Thursday Thoughts with Jason Beem Apr. 9, 2026

A good Thursday morning to you all! I hope everyone had a great week as we barrel into Week 2 at Keeneland and the final Kentucky Derby points race, the Lexington (G3). We’ll certainly be talking a lot of Derby and Oaks on the podcast in the coming weeks, but another exciting part of this year is all the new tracks getting ready to open for their spring/summer season. As we’ve seen tracks condense their schedules over the years, it does seem many of the tracks that used to open in April now opt to get going in May around Derby Day.

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a column about “opening days” in regards to baseball and horse racing, and mid-April always makes me think of Emerald Downs opening day back home. In Seattle, the winters are long and sometimes the springs can be just as rainy and gray. But opening day always presented some hope summer would soon be upon us and those beautiful sunny afternoons at Emerald were within our grasp. I miss that place, such a fun little track to visit if you ever find yourself in Washington State. 

There was a really good Letter to the Editor in the Paulick Report this week titled "Show Us the Horse." It basically talked about just that in reference to racing broadcasts. As expected online, the article and the conversation around it turned into bettors vs fans debate which is usually just both sides talking over each other. But when I actually read the article it seemed pretty reasonable and just talked about wanting to see more and better shots of the actual horses. 

One thing about broadcasts, whether in racing or other sports, everyone has opinions and everyone has different things they want out of it. I think the goal is to provide what works best for the most people and what does best to serve the viewers and the game as a whole. I try to listen to feedback as much as possible when it comes to our television broadcasts at the tracks I work at and a couple years ago, someone messaged me and told me that at Colonial Downs, our post parades were televised terribly. During that time of the broadcast, I’m memorizing horses and talking up the race and post parades, so I never looked at our signal. But we were showing the horses behind the ponies and people were never getting a good side view look at the horses. He was right, they were terrible. So we fixed it. It took one quick meeting with the camera people and now it’s better, servicing the customer in an improved way.

My boss at Tampa has repeatedly told our TV guys, show horses, horses, horses. He knows that’s what most fans want when it comes to the visual aspect of a racing broadcast. To me what I want is good visuals and shots of the horses, but I want more and better talk about the betting from people on a broadcast. That’s the ideal show for me as a viewer. But I also understand many people might want other things. We are in the business of gambling. Purses come from handle and often nowadays from casino gaming, but either source, is gambling. We are a gambling industry, not a sports industry. Sure there’s money to be made from tickets and food and all that. But our business is gambling and our customers are gamblers, and on broadcasts, that’s who need to serve first and best. Do we need more owners and horse people and all that, of course. There’s an ability to do all that, but my opinion is the bettor must be served first.  

I’m glad the author of that article wrote it and I’m glad the discussion was being had out there in the racing world. 

Have a great weekend everyone!