Why?

Whenever people hear I'm launching a Texas racing blog, the response is always the same.

Why?

Actually, racetrackers have a tendency to be longwinded, not to mention foul-mouthed, so the real response is more like, "Why the f would you want to waste your time doing that?"

Or, even more insultingly, "Who the f is gonna read that?"

These are legitimate questions, and ones that have even crossed my mind a few times.

The truth is, there is a two-fold answer to why I want to do this.

First of all, I just miss covering horseracing. I always loved my job in the Lone Star Park press box, even if I never really loved the hours that came with it. But covering horses and horsepeople never gets old. The people are interesting, almost all of them are friendly, and there's always something to write about.

I won't get into all the cliches about why the racetrack is great. Although maybe at some point I'll do a post about how a lot of those cliches are just kind of sad (why do we like to celebrate addicts and degenerates?). But if you're reading this, chances are you already understand the allure of horseracing and I don't need to tell you why I love it.

Of course, to be totally honest, another aspect of this is that not only do I miss writing about horseracing, I also miss having a media credential! After several years of going to the races for free all over the country, I forgot how frustrating it is to be one of the average fans who gets nickled and dimed to death every time they go to the track.

Speaking of which, I'm not sure what annoys me more, the fact that a track like Sam Houston, which is in the middle of nowhere and surronded by nothing except warehouses and empty lots, charges $4 for a place to park, or the fact that all the lazy fans willingly fork over the money.

In any case, after a few years as a member of the media you get used to such casino-like ammenities as free parking and free admission. Once I started thinking about this blog, someone pointed out to me that maybe I could get credentialed at the Texas tracks and I liked the sound of that!

The second reason I'm doing this blog is to help fill the massive void in coverage of Texas racing. The people who currently cover Texas racing professionally are very, very good, and a few of them I would go so far as to say I admire greatly. My problem is that there are too few outlets covering Texas racing, especially when you look at how many people participate in this sport and its related industries. Further, the few outlets that do create original racing coverage allot very little time or space to it, meaning many of our best reporters rarely get to tell more than the basic facts.

I'm not going to complain about the lack of attention paid to racing by the mainstream media, since it's obvious that horseracing holds little mainstream appeal these days. What is shocking, though, is how underutilized the Internet has been as a place for distributing racing news in this state.

Again, I don't blame the racing establishment, since that's not where the best Internet content comes from. I blame fan apathy. I never would have created this blog if I had been able to find another one like it when I started searching. I mean, there is a blog for practically everything in Texas these days (a search of Texas blogs revealed far more blogs by crossdressers than horseracing fans). But when I couldn't find ANYTHING worth reading on the opening of the Sam Houston season, it really upset me. The Houston Chronicle had a few articles and advertisements, which was more than you could expect from a big-city daily, but you look for more information online and it's like the meet doesn't really exist.

(The one big exception is the Texas Thoroughbred Association's online forums, which can be awfully entertaining).

So that's why I'm here, for my own enjoyment, and also to offer whatever Texas racing fans are out there a place to find more than the basic headline news.

I can't promise I'll have something new every day, or even every week, especially when the racing goes away from Houston, where I live, and Grand Prairie, where I handicap every card. But considering what's NOT out there already, it feels like anything I produce will make a difference.

Ultimately, I want to help get important information and entertaining stories out there. I don't want to be one of those overly critical blogs by some dude who sits around and complains. We all already know racing has problems. My vision is for a positive place to promote Texas racing.

If you have a comment, suggestion, tip (be it news to report or a live horse to bet), or anything else to communicate, please let me know by e-mailing yourfriendjimbo@gmail.com. Tell me what you want to read here and help me make this a better blog.

You can also help by letting your friends know about this blog. You must have friends who enjoy reading about Texas racing, so send them an e-mail with a link to http://jimsorbit.blogspot.com and tell them to bookmark the address.

Thanks for visiting.