First there are more - a lot more!! - sports bettors than there are racing fans.
Natural enough. We grow up watching it on TV. Some of us play one sport or another as kids in Pop Warner or Little League, and a few sometimes in college.
Not too many of us raced horses as kids. Probably didn't watch it much, except for the Derby replays on Sports Center.
In one football stadium of, say, the Big 10, say Ohio State or Michigan, there are often 100,000 fans on hand.
I don't think any race track in the US ever had that many fans - overseas possibly, not here. Tho I think places like Belmont could accomodate that number.
Just isn't the interest.
The NFl and major college football games, and of course March Madness, are unmatched on the tube by horse racing, except maybe for the Ky Derby, and to some lessser extent Breeders Cup day ( or days, as it is now).
If a horse wins the Derby and Preakness, the media will help hype the Belmont into large numbers with a rare Triple Crown possibility.
Still, nowhere near the numbers who view sports, esp football, baseball and hoops. Yet both are betting platforms - horses by design, sports in fact.
Second huge difference is the demographics. Like, the sports bettors are mainly in the HDG (hot demographic group, as the marketers call them), age around 18 to 35, with in general a lot of disposable income. (And nothing disposes of it faster than gambling! SBR is the most profitable sports betting board on the Net, because it has drawn a substantial number of lads in this age group.)
The horse bettors --- well, just go to any Vegas sports book on a football Saturday, when the horses are also running at major plant in California and New York, top quality racing.
You can shut your eyes and simply tell which section houses the sports bettors, just by the noise, all the hollering. Sure, the horse bettors will scream - some of them will - when their horse is driving for the finish line.
But not having the energy of youth they fade out fast. Open your eyes now and take a look. Bling, iPods, cellphones that look like from outer space on the sports betting side.
Grey hair and Geritol and pill popping (prescribed meds) on the horse racing section.
The sports betters, in general, have a lot of years left to bet, and either lose a lot more, or to learn a little and maybe win a few bucks, some of 'em.
The horse bettors, most of them, clearly will in the not too distant future be wagering on angel races, at St Peter's Downs.
There is some crossover - not much, but some. I'm a two-tiered guy, and know some others. But for the most part the sports bettors stick to their games, the horse bettors to theirs.
I have known a few old diehard horsers who very much resent the presence of the young buck sports fans at "their" book - the noise the Diaper Dandies make breaks the concentration of the horser as he pores over his Form.
The third and maybe most interesting gulf that separate the two will have to wait the end of the Humanitarian Bowl. Altho, other than a few curses or grunts now and then, I don't much yell at the screen.
Back later.
Natural enough. We grow up watching it on TV. Some of us play one sport or another as kids in Pop Warner or Little League, and a few sometimes in college.
Not too many of us raced horses as kids. Probably didn't watch it much, except for the Derby replays on Sports Center.
In one football stadium of, say, the Big 10, say Ohio State or Michigan, there are often 100,000 fans on hand.
I don't think any race track in the US ever had that many fans - overseas possibly, not here. Tho I think places like Belmont could accomodate that number.
Just isn't the interest.
The NFl and major college football games, and of course March Madness, are unmatched on the tube by horse racing, except maybe for the Ky Derby, and to some lessser extent Breeders Cup day ( or days, as it is now).
If a horse wins the Derby and Preakness, the media will help hype the Belmont into large numbers with a rare Triple Crown possibility.
Still, nowhere near the numbers who view sports, esp football, baseball and hoops. Yet both are betting platforms - horses by design, sports in fact.
Second huge difference is the demographics. Like, the sports bettors are mainly in the HDG (hot demographic group, as the marketers call them), age around 18 to 35, with in general a lot of disposable income. (And nothing disposes of it faster than gambling! SBR is the most profitable sports betting board on the Net, because it has drawn a substantial number of lads in this age group.)
The horse bettors --- well, just go to any Vegas sports book on a football Saturday, when the horses are also running at major plant in California and New York, top quality racing.
You can shut your eyes and simply tell which section houses the sports bettors, just by the noise, all the hollering. Sure, the horse bettors will scream - some of them will - when their horse is driving for the finish line.
But not having the energy of youth they fade out fast. Open your eyes now and take a look. Bling, iPods, cellphones that look like from outer space on the sports betting side.
Grey hair and Geritol and pill popping (prescribed meds) on the horse racing section.
The sports betters, in general, have a lot of years left to bet, and either lose a lot more, or to learn a little and maybe win a few bucks, some of 'em.
The horse bettors, most of them, clearly will in the not too distant future be wagering on angel races, at St Peter's Downs.
There is some crossover - not much, but some. I'm a two-tiered guy, and know some others. But for the most part the sports bettors stick to their games, the horse bettors to theirs.
I have known a few old diehard horsers who very much resent the presence of the young buck sports fans at "their" book - the noise the Diaper Dandies make breaks the concentration of the horser as he pores over his Form.
The third and maybe most interesting gulf that separate the two will have to wait the end of the Humanitarian Bowl. Altho, other than a few curses or grunts now and then, I don't much yell at the screen.
Back later.