No surprise here.  A track with no hope of ever getting casino gaming money simply can't survive in today's environment.  

If it isn't PETA that shuts down racing for good, it's this. Once governments or Indian tribes use their power to ensure no more casino money towards purses, we want it all for ourselves, or more casino owners get governments to let them keep their casinos but don't have to run horses anymore (hello Arlington...)

https://www.drf.com/news/turf-paradise-close-arizona-otbs-face-blackout

Well we have to move within the history that we are *in*.   I noticed this a long time ago with all the reactionary types in other areas that are not horse racing.  Those who long for the past that is no more..I KNOW that past, I was born into it, the Eisenhower years early mid 50s, but I never fooled myself that we could "go back there" because the world is a very different place now.  Yes, I was diapered in cloth diapers.   Disposables didn't exist yet.  Some who hold out hope will skip ahead a bit to the hippie generation, like the late 60s when "we" really did make our own peanut butter and butter from scratch (and corporations and small businesses are still making a ton of $$ marketing stuff like that to people..... but it will never be more than a niche).  

If you are an owner today, given the prices of good horses, and the trainers who have to train them, you're going to want *decent* purse money to run in races.   And w/out casino money, that isn't going to happen.  People aren't going to the tracks like they are in Japan and wagering enough to cover those kind of purses.  

One mistake I have never made in life is to go backwards.  You have to FIND a way to move forward without having to go backwards.  And, you have to balance the good with the bad...i.e. I had measles as a child before there were vaccines, and the very high fevers caused me to go deaf in one ear, which later on necessitated a stapendectomy to replace the "hammer and anvil" inside my ear which involved an ENT surgeon putting a large machine into my head at Yale hospital.   Some things really ARE better, some things are worse, you have to move forward though, because there really IS not "going back".   I leave that to the homeshooler uber-christian sects, preppers, reactionaries, etc.   I don't think they will have an easy time of it though, because living in the present is UNAVOIDABLE in too many respects. 

So the phrase in your first sentence  "today's environment" is where hammer hits nail.  

Its the same thing with medicine, vaccines, emergent diseases, etc.  Nothing stays the same.  It's kind of a truism that many eastern style philosophies are able to deal with very well, because they understand that time is moving on and there is nothing we can do to change that.. For instance, Buddhism philosophy (its not a religion) is that everyhing changes and the more we try to hold onto things the more grief and suffering we will experience because change is inevitable.....even your thoughts are constantly changing, not just the things around us.  

I think one good piece of advice, whether it come from any sphere is those that advise:  "always be moving forward."    

Moving forward in horse racing is no different than any other life sphere (financial, expertise in a hobby or musical endeavor, self improvement of any sort, etc. )    (If you keep a journal you will find that you actually ARE.  If you aren't then its time to do some self inventory)

Excellent commentary, WT.  Thanks for sharing your thoughts.  Having good consistent practices is worth the effort to cultivate.  I mean very simple things.  

Getting consistent with the basics of life in the material plane is purifying.  From that platform we can refine further, if we want to.

If the basic things are in disarray, how can we expect to refine the more nuanced levels?

Great way of putting things.  Woodbine might have disappeared back in the early 2000's if not for the original slot deal (where part of the gaming revenue went to purses, racing operations, and capital improvements), and we almost went away again when (as I explained) a different government in power decided to renege on that original deal, take the slots away from the tracks, and instead, let a few select tracks host gaming but these would be fully owned by the government (later leased to other operators, but the government still rakes in the $$) and they were only LEASING the space, no longer required to direct gaming revenues to fund racing.    Fort Erie got screwed worst of all by this as they lost their slot machines AND were not chosen to host gaming on a leasing deal like Woodbine, Mohawk, and some harness tracks were.  I'm honestly amazed they're still in business as they're fully reliant on handle and food/beverage sales to keep afloat.   

Like you said, racing can't control what the governments, PETA, etc, do, all they can do is keep adjusting things to survive, and just hope to never meet the fate of the dog tracks and the Turf Paradises.  Just like how we can't control the weather or seismic activity... when shit happens you do what you have to do.

More good points.

Brilliant at the basics in horse racing.  Nothing but humane treatment for the equine athletes before, during and after their racing careers.  Basic.  If you cannot do that, you are out.

One thing.  Get brilliant at it and the naysayers, the PETAs of the world, all anti-racing voices will have less oxygen to endanger the sport.  Evert time the sport does not keep this prime directive, the anti-racing elements get more oxygen.

The powers-that-be need to get on it.

I hear you. Control the things the sport CAN control.  The sport can set rules on whip use, medications, and aftercare (many places ban any owner or trainer found to send racehorses to slaughterhouses).   What they can't do is force governments to let them have their own gaming facilities... we saw how that truism reared its ugly head in so many places... Maryland, Illinois, and yes, California too (where the Indian tribes have the casino monopoly...)  The places that are thriving are the ones that can have their own gaming AND keep all the revenues to use to support racing -- Oaklawn and Kentucky Downs the best examples of these.

This isn’t across the board, but racing will survive where there’s a horse racing industry outside the racetrack. I think states are going to have to be capable of filling your own races. Racing expanded to many states only because the states could get tax money through the mutual pools. Fanduel and casinos are competing for the gambling dollar these days. States are going to have problems filling races with Kentucky’s leftovers. Maryland racing survived 20 years without casino money supplementing our purses. MD purses were 50 to 70% smaller than all of our surrounding states. We survived because our farms supplied horses to fill races. The reason MD Racing has the support from voters and politicians is because there’s more to racing in MD than just the track. Of course having a race once a year that attracts 70 to 100 thousand people helps. Racing expanded to many states strictly for the mutual pool tax money. Now that states can get the same taxes from casinos and fanduel I think we go back to the pre depression racing model. Racing survives in states that have a racing tradition prior to depression era laws allowing mutual pools. That’s not across the board, but I think for the most part that’s what is in our future. 

 Kentucky foal amounts decrease every year…. 
 

https://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/272119/jockey-club-projects-smaller-foal-crop-for-2024?fbclid=IwAR3XWzg7ckHIfiu4fVshVMO2rOoM-uE1e2JDbWeUsmZ7RgAYRyyhD6QGVPA_aem_ASBPx4MtTQsBNN-IHkpIbMUAo156PDbxyUY_mlaJxCyV25k_g00iq2JjtHhvibL5PMM&mibextid=Zxz2cZ

The auction prices for yearlings and 2 year olds are also very high.  Breeders aren't going to lower their prices, so there's that, too.  We don't need more owners walking away from the sport.  There are some good owners out there who do care about their horses.   Purses have to be in sync with their original outlay, as the many ways that a horse doesn't earn back can happen a million ways, including small but nagging injuries that require time off and veterinary care where they are on layoffs. 

I try to look at everybody's side of the coin.  

Maybe we can get a jock to date Taylor Swift