Ok Fairmount.

Take a deep breath. If the "Brownout" of racing is that upsetting, I suggest
you pivot to Pimlico where the number 1 runner in Race #1 is trained by
Chadzilla and there are no Chads to be had thereafter.

The way I would look at what you Fairmount might call the "Shamwell" or the
"Chadwell" at Keeneland Saturday is that without four Browns you have maybe a
five horse Shadwell with one Brown? I think most of those who are not passing
on the race and especially those playing the race as part of a horizontal
sequence would prefer Door #1 (8 runners, four Chads) to Door # 2 (5 runners,
one Chad). It matters not to me because I will be focusing on Pimlico on
Saturday in terms of pari mutuelizing.

Sometime in August, a gust of wind in my neighborhood was too much for Con
Ed's ancient infrastructure to handle and I was without power for half a day.
When whining about this to Frank D, I received a priceless response: "You ate
cold pizza and drank warm beer for breakfast for all those years and now you're
complaining?"

Now is my chance to turn this around. Frank you are sounding the alarm now, but
why were you silent all those years when you WEREN'T getting a return on (the
occasional) losing wagers? How were you (and I and everyone else) able to
manage to stay in this game without the benefit of multiple race wagers, the
horseplayer's equivalent of the home run ball, the three pointer?

I have a wonderful image of firemen Fairmount and Frank D. rushing to put out
the long smoldering dumpster fire that is Racing (at the same time it is hard
to suppress the image of the stone faced Three Stooges standing on the side of
the runway in the closing scene of "Its a Mad Mad Mad World")(I would happily
be the third stooge. I can be in charge of making sure no flame retardant foam
gets on Nero, Charlie Daniels and Vassar Clements).

Human Nature 101. For years folks were clamoring and wringing their hands
saying how much Racing needed a central rulemaking, sanctioning and enforcement
body. The same people are now clamoring and wringing their hands that said body
looks like it could be the Federal government. What, you thought that after all
these years CD, NYRA and the Stronachs were going to work together?

Read the Hegarty article posted here by Kasept. The most fascinating aspect to
me is that the USADA will be in charge of equine testing, which seems slightly
ironic in that apparently USADA was in charge of testing all United States
Olympic athletes......EXCEPT the equine athletes on the Equestrian team.

There are two possibilities...the involvement of the Federal government will
make Racing a better sport/business, or it won't. If you look at the layers of
bureaucracy and various timetables involved with this legislation, one thing is
almost certain...change will not be rapid.