Stephen Foster Preview Zoom
- Bruno@Racingwithbruno
- May 28
- 4 min read
People want winners. They want to know more. They clamor for picks. And buddy, you gotta love this game and the people involved in it. Horse racing’s got geniuses, lunatics, degenerates, professors, carnival barkers, and enough knuckleheads to fill a Cracker Barrel parking lot on a Sunday morning.
Handicappers are a special breed too. Lord have mercy. They wear their opinions like war medals. You got one fella proudly proclaiming, “I ain’t watched a second of the Game of Thrones series,” like he stormed Normandy Beach instead of just avoiding HBO. Same thing in racing. You hear ’em say, “I don’t bet maidens,” "I don't bet chalk", which nowadays is an empty promise, because of the CAWs, you never really know, or “I don’t believe in workout reports,” like they discovered gravity. Congratulations, you ignored information. Here’s your ribbon, now 'frack' off.
And speaking of ignoring, we get to the ADWs. Every single one of ’em wants you to bet with them. Bonuses! Promos! Deposit matches! Free picks! Risk-free wagers! They’ll practically send a mariachi band to your front porch if you ain’t signed up yet. But once you’re actually a customer? Once you’re wagering every week and keeping the lights on? Buddy, you disappear quicker than a winning Pick 5 ticket at tax time.
They treat loyal customers like that old jar of mayonnaise in the back of the fridge. “Well, we already got him.” That’s the whole strategy. New customers only. Existing players are simply the sliced white mushroom at the store, in a package on the shelf. Which is extra funny considering some of these outfits are sponsored by Prevagen. Apparently even they can’t remember who’s paying the bills.
And every ADW’s marketing department somehow came to the exact same conclusion: “You know what horseplayers really want? dudes talking into cameras.” Every commercial is some backward-hat fella in a wrinkled T-shirt going, “I like the 5 horse in the third.” Buddy, I don’t care what Chad from Scottsdale likes in the third at Aqueduct.
SHOW ME THE HORSES.
Show me the workouts. Show me the gate drills. Show me the stars of the game. The horses are the attraction, not some human Fungo bat giving out lukewarm swings between sports book ads.
How in the world do we not have year-round video workouts for players in 2026 from ALL the tracks?
Because if people see behind the curtain they might NOT notice half these races got five-horse fields and one of them’s running like he’s towing a bass boat.
Who exactly are we protecting here by not showing workout videos? The horses? The trainers? National security secrets? Is there a Cold War bunker underneath Saratoga I don’t know about?
“Well if everybody had workout videos then what would happen to the clockers?” Buddy, they’d still have a job. Same as weather forecasters still got jobs even though everybody owns a window.
We ain’t asking them to split the atom.
And yet somehow we’re all supposed to tiptoe around them like they’re endangered species.
The real issue is some folks don’t want transparency because transparency messes with the hustle. See, if the average horseplayer can actually WATCH the work, then suddenly old Billy Bob can’t charge you fifty dollars a day to tell you a horse “looked live in the lane.” What lane? The horse swapped leads three times and looked like he was pulling a hay wagon, you know Workouts for Dummies.
And let’s quit pretending clockers are above gambling drama too. Half the backside conversations sound like a support group for bad exacta tickets and bad touts from the clocker stand, and everyone is a clocker during Saratoga.
"This big horse, came flying by me, made my tooupee stand straight in the air, I told Junior thats a runner! gotta bet on him"
But here’s the thing — if your information is good, video should HELP you, not hurt you. If you’re truly sharp, then players watch the tape, read your notes, and say, “Dang, this guy knows what he’s talking about.” Instead everybody acts like seeing the actual horse work would collapse civilization.
Frack that.
But seriously, this game keeps hiding information from the very people funding it.
Horseplayers are treated like mushrooms: kept in the dark and fed manure. Meanwhile every other gambling industry on Earth is drowning customers in data, stats, replays, analytics, transparency, and hats. 🧢
Racing’s needs to stop acting like a six-furlong breeze is classified CIA material.
I am very fortunate to have the Kentucky Thoroughbred Association and the Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund sponsor our Video Workout Library for all to see for Free.
In case you been living in a cave with no cell phone reception or WIFI:
Show the works. Let people learn. Let players make their own decisions. Stop gatekeeping basic information in a gambling game that desperately needs more informed gamblers.
Because if your entire business model falls apart the second people can see the horses themselves… maybe the problem ain’t the video.
Let the players decide! Give people information, stop trying to hold their hand. Educate the fans. I know, I know, asking racing to educate customers is apparently like asking a possum to solve algebra, but still. Try instead of playing dead.
Everything nowadays is backwards. Websites are impossible. You go searching for basic information and suddenly you need the Oak Island crew to excavate it. Nothing’s where it ought to be. Every page got fifteen tabs, six popups, autoplay videos, and some intern named Bryce explaining vertical integration of pi in a maiden race with all first time starters.
Common sense has left the building. We got too many chiefs, not enough Indians, too many consultants, not enough horseplayers. Everybody’s copying everybody else. Nobody wants to innovate because innovation requires effort and possibly reading an email.
This sport don’t need another slogan. It needs somebody with enough guts to break the mold. Somebody to come in, simplify things, put the horse back at the center of horse racing, reward loyal customers, and stop treating fans like confused cattle wandering through a casino lobby.
Because once somebody finally does it right? The rest will follow. This whole industry is copycat as hell. One person breaks the chains and suddenly everybody else acts like they discovered fire.
And maybe then — maybe then — we’ll stumble into a new era where the game actually remembers the people who love it.