Situational awareness

Far Side-Gary Larson
(Without permission)

Pilots are not the most imaginative beings out there. All that regulation and slavish adherence to checklists and safety has to suck the life right out of you. They watch Fox News and you CANNOT, as a rule, get them to talk about anything other than aviation.

They try to throw you off by wearing leather jackets but it is only to cover up their pocket protectors and you have to ask yourself how 'with it' they really are when they coined the phrase 'Fat, dumb and happy'.

Another expression they like to use a lot is 'situational awareness'. I guess when you are clueless most of the time you need some sort of buzzword to make the public feel like you know what the hell is going on.

With that in mind, I thought I would take a moment to assess our own situational awareness within the horse racing industry. This list is by no means comprehensive or even accurate but it is as much as I feel inclined to do, seeing how I too am Fat, dumb and happy.

1. The game, entirely dependent on fans, is going to great lengths to turn those same fans away.
2. A sport so rich in tradition and glory, is shackled by an inept and oblivious marketing branch, making the task of attracting new fans, unlikely.
3. The horses, the product, are treated like disposable tissues by "licensed" individuals who have nothing to lose by skirting, what are laughably referred to as, the rules.
4. The dysfunctional governing structure and prohibitive cost of ownership is causing owners, responsible for the product, to abandon the proverbial ship faster than Congress awards itself a pay raise.
5. Too many interests at the proverbial table, each scraping for whatever crumbs they can get, cannot take this game in the direction it needs to go. Too much bloated weight at the top for too long has driven the stakes too deep.
6. New blood, genuinely concerned for the future of the game, is kept out by jealous and tired hacks.
7. Too many tracks, too much racing chasing too few crowds. You don't get more people to enjoy whisky by diluting it. It is an acquired taste and once it is acquired you can get people to pay ridiculous amounts for it. Trust me.

So that is a snapshot as to where we are. Not a good one but what the hell.

There is hope, there is always hope. The internet is a wonderful medium and instant information all the time makes it harder for the SOB's in power to keep their Machiavellian-lite machinations under wraps. We press on as best we can with what we have and strive for that ever elusive goal of sublimity.

That is what we must do. Go get heard.

Because, at speed, the first ting to go through your head when you see that goat, is not a question; it's your ass.