Monday Morning Message with Jason Beem Sept. 28, 2026

Jason discusses coming back from vacation, taking a break from racing, and hanging out at the off-track betting site. 

A good Monday morning to you all! Writing from beautiful Washington State after a nice couple of weeks off. 

I spent this past Saturday as I often do while here in Washington and went to the Emerald Downs fifth floor off-track betting area, and it was a blast. I was thinking as I was sitting there, when was the last time I sat with a friend or group of friends and watched and played the races? It’s been a long while. When I’m announcing, I’m obviously working, but I’m also alone up in my booth, so there’s no real camaraderie up there in regard to the races. 

Of course, now with the ease of betting from our phones or computers, betting and watching the races has become a much more solitary activity for many, myself included. But sitting up on the fifth floor Saturday and chopping it up with some of the guys up there was just such a blast. Just going back and forth about a horse we like or a race that’s interesting made the experience so much more fun. Between races, we were talking about life and what’s new, and then we’d quickly change the conversation to a two-year-old going long on turf at Laurel for the first time. 

There were a lot of people who had been regulars that weren’t there on Saturday. Some might just not have come out. My friend said a few had passed away since the last time I’d been there. Like most off-track betting areas, the crowd skews more senior citizens than not. It was about an hour before Santa Anita was set to start that I mentioned to my friend that on a Saturday 10 years ago, the place would have been packed for Santa Anita. This particular day it was about half full, but noticeably quieter than it used to be. It’s just the way things are right now. 

Other than tuning in for a couple of races at Parx on their Pennsylvania Derby Day and going to Grants Pass Downs for a couple races, I purposefully didn’t watch any horse racing on my two weeks off. I got off some social media platforms and just kind of wanted to relish being back home and seeing my mom and going to baseball games. 

I’ve always maintained that it is indeed good to take some breaks from our game because of its year-round nature and because of the intense love and passion we have for it. It’s easy to sometimes get mired in all the discussions on improving the game or frustrating decisions from leadership. It’s easy to get caught up in the bubble of social media and all that comes with that. But Saturday helped me get back to the real reason that I love horse racing – the game and the people who play it, the community of horseplayers. 

I understand there are various points of entry for people into racing. Working on the backside, the frontside, playing the races, or just being a fan. I arrived into it from the betting side of things, and that’s always where my passion has been fed from. At its best it’s the greatest gambling game ever invented. 

So I’m excited to be back to work and writing the column here on Mondays and Thursdays, and we’re back with new episodes of the podcast starting today. We have some great guests scheduled for this week as we lead up to Keeneland kicking off on Friday. 

Have a great week everyone!