There is no debate that the sport, regardless of the recent yearling sales, is heading for major contraction. For a variety of reasons, ownership is falling off a cliff so the supply side will undoubtedly continue to shrink. With the notable exception of Ohio and Kentucky, every other jurisdiction is in big trouble with maybe New York being somewhat viable. And I predict they will follow in Ontario's footsteps of boom to bust within five years, mainly due to zero foresight by the state legislators.
As for the demand side, well in a word, bleak. Handles continue to drop noticeably or remain stagnant at best, especially in Ontario where it's only a matter of time before Flammy and Georgian call it a day. Every race is the start of another PICk 5 or some sort of rolling Pick 3, absolutely grinding the small to average players bankroll down to zero in record time. All the while, management--for lack of a better term--allows CAW's to take a massive competitive edge thereby eliminating the once profitable overlay horses that were to be found if you put in the time.
I've been around a very long time and one thing jumped out to me recently: you cannot lose guys like Tom Joy and Charles Juravinski and replace them with indifferent folks at GCG. You cannot allow an org like WEG to be run by morons like Lawson, who basically has zero credibility and a awful track record at the helm. Down south you have Gural and the guy from Yonkers in a constant pissing match, with the horsement and gamblers the big losers. I like what's being accomplished in Kentucky and that's where I will be investing my money moving forward. They seem to love horses in that state, having three options to race, a plethora of quality horsemen to choose from and a licensing authority whom seem to put the animal first.
