You can't win the Kentucky Derby unless you're on a thoroughbred.
The only sport I'm not interested in is horse racing. That's because I don't know the horses personally.
Unfortunately, the horse racing industry is often penetrated by organized crime.
Football is only once a week. NASCAR is once a week. Those sports are insanely popular. Horse racing is oversaturated. Unless tracks cut back to three days a week of full fields, a lot of people will really hurt down the road. Horse racing, to survive, has to go to that. Let's face it: Churchill Downs only does well on Derby Week.
The business model of racing is not a pretty one.
I have been going from one racetrack to another for years, since I was 14.
There is a sociology of horses, as well as a psychology. It is most evident in the world of horse racing, where many horses are gathered together, where year after year, decade after decade, they do the same, rather simple thing - run in races and try to win.
The British have a unique relationship with horses. They are etched into our landscape in chalk, they have been written about, painted, sung about, celebrated and gambled upon for centuries.
The only way you can obtain brood mares on a basis you can afford is to buy two or three yearling fillies every year and race them. The good ones, the ones that show potentialities, you keep, and the others you get rid of. In that way, you have a chance to build up a good brood mare band.
In the 1970s, I bought some cheap horses, then decided that if I was going to be in it, I was going to go big time. So in 2001, Bill Casner, a partner with me in Excel, and I bought a breeding farm, WinStar Farm, together.
Anyone that has been lucky enough to go to the races and witness the magnificent spectacle of a competitive race will know how people like me can instantly fall in love with the power and beauty of race horses in full gallop.
The profession of book writing makes horse racing seem like a solid, stable business.
Horse racing is animated roulette.
The best bet for the horses would be to stop betting on the Derby and other horse races, and to stop breeding, racing and killing thoroughbreds altogether
Where do thoroughbreds go after they lose one too many races, throw one too many riders, or develop a limp? Many thousands of thoroughbreds end up being slaughtered for horse meat. The unpleasant truth is horse meat is eaten in Europe and Asia.
My aim and my passion is to own and breed race horses.
I wanted to be a jockey.
There are other things that I could do, but there's really nothing that I love as much as horse racing.
I'm a pro-horserace guy.
Books on horse racing subjects have never done well, and I am told that publishers had come to think of them as the literary version of box office poison.
Horseracing and ranch horses are two different animals. You're getting race horses out and running and running them. It can be really problematic. A thoroughbred's very delicate.
Legalize racing in every State. Sure people will bet, but they get to see the horses run and you certain can't see General Motors and General Electric and General Utility run when you bet on them.
Horse racing is waning in popularity.
I definitely want to get more involved in making sure that West Coast racing is healthy and where it needs to be.
