The Jockey Club, the leading sanctioning body in what’s left of the sport of horse racing in the U.S., sent out a clear message Wednesday to anybody thinking of naming their horse after Hitler: Don’t name your horse after Hitler.

The two-year-old colt Austrian Painter made his racing debut Monday with a win in the third race at Horseshoe Indianapolis Racecourse. Obligatory: He covered the 5 1/2 furlongs in 1:04.97, and paid $9.00. Afterward, the Jockey Club received objections about the victorious newcomer, but these weren't the standard post-race protests about a jockey’s obstructing or dangerous ride or a horse’s drug abuse. No, these complaints were about the horse’s name. Because, as reported by ESPN in its Austrian Painter story, “Hitler was born in Austria and was an artist.”

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[–] 5 points 1 day ago (8 children)

...what’s left of the sport of horse racing in the U.S.

What does this mean, I wonder.

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  • [–] 2 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago) (1 child)

    In the state of California, the handles and starts are down over 55% in the last 26 years with an average of -3.4% YOY. The industry also kills an average of 1.5 horses per week for the last 6 years, just at the tracks in California alone.

    I'm intentionally leaving out the 2019 fatalities, as that year would push the average above 2.25 horses dead per week, and was a bit of an outlier.

    Basically, the industry is dying, and the tracks are more valuable as developable land.

    #KillRacingNotHorses

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  • [–] 7 points 1 day ago (5 children)

    Seems like horse racing is getting less and less popular over time. Most racetracks I know of near me have slots and other gaming machines in them now, and I bet the slots subsidize the horse racing.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 day ago (4 children)

    Ah, makes sense.

    At the same time, the actual owning and racing of horses seems like mostly a rich peoples' sport, so I wonder how that's working for them...

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  • [–] 1 point 16 hours ago (3 children)

    It's a special K shaped economy.

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  • [–] 1 point 16 hours ago (2 children)

    Wasn't that a... outdated breakfast-cereal, or something?

    (good luck if there's a whole economy based around that disaster, lol)

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  • [–] 2 points 16 hours ago (1 child)

    Fun facts: (AKA explain the joke, making it less funny to some, but more funny to me)

    Special K is also slang for ketamine, a drug popular with some high profile oligarchs and other elites.

    So the "K" in K-shaped economy (wealth divergence) and the "K" in Special K (ketamine) land on the same social group *the ultra-wealthy on the top arm of the K * making the letter a convenient pun for commentary on inequality and privilege.

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