Today's beginning of the two-day Breeders' Cup extravaganza at Santa Anita is the first day of the rest of horse racing's life. But understand, this is a sport that goes through this four times a year now, every year.
It didn't used to be that way. In its heyday, racing had little to prove to anybody. Famous horses raced other famous horses and huge crowds showed up. There were occasional Triple Crowns to celebrate. The masses loved it, patronized it.
Then the masses started to age and the more hip sports that didn't dawdle 20 minutes between the next action spoke better to the new generation. The love of game horses was replaced by the love of Game Boys.
Horse racing didn't change, maybe couldn't. It moved at a 1970s pace, clung to the 1970s visions of Secretariat, Seattle Slew and Affirmed battling Alydar.
With the likes of mixed martial arts and NBA slam-dunk contests slicing into its piece of the sports entertainment pie, horse racing galloped along nicely on the strength of its graceful athletes and the tiny warriors who rode them. The erosion was quiet.
But then Barbaro broke down in the 2006 Preakness, and the eight-month saga of trying to keep a severely injured Kentucky Derby winner alive, a saga that ended as most in horse racing knew it would, called unprecedented attention to the sport. The good news was that compassionate, heartfelt decisions were made on behalf of Barbaro. The bad news was the public started paying attention again, but for negative reasons.
Why had this happened? What was wrong with this sport?
When Barbaro's tragedy was followed by fatal breakdowns of George Washington in the 2007 Breeders' Cup and the filly Eight Belles in this year's Kentucky Derby, the sport started to be viewed like your old Uncle Joe, who keeps slipping on the ice.
Now, the extended fan base that mostly watches four racing moments of each year -- the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, Belmont and Breeders' Cup -- cringes a little while it waits for Uncle Joe to slip again.
This imagery is reversible, and racing is trying.
The site of this weekend's event, which offers a total of $25.5 million in purses for the top finishers in 14 races, is a beautiful Santa Anita Park, tucked up against the mountains and a virtual postcard of palm trees, sculptured shrubs and brightly colored flowers.
Better yet, they will do this again next year, same time, same place, same California sunshine. The defects of '08, if any, can be resolved in '09.
