I'm probably mad too because I think you actually have some good ideas there ET :grin:

As Chrome Prince has noted their is a general perception that racing=gambling and I think that is basically true. I don't know anybody who does not gamble who would sit down and watch a race just for fun (with the obvious exception of the Melbourne Cup) yet they will sit down and watch the Swimming championships. But what is the difference? Swimming is no more exciting as a spectator sport than horse racing - everyone looks the same in the water, there is no great spectacle or tactics involved (well, very little that is obvious to the viewer anyway). The only difference is there is interstate or international competition involved.

I think the idea of state/national (and down the track international) championships would be something that can build up public interest in the sport. You could easily run competitions that fed into each other - eg. several venues round the state have a series of races over different distances/sexes eg "1500m C&G race", "1000M F&M Race" one week. The next week the top 2 from each venue go to the state finals and the top 2 from that go the national final a few weeks later. National champion in each distance/sex category gets a big paycheque!

Also I love the idea of using distance or time handicaps rather than weight. I am sure with current technology it would be simple to construct a barrier where the individual gates opened at different times so that you could use a time handicap and watch the better horses chase down the slower ones. This would probably work best with straight races and I imagine it would be necessary to space the individual barriers wider (and probably block them in to a certain extent) so the horses aren't distracted by the earlier starts. Alternatively individual barriers could be constructed to allow distance handicaps. Obviously you wouldn't do this at small country clubs but the big metro clubs could certainly afford these "hi-tech" barriers and the racing would be fantastic!

Of course can't see any of this happening - the racing authorities will continue to dish up the same old stuff week after week and wonder why the crowds keep shrinking and the betting dollars keep drifting away to other sports where you can make your money and get something interesting to watch at the same time!

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"Computers can do that????" - Homer Simpson