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Trying to stay on track

Horse racing has taken its licks in the past two decades

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Posted: Thursday June 03, 1999 04:47 PM

Twenty-one years ago, when horse racing was still royal, Steve Cauthen was nothing short of its king. People -- regular people -- recognized him wherever he went. He was at the top of the sport, a superstar, a three-time Sports Illustrated cover boy.

He was "The Kid."

"People felt like they knew me," Cauthen said. "They'd look at me, and it's like they knew me. Like they always knew me."

But here's the thing: Have you seen a horse race lately? Have you been to the track? Can you name more than two or three of the younger jockeys, or a couple of the top 3-year-olds this season?

It's just not like it used to be, for Cauthen or for his sport.

Steve Cauthen, the last jockey to ride a Triple Crown winner, has wrapped up a wonderful riding career and now quietly lives on his farm in northern Kentucky, breeding horses. Meanwhile, the sport he loves is struggling to re-invent itself as a sport for the people, trying desperately to sweep the seedier sides of its image aside, reaching out to younger crowds who missed its glory days.

Saturday at the Belmont Stakes, the sport gets its latest chance to shine when a chestnut colt named Charismatic tries to become the first horse since Affirmed, with Cauthen aboard, to win horse racing's Triple Crown. Charismatic is the seventh horse since Affirmed to have the chance to win the Triple Crown, having already taken the first two jewels, the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness.

Charismatic's bid to become the 12th Triple Crown winner in history has so much going for it, too, so much that can help a sport that badly needs a boost. He's ridden by a jockey, Chris Antley, considered by many as one of the best riders of his generation. But Antley has fought substance abuse, depression and a weight problem that saw him check in at an un-jockeylike 147 pounds late last year.

From the e-mailbag Some comments on Put out the garbage, May 27, 1999. C'mon Johnboy, lighten up! I think this playoff season is the best I've seen since the old Knicks-Lakers series of the early '70s. The Jordan era was oh-so predictable. Sacramento and Utah, great! Sorry Atlanta didn't measure up. -- Richard E. Copeland All I want to say is that in SLAM magazine issue #34 is that Denny Crum spoke of kids "lacking the fundamentals/basic skills". With this comes understanding of the game (good shot selection). It is so true when you see that a lot of the bad shooters are like Kobe and Allen (I still think he's great regardless). They can shoot, but they can't prove they shoot smart shots. Compare them to a schooled player like Joe D, Reggie or Hornacek. The difference is that of light and dark. -- Steve Harvie, Auckland, New Zealand I agree completely with your analysis. I've been an avid basketball fan for years, and I can see a couple of things that are affecting the percentages. First of all, players are not cutting and moving without the ball. Another thing that I feel is affecting scoring is how rough the game is. I think the game needs to be cleaned up. Add these things up and it equals some ugly shooting and bad games. -- Boyd Bastian I just have one observation for you. Back in the '80s, AKA Showtime, all I heard from "marginal" basketball fans was that there was no defense being played in the NBA, it was the matador defense. Now that teams play defense (learning out of the pages of the Pistons), of course shooting percentages are going to go down. Shoot, I'm all-world when there is no one guarding but put a hand in my face and that's why I'm sitting at my desk e-mailing you. -- J.J. Franklin Shooting percentages are down and will continue to go down as players spend less and less time preparing to play the game in college and more and more time idolizing the go-to-the-rim style of play. Why practice a jump shot when a slashing fallaway, out-of-control layup makes the CNN/SI highlights??? -- Bill Mitchell You were right about those lousy Knickerbockers. They just plain stink. I don't know how they have gotten this far. I don't buy that, as a team, they had the fourth best defense in the league. I just wish my team stunk just as bad as they do. Maybe they would still playing for a chance to get to the NBA Finals like those lousy stinking Knickerbockers. -- Christopher Miles Bring back Showtime please! -- Shahram Shoraka Wouldn't it be better to reduce the clock, and therefore force more fast-breaks and shorter possessions? -- Ady Barkan, Pasadena, Calif. I couldn't agree with you more. What is even more disturbing is the fact that all these young kids are leaving school early and haven't even developed a decent jump shot yet. Still the NBA seems to encourage these non-jump-shooting youngsters to jump ship and leave school after their freshmen and sophomore years. -- Brian Dendy The problem with the NBA now as opposed to the past years is that everyone in the NBA now is playing one-on-one. In the years of Bird and Magic there were back door cuts for layups, players actually setting picks for other players. There was a team environment instead of this one-on-one crap the young players are playing today. Until we get back to team ball the NBA is only going to get uglier. -- M. Dishner, Princeton, West Virginia Does anyone remember all of Michael Jordan's 13-35 games in the '80s? Nobody got all over him. Why does everybody call Iverson a gunner, when Jordan did the same thing for his first six years and they actually won championships with him shooting over a third of their shots? -- Brian Pollack

Charismatic is trained by D. Wayne Lukas, the Jeff Gordon of the horse racing world, a slick gray-haired gentleman whom some hate and some love. Bob and Beverly Lewis, who missed a chance at the Triple Crown in 1997 when Silver Charm was beaten in the Belmont, are Charismatic's owners.

They are all great storylines, even for those who don't follow the sport.

But the question remains: Do enough people care?

ABC, which televises the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness and the Belmont, has seen ratings drop tremendously over the past several years. When Secretariat won the Triple Crown in 1972, the Belmont pulled a 17.5 rating. Seattle Slew drew a 17.2 in 1977. When Cauthen rode in 1978, the Belmont had a 10.9 on CBS.

By 1996, the Belmont drew only a 2.9 rating. In the past two years, both with the possibility of a Triple Crown winner, the best ABC could manage was a 5.9.

This year, the Belmont won't even be the biggest story in New York, with the Knicks in the NBA playoffs that night and the Mets and Yankees facing off in an interleague game that afternoon. If Charismatic loses, the Belmont may have a hard time making the front page of the sports sections on Sunday.

"There are so many opportunities to do so many things at the drop of a hat. A lot of people don't want to take the time to learn about horse racing," Cauthen said from his Kentucky home. "Racing is no less interesting and fascinating than it ever was. It's just a question of getting that across to people. I don't think racing has done a very good job of it."

Cauthen talks about weeding out the bad horses and the bad tracks and the bad jockeys and making racing available all over the country -- if not live, then live via simulcasts from other tracks. He talks about bringing groups to tracks to explain to them the intricacies of reading a racing form, understanding what makes a good horse and a good jockey and a good trainer, showing them the beauty and excitement of 1,000 pounds-plus of horse rushing toward the finish line.

But you wonder, even in Cauthen's perfect world, whether horse racing ever will come close to what it once was.

"Sometimes [these stories] don't reach the headlines like my story did," said Cauthen, a green 18-year-old in 1978. In his historic run that year, Cauthen managed to keep Affirmed ahead of rival Alydar -- by a three-race total of less than two lengths -- in what many consider the greatest Triple Crown duel in history. "It was the right story at the right time. Obviously, it was pretty phenomenal, the success I had. But there are still good stories out there."

Charismatic is a good story. He'd be an even better one if he could pull off the Triple Crown for the first time in 21 years. Horse racing needs a Triple Crown winner like Charismatic, though it will take a lot more than that to revive a sport once enjoyed by royalty and railbirds -- and even regular people.

"I think people get bored when nobody can do it," Cauthen said. "There have been six chances since I did it, and I've been rooting for all six, 'cause I know what a great feeling it is. And besides that, any Triple Crown winner has to be good for racing.

"I know, when they're coming down the stretch, I'll be reliving my time there."

Yes, it'd be a great story, if Charismatic could pull it off Saturday.

It'd be a start.

John Donovan is senior writer for CNNSI.com.

Comments? To e-mail Donovan, click here.

 

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