased take-out and several industry "influencers" stating that betting is not an integral part of horse racing and that bettors aren't really needed.
OK then, we're going to test that theory because I'm done. Finished. The last bet that I placed on a horse race IS the last bet I will ever place on a horse race. Because I cannot in good conscious bet into a game that's rigged against me, and that doesn't value my money, time and investment.
Strangely enough, this will also affect several other decisions in my sports life.
1. I'm getting rid of the increasingly terrible U-Verse TV service. Pretty much the ONLY reason I kept them was to keep up with goings-on on TVG. Now that I don't need that service any longer, hail and farewell, hello streaming.
2. I've probably spent my last dollar at Sam Houston Race Park. This is the hardest choice because I really liked going there. But going there and not betting seems silly and pretty much a waste of time.
3. Since I'm not betting on races I probably won't even WATCH the races.
It's not that there aren't other, less problematic, areas to scratch the sports-betting itch, even in notoriously betting unfriendly (and backwards) Texas. All of them better than betting on a game that's become hopelessly corrupt, extremely backward and, in most cases, unprofitable due to the manipulation of tote boards on the "last tick" before the races go off.
So, Good Bye horse racing, I truly hope you can dust yourself off and turn yourself around and become a viable gaming option again, but I doubt it. Because the people in charge, and the media covering you, have become just as corrupt and untrustworthy as every other government or media agency.
It's all Fake News now, no matter which side you're on.
At least I'll always have Afleet Alex in the Preakness, and War Emblem and especially Secretariat.
I'll keep those memories.
