John Pricci talks about the DRF in his most recent column.
"In practical terms, DRF stopped covering the game when it got into bed
with the racetracks, the most glaring example when it failed to even
acknowledge that a boycott of Santa Anita betting pools organized by the
grassroots Horseplayers Association of North America group that was
protesting a significant rise in takeout existed, much less that it was
successful."
We do not place that quote up to editorialize about it; you can draw your own opinion. In fact, we have not read every column or column inch to know or not know if the boycott was ever mentioned in the DRF.
However, looking back we would like to thank the various publications that we do know spoke directly for you, the horseplayer, during that time, by covering the story. They are too numerous to mention, but including Mr. Pricci's own site, the heavy hitters did work the story, like the Bloodhorse and Paulick Report, and Equidaily.com, along with local beat writers like Art Wilson and Ed Zieralski. A good deal of them (large sites and small sites) stuck their necks out to cover the boycott, whether they agreed with it or not, whether they liked us or hated us, or whether or not they may have gotten a nasty email from an advertiser threatening to pull their ads. We appreciated all of them during the time we were working - on almost no budget, solely on donations from people like Barry Meadow and other horseplayers - to get your voice as a customer heard on a very important issue.
Alert!
4 comments:
Since you brought it up, looks like it's time for a new action...this one against NYRA. I'm thinking less a general boycott, more something along the line of " The Great American Smokeout" targeting a day, certain races, or certain pools.
Boycott NY racing
Does AQU still charge for admission and parking?
Not sure a boycott of NY racing at AQU in the winter will make as much of a difference as one in the spring or summer might.
People will already be boycotting the lower quality racing product and the conditions imposed by the climate. The hard-core remainder aren't likely to pause unless something occurs that overwhelmingly impacts them negatively.
And who besides Andy Beyer (maybe) could get them to listen anyway?
I think an organized boycott of the pick six, which is already on shaky ground, could push it into a death spiral. If you could essentially kill off the pick six and rightly claim credit the threat of a general boycott would then have greater credibility. And should it then come to a full blown boycott support might be easier to garner.
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