Sobering news about the state of the game the last week with numbers that show a continued decline year after year after year.

The Jockey Club projects a foal crop of 17,300 for 2025.

https://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/280105/2025-projected-foal-crop-to-dip-by-700-foals-to-17-300

Wagering in the month of September was down nearly 11% compared to 2023. (Is this drop all retail money or has a CRW or two failed? Of course, we can't have that information b/c the tracks would never want you to know the truth about anything right?)

https://paulickreport.com/news/the-biz/economic-indicators-wagering-tanks-in-september

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I love racing about as much as anyone you would know. And I had several things/ideas I wanted to post about this past week. But these two stand out the most. I won't bloviate about how to fix these inter-related items. I'll just say that the "powers that be" have never cared about looking at anything in the game long term. Racing to breed. Individual ownership interests of tracks. No organized effort to work together. Reliance on slot money.

Hopefully they are still racing when I reach the end of the road. But I am starting to have doubts that it will be beyond a handful of tracks. . .

I will throw in this last bit I guess. I'm a lifelong Cubs fan eschewing and hating the hometown Cardinals as long as I can recall as a lifelong contrarian looking to beat the heavy chalk. And as a Cubs fan, I certainly can't understand EXACTLY how White Sox fans are feeling these days but I gotta believe it can't be too much different than a horse racing fan with an eye into the future . . .