Fantasy Horse Racing

Insight and commentary on the world of thoroughbred horse racing.

Thoughts and opinions about the fascinating sport of thoroughbred horse racing from a racing insider.

Life is Just A Fantasy

I’m the first to admit, it’s a sad thing. I spend just about every autumn Sunday in a sports bar watching NFL games, fantasy rosters spread out before me. Yes, I’m one of those people. But a few Sunday’s ago, I had some non-football thoughts, probably during halftime. I wondered to myself why there was no fantasy horse racing.

“Someone should get fantasy horse racing going,” I thought. “It’s a perfect way to grow fan interest and it even uses the same skill sets that attract handicappers-gathering information, analyzing it and then making decisions. Maybe the NTRA would run with the idea and do something constructive to promote and market the game.”

It’s no secret (except, perhaps, to the powers that be in horse racing) that fantasy leagues of all stripes, especially pro football leagues, have enjoyed enormous growth in recent years. There are now around 37 million Americans that participate in fantasy football and that fact has surely helped establish the NFL as the most powerful sports league in the country.

These fantasy games are the best things to happen to sports leagues since TV came along as they encourage fans to take a larger view of the given league. Fans no longer tune out after their favorite real team has played, not with ‘their’ players competing in several other games throughout the day.

So I was more than a little happy to learn this week that TVG has come through with a comprehensive thoroughbred racing fantasy game. Granted, it’s not quite what came to mind during that Sunday halftime daydream. But, for now, I’m glad someone, anyone, has taken the initiative to do something like this.

The past few years Churchill Downs has offered a similar game through kentuckyderby.com. That game is, not surprisingly, centered on the three year-olds and ends with the Run for the Roses. Last year they added a welcome wrinkle, the ability to create smaller ‘leagues’ within the larger game. While I didn’t fare too well nationally, I did win a few bucks from my friends and coworkers in the ‘league’ we set up amongst ourselves.

TVG’s new game also has that feature and it goes a step further by widening the scope to include racing’s other divisions - older horses, turf runners, etc. Like Churchill’s, TVG’s fantasy game is free, which is always a good thing. But also like Churchill’s game, everyone can select the same horses. For me, that’s a major drawback.

One of the things I enjoy most about my fantasy leagues are the live drafts. I love to study and prepare and even obsess over which players will be available when it’s my turn, when to try to draft my ‘sleeper’ picks, etc. And after draft day it’s much more satisfying and challenging to manage a unique ‘team’. With the Churchill game, and now TVG’s, I could theoretically draft the exact same stable as Joe Smith in Iowa.
In my Sunday halftime daydream I envisioned someone, anyone, simply setting up a league administration and stat tracking program online, very much like CBS Sportsline.com’s Fantasy Football.

For those of you with better things to do on Sunday afternoons, CBS Sportsline offers a service that tracks, for a fee, all scoring, transactions, standings and statistics for a locally created fantasy league. The site also provides pertinent news on every single NFL player and allows for a customized scoring system. For example, in one of my leagues a player earns a point for every 10 yards gained, in another, it’s a point for every 25 yards.

So let’s say TVG or Daily Racing Form or those folks at the NTRA (someone, anyone) created such a site for horse racing fantasy games. You could, for example, decide on how long you wanted your ‘season’ to be. (Maybe just create a Saratoga league or Del Mar league). Or you could decide how many points a horse earns for a win in a grade one. (Maybe you could add bonus points for margin of victory).

But the main thing is each person would have their own unique stable to manage and all the record keeping, scoring and transactions are taken care of by a third party.

Of course there is nothing in the way of a group of friends getting together and creating a horse racing ‘league’ of their own right now. But someone has to be gracious, or masochistic, enough to keep track of everything. I’ve actually been in 12 person Triple Crown and Breeders’ Cup leagues for the past few years and they are a lot of fun.

For the Triple Crown game we simply take turns drafting 11 horses and 1 jockey and earn points based on performance in the Triple Crown preps and the Triple Crown races themselves. There is no adding and dropping though, what you draft is what you have to live with.

For the Breeders’ Cup league, 25 pre-selected horses are auctioned off (everyone is given the same mythical budget). After that there is a two year-old draft and each team picks two juveniles of either sex, with the team that spent the least in the auction given first selection. Then there is an open draft where any horse can be taken until each team has 12 horses. Again there is no adding or dropping.

But outside of selfish motivations, a CBS Sportsline model would make fantasy horse racing much more attractive and therefore much more popular. Like any entertainment venture people will gravitate toward the best experience. CBS Sportsline Fantasy Football (and the myriad of other similar products) allow for a more challenging, exciting and authentic experience. The attempts by Churchill Downs and now TVG are welcome, but it’s not too late, for someone, anyone, to step up and do it right.

Matt O'Neil has been a racing enthusiast since the mid 1980's. He currently works for Taylor Made Stallions, Inc. in Central Kentucuky and is published regularly in Owner-Breeder International and The Florida-Horse. Contact Matt O'Neil