Yeah, was there w/my oldest son and best friend. Someone walked up to my son after the second breakdown and said "wow that really let the air out of this place, huh?" Went to cash out for the day w/grizzled teller (I like to bet w/tellers the few times a year I play in person). He said, "wow I can't keep watching this, what the hell is going on?" Multiple young guys (20s, maybe early 30s) comforting their shaken/ashen/in some cases crying girlfriends/dates.

Took my son to the track for the first time on one of those old "open house" days back in 1999 when he was six months old. Never forget the look of joyous wonder on his baby face when the horses ran by us during one of those abbreviated races (Wait Trials?). Been going myself since the 1980s. Yeah, I know, we're nobodies, not the insider crowd, I'm a guy who's never won more than $15000 (once) or lost more than $500 (a few times) in a single day. But we are also the sort of people who have kept the stands and the backyard here filled over the last forty years, as it rose from its near-death experience of the 60s and 70s.

I'm no animal loon, as I have heard them referred to. I'll eat meat until the day I die. And I have had it w/this new American dog-worship obsession, as hapless self-absorbed owner-dupes stand by idly, smiling like simps as their precious unleashed dogs run through the "you must leash your dogs here" woods while they climb up on me, ruin a shirt in a couple cases. And the disgusting, laughing apology, "oh he's such a good boy don't worry," which only forces me to go into full large, medieval gruff guy to make my "get your f'ing dog off me before I kick your ass" mode. My wife got bit while jogging a few weeks ago and she wouldn't tell me where exactly it happened because she feared I'd try to get the mutt put down.

I digress, but not really. Because if a guy like me, not especially warm and fuzzy about animals, and desperate to hold onto precious memories and to retreat into some magical, golden-hued past, if a guy like me gets the shakes after today, well...sitting right on the dividing line between what used to be the old grandstand and the old clubhouse, watching with a crowd of 40,000 that went from screaming in anticipation to gasping in horror after seeing a horse essentially explode right in front of our eyes...was just one of those brutal reminders that the old days are gone. People are less and less apt to just throw up their hands and say so be it at that sight than they were 10, 20, 30 years ago. And there's lots of things they - we - can bet on where the participants choose to be there, and are much less likely to die on the field.

I've loved this game for more than three quarters of my conscious life, but today, man, seeing the game look that bad, in front of that many people, in front of that many casual observers...my buddy turned to me on our way out and laughingly said, so what's the O/U on years of this left? And I'm not sure where that number lies exactly, but, at least this afternoon, it felt like the smart play would be on the under.