It's probably more illusion than reality that horse racing is covered as casually as lacrosse by the national sports media.
Sports interest is generated by greatness or controversy, plus familiarity.
Horse race controversy usually follows tragedy. Nobody in the general media seems to know enough of the sport to yell and scream about blotched strategy, the lifeblood of sports talk. Greatness in horse racing has two outlets, the Triple Crown series and the Breeder's Cup. The Breeder's Cup is not yet a bucket list item. Not even the most dedicated horse player knows who the Breeder's Cup Fillies and Mares Turf champ was last year. It was Dayatthespa -- I looked it up.
With a little luck, with a horse winning the first two Triple Crown races, horse race interest and coverage approaches the top of the page, top of the broadcast and top of the paper. Even before the first break, the Kentucky Derby dwarfs most major sports ratings on TV and draws a record crowd in Louisville. Young people by the dozens of thousands are in attendance. Why? It's a party. And it could be the start of something nearly impossible, a horse winning three races in five weeks, the last against some sandbaggers at a Pony Express distance.
It's the minor leagues of horse racing that have changed so radically.
Who needs to mess with marketing when you have tapped into the slot machine pipeline that runs from the casino to the bank? Horse players are paid bonuses by gambling houses to bet online, which usually means betting along with the conveniences of home. Who needs to explain to a simulcast joint teller how to punch up a ticket?
Horse racing's minor leagues make Double-A baseball circuits look like a Caribbean cruise. If you can bet at home, why challenge race track plumbing? If the cheapest racing is one thin cut above a floating crap game, why bet? In the minors, tired, old horses and slow, young horses race in front of empty grandstands for fat purses stocked by cuts of slot machine revenue.
So why paint over the rust?
All sports have to earn their coverage. Without an American Pharoah win in Maryland, the Belmont Stakes would have been an Atlanta-Houston NBA Finals -- might as well just see what's on the Discovery Channel. With the first Triple Crown victory since hippies on the line, it'll be Pharoah-Materiality rubbing whiskers down the lane -- similar to the promise of LeBron James and Stephen Curry trading haymakers and magic tricks.
Then there's the early retirement temptation, getting paid to quit: After a Triple Crown win, you'd risk injury to race your multimillion-dollar horse again?
Following horse racing closely enough to stay afloat is like a part-time job. It's that complicated. It has its own language. Broadcasters and writers now have major sport analytics to learn.
All fans wish their sport would get more publicity -- it legitimizes their efforts. Seeing Bob Costas welcome one and all to the Triple Crown races makes a horse player feel like an investor, not a gambler.
To get top sports billing, horse racing has to achieve the near-impossible, same as its ardent supporters attempt on a regular basis.