Racing In 2036: Bill Casner

[Wandering Eyes]

What will racing look like in 10 years? We asked some of racing's best and brightest to give us their predictions. Want to submit an answer? Email suefinley@thetdn.com.

BILL CASNER, CO-FOUNDER OF WINSTAR FARM

What I am so optimistic about with horse racing right now is that young people are returning. Griffin Johnson has something like 2.5 million followers. When he went into the Derby, he had 1.2 million or something followers. He loves racing. He's got a vision of where it's going to go. He will bring, and he has the opportunity to bring, young people back to horse racing-make it hip-as long as we take care of our horses.

Those young people must not see this as an abusive sport, which it has been. I've seen it for 62 years. But why I'm so optimistic is because we have put [the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act] HISA into effect. We have committed to eliminating the carnage. That's the number one thing-we have a future for the health and welfare of our horse. Without HISA, the outlook would be pretty grim.

There are a lot of people out there that are anti-HISA. They look at HISA's growing pains, but they don't really reflect on what it has done for the horse. The only way we can survive as an industry is when we put the horse at the very top of the pyramid. And we have not been good at doing that in my lifetime. The horse has been a tool and it's been a commodity.

You're talking about 10 years? You will have a fully matured HISA program that will be absolutely the cornerstone of our industry. We have the [diagnostic] tools. We're able to deal with [injuries] in an effective way before you ever have the catastrophic event. It's like the proverbial tear in the peanut package. I think we have a chance as an industry at rebirth.

Golden Gate Fields | Horsephotos

That said, California's gone. Belinda Stronach, she doesn't give a damn about horse racing. She could have been the one to save it. First thing she did was sell Golden Gate. Golden Gate was the heart and soul of the California breeding industry, and without that, the California breeding industry's gone. She's chosen to throw the industry in a ditch over more money.

Beyond that, I'm optimistic. We have a chance for Arizona to come around again, perhaps have a place for those Western horses to run in Arizona. It's a big population center.

The future of the Kentucky horse racing industry is so bright, because of the significant impact of historic horse racing on the economics. We have the best circuit in the country.

Wyoming, too. Owners will go where the money is, you know. They've got historical horse racing up here. This is a market that really has a future in horse racing with this wonderful tool to grow our purses. Everything revolves around purses. Historical horse racing is a product that is owned by the industry. The commissions control it–it's not controlled by the legislature. What the legislature gives the legislature can take away. But with historical horse racing machines, those feed back into purses.

We're also in a whole different age now of [artificial intelligence] AI. We're going to see in the next three years or so our whole economic paradigm change. It's a changing world. But I'm excited. I'm 77 years old and I am eating it up. I'm a horse junkie. I bought another mare the other day–I've got about 20 mares now. You know, every time one of those mamas gives me a new gift, man, it's just like Christmas. It's wonderful.

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