Can We Go Back To Ignoring It Now?

I always get annoyed at people who think something is silly right up until the point they become involved in it. You see it all the time with parents who's children have started playing soccer. Before their kids were playing, soccer was a game for wimps; now that Junior is running around in some tot league it's a game that requires skill, stamina and coordination. Also, every father instantly becomes an expert on the "Beautiful Game". (By the way, I absolutely expect myself to do the exact same thing should the situation arise, so feel free to print this post and shove it in my face when it happens.) Anyway, I was reminded of this all day long as ESPN decided against showing some great college football games and instead showed us the entire Breeders' Cup. I don't care about showing us the actual race - it was the acting like is always a big day that got under my skin. I've watch ESPN my entire life and I had never heard of this event before this year so let's not pretend that it is a grand tradition we wait for all year long. (And for those of you who are screaming at the screen that I just need to change channels, you're correct. The problem is I am used to checking ESPN so much on college football Saturdays that I would go back without thinking and again be visually assaulted by stupid horse racing.)

I understand ESPN probably had to pay a lot of money into getting the rights and want some kind of return on their investment. But let's not pretend that if there wasn't a superstar horse in this year's field then the event wouldn't be banished to ESPN 4 like it has been every other year. It is not like horse racing is experiencing some kind of resurgence in America's sports landscape. It is still just a sport for old men and rich Saudi princes. Plus, the reason I can't stand to watch all the pre-race build-up is because, like poker, horse racing has pretty much one story that has been told a thousand times before: A person/group of people save up all their money to buy a horse on the cheap that no one else wanted and now that horse will be worth a lot of money if he wins. The thing is, even the cheap horses aren't that cheap, which means that these stories are pretty much the tale of rich people getting richer.

Also, after the race they try to get us to feel bad for the horses that lose, as if they even know what is at stake. I think Seinfeld said it best: