Less can be more

The army has a saying, 'If it's stupid and it works, it's not stupid.'

I mean, if the NORAD commander in War Games was willing to piss on a spark plug to abort an uncommanded nuclear missile launch, how out there does an idea have to be in order to qualify for galactically stupid status?

The recent announcement by NJ, to cut dates and increase purses, has met with what can charitably be characterized as mixed feelings.

I like NJ; the residents are willing to offer advice from where you should go to how you should greet your relatives. NYC dwellers seem to think NJ is a Shangri-La of sorts and act as the unofficial tourism board for the Garden State, since they seem to encourage everybody to go there.

Why I can't make a damn left turn in the state or have SWAT called down on my ass if I try to pump my own gas is beyond me but I refer you to the saying at the top of this post.

Racing is in trouble, across the board. A change needs to happen in the way business is conducted. Ideas are good and hoping Lucy won't snake the football out from underneath us this time is just asinine. Management (and I use that term loosely to describe NTRA, Jockey Club, TOBA et al.) need to own up to the fiasco they have wrought.

Comte said, 'The intellect should be the servant of the heart but not its slave'.

Racing should be the biggest and the best sport out there. It should be in every strip mall and shopping center near you. It should draw crowds to make NASCAR nation look like the campaign committee for Blagojevich/Paterson 2012.

And my "Great American Novel" should, like Athena, spring from my head but it is proving recalcitrant in that regard.

Five-thousand dollar claimers should be the healthiest, soundest, fastest, flea ridden sacks of bones on the plant. Not the most medicated.

At every level, racing should be about the best it has to offer.

Just because you own a horse shouldn't entitle you to run it well past its useful racing life and racing secretaries shouldn't have to beg trainers to enter unprepared horses in a race just to get a field of six to go.

I am not indifferent to the genuine hardship many will face in the reduction that has to happen but if we tried to save everybody that had skin in the game, we would still have buggy whip makers out there.

Open source and 2.0 are not just buzz words. They are the social expectations of the next generation. The generation inheriting this game, who won't tolerate the nostrums handed down by the old guard.

I think this decision by NJ is a watershed moment. I am prepared to be wrong-I have a lot of practice-but the outcome of this next season will shape the landscape of the game. Surrounded by slot states, with a dysfunctional NYRA next door, NJ will be the test group for how a season should be handled.

If horsemen take the 'I'm taking my ball and going home' approach, if they don't make an honest effort to make this NJ racing season a successful one, they will have their pyrrhic victory and can smirk and say 'I told you so.' the whole time they are circling the drain.

If, on the other hand, they defy all expectations and go where the money is; if they realize that competition is good and cream rises; if they allow for the possibility that bettors like full fields of sound, healthy horses; if they put aside outdated beliefs and reach for the better part of the game, then this game will be a sight to see.

I mean a sight to see.